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Every Monday, I post a quote on Motivation on Karmic Ally Coaching’s Business Page on Facebook. The image above is an example of one that I posted using a favorite hash tag – #MondayMotivation

It reflects something that many of us are too scared to claim – our unique Point of View (POV).

Point of View is a statement that sums up what we deeply believe about our subject. It’s your opinion and what you want the world to know about you and your stand.

We may not use the exact words of our POV in our daily words but it should be something that is reflected in the way we see and approach the world and in our actions.

When you create a Life Stance Manifesto, you are giving voice to your views.

Your POV shows up everywhere – your conversations with family, friends, colleagues, customers and even in your social media activity.

Try this experiment. The next time you log onto Facebook check your newsfeed for updates and the interactions on them. Check one of your updates and see who liked or loved it and who left a comment.

Most probably they’ll be people with whom you have a lot in common and who share your views.

This is true even of friends who never tire of sharing cat and dog photos and who are most probably animal lovers will have their own friends liking and commenting on the photo.

On the other hand, try LinkedIn updates and see what happens. When it comes to professionals topics, you’ll find some people endorsing the post and others who might not know the person who has posted it adding their own spin and a different view.

We need to embrace our unique POV but also respect that of others (which incidentally is a sign of strong Emotional Intelligence).

Even if the opinions of others are not the same as ours, all dialogue should be done with courtesy, an open mind, tact, and remembering to align our words and actions with our ethics, integrity and beliefs – all components of a strong point of view.

Your POV sets you apart from other people who do similar work and helps you to stand out from the crowd. It’s your unique angle on a particular topic.

It’s not something that you can be coached or trained to create. Although a coach or trainer can help you move away from trite hackneyed statements that you might create by copying someone else’s.

It’s something that you believe about yourself, your work, your expertise or your subject.

It’s the preamble in my Meet Your Coach page on my website and isn’t some slick set of sentences written by a copywriter but one that was developed after spending hours working on what I truly believed and wanted to hold as the North Star for my business and myself.

My own point of view finds expression on my website, blog and on Social Media.

Nothing is impossible if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and take action to achieve what your heart truly desires.

That’s why the majority of my blog posts and updates always show lots of how to do things or attempt to prompt you to think.

How to develop a robust Point of View

Here’s an interesting fact. Back in school, when you were writing a book report agonizing over first, second and third perspective or a paper in college; you were being really being asked to present your point of view. Even if it did not feel so at the time.

You might have picked up opinions about the book or topic from elsewhere and presented it in a perfect manner only to have your teacher or professor ask you about what you really thought.

That is what having a point of view is about.

Figuring out what your own opinion is can be challenging when you’re deeply immersed in the opinions of other people.

This can range from what a group of friends should eat in a restaurant all the way to our political and spiritual views.

In this post, we’ll look at how you can approach topics with an objective mind, and how you can work out what you really think about something or even life and work in general.

1. Read widely and on diverse topics

The first and most crucial point about forming your own opinions is that it’s vital to read widely – and consider what you read critically, looking for holes in arguments.

Reading books outside of our professional interest or of other genres helps to stimulate the mind to look at things from a different perspective and establish our own unique viewpoint.

It fuels our imagination and when we can look and think beyond what is in front of us, we get an opportunity to understand ourselves better. It opens the door to further thinking about other perspectives and views on the same topic.

Do we agree with other views or do we have a different one?

2. Consider and take into account any personal biases that you have

Perhaps calling it biases is harsh but the truth is our backgrounds, upbringing and experiences shape how we view the world and how we respond to it.

I still remember the day Mr Bob introduced Karl Marx to his first year undergraduate class for Politics 101 back in the University of the West Indies. It is something I will never forget because his prophecy came true.

To lightly paraphrase

“Ladies and gentlemen in the class, I am now going to introduce you to a man and his philosophy that will inspire you till the end of your graduate years but when you step out into the real world and start looking for a job, you will also realize that capitalism will feed your starving belly.”

We were all in awe of Mr. Bob and as he predicted, a herd of Marxists was born, who argued with everybody and quoted stuff like ‘religion being the opium of the poor’.

Our view of the world and the establishment became biased because our friend Karl Marx’s point of view had captured our young imagination.

My parents found it amusing putting it down to youthful exuberance but must have been relieved that we were at that time, halfway across the world from my grandparents in India, who would have had a fit hearing me talk like that.

We transformed into capitalists 6 months after graduating because we had to earn a livelihood and those principles really didn’t work unless you were in a completely socialist setting. The fact that the USSR disintegrated a few years later and India went in for liberalization only proves the point.

As I learned through this experience, when it comes to finding your true opinions, you need to overcome bias by assessing the evidence behind the opinion, the facts as they stand and force yourself to look at things objectively.

3. Maintain a journal or blog

Writing a journal helps us to articulate our thoughts clearly. Whenever an independent thought comes to mind, write it down. You may end up finding something that contradicts your thought, but this is all part of the process of reaching your own conclusions.

Another good way to discover your true point of view is to start a blog. Sharing your views with others will lead to comments from those who either support your view or provide a different view altogether that might lead you to assess your original ideas.

When we understand other’s point of view, it enables us to express our own in language that they would feel comfortable with and thus willing to listen to us too.

Final advice to help create your unique view point

While developing your point of view, remember that having unique ideas is not the same as articulating it properly to others.

You have to present them in a fair-minded and rational way taking into account that the other person is intelligent and has his or her own experiences that they will use to evaluate your stand and point of view.

You will need to demonstrate the strength of your point of view using the skills of reasoning, evidence and persuasion. Your arguments to support your opinion will appeal to others if they are presented with reason, ethics and emotion.

Be ready to support your claims with specific instances and concrete facts to appeal to the other person’s common sense and rational thinking.

Fluffy stuff won’t work and misrepresenting facts will be counterproductive. At no time should any of your actions or words give others a doubt about your principles, integrity or character.

The goal of stating our point of view is to get others to consider it with an open mind. It isn’t a contest with a gold medal at the end and using unethical means is the best way to ruin your credibility and reputation.

Communicating our point of view is not a unilateral activity. It helps to understand the other person’s point of view or sentiments to enable us to present our opinion on a matter in a way that will appeal to their logic too.

Getting others to buy into your point of view requires impacting them at an emotional level, which is what happened with our class of undergraduates when we discovered Karl Marx.

On a bigger world stage, it was Gandhi’s argument for Home Rule that the Indian population found appealing and they followed him.

When the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre took place and Mahatma Gandhi declared it was time for full independence, the nation followed his call to action.

The rest is history but the essential point is, Gandhi had applied the 3 keys of appealing to his audience – reason, ethics and emotions.

Your turn now.

Do you have a point of view on topics that are important to you? Do you see how it affects your view of the world?

Share your feelings and findings with me in the comments box below.

Once you have a point of view, you need to articulate it in the right way to be seen as an influential leader. That’s why it’s equally important to develop your Signature Voice. Click here to learn more or on the image below.