Most people are “lived by” their opinions. They treat their internal chatter as a high-fidelity broadcast of reality. When they have a thought, they don’t have it; they are it. This leads to rigid decision-making, reactive leadership, and a “Renter” mindset where the ego is constantly defending its territory.
The Sovereign Architect knows that an opinion is just a prototype of the truth. To lead effectively, you must learn to Catch Your Opinions (CYO)—to observe them as external data points rather than internal facts. By decoupling your identity from your views, you move from “Defending a Position” to “Designing a System.”
The CYO Protocol
Catching your opinions requires you to split your consciousness. You must let a part of you continuously observe your thoughts and actions as if that part is not “you.”
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Reframing the Image: When an image of failure or a judgment about a colleague arises, don’t react. Reframe it: “That is my opinion about this situation.”
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Validating the Intention: By noticing the words before you speak them, you create a “Buffer Zone.” This allows you to validate if the spoken word aligns with your strategic intention or if it is just your ego seeking validation.
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The Ego Check: Recognize that your ego is a tool that helped you build your initial ecosystem (Upsquare). But to access “Collective Creativity” (Polynxt), you must be able to catch the ego when it tries to dominate the signal.
[Image: A high-resolution photo of a person watching a theater stage from the balcony. On the stage, a version of themselves is arguing a point. The observer in the balcony is calm, taking notes.]
The Power of the “Shared View”
Once you have classified a thought as an “opinion,” you don’t need to feel good or bad about it. You treat it as a variable in the architecture.
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Alignment: You listen to the opinions of your leadership team (Jigar, Amish, etc.) through the lens of your own “caught” opinions.
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Synthesis: You don’t “command” your view; you work to align the team’s opinions into a Shared View of the Future.
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Ecosystem Sovereignty: If you let the “Systems Play Themselves” without your ego interfering, you unlock a level of creativity that no single leader can achieve.
The Protocol: The Catching Practice
To reclaim your sovereignty from your biases, apply the CYO Practice to your daily routine:
1. The Morning Audit While consuming content (books, podcasts) at 5:30 am, don’t just take notes on the “Insights.” Take notes on your Opinions of those insights. Notice where you are resisting, agreeing, or judging.
2. The Conversation Buffer In leadership meetings, practice the “Two-Second Rule.” Before you respond to a challenge, “Catch” your internal reaction. Is it a strategic correction or an ego-driven defense? Reframe it as an opinion before you release it.
3. The Netflix Meta-Learning Even in entertainment, practice the observer role. As you watch, notice your judgments about the characters or the plot. This is “Low-Stakes Training” for the high-stakes world of business architecture.
#DhandheKaFunda: Your opinions are not your identity; they are your experiments. If you want to build a better future, stop believing everything you think. Catch the opinion, check the ego, and let the system reveal the truth.