Andre Hartslief
History books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.”Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy I found, lies within,
our ego.
Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.
Ego as the Enemy, draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures such as George Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who all reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos.
Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well. In an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts. Armed with the lessons from their lives, you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will ultimately be liberated.
Thanks to a big ego, we waste most of our energy in defending ourselves. Our egos are so big that we think we are always right and the rest of the world is wrong. What we are saying must be heard at any cost. A huge ego makes us angry and restless until we have successfully won an argument (at least in our own eyes).
within us lies the voice that says I am better than this.
There is also the voice that says i am worse than this.
we have to balance both sides of ego (good and bad). Love your cover picture, it truly brings ego into bear as a weight at times.
Thank you for sharing your wise comment with me.
happy to do so, thanks for sharing this fun piece!
If our ego, is a part of us, and a tool for us to use, why would we make an enemy out of it?
Is it really our enemy, or are we our own worst enemy more overall, not just in our ego?
Most everybody says that our ego is the culprit, but is it?
Is ego really the culprit here, or is there something else instead, perhaps using the ego to excess, and so our ego is just a tool being overused by this something else, so what is that something else in us that is the underlying culprit here?
The mind, the ego, the superego, the dream body, the emotions, are all tools used by our conscious mind, and our soul, for the purposes of its life journey.
When our conscious mind is not attached to our soul, it thinks that it is the be-all and the end-all of you, and so everything, every other part of you, then is excessively and obsessively used, and blown up out of its correct usage, in a proper balance of their use.
The real culprit then is our conscious mind having desires not part of our soul’s goals for us then.