The Right Amount of Ego
Ego has more negative connotations than positive. Yet ego, like most things, exists on a spectrum. There’s a Goldilocks zone.
In Support of Reducing Ego
- If you’ve experienced ego death - in deep meditation, a psychedelic journey, a spontaneous flow state - you’d describe the feeling as blissful, divine, overflowing with love. A moment of reality undistorted by the machinations of the mind.
- A world where everyone is de-identified with ego: loving, compassionate acceptance of all that is. No wars. No conflicts. No “I win, you lose.” Happiness. Peace.
In Support of Increasing Ego
- And yet ego is required to cause change in the world. To do anything beyond sitting in awakened realization. For an entrepreneur to maniacally pursue a startup against unreasonable odds, to change lives and beliefs - maybe the entire world - requires tremendous ego. She must believe she exists. More than that, she must believe this self has the ability to bend the world to its will.
- A world completely de-identified with ego would probably not be a world where people build rockets, smartphones, the internet, houses, roads. The technologies that have increased our quality of life.
Balancing the Pendulum
- Too much ego leads to suffering, both internal and inflicted on others. But the opposite extreme isn’t the answer either. The pendulum needs to rest somewhere in the middle. The right amount of ego, deployed as the moment demands.
A Thought on Legacy
- Over-identification with ego leads successful people to obsess over legacy - creating something that outlives them. Legacy is a disease of the ego. Nothing we create lasts forever. No one we love lives forever. Everything you’ve done and everyone you know will eventually be forgotten. Use this as motivation to live, create, and love fully in this moment - as a goal in itself, not as a means for your ego to survive beyond your death.