Choose to Take the Journey

The man is trying to keep you down. He doesn’t want for you to have dreams. And nothing would make him happier than to see you in shackles and to be grateful for it.

The man has a name:

Ego

I once saw a television special about sumo wrestlers. The show revealed that essentially there were two classes of sumo: the junior wrestlers and the senior wrestlers. Junior wrestlers are forced to wear poor quality clothes and wooden sandals that make an annoying clip-clop sound while walking. They must wake up earlier, wait their turn to take a bath after training, and spend their days doing chores and serving their seniors.

Besides the obvious power trip for the senior wrestlers, this sort of class division has a purpose. Forced humility provides a potent environment for learning and is therefore the starting point in many martial arts. The student must be humbled to become receptive to the lessons of the teacher. You cannot taste someone else’s tea if your cup is always full of your own. Think of a small child. He knows nothing and needs everything. He becomes a sponge in order to learn at a cheetah-like pace. As he matures, he will eventually begin to think for himself; to keep what he likes and discard what he doesn’t like. But in the beginning, he needs humility to hold his hand while he learns to walk, talk, and even take shits.

I’m no psychologist. I’m not sure where ego comes from. But intuition would tell us it has a purpose: to make you feel good about yourself and acknowledge your own awesome-ness. To make you feel like “the man.” Well, that sounds pretty good to me.

But because of this, ego also has a dark side. If you’re interested in learning a new skill or taking on a new behavior, your ego may stop you. It will tell you that you’re good enough as is, that you’re already better than the other guy, or that you don’t need to do anything else. This kind of thinking can inhibit your growth as a person and get you accustomed to accepting things the way they are. Whether it’s because of fear, insecurity, old habits, or simply laziness–an overpowered ego will keep you anchored where you are in complacency.

Let’s not fall into this trap. Leaders in any field are the ones who either had their egos devastated at some point or willingly dropped it for a time while they followed more experienced veterans into the fray. Letting go of the ego turns “I should be able to do this. Why can’t I?” into “I don’t know how to do this yet. How can I?”

Drop the ego. It’s ok. He’ll be waiting for you on the other side with a glass of champagne.

//Have you ever let your ego get the best of you?  Please share below.