Ego Is the Enemy

Title: Ego Is the Enemy

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• by RYAN HOLIDAY 2016

• three main parts / great summary from here

1. Aspire, wanting to accomplish bigger and better goals.
2. Success, achieving our goals and receiving public praise.
3. Failure, falling from grace and dealing with internal resistance.

• about the ego and aspiration:

1. Too much talking, not enough work.
2. Do it for the right reasons. Having a goal bigger than us counteracts ego.
3. Keep learning. In every situation we can learn something.
4. Be practical, not passionate. Being passionate can lead us to do stupid things. Be calm and calculate your next steps with a clear and objective mind.
5. Help others. Just like learning, helping others keeps us humble. Having a mindset of abundance will allow you to strive and forge relationships without having to fight your ego.
6. Restrain yourself. Don’t reply to the haters. Don’t allow your ego to get offended. Endure the pain.
7. Live in the present. With ambition comes dough. We begin telling ourselves that we don’t have what it takes, that we will fail. Getting out of our head will help us remaining focused in the work and able to learn from its lessons.
8. Don’t get fancy. Ego turns minor accomplishments into major events. This artificial inflation is simply a delusion. It turns you into a fraud. Stay humble through your work.
9. Work! While aspiring, the most important thing you can do to fight your ego is to focus on creating value. Sit down and put in the hours. Invest in yourself by thinking long term.

• about success can be the greatest catalyst for the ego.
  1. Keep learning and improving.
  2. Don’t tell yourself a story. The path towards success is full of obstacles and failures. But once we get to the destination, the ego only wants to share with others all the victories making it sound like we had everything planned all along.
  3. Remember what’s important. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
  4. Trust and value others. Don’t fear depending on others. Detach yourself from your work and let others help you
  5. Manage yourself first. Know yourself, learn your inner workings and most important, learn your weaknesses and accept them. Learn how to manage yourself and you will succeed at managing others. Delegate.
  6. Beware the disease of me. Don’t fall in love with yourself and your success. The ego feeds off boasting and vanity. Stay focused on what got you where you are: work.
  7. Remember how insignificant you are. If we look at the night sky and see all the stars and thinking about our impact in this infinite plane of existence, it is hard to feel nothing but gratitude. Ego can’t live in that state of mind.
  8. Stay sober. Success can act like a drug. It makes people act differently and against their own principles.
• about failure happens to everyone, regardless of our ego.
  1. Keep the fire going. The ego assumes defeat easily. Keep active. Keep learning and improving. Never give up.
  2. Your work is enough. The ego likes to be acknowledged but bad news: live is not fair. Therefore we must internalize that doing the work is enough. No need for public recognition. It will eventually come by itself.
  3. Draw the line. Follow your own standards. Don’t hold yourself to other people’s expectation and standards. That mindset will not allow you to grow and improve. Create your own version of success and hold yourself against that.
  4. Always love. . Practice love towards others who don’t deserve it and specially with yourself. Do not indulge in gossip, it will only set you back even more. Focus on productive ways to move forwards.
• In summary:
  1. Never stop learning. Seek to learn about yourself, your craft and others.
  2. Don’t get fancy. Don’t fall in love with yourself. You are not that special.
  3. Have a goal bigger than yourself. Set your standards and be selfless with your goals.
  4. Focus on the work. Doing the work is enough. It keeps us in the moment, honing our skills and away from impracticality.