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The ego we see most commonly goes by a more casual definition: an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition.
Marina Abramović puts it directly: “If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.”
we’re told to believe in our uniqueness above all else. We’re told to think big, live big, to be memorable and “dare greatly.”
Your ego is not some power you’re forced to satiate at every turn.
Only when free of ego and baggage can anyone perform to their utmost.
When we remove ego, we’re left with what is real.
Confidence is earned. Ego is self-anointed, its swagger is artifice.
Ego more often than not is the culprit. We build ourselves up with fantastical stories, we pretend we have it all figured out, we let our star burn bright and hot only to fizzle out, and we have no idea why. These are symptoms of ego, for which humility and reality are the cure.
He is a bold surgeon, they say, whose hand does not tremble when he performs an operation upon his own person; and he is often equally bold who does not hesitate to pull off the mysterious veil of self-delusion, which covers from his view the deformities of his own conduct. —ADAM SMITH
“Practice self-control,” he said, warning Demonicus not to fall under the sway of “temper, pleasure, and pain.” And “abhor flatterers as you would deceivers; for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them.”
“best thing which we have in ourselves is good judgment.”
“Be natural and yourself and this glittering flattery will be as the passing breeze of the sea on a warm summer day.”
One must ask: if your belief in yourself is not dependent on actual achievement, then what is it dependent on?
Where Isocrates and Shakespeare wished us to be self-contained, self-motivated, and ruled by principle, most of us have been trained to do the opposite.
It is certainly more pleasurable to focus on our talents and strengths, but where does that get us? Arrogance and self-absorption inhibit growth. So does fantasy and “vision.”
What is rare is not raw talent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness.
