The Fine Line Between Ego and Self Confidence
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Ego is the enemy. You’ve probably read that somewhere or heard it in a conversation, and if you didn’t then you’re in the right place. Ego will always be the cause of your downfall, not your friends, enemies, or your competition, you cause your own downfall, and the leading cause in my opinion is your Ego, because we see this example time and time in our day to day lives. Think about it, everyone with a huge ego are always the most sensitive ones. You can’t make a joke around them or talk about your accomplishments without being one-upped. This unfortunately gets mixed up with self-confidence because we don’t see the difference from time to time and I am guilty of that too. Self-confidence and Ego have a fine line and understanding that will help you not only understand others better, but also help you be more cautious of yourself.
Are you Egotistical or just highly self-confident?
Ego is what we want to be, and self-confidence is accepting what we are. At least to me, that’s how I see it. When you’re egotistical you’re advertising yourself constantly, you list your achievements, you talk about yourself in a highly manner, and you think about what you’re going to say next instead of listening. You put yourself on a pedestal and don’t take criticism because you’re always right, yet you strive for the acceptance of others. On the other hand, high self-confidence is accepting yourself but bettering yourself in a highly competitive way. You don’t talk about yourself in a highly manner, but you know your worth. You don’t need acceptance from others, but you take criticism because you know you’re not the smartest person in the room. These are the main difference I found between the two behaviors. This doesn’t mean everyone falls into one category though, everyone has an Ego, but some take it too far. The fine line lies where you know you can excel much faster, and go much farther than others, but you aren’t arrogant about it. Arrogance is what shows that you aren’t confident in yourself. When I think of high self-confidence, I think of Muhammad Ali, he talked big, but he always backed it up even if it took him forever.
Main takeaway should be that you should be confident enough to the point where when you know you can achieve something without having the arrogance to show it to everybody. You shouldn’t put others down because you excel at something you do great in; you may be better than them in something, and they might be better than you in something else. In conclusion, be a good human being and don’t put others down just because they aren’t as good as you in one aspect and not counting the other aspects.
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