Shedding The Skin Of Ego
Your Ego Is Holding You Back
“The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.” — Wayne Dyer
Food For Thought
Shedding The Skin Of Ego
“Ego is the absolute impediment to Dao. The sin is pride. If it thrills you that you’re enlightened then you’re ruined. Forget sharing it. You’re not pure enough to share it.” — Terence McKenna
Your ego has a lot of plans for you.
It wants you to seem clever, intelligent, and confident in front of your friends.
It assumes that everyone’s actions somehow concern you.
It believes that the people in the gym, or on the sidewalk, or at the store are looking at you.
But when you think about where you are headed because of these plans and assumptions, you’ll find that you are moving toward a living “ego hell.”
What is a living ego hell, you might ask?
It’s a place where you’re performing for imaginary people’s imaginary expectations for you. A place where you act for appearances instead of principles. A place where your life is a constant compromise instead of a bold declaration and pursuit of your highest self.
The practice of surrendering or letting go of ego can be hard… But it’s incredibly powerful and has to become a habit for you to succeed.
It’s a continual fight that needs a consistent structure to succeed: regular exercise, meditation, reading, writing (and journaling), or talking with people that love us. Happiness lies behind habits and routines that help shed useless portions of the ego.
The snake doesn’t shed its skin only once. You’ll have to shed your ego over and over again if you want to continue becoming more than you are now.
Deep Dive
This Is Your EGO’s Worst Addiction And How You Can Escape It
“This is the number one individual challenge that every single person faces. If left unchecked, this problem will destroy a company culture from the inside.
It’s EGO.
Sound like a simple problem to fix? Not even close. As humans, we addict to everything, and we’re always at risk of becoming addicted to our EGO. If we always cater to ourselves, prove ourselves right, and fight to ‘win’ at all costs over others… we’re in trouble, and it won’t be long until this neurosis spreads throughout the entire company…”
Further Reading
Ego Is The Enemy
“And that’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong.” ― Ryan Holiday
Embrace The Awkward
Wayne Dyer: How To Get Rid Of Your Ego
“Your inner dialogue is a perpetual experience of reinforcing doubt.” — Wayne Dyer
Alright, this suggestion may require you to really shed that ego and open your mind…
Try listening to Wayne Dyer’s motivational tape on getting rid of ego.
We know there is a stereotypical narrative around listening to motivational tapes, but they can have massive ROI. (In fact, the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire sites Wayne Dyer’s tapes as one of the ways she built her internal drive.)
As with anything, if all you do is consume the material without action, then the effects will be useless. Take these tapes, listen, and make a concentrated effort to apply the lessons to your everyday life.
#WhatWeAreWatching
The OA
Part 2 of OA, the mind-bending sci-fi Netflix original, was released last week. Naturally, we binged all 8 episodes as quickly as we could. Watch the trailer here.
This is one of those shows that’s hard to explain without giving everything away. But if you like thrilling science fiction, multiple dimensions, near-death experiences, and want to twist your brain in knots… then this is a must-watch. 😏
Sign Off 👋
Happy Thursday
It’s mini-Friday! One more day until the weekend… can we get a “Woot, Woot!” 🎉
Reading, doing, listening to, or writing about anything that you think we should share in our newsletter? Tweet it at us @TheMissionHQ.
Catch you tomorrow! 🙌
This was originally published on March 28, 2019 as The Mission’s daily newsletter. To subscribe, go here.
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