Table of contents:
- Is your ego high?
- The ego is a part of your personality
- Various ways to control the high ego
- 1. Understand that life is a process
- 2. Don't torture yourself with "what if" thoughts for something that happened
- 3. Don't compare yourself with others
- 4. Know your motivation
- 5. Practice forgiveness and sincerity
Many people complain that the people closest to them have high egos. Or, is it you yourself who has a sky-high ego? What, what, is ego? Why is having a high ego always associated with negative character traits?
Is your ego high?
The easiest way to determine if your ego is at play is to ask one of the following two questions:
- Do I feel superior to others?
- Do I feel inferior to other people?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then it is likely that your ego is taking over your mind.
The ego is a part of your personality
Sigmun Freud, a well-known psychologist, once said that the human personality consists of three main components: the id, ego, and superego. Simply put, the ego is part of an identity that we construct ourselves.
Any beliefs that you hold around your principles, aspects of your personality, talents, to your skills and / or abilities contribute to building your ego. That's why ego is often associated with self-confidence or self-esteem. The ego is a part of yourself that aims to seek approval from those around you.
Ultimately, the ego helps you form an image of yourself. Self-image is formed when we have ideas about an aspect of ourselves that we also agree with. For example, "I'm not good at math," or "I'm smart," or "Nobody likes me," or "I'm better than you."
By believing these things, you also gradually reflect the idea in all your everyday behavior so that you do appear to be bad at math, for example - when in reality, you probably are not.
The ego can be said to be the skin of the outer layer of protection that you have built up over the years. The ego is always focused on self-interest and does not care about the realities of others. The ego also plays in your mind, that when a problem occurs, someone else is to blame, while you are always in the right position.
That's why sometimes the ego becomes a sign of character that's not quite commendable.
Various ways to control the high ego
Basically the ego is not always negative. The ego can be a positive thing if you know how to control it. Research shows that people who don't put the ego above all else are the happiest people.
1. Understand that life is a process
The ego doesn't care about processes. As long as it can get the desired result and far outweigh the others, the ego can be satisfied. Unfortunately, following a high ego keeps you from enjoying life.
Your ego will always make you feel like a loser if you don't achieve something. For that, overcome your ego by enjoying every process in life and trying your best.
When you keep in mind that life is a journey not a destination, then you will realize that the process is much more important than the result. In the process we go through various phases, from being happy, sad, angry, and other things that can make life much more meaningful. So you can learn from the past experiences with the salt acid.
2. Don't torture yourself with "what if" thoughts for something that happened
You have to admit that in life, not everything goes according to your will. There are times, something goes the opposite of what you expected and that's the best way it should be.
Regretting things that have happened and thinking about them too deeply won't change anything. Your ego will lead to other negative thoughts if you don't control them. Keep in mind that what you want is not always what you need.
3. Don't compare yourself with others
The ego is an inner desire to always compare your worth with others. If you don't feel like your accomplishments are as successful as your next-door friends, your ego will punish you and make you feel inferior and useless.
If you can't control it, then you just don't respect yourself. Conversely, if you succeed in a performance and beat others, your ego will make you believe that you are superior and invincible.
Basically it is okay to compare yourself with others, as long as it is in a positive context. But you still have to be able to judge yourself subjectively. Every human being is a unique individual and cannot be compared to one another. By not trying to compare yourself with others, you will be more focused on learning to respect yourself.
4. Know your motivation
In doing anything, you have to know what drives you to do this. The ego will force you to be motivated by what to achieve and be mastered, whereas you usually say the opposite.
You want to do something because you feel you will get valuable lessons that are important for life provisions. Keep in mind, you can always learn from a process even if it doesn't work.
5. Practice forgiveness and sincerity
The most powerful way to learn to let go of the ego is to be forgiving. You have to learn to forgive those who hurt you and most importantly learn to forgive yourself. Giving up everything you can't control is a simple way to control your ego.
