Egoless moments

happiness

EGO IS THE JOY KILLER

We tend to be unhappy when we’re egoistic. Ego is not only the enemy, but also the joy killer. Ryan Holiday, author of the book Ego is the Enemy, defines the dead time as moments that we’re controlled by ego. He even has a tattoo EGO IS THE ENEMY on his forearms to remind himself to let go of the ego to stay alive. That makes me wanna get a tattoo on my forehead: GO AWAY EGO!

I highly suspect that it’s ego hinders me from getting healthy relationships to grow. Also, ego stops me from getting to know and loving other people without sorrow. Oh no, I hate ego breaking my flow. I’d better throw myself into a new reality show if ego won’t go.

Ryan Holiday

Do your work. Do it well. Then let go and let God.

When we let go of ego, we can get more done and love more. My ego is clingy all day long and distracts me from doing what I want. The more time I spend with ego, the more restless I feel. If I focus on a movie, the sky, other person or a sport, I forget about the ego for a while and stay in peace. I wanna kill my ego to have egoless or peaceful moments. Is that possible and doable?

STRATEGY FOR FIGHTING THE EGO

STAY A STUDENT

Ryan Holiday suggests staying a student to drop the ego. When you learn something new, does your ego tell you to give up when things are getting difficult? Or does your ego tell you that you’re so great that you don’t need to learn more? Of course, your ego will do anything to drag you behind. That’s ego’s expertise!

Don’t let ego stop you from learning. Keep learning from anyone and anything, and growing anytime. No wonder Einstein said “More the knowledge lesser the ego, lesser the knowledge more the ego.” I think I just gain a new perspective here: knowledge is the enemy of ego!

DON’T LOSE YOUR PRESENCE OF MIND

I cherry-pick one of The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene – don’t lose your presence of mind. The presence of mind is the ability to detach yourself from all to see the whole picture with clarity. This is a stoic or zen way to fight the ego. Preparation in advance or meditation can give you that mental distance and make your ego disappear, for at least a period of time.

If you love history and war, you will enjoy reading The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene to learn more strategies and tactics. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of history. Anyway, in his book Ego is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday takes a similar approach as Robert Greene – telling the stories of significant historical figures. You can learn how Napoleon, Steve Job, and many others handle the ego nicely or badly.

Ego is not your amigo. Let it go.

Happy reading!

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65 thoughts on “Egoless moments”

  4. These both sound great. I’m on Ryan Holiday’s mailing list for his posts and always find them interesting to read. I enjoy history and bookmarked The 33 Strategies Of War to read. Your description and the one on Amazon both sound great. Thank you

  5. ◇ – Diamond Hard – ◇

    ◇ My “Ego” kept Me “Alive” when I Was Desperate to Commit Suicide; so I NEVER!!! Diss My “Ego”, We Work in Harmony

    ◇ – Diamond Hard – ◇

    …◇◇◇…

      1. ♡ NOT!!! a “Quote” My 3DLife; it’s Crystal Clear Clarity that I Was Gonna Quit via Suicide then My “Ego” Reminded Me We Love Each Other and Others ARE Gonna Be Left Behind dealing with Their Grief

        …♡♡♡…

  6. This was the first book I read after rehab 2 years ago and I’ve been in occasional email correspondence with Holiday ever since. He’s a brilliant guy and reads more books than I thought was humanly possible. (I sometimes wonder how much people retain when they read a book a week but not everyone is as absent minded as me). Truly life changing and I give it as a gift all the time!

      1. Yeah, probably because it has personal significance. Logically, it isn’t inherently amazing. It’s also very accessible I suppose and as you said it is narrated well through his historical references, compared to other books in the same vein which might be somewhat dry.

  7. Thank you for the post. But our men has natural ego and each one of us has the tendency. However,moderation is key. I would prefer to be a confident person that to be an egoist.

  8. The ironical thing about the ego is, that the one who frets about it and wants to get rid of it is also the ego

    While there may indeed be many ways to temporarily loosen its grip on us, a simpler and enduring way is to understand the silent stillness of what we truly are

    The ego naturally recedes, and alongwith it so does the imagined idea of who we are

  9. “More the knowledge lesser the ego, lesser the knowledge more the ego.” — Lord, isn’t that the truth! It does seem like the people who know the least are the loudest, especially these days.

  10. Hi Helen,
    I’ve noticed you appear to be “liking” random posts of mine ever since you started following me. I am wondering, is there a system behind the apparent randomness? I had another blogger doing this and when I asked them it turned out they were searching out key words in the wordpress search thingy, so it wasn’t random from their perspective, just mine. Just curious 🙂

  14. I was curious to hear what Ryan Holiday’s definition of “ego” was, my having been steeped in Jungian models of the psyche for so long now I’ve kind of lost the thread when it comes to colloquial use of the term. In fact, in his talk at Google in 2016, he quickly admits he doesn’t really understand it in the Freudian sense, but rather he defines it as, “…selfishness, delusion, arrogance, greed, (and) endless competitiveness“.

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  17. Coincidentally I just finished reading Ego is the Enemy recently, which had many good lessons. You described the key points well.

  20. “I’ve noticed you appear to be “liking” random posts of mine ever since you started following me. I am wondering, is there a system behind the apparent randomness? I had another blogger doing this and when I asked them it turned out they were searching out key words in the wordpress search thingy, so it wasn’t random from their perspective, just mine. Just curious.”
    Proves Einstein’s point.

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