Ego is the source of our rise or fall.
Humans live with egos—tiny or enormous. Self-worth, real or unreal, is normally referred to as ego. Heritage, classification, beliefs, and traditions influence the ego to a considerable extent. We normally associate ego with "self," but it is not so. Self is our core, and like many things, ego is just a cover. They are separate, not one.
Our core may be realised only when all the masks like student, professional, social worker, self-employed, and homemaker that we wear from time to time are removed. We are isolated from the chaos and noise all around us. We see more inside than outside.
As we grow, our ego starts taking shape, like other distinctive features. If there is little ego, people lose significance. In the case of being too egoistic, the possibility of working together diminishes. So we need to assess what the right amount of ego is by looking at our position, situation, nature of our actions, and needs.
Broadly, the ego captures our feelings, thoughts, emotions, aspirations, memories, and recognition, regardless of circumstances.
We need ego to boost our confidence, courage, decisiveness, and ability to exhibit our strengths. When we are afraid, it is our ego that helps us face challenging situations. An ego is a tool to ignite our power of resilience when things go wrong. Ego supports us when the winds are against us. Ego gives us a stimulus to accept our faults. These are the bright sides of ego that work in our favour. These are the causes for scaling up in our career, personal, or professional spheres of our lives.
The dark sides of ego are not less. We suffer on many counts in all phases of our lives simply because our ego is bigger than our size. Our blown-up egos make us arrogant and boastful. People with unhealthy egos are more reactive and defensive. They prefer to be uprooted rather than allow the storms to pass over their heads.
Egos influence our behaviour and create our identities. Ego can be shifted with our growing awareness and enhanced mindfulness of what we do and where we focus.
"Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.". -- Rumi
The direction of our thinking changes as we change the text of ego in our minds. Ego is a factor that charts the course of our actions, reactions, or conflicts.
There is not a good equation with our head of department. Egos on both sides are high. In many instances, we are at a crossroads and finally fail to deliver what was projected.
Ego can be calibrated to eliminate the excessive mismatch. What we do in a family in case of dispute: Some steps are taken to accommodate the ego and make functioning smooth without diluting the basic values.
As professionals, we are renowned for our managerial skills. We have an executive position in the whole setup. Once we are out of this mask, we come to realise who we are in a real sense. This is our real berth in the larger spectrum of this world.
Ego is a good ally for the wise and a dangerous tool for the fool. Let the ego keep us growing, not drowning. Make our egos responsible, and do not allow egos to create a vacuum between ranks.
The Pressure of the ego may be equated with blood pressure, which is bad when it crosses the limits of the lowest or highest.
Individually, we can scan our standing on the scale of ego and adjust to be a better version as compared to today’s position.