Ego management: Envisaging our future April 24, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management.Tags: achieving goals, controlling ego, ego management, goal setting, managing the ego, personal development, self-improvement, visualization
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Understanding the necessity of controlling the ego, or managing the ego, is important if we are to create the future we want for ourselves in our personal development or self-improvement programs and goals.
The ego, which is not to be confused with simple egotism, can be thought of in many ways, or as having a number of diverse components, but it is often simply that voice in our head which is constantly chattering or thinking, either aloud or visually.
One of the keys to successful personal development, or self-improvement, is having a good grasp or appreciation of the importance of the present. The ego, in its tendency to constantly look both back and forward can interfere with this, particularly in the case of imagining our future.
If we are not careful in terms of managing or controlling the ego, efforts towards accomplishment in the present can be sabotaged by the ego’s daydreaming optimistically about the future.
Ironically, there is, therefore, a danger of subconsciously procrastinating personal development tasks in the present by thinking we are doing something concrete in the present by simply by thinking optimistically about getting things done in the future.
We can miss opportunities for achievement in the present because we are taking the easier path of visualization of success in the future. We should instead be focusing on the things that need to be done in the present to concretely create the future we want.
It’s something like creating an ambitious “to-do” list. Making the list gives us a sense of accomplishment, but nothing is going to happen unless we starting doing the items on the list right now.
Not tomorrow, not next week, but now.
Ego management: Trying to control the future April 2, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management.Tags: controlling ego, ego management, goal setting, law of attraction, personal development, personal growth, positive thinking, Tao Te Ching
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Ego management or controlling our thinking is often difficult when it comes to the past and the future; and probably, controlling our ego in thinking about the future is the toughest.
The future, at least to the ego and our mind, is often filled with “what if’s” and “if only I could…” or less tentatively, we engage in writing, saying aloud, or thinking affirmations and make other efforts involving the Law of Attraction which usually are focused on specific outcomes that we desire for the future.
However, there is a big difference on thinking about the future positively, or planning our lives to influence a future with positive possibilities, compared with an attempt by the ego to think that we can actually control the future. We can try but such efforts will more than likely result in disappointment, and possibly psychic harm.
There is an interesting passage in the Tao Te Ching that illustrates this in a few words: “Trying to control the future Is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place. When you handle the master carpenter’s tools, Chances are you’ll hurt your hand.” *
I am not presenting this passage from the Tao from a religious perspective or saying that there is a grand deity controlling our lives and Rather, I am suggesting that if we give in to the ego’s desire to try to over-manage the future we are bound to become frustrated.
There are simply too many variables in the universe in terms of influences and events that can have an effect on our future to think that we can control the future. To appease the ego in its desire to control the future is to give in to delusion.
Planning, goal setting, efforts towards a positive approach to life, and other components of a personal development program, however, are ways to exert influence over our own future without allowing the ego to over-manage our thinking as to what we can realistically control in the future.
To paraphrase a familiar prayer, we need to develop acceptance of the things we cannot change; develop courage to change the things we can; and also develop the wisdom to know the difference between these two sets of circumstances.
* The Tao Te Ching, as interpreted/translated by Stephen Mitchell, published by HarperPerennial, A division of HarperCollins Publishers.
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