It is time to embrace your ego. Ego is part of your identification as an individual, it's what makes up "you." However, it is not the sole definer to ones personality, we do not live and die by our ego. Embracing your ego doesn't mean running wild and turning into and egomaniac. It means shifting the line towards true self-confidence, which will need to borrow from your ego along the way. The word "ego" itself is commonly misused, which I will elaborate on in the coming paragraphs. And if you find the subject of "ego" interesting, I strongly encourage taking a look into ID, Ego, and Super-Ego defined by Sigmund Freud.
Ego is defined as a persons sense of self esteem or self importance. In addition to every single human being carrying an ego, we carry a super-ego as well. Some of you may have been taken aback by the word super-ego. Possibly expecting one with a super-ego to be a giant douche. If you've heard the word "super-ego" used before, you'd think it to be of negative connotation. Put simply, super-egos are traits and mannerisms we usually inherit from our parents. My fascination with this subject lies in ego being such a commonly misused word because of the negative connotation surrounding it. We are often told to keep our egos in check, but not often told to recreate or rebuild them. With a reconstruction of the connotation of the word, the word itself could shift to an entirely different meaning. There are those who are going to chase after the true meaning of a word and those who will remain ignorant, set in their ways. To further distinguish what ego means, allow me to continue to elaborate.
A common distinction lies between considering oneself egotistic and egoistic. For those of you scanning through this post, I encourage you to re-read my last sentence. You may think I have had a common spelling error and forgot to correct it. The only different between the two is one extra "t." The two words listed above are actually two different words. You can be egoistic without being egotistic. Also to any foreigners, I agree the English language is harsh. Egotistic is defined as having an inflated self importance, to think you are a legitimately better individual than your peers. Being egoistic falls in line with being altruistic, if altruism means being selfless than the practice of egoism is being selfish. Which leads me to say there isn't necessarily anything wrong with egoistic behavior. It's okay to be a selfish individual because being selfish doesn't imply you are a worse type of person.
The issue becomes egoism turning into egotistical behavior and failing to distinguish between the two approaches. Again let me restate, embrace your ego.
The more progressive our society becomes the more people like to fit into labels and groups. Everyone wants to be a part of something, it's human nature. Labels allow our self confidence and self worth to shoot up. Wrapping around yet again to defining our ego. Our ego is actually a fuel for how we make decisions, tying closely in with confidence. I know I've discussed confidence a hundred times before, but I will continue to discuss the subject of confidence until my fingers fall off. If you'd care to label yourself as an egoist, altruist, or a student of the word ego, go right ahead. Fit yourself into whatever label you feel suits you if it allows you to build a true ego. Let your peers know how and why you are trying to build your ego. Before they jump to conclusions, explain the connotation of the word ego and how you are going to benefit from developing your own ego. And if you feel like being a dick, tell your friends about developing your super-ego. You could probably run with the "super-ego joke" for a while...probably.
Allow yourself to discover ego and WashYourAss
- Noble
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