Appearances are deceiving. Having authority is not the same as being an authority. Having the right and being right are not the same either. Being promoted doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing good work and it doesn’t mean you are worthy of promotion (they call it failing upward in such bureaucracies).[…]
356/365 Not progress
Research shows that while goal visualization is important, after a certain point our mind begins to confuse it with actual progress. From “Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent” by Ryan Holiday
355/365 Silence
So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong. From “Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent” by Ryan Holiday
354/365 Seeing yourself with a little distance
You must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head. Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. It’s easy to be emotionally invested and infatuated with your own work. Any and every narcissist can do that. What is rare is[…]
353/365 Inside our own fantasy
We can’t work with other people if we’ve put up walls. We can’t improve the world if we don’t understand it or ourselves. We can’t take or receive feedback if we are incapable of or uninterested in hearing from outside sources. We can’t recognize opportunities—or create them—if instead of seeing[…]
352/365 The first principle
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. — Richard Feynman From “Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent” by Ryan Holiday
351/365 Fight to stay different
The orator Demosthenes once said that virtue begins with understanding and is fulfilled by courage. We must begin by seeing ourselves and the world in a new way for the first time. Then we must fight to be different and fight to stay different—that’s the hard part. From “Ego is[…]
350/365 Stay until lunch
Years ago, I saw an interview with someone who was or had been in Special Forces in the military. He talked about how hard training was and that he got through training by telling himself he was just going to stay until lunch. After lunch, he would mentally commit to[…]
349/365 Joy independent of pleasure
We have a mind condition that makes us itch for two types of pleasure: pleasure of the senses and pleasure of the ego. When our senses are pleasantly stimulated, as when we eat something tasty, or our ego is pleasantly stimulated, as when we are praised for something we did,[…]
348/365 When we get angry
When we get angry, compassion is the first casualty. When you forget other people are people, you forget that those other lives are just as real and immediate as your own. They are constantly feeling, experiencing, reacting, just like you are. From “This Will Never Happen Again” by David Cain