Why would I want to get rid of my Ego? I like it

I've heard it many times, in many forms: "Why would I want to get rid of my ego? It's there for a reason. I like my ego."

But let's take a moment to really look into your own life, your own experience of being alive. Let's set aside all the stories you've crafted to somehow be okay with the status quo. What might we find? Here’s my guess:

We’d find a constant conversation going on in your head about everything. This chatter is perpetually worried about getting it right, making it, looking presentable, coming across as capable, good, nice, better than, and so on.

There's a pervasive tension in most human beings centered around the question: "Will I make it?" The voice that many of us confuse with ourselves is like the producer of a horror movie, primarily concerned with keeping up the tension, offering very little value to our lives.

Something happens, and the voice says, "I shouldn’t have done that," "Why am I not...," "I hope they still like me," and whatever else it latches onto.

Not only do most of us live as if that voice were us, but even when we recognize that it isn't, many create a new conversation that says, "I just have to live with this."

Instead of confronting the lack of value, this voice brings to our lives, we justify why this thought is different, why we need it for making decisions, and why letting go of it would be too scary—just more of the same.

But what if it were possible to live a life where this voice shows up less frequently, and even when it does, it doesn't affect us much, like a radio playing in the background?

Imagine how much space would open up for just being with life as it is, experiencing it fully, without any of the commentary that usually runs the show.

This is possible.

When you're willing to go beyond who you thought you were, what shows up is so immediate and present that trying to be somewhere else seems the worst idea of all.