Is Your Ego Getting In The Way?

According to the Chambers Pocket Dictionary, the definition of ego is ‘personal pride’ or ‘one’s image of oneself.’

When it comes to your career and capabilities, having high self esteem and confidence in your abilities are all great characteristics.  

Having an ego the size of a house is not.

Like any good chemist knows, and I was one once, it is all about balancing the equation. In this case your ego equation.

Taking honest, genuine pride in your achievements; being enthusiastic about them, enables you to recognise your value and helps others to believe in you.

Being overly humble and diminishing what you have achieved is not good for your confidence. Plus why paint a negative picture of yourself to other people? Remember genuine enthusiasm is infectious and engaging.

And if you do feel your ego equation is a bit off balance, what do you do?  

If I feel my ego is getting in the way because it’s grown too big, I usually use humour to bring it back to normal.  Laughing at myself and my pomposity is a great leveller.

If I go the other way and have a crisis of confidence, I generally take a walk in the fresh air and think about what I have to be happy about; what I have achieved. A little calm logic usually does the trick.

So next time you need to balance your ego equation, don’t follow the frogs* in the header image. Be self aware, don’t turn a blind eye or hide from the imbalance. It happens to everyone at some time or other. It is how you move forward that matters.

*Image of ‘See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil’ frogs courtesy of Pixabay