Life is a continuous cycle of aspiration, success, and failure. Sometimes, it is all about glorious days, yet every so often, it is a matter of facing between the winning and losing times while learning to master the greatest opponent, the ego. Perhaps it is fighting to destroy the beast from within, before it totally destroys self.
Are you aware of your ego?
Ego is literally the beast inside self as what Ryan Holiday highlighted on his legendary book, titled “EGO IS THE ENEMY.”
Personally, I am aware of my ego which is often the hindrance of moving forward.
After reading the book, it made me more understand myself. In fact, it made me meditate on the various dangers and natural occurrence of my ego. It has truly drawn a sparkle of inspiring situations, histories, and philosophies about my existence and on how I could be humble in my dreams while being resilient through the tough times of life, and while relying on self-confidence, and not on my personal ego.
Let us tame the beast…
”Inspiring yet practical… teaches us how to manage and tame this beast within us so that we can focus on what really matters.” — Robert Greene
After few months of his own meditation about life, Ryan Holiday created the phrase, ‘Ego as the enemy’, that was tattooed on his right forearm. According to him, he was not aware where the words actually came, but most probably, it originated from a book that he was able to read a very long time ago, which later became his source of great solace, inspiration, and direction to write about human ego.
Ego is definitely the enemy of ambition, success, and resilience.
In this book, Ryan Holiday has given a practical meditation about life through aspiration, success, and failure. He affirmed that when we were still young, we all have brimming ambitions, yet we are also struggling to achieve it. And sometimes, life leads us to crisis, paving ways to hit the rock bottom, but we all have the capability to be accomplished for as long as we are not giving up.
Part I: Aspiration
Whatever we aspire in life, ego is the enemy…
”What is truly ambitious is to face life and proceed with quite confidence in spite of the distractions.”
— Ryan Holiday
This is one of my favorite parts as I am moved on how I have become a dreamer since I was young. The journey was never easy because of a lot of distractions, but the biggest obstacle is self.
The book offers a deeper understanding that as we climb towards success, nature and dangers of ego could burst through but we could make it for right reasons through learning from our worst experiences; through being practical with a positive mindset; through having a mindset of helping others and letting them succeed; through never allowing negativity to dwell in life; through living in the present with the best lessons from great teachers of life; through being true to oneself while keeping humility; and through working hard with a purpose driven life.
Part II: Success
Whatever success we would want to achieve, ego is the enemy…
”Instead of letting power make us delusional and instead of taking what we have for granted, we’d be better to spend our time preparing for the shifts of fate that inevitably occur in life.”
— Ryan Holiday
This part emphasized that the cycle of life is both a reversal and a regression. It further suggests that despite setbacks, we could always manage it if we keep on learning and improving every single day.
Success requires a greater positive mindset despite obstacles and failures, but the key is managing oneself first because the more we will master it, we also succeed at managing others. And when we reach success, it is important on not to be vain with ourself and our success, but let us always take a step to look back on how insignificant we were back then while staying sober for life.
Part III: Failure
Whatever failure we will face, ego is the enemy…
”All great men and women went through difficulties to get to where they are, all of them made mistakes.”
— Ryan Holiday
This part affirms that failures and challenges are so inevitable, and that they all happen to everyone regardless of our personal ego. But the author suggests that in order to maintain sobriety, we must never quit as we keep the fire burning. It is also very essential to work hard, and never to allow defeat turn into sentiments of hatred that would probably hinder us to move forward in life.
The book is truly a best source of motivation and inspiration. Indeed, it highly emphasized on the greater strength of inner self to pursue every aspiration but could possibly be blocked by different forms of resistance, and that the most difficult part is to wake up one day with a broken dream because the ego is so heavy. When the ego becomes heavy, it makes one to slow down the process.
Moreover, it has presented eternal lessons to constantly fight in destroying the beast, before it destroys inner self. The key is to overcome the beast and be the cure that one could be to conquer the fight to master the greatest opponent, our ego.
In life, we could aspire for big dreams, and yet we could either achieve success or failure, and back again to the cycle. However, as we tame the beast from inside us, let us cultivate and nurture more of humility, self-awareness, and diligence, while maintaining a good reputation through being true to oneself. Most importantly, let us be like a student who never stops learning from oneself and others.
Let ego be our best friend, and not an enemy!
Disclaimer: All texts and pictures are my own, unless otherwise stated.
