ego: noun: 1. the self 2. an inflated sense of self-significance
Imagine a world without ego. No…
- Toes to step on
- Feelings to hurt
- Fair shares to grab
- Territory to defend
- Fault to allocate
- Back to watch
- Last words to get
- Ideas to hold back
- Embarrassment to bear
- Battles to win
- Knowledge to prove
- Entitlement to have
- Encouragement to withhold
- Credit to seek
- Grudges to hold
- Jealousy to feel
- Revenge to take
- Hidden meanings to construe
Just pure care. Imagine the time we’d save (and things we’d get done).
To be no ego…
- Be humble. Understand you are a (small) part of the world. Service and patience should be your top priorities.
- Be teachable. Focus on what you can learn, rather than what you know. Remember that almost everything you learn comes from the work of someone else.
- Listen more. Make every effort to truly understand what others are saying (beyond just words). Allow a gap of silence before responding. Ask questions (and listen, again).
- Appreciate people. Enjoy others’ contributions. Don’t squelch ideas or defend territory. Encourage more.
- Relax. Let go of the need to be right or win every time.
Nothing complex. So what do you say? You up for it?
Speak no ego. Be no ego.™
(let’s make the world a better place)
Get the Be No Ego pocket card.
Connect with Sam (guy behind this stuff)…
Cal says:
EGO could stannd for Edging Out God in our lives. Be careful!
27 January 2012
JustDave says:
Ummm, Andrew & SJ – I think Sam was referring to definition 2, but thanks for the psychology lessons! ;^)
24 August 2011
Be No Ego « Amanda Haddaway says:
[...] thought it was worth passing along. It’s about imagining a world without ego. Check it out: Be No Ego – Just Sell®… it’s all about sales®. Good [...]
6 July 2011
Evitar o egocentrismo | lycos says:
[...] http://www.justsell.com/be-no-ego/ [...]
5 January 2011
DraganS says:
I love when I can serve to some “difficult” type of people!!! When they say: “Yes, U were right and it work!” And I even get paid for it
Strawberry on the top of cream.
27 October 2010
Clijsters on Imperfection | says:
[...] It means you must listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know – exactly the type of listening required in the sales process. (be no ego) [...]
8 September 2010
Richard Dale says:
Basically don’t be an idoit is the point here and I commend it! If you respect your colleges, they will respect you and all the better the work you produce will be. Sounds cheesy but its true!
fitness freq
13 April 2010
Andrew Rudin says:
I strenuously disagree–but my ego tells me to do so in an honorable way. You make a great case for the unpleasant behaviors that result from personal ambition. I’ll go with ego definition #1: the self. As far as definition #2–what constitutes “inflated” is subject to interpretation.
I can’t think of a significant world leader in the 20th century who didn’t have an ego– Margaret Mead, Robert Oppenheimer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, or Mahatma Gandhi. What would our world be like today without their contributions to humankind?
Back to selling: salespeople cannot sell without ego. The problem occurs when salespeople lack the counterbalancing force of empathy. A related article I wrote on the topic: “To an Octopus, ’50′ Means Nothing: Why Empathy Matters.”
http://www.customerthink.com/article/octopus_50_means_nothing_empathy_matters
1 April 2010
S. J. Robin says:
The Ego comprises that organised part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. The ego separates what is real. It helps us to organise our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.[1]
According to Freud,
“ …The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world … The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions … in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces [Freud, The Ego and the Id (1923)] ”
In Freud’s theory, the ego mediates among the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality (the Ego devoid of morality at this level) while satisfying the id and super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual’s safety and allows some of the id’s desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego when id behavior conflicts with reality and either society’s morals, norms, and taboos or the individual’s expectations as a result of the internalisation of these morals, norms, and their taboos.
The word ego is taken directly from Latin, where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as “I myself” to express emphasis. The Latin term ego is used in English to translate Freud’s German term Das Ich, which literally means “the I”.
Ego development is known as the development of multiple processes, cognitive function, defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego processes are emerged.[5]
In modern English, ego has many meanings. It could mean one’s self-esteem, an inflated sense of self-worth, or in philosophical terms, one’s self. However, according to Freud, the ego is the part of the mind that contains the consciousness. Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality-testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.[1]
In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted to be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the other quarter lies in the unconscious.
When the ego is personified, it is like a slave to three harsh masters: the id, the super-ego, and the external world. It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one of the ego’s moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority. To overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms.The defense mechanisms are not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our impulses that are threatening.[6]
Denial, displacement, intellectualisation, fantasy, compensation, projection, rationalisation, reaction formation, regression, repression, and sublimation were the defense mechanisms Freud identified. However, his daughter Anna Freud clarified and identified the concepts of undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealisation, identification, introjection, inversion, somatisation, splitting, and substitution.
1 April 2010