Living day to day can feel like the meeting of two intertwined forces. The doing part of our nature intertwining with our every day sense of there is something bigger than me out there.
These are not separate parts that can be cleanly divided, but two movements existing within us.
One reaches outward into the world. The other grounds you within it. One seeks to acquire. The other reveals what is truly worth having.
Ego is the doing part. It plans, builds, protects, competes, strives, and secures. Through ego we create homes, earn money, solve problems, provide for families, and shape the practical conditions of life. Ego is powerful, useful, and necessary. Without it, little would be built and much would be neglected.
As powerful as ego is we find that its fueled by a natural hunger, an insatiable appetite that can never be quenched.
We reach out to it when we feel in need. It is the getter.
Useful when the thing we need is a physical thing but all to often the thing we need isn’t a physical thing. We are constantly distracted though into thinking it is, “if I can just get this one more thing …”. And yet when the thing is aquired so often the need hasn’t been met and it turns into pain.
Even if everything were acquired or achieved its language would still be more.
More security, more success, more admiration, more comfort, more certainty, more control, more things.
It constantly scans for what it thinks is missing and how to obtain it but each time fails to hit the mark.
This can create extraordinary achievement, but it can also create chronic exhaustion. Because when the sense of enough is constantly absent no amount of gain will do.
This is why a person can acquire much and still feel restless.
They can rise in status and still feel unseen. They can surround themselves with a multitude of options and yet still feel trapped.
Ego is an effective getter but
poor at knowing what to strive for,
poor at knowing what will heal,
poor at knowing what gives meaning
poor at knowing when what has been achieved is enough.
The part of you that yearns for meaning, the part that has always known there is something bigger but couldn’t name it can restore balance.
It does not come to make a person smaller, weaker, or passive.
It seeks freedom from the endless pressure of more to feel whole.
Where ego says, “when I get enough I will be at peace” this part says “why not peace first then build”
This part quiets the pain beneath constant striving.
It loosens the illusion that value must be earned through endless comparison.
It reminds us that life is not won by outrunning everyone else, nor secured by possessing more than they do.
Ego is a builder but separates and alienates us from each other making islands of us all.
One of the most destructive thoughts a person can ever hold is “I’m all on my own”.
The part of you that yearns for meaning reminds us we are all one. It unites us. It creates strong bonds and community.
It does not come to weaken.
It does not destroy ambition or success. It seeks to transform it into a living work, a living achievement.
It uses success and achievement to build something meaningful that isn’t empty, doesn’t fade.
It illuminates your path showing ambition and success in a clearer light.
It is God sitting right by you and with you.
When you align the doing part of your being with God your efforts become purposeful expression rather than compensation.
Wealth becomes stewardship rather than identity.
Strength becomes protection rather than domination.
Success becomes something to enjoy, not something required to prove existence.
A person in this state still builds, still achieves greatly but now moves more powerfully through the world.
Fueled by a new energy ego can now provide without any sense of the insatiable hunger it had before.
Theres no longer a need for every outcome to move toward completion.
They can win without arrogance and lose without collapse.
They can enjoy pleasure without depending on it.
They can pursue goals without being possessed by them.
Relationships change too.
Others are no longer competitors, obstacles, or mirrors of personal worth.
Cooperation becomes easier because identity is now less fragile.
Generosity becomes possible because giving no longer feels like diminishment.
Love becomes cleaner because it is not so entangled with need anymore.
The good life doesn’t come from endlessly striving for more things, but from discovering a deeper source of nourishment. A source that strengthens you by giving the striving ego what it has always been searching for, the relief from relentless hunger.
Feed it with the other side of your nature. Feed it with passion, with meaning, feed it with fulfilment.
Success without being owned by success.
Rich without needing riches.
Active without inner turmoil.
Feed it with meaning, with freedom, with community.
Find other people that have done the same.