I read a response to something I posted in one of my blogs this morning that started getting me angry. I started sensing my blood boiling, and then I instantly shot into my brain "that's your ego talking Jan, drop the ego". So I read the remainder of it like a textbook. A lot of it had stated opinion as fact, but later clarified that it was fact in the writer's eyes. In other words, it was still their opinion.

The whole thing got me thinking... does it really matter what your friends think of you? In truth what anybody thinks of you is really their own opinion that they carry. There's no truth in it and it's only based on observations, which are bias anyway.

Some of you might think that these people are your friends or loved ones. So the way they see you should matter to you. Actually I have to highly disagree with you.

I mentioned in the last sentence in the 2 paragraph that observations are bias. They are. They are not based from a clean slate. They are made in conjunction with personal beliefs, exeriences, and personal fear. Most people tell you that to become a millionaire, you have to graduate college. Actually that's a farce. 7 out of the 20 most richest people in the world did not graduate college, including the man that heads the list himself Bill Gates. Don't believe me? Go to Forbes.com. In the top 10 there are two college dropouts. #10 himself didn't even graduate high school!

I'm not telling you to drop out of school, so don't even go there.
(like I really need some irrate parent flaming me over their child dropping out because of this post)

What I'm saying is opinions are bias. Don't buy into it. If you really want to find out something, you do your research. If you really want to achieve something and someone tells you it's impossible, prove them wrong. Every major development in history has been made by people who were told it wasn't possible. Ford, Franklin, the Wright Brothers, Edison,...

The toughest part of all this isn't the actual doing and achiving of your goal. That's the easy part. The hardest part is not allowing your own ego to get in the way. An ego reaction is so automatic that it's second nature and the majority of us have never been told that it was a bad thing. Ego tells us we're either too good, or not good enough, regardless of the reason, it's self defeating. Opportunity works best when ego is not in the way.

Let's think about this. If you get an idea to invent something, but you don't want to develop it because you don't think you have the smarts to make it happen, that's your ego working. Let's take the polar opposite. If you get an invite to go to a party, but you know that the people that are going to be there aren't as smart as you, or as worldly, or they are in a lower financial bracket, or not as well maintained, and therefore you automatically think you're going to have a miserable time, that's your ego working. Any label that measures the value of you over or under anything is ego at work. Not saying you shouldn't respect yourself, or be proud of yourself, or even value yourself. These are very important. The thing is you should never deem your self worth compared to levels that are illusionary.

So going back to where all this started. I told myself my ego was what was making me angry. And that whatever that other person wrote was what they carried. It neither values or devalues what's inside of me and what I carry with me. I can still write, I can still breath, I can still walk, and I can still do what I do best. It didn't damage me, just challenged me, and I did the right thing by dropping my ego.

It'll take continual work, but I'll get through it.

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