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The Ego Trap – Identify the Thin Line between Self Respect and Ego

 The Ego Trap – Identify the Thin Line between Self Respect and Ego

“Ego is a veil between humans and God, in prayer all are equal.” – Rumi
People often confuse ego with self respect. They are two different mechanisms and in a way, opposite of one another. While ego encourages manipulation, futile comparisons and avoidance of hard work, self respect on the other hand inspires us to work harder by providing us the inner strength which helps us in achieving big, with a positive frame of mind. One needs to understand the difference between ego and self respect, since awareness and wisdom can help you get rid of an egoistic attitude.
When you boost someone’s ego, they feel a sense of satisfaction but when you hurt someone’s ego, they feel a strong sense of pain and agony, sometimes even vengeance. On the contrary, self respect lets you drift away from negative paradigms or behaviour. A man with strong self respect would try to take out positives from a negative experience.
Ego is fuelled by materialistic achievements, for example, you feel extremely proud of yourself when you buy a new house or a new car or when you get promoted to a higher rank. You start thinking that you are superior from rest of the world who are still struggling to achieve things which you have already mastered. But what you don’t realise at such a moment is that these things are not permanent in nature. You can lose all your wealth, fame or position in a blink of an eye and when that happens, all your ego gets shattered.
Unlike ego, self respect comes from within you. It comes from virtues like patience, honesty and kindness. When you lose wealth or position, you won’t lose your self-respect. Individuals with positive attitude understand the significance of self respect and self awareness and they perform their actions accordingly. If you allow your ego to overpower your self-respect, all your acquired knowledge will get converted into ignorance. Identify that thin line between self respect and ego and try not to cross that line, if you want to live a peaceful, dutiful life.

Neena Merchant

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