A year or so I wrote about the trouble with letting your ego in, what I really should of titled it is when I let my ego in, but stopped short because of well….ego.

It’s easy to write a blog post giving imaginary readers advice like you are someone that should be looked up to. Someone worthy of giving advice that has been learnt from previous mistakes; but my ego is funny like that and makes me think that I am. These types of posts can be easily described in the words of Peter Schweizer’s “do as I say not as I do”. Not only because the advice is often obvious and straightforward, but because I often fall foul of my own words.

“Do you know how you can tell when someone is truly humble? I believe there’s one simple test: because they consistently observe and listen, the humble improve. They don’t assume, ‘I know the way.’”

It’s easy to claim that your ego is an enemy to be battled, and examples can be given in bucket loads, but until you realise this for yourself it is often impossible to comprehend. Anecdotes that fill self help books, or are spoken about by individuals with a higher purpose are easy to ignore because they simply don’t apply to people like you — until you realise within yourself that they do.

Ego is not simply something individuals should be aware of in triumph or every day life, ego has a huge effect in times of failure and magnifies every mistake. Instead of embracing failure and the lessons that can be learnt, excuses are made because of comparisons to others and nothing is gained. Energy is wasted on thoughts about others, when it should be focused on learning and growing as a person.

Humbleness is one of the most claimed traits in a person, but very small numbers actually show it. It’s easy to claim to be, but showing this in everything you do is much harder. I let my ego in sometimes, as does everyone, but learning from these mistakes makes me a much better person — because you can’t grow and learn if you think you already know.