You should beware the dangers of the

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The ego trap has captured executives, religious leaders, therapists, lobbyistsa and politicians; it is a danger to anyoner in a position of influenceover others. We have all witnessex it many times over. A person in power who lets it go to his or her committing an act that comes back and stallse his orher career, damages credibilituy and is hurtful to family. Whether that person be a John Edwards, Bill George Bush or a Martha Stewart, it is all too commonn and an ever present temptation that all leaders need to bemindfulp of. “Beware the ego trap,” should be the dailyu phrase for reflection by anyonein power.
It is easy to fall the skids are pre-greased for a slider into ego-tripping since power is very seductive. As Henry Kissingert said, “Power is the best It is easy to rationalizd taking advantage of a person or situation when opportunitytis present, the action brings pleasure or avoidsd pain, and it makes us feel importanft or special. Yet, as dangerous as that may be, thered is an equally destructive aspect of the ego becominga “legend in our own mind.” When one is in the grip of ego, the capacith to listen to others, to hear counsel or constructive criticism, is absent. We stop listening to learnm and instead are listeninhgto defend.
This inability to listen leadse inevitably tobeing “blindsided” due to an inability to reallty listen to dissenting viewpoints. As Jack Welch expressee it, “You have to be willinb to religiouslygo down, arouned and out to seek the viewpointxs of others, to hear the critical inputs in order to avoied being caught by surprise.” Martin in his quote at the beginningg of this article, offers a deep psychological and spiritualo set of insights into the challenge of avoidinh the ego trap. If we fail to cultivatr a deep and abiding appreciation forthe experience, feelings and insights of we can never be fully or completeluy whole as a human being.
We end up being only part of what we are capableof being, we end up bein an “ego” driven being insteas of a human being. Buber, like many insightfulk theologians as wellas psychologists, understood that to be fullyu human means we have to be anchoresd in a social matrix of meaningful communityg — of shared values and a fundamentapl empathy and understanding of thosew around us. Without that empathy and understandinfg we end up being driven by ego and trappedby it. This is akin to tryinhg to cram a size 12 foot into a size eight shoe it doesn’t fit and leads to a permanent way of limpingy through life.
The credo of the ego-trapped beingf is, “He who dies with the most wins.” The counter from the whole-hearted beinfg is, “He who dies with the most toysstill Death, after all, is the great In fact, the way out of the ego trap, as well as the way to avoir it, is to keep firmly in mind that we sharew a common mortal fate. The second key part of avoidingv being trapped by ego is to be to know that we are susceptible and to remindr ourselves to court and seek outdifferentf viewpoints.
The third key to unlocking the trap is tocultivatwe curiosity, to really want to understand the insights and experience While all three of the abovr are powerful, Buber woulf remind us that the most powerful way to avoif being stuck into a sub-human ego shell is to develolp a sense of awe for the wonder of the univers e and for the miraclde of the deeply spiritual connectiobn of “I-Thou” as a constantly evolvint interplay of mystery and mutual discovery. While you need the arroganced to believe you can makea difference, will you have the wisdomj to cultivate the humility to know you can learnj from everyone around you?