{"id":863,"date":"2020-11-30T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T07:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robdix.com\/?p=863"},"modified":"2020-11-29T17:29:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T17:29:47","slug":"ego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robdix.com\/ego\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re an egomaniac, I’m an egomaniac"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to one psychological theory, everything we do and say is to project status and impress others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes this is obvious, like wearing fashionable clothes or bragging about your achievements. But it extends to the non-obvious too, like mentioning to your dining companion that you stopped eating meat a couple of years ago when you could easily have just ordered the vegetarian option without comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I learned about this theory, I\u2019ve started catching myself wanting to do or say certain things \u2013 even tiny ones \u2013 and realising that the only purpose is to disclose something I think the other person will be impressed by. Often I manage to pull myself back, but the compulsion never goes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you know about it you\u2019ll keep noticing this impulse too and it’ll play havoc with your internal monologue during conversations, so you\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was surprised by how often it happens, because I think of myself as being pretty self-secure and not having much of an ego. Then again, having a blog like this is arguably a 24-hour worldwide flex that I\u2019m adding to every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case in point: in the last monthly update<\/a> I sent out, I wrote about how I\u2019d started running every day. Supposedly it was to make a helpful point about habit formation, but deep down did I just want people to be impressed by my running and find an excuse to mention it? If I\u2019d learned a helpful lesson from sitting crying through a Bargain Hunt marathon while eating ice cream, would I have made a point of sharing it? If I did, would that just be to show off about how vulnerable I can be and how bravely I\u2019m overcoming my struggle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have an answer to this, and I\u2019m probably only writing it to show off how deep and thoughtful I am anyway. But here\u2019s the lesson I\u2019m including as an excuse: whether you\u2019re aware of it or not, your ego is controlling you. And everyone else’s ego is controlling them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you start looking at the world through that lens, a lot of what you see \u2013 including your own behaviour \u2013 will start making more sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deep down I’m writing this article in an attempt to impress you, and any benefit you get from it is purely incidental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou're an egomaniac, I'm an egomaniac - Rob Dix<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Deep down I'm writing this article in an attempt to impress you, and any benefit you get from it is purely incidental.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/ego\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You're an egomaniac, I'm an egomaniac - Rob Dix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Deep down I'm writing this article in an attempt to impress you, and any benefit you get from it is purely incidental.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/ego\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rob Dix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-30T07:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-29T17:29:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rob\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rob\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/ego\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/robdix.com\/ego\/\",\"name\":\"You're an egomaniac, I'm an egomaniac - 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