Check my ego at the door

but I think I’ve made enough progress to mark it done.

If I start sounding full of myself again, like I’m a know-it-all, somebody please slap me.

I feel like I’m doing better on this lately.

In the past, my ego has convinced me that I know more than anybody else (which of course isn’t true), and that causes a lot of problems when assumptions I make turn out to be false.

Over the past week we’ve been going through an unexpected search for a home to buy, a process fraught with pitfalls. So far, I’ve tried to be very open to other people’s opinions, which has been a big help.

It ain’t over yet, but by keeping my ego in check and listening to the wise counsel of my wife and others, I hope we can get through this without losing our shirts.

Bad situation yesterday with my wife. I thought I knew better than her about something involving having workmen come to the house, and I was very wrong, which caused her some health problems.

If I don’t change this about myself, it’s going to mess up a lot of our future plans. She has to be able to count on me in situations to be realistic and protective of her. And she hasn’t always been able to do that.

My problem is that I’m kind of a dreamer—and not always realistic about what’s possible given her health limitations. I dream about things like building our own house or starting a non-profit, and she gets excitied about it. Then I do something that calls into question my ability to make those dreams come true, and she’s crushed.

This happened a couple of years ago when we were planning a trip to southern California she’s always dreamed about. We made a lot of plans and reservations, only to realize about a month before we were supposed to go that there was no way we could afford it. I was keeping the books at that time, and she didn’t realize how bad things were. Now we do the money together, and things are better.

I still have much to learn. I must be more realistic.

Lately I’ve found myself saying “I don’t know” and “I could be wrong” much more often instead of feeling I must know an answer or must be right all the time.

I have much yet to learn in this life, for which I am grateful.

In addition to acknowledging that I could be wrong, I need to remind myself that I still have a lot to learn. ... Which is a positive way of saying I don’t know everything.

I’m not always right
I’m not always right
I’m not always right
I’m not always right
I’m not always right
I’m not always right
I’m not always right

My goals and entries make me sound like a pretty together person, but I’m coming to grips with the reality that I’ve got a huge ego. I have a very strong need to be right, though it doesn’t manifest itself outwardly. I don’t loudly proclaim my opinions to people. I don’t tell people when I think they’re wrong. I suppose you could call it passive aggressive.
What I do when I think I’m right is dismiss other people’s opinions and do what I want, which 9 times out of 10 gets me in trouble.
In the last month or so I’ve tried hard to practice being fully present, which involves recognizing your egoic mind and turning off that voice in your head that needs to be right. I felt like I was making a lot of progress on this goal (see goal #2) but clearly I have more work to do.
http://www.43things.com/things/view/134935
When I Gooled for “ego” I got the image above, titled “ego-demon.”