When I am not paying attention, my ego is in command. I am often not paying attention, so my ego is often in command.
Command is a military term of art. Thinking about command, I think first of military leadership. Thinking about military leadership, I thought about generals. And thinking about generals, I thought of a story about Napoleon.
Napoleon was asked, “what makes a great general?”
He is reported to have replied, “the best generals are smart and energetic. I can count on them to handle any problem. Others are stupid and lazy. But I can deal with them, they may be stupid, but because they are lazy and don’t do a lot, they don’t cause a lot of trouble. The worst generals are energetic and stupid. They cause the most damage. They’re quick to act and get a lot done, but often what they do is stupid.”
My ego is a bad general. My ego is quick, stupid and energetic.
My ego, the general takes command immediately. My ego does not respond to situations; it only reacts, and it reacts with enthusiasm. It creates immediate feelings, and these feelings stimulate actions and words, without hesitation. And like a general, my ego is powerful. It issues commands, and things happen. Time is spent, resources mobilized, and forces marshalled.
If the bad general is in charge, things go quickly, and they rarely go well.
I cannot seem to countermand the bad general’s orders. I must replace him. I have to displace my ego with something else; the bad general has to be relieved of command and a new commander installed.
And that is what the Steps are all about, learning to displace the bad general, learning to relieve the bad general from command.
I am changing the leadership of my mind.
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The reach of the weekly blog is increasing.
“I’m not sure who you are but thank you for sending this 🙂 I have not read this yet but last night I was talking to someone about my EGO and how I now realize it requires a bit of an adjustment at the moment. ”
Perfect strangers are now sending nice notes.
And from Aran in Thunder Bay
“Nice laugh Andy”
Glad that you enjoyed it, and hope that you got something out of it. My bad general likes to take command every night while I am sleeping.