Learning to move beyond ego

Last night I watched some of the excerpts from Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday on the Internet and I was blown away as usual by the people she gets to interview. Oprah has access to the best therapists and spiritual teachers in the world and listening to their words of wisdom always allows me to awaken to the wider meaning of life.
Last night’s treat for me was listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer talking about the concept of Ego. He observed that ego is an acronym for Edge God Out. He says that ego is nothing more than a collection of ideas we have as follows:
“I am what I have
I am what I do
I am what other people think about me
I am separate from everybody
I am separate from what’s missing in my life.”
Listening to him talk I realised more than ever that ego is actually what limits us from being what we are truly meant to be because it forces us to be fearful, critical, and judgemental about everything we do. Ego is what ring fences us in because it forces us to try to define everything we do as well as places expectations on whatever we do rather than accepting that every decision we make is a stepping stone to becoming whole. We may sometimes take longer to reach our destinations based on the decisions we make but at the end of the day if we go without judgement or expectations we will learn invaluable lessons along the way.
Look at the way Wayne Dyer defines ego and reflect on what each statement says about us as individuals. Each statement no matter how you read it or interpret it places limitations on our life experiences because it forces us to look outside of ourselves for validation when the greatest and strongest validation we could ever receive comes from within us. When we look to others or things as measures of our success, we are rejecting our full potential to be more because should we lose these people or things, how then will we define ourselves? Who are we without these external validators?
The question we all need to ask ourselves is does our core personality change as a result of the loss of material possessions or status? I know my core does not change. It’s only my ego that does. I am always the same fundamentally no matter what and I will try my best from now on not to let ego prevent me from reaching my full potential because I am that I am and no one but me can change who I am unless I allow them.