Your ego and your “calling” in life can look surprisingly similar. Both pull you toward the realization of your desires. Ego assembles your personality. It manages your fragile identity while you figure out who you are. It protects you from the onslaught of societal expectations and motivates you to work hard and achieve things. But ego alone can also skew you toward thinking that hard work and achievement are the goals in life.

If your ego assembles your personality and manages your identity, then your calling is invested in making sure it’s authentic — who you really are. So, how can you know which one is really driving your work?

Time Stamps:

2:06 Shelley shares the impetus for this week's topic and how it is drawn from her own experience. Is the ego all bad? Should we work to rid ourselves of the ego? Shelley tells us what part the Ego plays in our mental health.

7:12 We talk about the difference between a small ego and a quiet ego

9:55 We discuss John Welwood's concept of Spiritual Bypass. 

15:44 Get ready to go back to when you were 5. Let's dive into the 5 ways to distinguish your call from your ego. We talk about #1 here. 

18:22 How are anxiety and silence clues? Shelley explains the second way to distinguish your ego from your calling.

21:20 Number three on our list is about burnout and fulfillment correlate with ego and calling. 

24:14 The 4th way to distinguish your ego from your calling is to examine whether the focus is on the result or the process. We talk about that here.

26:15 Number five rounds out the list with whether we are focused on preserving ourselves or serving others.

28:40 We chat a little about the upcoming launch of Big Self School.

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