Too busy to read?

The ego barrier is our innate desire to be capable and have others recognize us as such. The blind spot barrier is the result of our seeing things through our own subjective lenses; both barriers can prevent us from seeing how things really are.

we're so afraid about what others will say about us that we fail to put our ideas out there and subject them to criticism. This way we can always be right. Second, if we do put our ideas out there and they are criticized, our ego steps in to protect us. We become invested in defending instead of upgrading our ideas.

'If you're ever lucky enough to be successful in what you choose to do, don't ever believe your own hype, and remember it could all stop tomorrow. Do whatever you do to the best of your ability. Take the job seriously, but not yourself. And most of all, be nice to work with.'

It's clear to me now why I kept these books lying around and never got rid of them even though I knew I was never going to read them. I was desperate to convey my worth through my books. They were there to communicate one message: I've read a lot of books to date. As anyone who looks at my bookshelves can see, my interests are diverse, and I'm very inquisitive. I know all about these different topics, if only in name. Though I haven't read all the books yet, I'm definitely interested in these areas--of course I am, that's why the books are sitting there on my bookshelf. I may not understand everything that's discussed in these books, but I've read huge volumes of works including an array of publications on complex issues. I'm not very talkative and I may look like a plain, ordinary guy, but inside I'm filled with all this incredible knowledge. Perhaps I can be described as an intellectual with depth.

The second flaw is ego. Many of us tend to have too much invested in our opinions of ourselves to see the world's feedback--the feedback we need to update our beliefs about reality.

Hindus and Buddhists apply the word 'Maya.' They and other mystics hold that true reality can be known only by experiencing the oneness through a giving up of ego boundaries. It is impossible to really see the unity of the universe as long as one continues to see oneself as a discrete object, separate and distinguishable from the rest of the universe in any way, shape or form.

Understand your ego barrier. When I refer to your "ego barrier," I'm referring to your subliminal defense mechanisms that make it hard for you to accept your mistakes and weaknesses. Your deepest-seated needs and fears--such as the need to be loved and the fear of losing love, the need to survive and the fear of not surviving, the need to be important and the fear of not mattering--reside in primitive parts of your brain such as the amygdala, which are structures in your temporal lobe that process emotions. Because these areas of your brain are not accessible to your conscious awareness, it is virtually impossible for you to understand what they want and how they control you. They oversimplify things and react instinctively. They crave praise and respond to criticism as an attack, even when the higher-level parts of the brain understand that constructive criticism is good for you. They make you defensive, especially when it comes to the subject of how good you are.