Put Your Ego Into Your Future Self

There is no difference between ego investment and addiction: in both cases, we outsource decision-making to what has been good for us in the past (drugs, people, social circles, etc.).

Our ego is the sum of the entities to which we have outsourced our decision-making.

Where our ego is invested determines who benefits from our actions. Some examples:

• If our ego is invested in things, we will make decisions that benefit these things (and their producers). We won’t make decisions that benefit ourselves.
• If our ego is invested in people, we will make decisions that benefit these people. Moreover, they will only benefit from our decisions in the short term. Our friends, families, and partners have more to gain from a version of ourselves that reaches its potential rather than from a hollow version of ourselves whose development is compromised by our “selfless” actions.
• If our ego is invested in our membership in social groups, we will make decisions that benefit our membership, not ourselves. Moreover, we will end up empty-handed if, in the future, the group proves itself false (if it is revealed to be not as beneficial as we used to believe, or if its attitude towards us changes).
• If our ego is invested in our present self, we will make short-term decisions, which will ephemerally fulfill our present self but also prevent the development of a solid foundation for our future self.

Instead, if our ego is invested in our future self, we make long-term decisions. Moreover, we will not suffer from present outcomes, for they are not final; we will only care about our long-term growth.

Investing our ego in our future self is the way out of addictions (towards things, people, and identities), and the best way to ensure our long-term development and happiness.