Get Addicted to Your Future Self – Ego and Decision Making

There is little difference between ego investment and addictions: in both cases, we outsource decision making to what has been good to us in the past.

This is problematic, because what we believe important to us becomes the criteria we use for taking decisions. As a consequence, where our ego is invested determines who will benefit from our actions.

Some examples:

• If our ego is invested into things, we will take decisions that benefit these things (and their producers); not decisions that benefit our self.
• If our ego is invested into people, we will take 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 our self who reached its own potential, rather than a hollow version of our self whose development got compromised by our “selfless” actions.
• If our ego is invested into our membership to social groups, we will take decisions that benefit our membership, not our self. Moreover, we will end up empty handed if, in the future, the group proves itself false (if it is not good as we used to believe, or if its attitude towards us changes).
• If our ego is invested into our present self, we will take short-termed decisions, which will ephemerally fulfill our present self but will prevent a solid foundation for our future self.
• If, instead, our ego is invested into our future self, then we take long term decisions. Moreover, we will not suffer from present outcomes, as they are not final; we will only care about our long term growth. (Outcome is a lagging indicator; personal growth, a leading one. Using lagging indicators are bases for judgement always leads to bad decisions; using leading indicators, to good ones.)

Investing our ego in our future self is a great way out of non-clinical addictions (towards things, people, and identities); a great way to ensure our long-term development and happiness.