Action or Reaction: Distinction between Unique Self and Ego #2

from Dr. Marc Gafni’s Your Unique Self.

©2012 Courtesy of Master Isolated Images

Ego reacts. Unique Self acts. Your ego is constantly in reaction to outside stimuli. It never thinks a spontaneous thought. It rarely acts because it is moved to do so by a freely arising thought or desire.

Unique Self is moved to action by the power and joy of its own authentic original impulse.

We are excited to announce a transformational 10-week Unique Self telecourse that starts April 24th!

Further discussion:

For an example of this distinction at work, view Dan Pink’s summary of motivation science through this link. Pink describes how researchers have found over and over that contingent or extrinsic motivations, which appeal to the ego, block original thought, while intrinsic motivations, which appeal to the Unique Self, lead to more innovative solutions to difficult problems.  Pink explains that across cultures people are motivated by:

–autonomy–the desire to direct our own lives,

–mastery–the desire to get better and better at something, and

–purpose–the desire to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Unique Self is the route to the deepest and truest expression of all three.