I consider the ego and inner critic kind of the same thing. Ego is concerned about your outward appearance, how people regard you, your status, etc. Your inner critic is trying to keep the inner child safe by also trying to control other people, circumstances, and trying to limit our life and experiences to what is comfortable.

Where does success play into this? Success is always moving isn’t it? We don’t immediately arrive at Success, but when we do accomplish a goal, hit a milestone, it's short lived. It’s not long before we start looking for the next milestone, the next objective, or goal. Some people continue to go for "better" or "bigger". They barely stop to appreciate what they accomplished and to be grateful.

Failure is just another distraction. I am not good enough. I am a loser. It will never happen. Failure lives in the past and sometimes we get stuck replaying it. Imaging what could have been done differently. What we could have said, done, or anticipated. Another glorious distraction that keeps us from moving forward.

I think that’s where some people go astray with recovery work. They don’t see progress when they see it. It is either, I need to focus on the next step, the next share, the next meeting. Go to multiple meetings. Quitting because it doesn’t "work". Need to work every exercise or step perfectly. The ways the ego gets involved is endless and it is always in the way.

It is also a very cunning enemy, it knows how to adapt to survive. It knows all your tricks. All your strengths and weaknesses. Knows everything about you and how to use it. It also has a lot of experience living life this way. It knows what makes your inner child feel afraid. Lastly, it will only stop if you play along and limit yourself. To live in the constricting and suffocating box where it thinks you’ll be safe.

Sounds kind of hard to make progress against that kind of enemy, but the same thing that makes it seem so powerful is also its biggest weakness. It is frozen in the past, your childhood. The second, you make progress, move forward, disregard it, stand up for yourself, practice affirmations. It cannot understand what’s happening. What happened to the obedient and scared inner child?

Things changed.

The old tricks don’t have the same edge. The knee jerk reaction is more like a twitch. We start to see there’s another option besides our fear! Success or failure become a matter of doing or not doing the work.

Just keep doing the work!