“I really focus on the present, allowing myself to understand my ego but not to identify with it. We all have egos, for better or for worse, but when you don’t identify with them you’re really able to be present.”
Let that quote sink in. It’s rather enlightening. When we are able to put our egos aside and see the bigger picture, the possibilities are endless. Ego plays a role in nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
We all have moments where we know we’re wrong but don’t want to admit it. We let our egos dictate so many big decisions we make from letting people we care about walk out of our lives to passing up good opportunities.
There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and ego is the determining factor. There’s nothing wrong with being confident in yourself and your abilities. Being confident is a great thing. But arrogance, the exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities, is destructive and confrontational.
Now you would probably imagine that quote came from the mouth of an intellectual, religious leader or a politician who has a really creative writer on staff. But you’d be very wrong. Those words were uttered by a 24-year-old middle linebacker in the NFL named Jaylon Smith.
Smith said that during a press conference Monday after agreeing to a five-year, $65 million extension with the Dallas Cowboys, and if anybody has perspective on adversity and putting your ego aside it’s him. During his junior season at Notre Dame, Smith was pegged as a lock to be picked in the top five selections of the NFL draft. Then his entire world was flipped upside down.
During a New Year’s Day bowl game, the Fiesta Bowl, against Ohio State, Smith suffered a horribly gruesome knee injury. Don’t read “gruesome” and jump to YouTube to watch it because I promise you don’t want to. Not only did he tear both his ACL and MCL but he had extensive peroneal nerve damage, and most doctors predicted he would never play again.
Obviously his draft stock a hit. After being projected as the top linebacker in the class, most draft analysts had him pegged as a fourth or fifth-round draft pick that a team could take a chance on and hope he worked his way through the nerve damage. The nerve was actually dead, and nobody knew if it would ever begin to regenerate. As a result, Smith had what is called drop foot, which is where you have no control over lifting your foot.
The Cowboys shocked the league and took him at the top of the second round. I’m a Cowboys fan and thought they were nuts. Every report since the injury suggested that even if he did return some day, he would be a shadow of his past self.
After a year and three weeks, his nerve began to fire again. It took him another six months after that to finally get back to the field, and he had to use a brace to control his foot because he still had little control over it. It took a whole year after that before he finally declared himself 100 percent again.
The entire time he went through rehab while working his way back he never once complained or took a day off. He set his ego aside, worked tirelessly and proved the doubters wrong with his “clear-eyed view,” a term he coined during his rehab process. He allowed himself to be present in the moment, understand his situation and surroundings and make the best out of it.
Now his determination in the face of adversity just got repaid 65 million times. That doesn’t happen if he let his ego get the best of him and assume if he does the bare minimum in rehab that he will get back to who he was. It’s a lesson that can be carried over into our everyday lives. Understand your ego well enough that you know when not to identify with it. Let yourself be present without thinking about what could have been or could be. It sounds simple, but in practice it’s enlightening.
Reach Joshua Campbell at (601) 736-2611 or joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com.
