Your Ego Is the Loudest Voice in the Room

Last weekend, Elise told me I was wrong.Not cruelly, not even dramatically — just casually, mid-sentence, while I was mid-lecture about something she didn’t ask for advice on. She didn’t raise her voice. She just looked at me and said, “You know that’s not actually true, right?” And my brain short-circuited. I could feel it — the flush of defensiveness, the tightening in my chest, the tiny voice saying, Don’t back down now. Double down. Find proof. Win this argument. In that split second, I...