I don't know about yours, but my ego is a petty, petty bitch. And I'm trying to help her grow the F up, mature, evolve. And we are having this ongoing battle, which I'm sure anyone who's elevating, changing, and stepping into your next self experiences as well. To be honest, I don't want to be bothered by people who are not worth my time. You know the ones, and I'm sure they know who they are. Unfortunately, I can't just cut them out of my life. I have to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. Welcome to the world. I just have to get to the point where I not only don't take it personally, because at least I've gotten that far, I have to get to the point where I don't want to engage. Because I'm really good at engaging. And that petty petty bitch of an ego of mine is too happy to play a game she will likely win. But at what cost? This is the Happy Rebel Podcast. Prepare to alter your attitude about what being happy actually is, and undo the anger and fear that got us here. I'm Sandra Ann Miller, aka the happiest, your certified guide to eudaimonic well-being. WTF is that? It's the key to getting unstuck and having what you truly want. Imagine a planet full of authentically happy people. Exactly. Change your life, change the world. Are you ready to get happy and disrupting? Let's go. It's a challenge when your petty self, that little ego, wants to go into protective mode and says, Hi, I'm going to defend you and stir up shit at the same time. We should go tit for tat and we should do this and we should do that and we should have all these feelings. Meanwhile, my higher self is like, girl, seriously, leave it the fuck alone. Nobody cares. It's not that big a thing. And this is the tango I'm doing right now. A little back and forth, some fancy footwork. And it's definitely a challenge in letting petty shit go. And I can feel it in the moment, like, why am I entertaining this? Why am I letting this thought happen? Why am I rehearsing the perfect words in the shower instead of listening to that podcast? Right? Because here's the thing, and maybe you feel the same way. I like educating people. I like showing them the correct way to do things. I like pointing out how wrong they are. And when you're dealing with asshats, as we all have to do, it's part of the human condition. It's part of growth. It's really hard to just say, eh, let them be. Let them be whatever kind of asshat they want to be. It's not my business. Nope. No, no, thank you. Because I don't want them to be an asshat. I want them to evolve and elevate and not bring their shit to my door. Unfortunately, that is also part of being on the spiritual path and wanting to evolve, wanting to be your highest self, being a happy rebel. So we can come up against these buffers that are kind of pushing us to see how much we've learned, how much we've grown, and how far we've come. While that's super effing annoying, it is also a positive sign because it gives us the opportunity to assess our own growth. But our ego can not only be really fucking petty, but very, very strong in its conviction. So when we're dealing with that, it's challenging AF because I do want to rise above it. And rising above it is so effing easy. Seriously. That is until our egos start chiming in, until your ego wants that attention, until your ego has something to say. Then you're distracted and you fall back into the petty pit because your ego's like, why? Why can't we teach them a lesson? Why do we always need to be the bigger person and let it go? Because we are effing grown-ups, that's why. We aren't under any threat. We are safe, we are fine. We do not need to engage in any bullshittery that is going to take us away from our peace and our purpose. But that's not very satisfying, is it? Especially when we have the perfect things to say. That's the ego being petty, right? Because we don't have to engage with asshats or their bullshit. We don't. It is so easy to stay on the high road. Here's the effort involved in that. Do nothing. That's it. Or maybe walk away. Because we have evolved. We aren't that basic anymore. And when you're dealing with petty basic people, it's irritating. It's time consuming. It's a waste of energy and it shouldn't be. So what I have to do now is tell my ego to shut the fuck up the moment she chimes in. And I have to admit, it's hard to do because she's really entertaining at times. She has a lot of good retorts, and I sort of hate to see them wasted. But they just aren't necessary. It's just not necessary to engage anymore. I am beyond that. Unfortunately, my ego is not. So it's going to be a bit of a learning curve as to how I can get my ego to either shut the fuck up or get with the program. My preference would be for her to get with the program. We, my ego and I, are different now. Things in my life are different now. My ego and I don't have to act the same ways as before. That's just habit. Bad habit. We don't have to engage. We don't have to go tit for tat. The problem is the part of our ego that wants to engage almost needs it. It's the fuel that keeps her fire burning. So of course she wants to play the game. Mainly because she wants to win. And she usually does. At the same time, all of that engagement is terribly exhausting. It takes a lot of energy to be that petty. And I just don't want to operate like that anymore. How about you? Feel the same? Because aren't we all exhausted by trying to teach the unteachable? We've been at it a long time. And here's the part we need to embrace. We can stop engaging at any time. It doesn't always feel that way. But with practice, you'll start catching yourself in mid-petty and you can pivot. Or you can be the best kind of petty, which is Tom Petty, full of slow, confident swagger and a strong sense of justice. Tom suffered no fools. Neither should we. Yet, when we engage with said fools, we end up suffering. Let's knock that off, shall we? Go through your mental jukebox and play one of Tom's tunes. Don't do me like that. I won't back down. Don't come around here no more. Rebels. The list is long and catchy. Pick one or two or a whole album's worth and let them play in your head to help you step out of petty petty and into swaggering petty. Flip that petty switch and do something better with your time. I know it's hard to stop engaging. It really is. It can be morally satisfying to go toe-to-toe. But more often than not, it's just a waste of energy. That's what I'm reminding myself as I retrain my petty petty ego to become a grown-up, to disengage, to stop trying to educate people who are willfully ignorant or annoyingly arrogant. Instead, I can walk away and take the energy I would have spent on them and do something much more productive. And that list is long and catchy too. Thanks for listening to the Happy Rebel Podcast. 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