The Ego Starve Protocol

Metaphorical Narrative

Imagine a wolf circling your table, eyes locked on the scraps. It survives on leftovers, not substance. Every time you say “I don’t feel like it”, the wolf feasts. It doesn’t care what the task is—exercise, writing, brushing your teeth—only that you hesitate, only that you give it meaning beyond the fact.

But here’s the secret: the wolf cannot hunt what is not fed. If the routine is stripped of its meaning and left as bare fact, there is nothing for ego to chew on. No story. No drama. Just the neutral act of doing.

Today, you push the plate away. The wolf starves.

Core Insight

Ego thrives on attaching interpretation to simple activities. It turns neutral steps into existential battles. The phrase “I don’t feel like it” is never about the task—it’s the ego assigning meaning, hoping you’ll fuel it with argument, guilt, or delay.

By starving it, you remove the extra layer. A routine is just a routine. Walking is walking. Typing is typing. No explanation is required. Executive functions are free to act on facts, not feelings.

The power lies in refusing to let ego assign why before you begin.

Saturday Experiment

1. Pick one routine you’ve been avoiding.
2. As soon as the thought “I don’t feel like it” appears, say:

   “That’s ego voice, not fact. This is just an activity.”

3. Reduce it to the smallest first step: put on shoes, open the document, press start.
4. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Let the activity exist as neutral fact. If after 5 minutes you wish to stop, you can—but ego has already been starved.

Sunday Reflection

• When ego said “not today”, what did the activity feel like once you started anyway?
• How did stripping away meaning shift your energy—was it lighter, simpler, less dramatic?
• If another person described this routine factually, what would they say? Write your response in third person, as if narrating someone else’s plain action.
• What evidence did you collect this week that ego can be starved rather than fought?