Since childhood we are all curious and inquisitive about our external environment which includes other persons, starting with our mother, as well as other objects,. This is the natural characteristic of the normal Intellect we are all born with. This is the basis of our learning and developing as we are growing older.
To turn the focus of our curiosity inwards from the outward direction sometimes takes a crisis, trauma or pain to occur within us. Very few lucky ones turn inward due to proper guidance from the people that love us, like our parents, teachers, friends and others. However, many of us run through our lives without looking inwards at all!
A very important question for all of us is ‘Who am I, really’?
When we say ‘I’, who do we mean? Is it our body or Intellect we are born with? Or is there something new we have created during our childhood and which stays with us for most of our life? If there is, what shall we call it? Maybe we can call it as our ‘Ego’?
Wikipedia states ‘Ego is a Latin word meaning “I“, cognate with the Greek “Εγώ (Ego)” meaning “I”, often used in English to mean the “self”, “identity” or other related concepts‘.
We need to deliberate on this important question to come up with our own answer to discover and understand our own self for living live fully and in freedom!
Live Life Fully! 
The funny thing is,without awareness, we also form our views of ourself based on what other people say – “you are sweet” or “smart” or god forbid, “you are a bad kid.” And, if someone doesn’t say anything about us, our ego wonders why! We have to be recognized as someone special!
Yes, it is great that you are aware that our Ego needs to be acknowledged as someone special most of the time! This drives us to actions which are totally unnecessary for a good life! In fact it becomes a waste of our time! So, how do we handle this situation? If we try to control our Ego it disturbs our Intellect and hurts our body! Instead, be aware and accept our Ego as it is. It will gradually and automatically transform under your chosen state of Awareness!
In the journey of life ,I have learnt that casting ego aside allows me to unleash the power of asking ,to gain knowledge,by acknowledging every person you ask as a teacher goes a long way in destroying ones ego ,the accumulation of pure knowledge allows one to build confidence ,a caveat to this is as the confidence level rises the ego starts to try to creep into our lives again personally I have found that if one keeps on asking you are acknowledging a new teacher all the the time this keeps ego trimmed or at an extremely insignificant level.
Uday
Gaining more knowledge is also an activity of our Ego! More knowledge makes our Ego stronger as knowledge is an integral part of our Ego! We feel superior to others when we have more knowledge than the other person! Again awareness of this is all that is required and no effort need be made to destroy either the knowledge we have acquired or are acquiring or our Ego. Just be aware! Then Ego and our knowledge becomes manageable and living our life fully becomes possible!