Contentment is a defensive maneuver that ego employs against our efforts to kill it. It calms us down, soothes us, takes the edge off, but that edge is exactly what we need if we want to make actual progress. Ego doesn’t have to defend against an assault, it just has to undermine our sense of urgency and the threat just withers away. As long as we’re laid back and relaxed, we’ll never get off our asses, never change, and ego is safely out of harm’s way.