Way I see it, the ego manifests as a bunch of defense mechanisms that seek to preserve the status quo of one's existing personality, by distorting one's percept

Way I see it, the ego manifests as a bunch of defense mechanisms that seek to preserve the status quo of one's existing personality, by distorting one's perception and generating sometimes-intrusive thoughts. The ego is also the thing that always wants more... more adulation, attention, money, etc. As an example: given that you have free will, at any moment you could say to yourself, "hey, there are X and Y habits/traits I have, let's not do those anymore and do Z instead." Maybe it's smoking, eating badly, you don't treat people the way they deserve, being a doormat, whatever. You could absolutely choose to become an entirely different person overnight. You might also change your career/lifestyle overnight (not everyone is so lucky though). Now the ego swoops in and says, "Hold on, let's not do anything crazy, it'll be scary and embarrassing if I suddenly act differently, what will my friends think? It's easier to keep on keeping on. These habits are just things that I would do. It's okay when I do these things because I'm me." and so on like this.