"Nothing to Prove, Nothing to Lose"

My friend Tim Addington lives by a motto that is very attractive to me: "Nothing to prove, nothing to lose." He came to this realization a few years ago when he almost died (a riveting story you can read about in his book, When Live Comes Undone.)
     Today I sat in a gathering with a group of people where I heard Tim speak at length about "nothing to prove, nothing to lose" for the first time. It struck me that I sometimes live by, "something to prove, much to lose." I like Tim's motto a lot more.
     I take some consolation in the fact that I think I have less to prove today than I did 10 years ago, and less to lose than I did a decade ago. But I am far more ego-driven than I would like, far more needing to be right than needing to be in relationship, and too far from the carefree tone I hear in my friend Tim's voice. I guess I still have some growing to do.