Hey Mark, you are welcome.
Yes, there are numerous traps and simple pitfalls along the way. I was first triggered to notice some of this through reading Zen Buddhist writings years back, though really it isn't necessary to go that route - what is needed is careful logic that doesn't jump to conclusions. Our minds are often conditioned in ways we don't notice or feel to skip over details for our own reasons. One of the details is in the idea of 'trying'.

Depending on how we personally define 'trying' it might be the case that we are creating extra 'overhead' in our internal processing that holds us away from power. If I find myself trying then I know I am missing something. The idea of 'action without action' (Wu Wei) is helpful here. Often we can do more by not doing than by doing. Within that is the understanding that the universe and creation are moving and doing in ways that serve us, even when we are not. Sometimes we need to be free not by doing, but by stopping doing. This is also wisdom gleaned in meditation, in that the more we 'try' to stop thinking, the more we are actually thinking about stopping thinking. The answer is to operate from an 'earlier' or deeper part of our process to simply stop doing the thinking, rather than to try to add more thinking in that stops the thinking. Doing this requires us to bridge the gap between conscious and unconscious self.

As far as I am aware, there is no way to do this without using feeling. Feeling is a key part of the feminine principle and is like an internal womb that holds our thoughts. We are typically very polarised towards masculine and so this way of being seems foreign to begin with. None the less, feeling is the entry point to closing the gap between conscious and unconscious.

Ego is simply the part of us that knows who we are. When we do not understand how to be empowered, we tend to give the Ego more tasks than is healthy. Such people tend to try to trade on their identity, rather than offering something helpful to the community. To me, it's not egotistical in a problematic way to choose freedom and understanding (light) - it's actually a necessity for my survival. The majority of 'teachings' on these topics are reversed away from reality. So many people teach that we must 'destroy the ego' and so on - even adding in the contortion that the ego is an enemy and will try to defend itself by claiming that you will die 'too' if you kill your ego. The reality is that ego is just the part that knows who we are, so killing ego means being unaware of who we are - which may well lead to death, but will certainly not be an act of enlightenment.

It's true that we can hold incorrect ideas in our egos and this is common. The solution is to heal, balance and evolve - being willing to let go of errors, rather than attempt self destruction in the name of purity!

I highly recommend the books by Ceanne Derohan on the topic of free will, they are by far the most detailed and in depth on this topic that I know about. Once we understand the mechanisms at play within us which enable free will and learn how we have become shut down by guilt, limiting free will - it becomes far more possible to liberate self. In fact, it is impossible to liberate self without these understandings!

<3