Realizing your own mortality

Listening to Alan Watts i understood one of his suggestions to mean that realizing and accepting your own mortality helps defeating your ego. For me, a different take on that is realizing that i am not special in any way, compared to any other human, or even taken to the next level, compared to any other thing is what helps the most. Everybody needs a personal "earth is not the center of the universe" moment. But the ego is a formidable opponent. As a barometer of my progress i like to think about the possibility of donating all my earthly possessions, which of course are just an illusion...