# Fear of Yourself

By [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2) · 2025-06-19

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Deep down, next to that sense of the eternal, there’s a void.

An abyss.

It’s the place where fear resides. That cliff that, when you fail, you’re going to fall off and meet the end.

Not a physical end, rather some type of “self-identity” death or a “self-esteem” death.

For me, that feeling of fear, of terror, that if I try something and I don’t measure up to my own self-image and my self-narrative, that I’m going to suffer.

That feeling, like that pit in your stomach when you jump off a high dive or the moment before a roller coaster drops, is a charlatan.

It tells you a story of “I’m keeping you safe, after all, you don’t want your entire self-identity to fall apart, do you?”

But, in reality, it’s a border guard that is preventing you from exploring a new land where, though there are unknowns, it’s exactly those unknowns which are the key to helping you achieve your true potential.

But that doesn’t mean going through the border is easy.

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*Originally published on [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/fear-of-yourself)*