We’re pretty good at finding demons to be afraid of.

• The other.
• The one in the shadows.
• Change.
• The family member we can’t possibly please.
• Competition.
• Critics.
• The invisible network of foes conspiring against us and what we stand for.

It turns out, though, that the one who usually lets us down is us.

Our unwillingness to leap, to commit, to trust our own abilities.

It’s the internal narrative that seeks disaster just as much as it craves reassurance.

That’s the one we ought to be vilifying, fortifying ourselves against and frightened of.

It gets less powerful once we are brave enough to look it in the eye.

*Originally published on sethgodin.typepad.com.

Seth Godin has written eighteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership, and, most of all, changing everything.

Image courtesy of gratisography.com.