According to Osho, vanity is the ego’s strategy to escape life’s built-in insecurity; by climbing “up” we try to outwit death, loss, and change. But vanity breeds more fear—of falling, failing, aging, and being exposed—because it denies impermanence. When insecurity is accepted wholly, the need for vanity drops and the sting of fear dissolves; without climbing, there’s nothing to fall from.
Trying to look important to feel safe makes you more scared of losing it; accept that things change, and both the showing off and the fear calm down.