Fear

Fear is a habit; so is self-pity, defeat, anxiety, despair, hopelessness and resignation. You can eliminate all of these negative habits with two simple resolves: I can!!! and I Will!! - Manin Morrissey
My young friend Will had a gig to play for a beauty pageant in front of hundreds of people last February. He panicked, messed up and was embarrassed beyond words. We talked a little about it afterwards and I offered some words of consolation, but I can tell it really made a deep scar that won't soon heal without some work.
Fear is an innate response that helps man to survive. Back in the early days when mankind was young, before guns and knives, man wandered around unfriendly places and was at the mercy of wild animals and other strange things they did not understand. If faced with a danger, his very existence depended upon the fight or flight response.
Modern day man does not face these situations as frequently...unless of course his car breaks down in "bad part of town" at night....but the fact is, fear rules.
It's a fear of failure that keeps people from being all they can be. It's a fear of looking foolish or a fear that someone to whom you look up to might not approve of your actions....you may fear that you won't "fit in."
Fear can paralyze you and make you docile....it can rob you of the very essence of your existence and cause you to lead a life of mediocrity.
In Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address he said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."
I love the lines in the song written by Susanna Clark that goes like this:
You got to sing like you don't need the money
Love like you'll never get hurt
You got to dance like nobody's watching
It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work.