This is a bit of a digression, but... I notice that the degree to which I am willing to face a prospect that scares me, rather than hide from it, can vary from day to day. It depends on what else is going on, it depends on whether I've recently been successful at something, it depends on how the prospect is being framed, it depends on how hopeful I feel about my future, it depends on how worthy I feel. Sometimes it varies and I don't know why.

I suspect that most people are like that.

So I expect that if achieving my goal depends on getting a person to think about subjects that are too scary for them to think about, it's worthwhile to think about the larger context of that person, what's going on in their lives, how recently they've been successful at something, how hopeful and worthy they feel, etc., as well as just thinking about the subject itself and compelling arguments for it.