Taking away the power of fear

Seth Godin writes,

I'm afraid of that.

If you can say this out loud, when you've been holding back, avoiding your confrontation with the truth, you will free yourself to do something important. Saying it takes away the power of the fear.

On the other hand, if you say it 8 times or 11 times or every time, you're using the label to reinforce your fear, creating an easy escape hatch to avoid doing something important. Saying it amplifies the fear.

The brave thing is to find the unspeakable fear and speak it. And to stop rehearsing the easy fears that have become habits.