The “safe” choice isn’t risk-free. It just hides its risk in the slow years.

Every choice carries risk somewhere; the cautious one just spreads it thin enough that you stop noticing. Staying put charges you slowly, in years that look fine from outside and feel like waiting from inside. Because nothing dramatic goes wrong, no obvious moment to reconsider ever arrives, which is what makes it the easiest kind of risk to keep taking.

Give the careful option the same questioning you give the bold one. Ask where you land in three years if nothing changes. If that picture bores you, the caution is not protecting very much.