Before asking “what if I fail?”, ask “what does it cost me to stay exactly here for another year?”

Fear only ever asks about the cost of moving and never about the cost of staying, and that lopsided question keeps a lot of people exactly where they are. Another year in place is not neutral. It has a price in skills you did not build, rooms you did not walk into and habits that settle another inch deeper.

Put a real number on staying this week. Ask what you will have and who you will know twelve months from now if nothing changes. Then compare that with the actual downside of trying, which is usually smaller and shorter than it looks.