There are times when our own personal journey requires that we move away from the comfort of where we were and the people who are still there. But I believe the pain of saying goodbye will always be less than the pain of looking back, having compromised on your dream or having given up on the difference you could have made. The world needs the light and magic you have inside of you. Your journey itself—and the promise of what is to come—is more important than any position you currently occupy.

Being terrified doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means you’re human. And the most important steps we take in life are often going to be the most terrifying. They’re terrifying because they’re significant. They’re terrifying because they take you from where you’ve been and set you on a path to somewhere new. And because that path is new, it is mostly unknown—and we’re afraid of the unknown. The world belongs to those who step anyway. The world needs you to take that next step.

We must make a fundamental change to how we view ourselves—not as the product of our past, but for the potential of our future. Watch Rusty Lindquist use his personal story to introduce a foundational aspect of Escape Velocity at TEDx.

Put down your device and live a real life, not a virtual one. A poem written and performed by Gary Turk, called "Look Up."