You’re comfortable, so am I.

You go to class (usually), spend time with friends who love and support you and bounce back from the night before like a champ. You’re in your prime and the world is at your feet.

But maybe the world scares you…

It’s big. It’s a dog-eat-dog mentality — filled with people you don’t know, places you haven’t seen and the unfamiliarity of it all can be overwhelming.

Maybe you’re tempted to stay at home and find a career near your folks, it’s all you’ve ever known. Maybe you have obstacles or obligations that limit you. Or maybe you want to get far away but you’re intimidated. Either way, you’re not thinking big enough.

We are encouraged to not brag about ourselves. In fact, we are taught to see the bad ourselves before all of the good. We are told if we don’t figure out what we want to do, get an internship(s),have the perfect resume and cover letter and live the cookie cutter path to success, we won’t amount to much. We begin to set our sights lower than we should be and we never reach our full potential.

This year, take chances. Apply to those internships/jobs across the country. Make the phone call, book the flight, get out of your comfort zone and take the leap. No dream is too big and the only thing that is standing in your way is you.

To put it in perspective, Oprah Winfrey was raised in a poverty stricken home in Mississippi by a young single mother. She was molested as a child and became pregnant at the age of 14, resulting in a miscarriage. Nevertheless, she persisted with unmatched strength, and several years later, she started working in radio, was fired from a television station and, eventually, her career followed.

Her current net worth is $3 billion…

There is nothing too difficult or too big standing in your way.

If you want it, go get it. If it scares you, do it anyway. And above all, don’t allow yourself to look back on your life thinking “What if?”

A new year prompts change. I hope this year you dreamer a little bigger and do everything in your power to achieve those dreams.