If you want to really make a difference in the world, you have to follow your passions and your heart, even if that means taking some major risks.

Before I became the Editor-at-Large of Mashable, I lived and worked in Chicago. In 2008 when I graduated from Northwestern University, I started working for a startup. A few months after taking the job, the company folded and I was left to fend for myself in the job market.

At about the same time my entrepreneurial mentor asked me to join him in building up and expanding a popular health website. Although I wasn’t specifically passionate about health, I was excited about joining my mentor in the task of growing the company. When he left the company a short while later, the excitement withered away.

The job was fine and I did a great job maintaining the website, but I started to realize that my “comfortable” job wasn’t testing my limits or cultivating my passions for entrepreneurship and technology. I knew that I had to make a change.

I didn’t have a singular “ah ha!” moment, but rather a series of thoughts and conversations that led to a decision.

I had always been interested in living in the world’s capital for technology and was tiring of the cold Chicago weather. While discussing my future with a friend, I said, “It’s time for me to change my life. I’m moving to Silicon Valley.”

Decisions are the easy part though. Taking action is far more difficult. Regardless of the fact that I was in a “safe” job and had no immediate prospects in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, I decided that I would move in one month. I gave my employer three weeks notice, took on a weekend editor role for the website I had been writing for occasionally – Mashable, and packed up my truck. With only a few of my things, I trekked over 2000 miles across the U.S. to reach my new home in the Bay.

Today, I am the Editor-at-Large of Mashable, one of the world’s leading authorities on social media. Not only that, but I have made hundreds of incredible friends, none of which knew me just a year ago. Moving was, by far, the best decision I ever made, but taking action without a job prospect didn’t come easy.  I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like if I were still in Chicago.

“Ah ha!” moments are not just about realization – they’re about action. You can have 100 revelations in a day, but if you don’t act upon them, all they are is wasted potential.

So stop wasting time and start taking action.