Watch "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa on Sunday, December 8 at 8 p.m. ET. Wallis Annenberg is CEO of the Annenberg Foundation which collaborates with CNN Heroes and provides training and development support for the heroes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) December is a time to take stock of the year gone by. We look back, congratulating ourselves for the good we've already achieved and identifying those goals to which we're still aspiring. Often, we're grateful that a whole new year lies before us, offering a path to fulfilling those very aspirations — if only we'll take the necessary action.

Wallis Annenberg

But no matter how sure we are what it is we want to accomplish, so many of us become paralyzed. Our fear of the unknown keeps us stuck. Where do we start? How can one person make a difference? What if we fail? That's why so very often, we don't act until a crisis kicks us in the rear.

And then there are the heroes among us. They don't wait until they're kicked in the rear. They don't lie around dreaming about what they'd do "if only." They're the folks who jump in and take the action necessary to solve problems. And the problems don't have to affect them personally. A hero's aspirations are often shaped by what has happened to a neighbor, a stranger — a fellow human being. In other words, heroes are very often motivated by empathy.

But putting empathy into action can be daunting, especially considering the scope of so many of the problems we face today. Can a single person with a small idea really effect change in the world? Yes. Just look at this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes for inspiration and guidance on how to make that leap of faith from simply bearing witness to creating and implementing a life-changing solution.

Take Woody Faircloth of Denver. He was moved by television coverage of California's most destructive wildfire ever, the Camp Fire burning through the town of Paradise. He says, "I knew I wanted to do something to help." So, he set up a GoFundMe page to help him obtain and refurbish RVs to give to displaced families.

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