Be Fearless

It's funny how two simple words can inspire an idea. But that's exactly what happened to me this morning -- the day after an already particularly inspiring day -- when I opened a package that revealed those two words on the cover of a book:

BE FEARLESS

Yes, that's exactly the way to live a life. Reach out. Reach up. And breathe in every single moment. Deep breaths. Take it all in -- even the scary stuff.

Most of us shy away or back away from the stuff we aren't sure about or don't know the answers to...yet. But hidden in that word "yet" could very well be surprises that you, alone, would never have dreamed up yourself.

That "yet" is not so out of reach if you are open to what it might take to get there.

Be fearless.

That book title spoke to me in so many unexpected ways. For one thing, I'm so glad I noticed the package sitting outside my door this morning. I didn't remember ordering anything. But then I tore open the thick brown envelope to see what was inside and remembered...My writer friend Alisa Bowman had posted about her upcoming collaborative book project earlier this year on FreelanceSuccess. And there it was -- the review copy I'd requested. Her book project lay perched against my doorstep at the precise minute I needed an inspirational boost to take me where I've been wanting to go. And I wouldn't even have known exactly how I wanted to get here if it were not for the chance I took introducing myself to an ASU writing professor a few months and asking him if I could speak to his travel writing class about guidebooks. I was thrilled when he said yes, and I didn't really know why. I just knew I needed to do exactly what I did.

Be fearless.

The comments I received yesterday from him and his students stayed with me overnight. Then they joined the words in that book title this morning. Some back story entered the picture. And there you go -- an idea emerges.

So where am I going with this? I've decided I'll be teaching inspirational classes. I don't know what they look like yet. I've been doing them in hundreds of different ways already, but these will be more precise, more niche-directed. That's my "yet" to figure out. I don't have all the answers yet, but I do know I'm glad I've been open to reading the signs.

This week has been full of them. All of a sudden my BIKE work has returned to the surface, revealing my talents once again, reminding me that even when you resist what you're supposed to do -- maybe out of fear -- the universe does not forget. It will find a way to pull you back where you're supposed to be, or to set you on the correct path once again. The universe knows you better than you do.

My metaphorical BIKE reminds me to pay attention. I talked about this yesterday with those students. And I told them it's about moving forward. It's about awareness.

And today I was reminded it's also about being fearless.

What's your story about being fearless?

What inspires an interior designer?

I sometimes, as often as I can, write about interior design, art, construction, architecture, and other forms of design, including that which appears in nature. I studied these things on a limited spectrum in college, and my first job after graduation led me to editing a construction magazine. I spent a lot of time talking about design, engineering and buildings with the experts. It was fascinating work that stays with me to this day whenever I see a project I once wrote about in my hometown.

It's a background that led me to admire what I see when I'm out in the world: color, texture, fabrics, woods, metals, renderings, floorplans, glass walls, a building's facade, furniture, and so much more. I often photograph such things, just to have it. You never know when or where or for what a photograph might be useful. Such imagery can inspire new ideas to write about, think about, or file away for another time. Maybe in a previous life I was an artist. I'm a big doodler in this one. Or maybe I was supposed to be a botanist, except I'm lacking that green thumb. So I take photographs of organic things with the right texture or color, and admire them that way. Can any of you relate?

I think it's about being an observer, and that's also part of the BIKE philosophy discussed here. To be aware, I think, is to live, and to live to is observe.

That being said, if you've ever wondered what inspires an interior designer, meet Katja van der Loo, originally from the Netherlands, now living in New Jersey. A public relations consultant sent her link to me today, thinking I might want to write about her. Of course, curious, I clicked. I expected to find her portfolio, which I did. Impressive. But I didn't expect to find photos like these--her inspirations. Are you inspired by anything she's photographed:

_a repeating image?
_an animal in the wild?
_a doorway or entrance, or simply, doors?
_flowers?
_children?
_a home's landscape?
_a building, a very large building, in the distance?
_foreign architecture?
_someone you meet in a faraway land?
_the texture of a flower?
_a family of animals, or maybe their spots?
_sculpture?

If any of these things have ever inspired something within you, what was it? Did you do anything about it? I find that the best inspirational moments lead to an action that will take you some place you might not have discovered otherwise. What are your thoughts about this?

(Photo of the London Plane Tree was taken at Battery Park on Liberty Island, New York City, by Jackie Dishner, April 2010)