there are two women in my life right now who are inspiring the pants off of me:

elizabeth gilbert
anne lamott

these women are both writers ... ironically. i don't consider myself a writer. perhaps i secretly wish that it were my destined profession (thus the narcissistic decision to open a blog when, let's be honest, only two people read it).

and i don't consider myself a "creative" either, no matter how hard i try to force it.

but i'm wondering if these closet desires remain dormant or 'closeted' by something a bit more daunting ... like fear itself.

in a mad attempt to 'get in the zone' yesterday, i visited a few blogs, shuffled through my iTunes, perused artistic websites and was just about to open my new book by anne lamott (which i vowed to save for my horrendous plane ride) until i landed on a gold mine on ted.com.

right there staring me straight in the face on their homepage was elizabeth gilbert. the infamous author of one of my favorite books, 'eat, pray, love.' she's brilliant. inspiring. and i will openly confess i wish i had her life ... well, parts of it at least.

she gave a 20 minute speech at ted that completely rocked my world. it would be advantageous of you to visit the site for 20 minutes of life-altering information. the title: fear of genius.

as if the title alone doesn't motivate you here is a little cliffhanger to drive you to the site ... this is one of the statements she made in the first few minutes of her talk:

why? is it rational? is it logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this earth to do?


it was captivating. pure genius (for lack of a better word). and her conclusion brought me to tears that could only be induced by a strong dose of inspiration. go see it. listen. take notes. and then do what you do best ... even if it scares the poop out of you.