Editor's Thoughts: There Is Beauty In Boldness. Begin Today.

This isn't a normal fashion or beauty post but I wanted to take a moment as the Editor of this publication to share something with you.

Having just completed Fashion Week and moving into a new apartment all within days of each other, I was cleaning out my wallet of receipts and other debris when I came across a folded piece of paper. When I opened it, I was surprised to find a list that I had created years ago - a list of dreams and aspirations.

Let me backtrack: before I started FSB, I spent years sort of hopping in and out of corporate America jobs, trying to find out where I belonged in the world. I dabbled in writing as a hobby but never dared to think it was something I could do to make a living. After fifteen years of working and living in a manner that made everyone else comfortable but it made me miserable, I had all but given credence to the warnings of the people that surrounded me: people who said that I could never make a living as a writer, negated the career since I hadn't gone to school for writing, and many who said that at my age I should be concerned with getting married and having children rather than following some foolish dream. I quietly shoved my dreams down under pints of ice cream and worked to help corporations achieve their profits because I didn't think I was allowed to have dreams of my own.

I think most of us reach a point in our lives where we say, "Is this all there is?" You can do two things when that happens: you can say "Yes, this is all there is" and be okay with it, or you can say, "No, I want something else" and change your life. When I woke up one day in March 2007 and decided that my life wasn't all I wanted it to be, I got really angry and decided to make it more. I curled up in my apartment and made a list of all the things I wanted out of my life. I spent an entire day writing this list, then folded and placed it inside my wallet in an inside flap, where it has remained until today.

Let me further state why finding this list was so incredible: I have lost this wallet twice in the past year, so the fact that all of the contents of the wallet were returned to me without much incident is still astounding to me.

When I opened the list, I was amazed to find that I had created most of what I had dreamed of almost three years ago. I moved myself to NYC a month after I created this note with only two suitcases and $300 in my wallet. What started as small side work as a blogger became a career in earnest when I was laid off from what I hope to be the last corporate position I'll ever work in September 2008. Having not looked at the list, I've achieved a lot of what's on it, but the most striking thing is still that I had the audacity to write it and believe I was worthy of these things. I hold firm to the fact that because I believed I could have my dreams, they started showing up.

I write this note to tell you that FSB is proof-positive that believing you can have what you want is completely possible. I'm also telling you this because at 38 years of age, many people are sort of shocked at the fact that I "started so late." Last I checked, dreams and goal-setting doesn't have an age limit. It's never too late to start.

Here's the challenge: write your own list tonight, then set your mind and heart to it that you're going to give your dreams a shot. Trust me, the fears I faced paled in comparison to the thoughts of living a life that was not all I wanted. When the present or future make me nervous, I look backwards and it pushes me forward.

There is Beauty in Boldness. Begin today.