My greatest fear in life is not dying… but rather not living while I’m alive. In other words, not living up to my full potential. That’s far more scary for me than death. I’ve looked fear in the face, a few times, stared it down and won. But now as I’m taking a new direction in my career and life paths it returns, uninvited,  like an unwanted house guest — manageable but inconvenient.

Fear often gets in the way of our creativity, relationships and pursuit of happiness, so I was delighted to discover a free online  magazine, aptly named fearlessstories.com that puts it all in perspective and delivers brave new stories by courageous people. The latest issue covers everything from the biology of fear (who knew our brain’s response to fear is biological not just psychological?) to stories about taking big scary career risks to achieve big amazing results, to articles about taming fear through mindfulness and bringing any painful crisis to its knees through compassion– for ourselves and others.

The difference between success and failure is often not because of  better talent, ideas or skills, it’s courage to act… to show Fear the door and invite Boldness, Gutsy and Moxie to the party.

So if fear is blocking your potential, creativity or ability to rock this life, check out fearlessstories.com for some worthy inspiration. And if you’d like to read my own story and biggest life lesson in overcoming fear –and I mean that life-altering kind of fear– that changes you at a cellular level, and reminds you not to wait until fear subsides before you decide to live fully and freely, refer to my  blog post of Oct. 2, 2009, archived under Personal Insights, entitled ‘Someday is not on the calendar.’

Thanks for being here. Stay fearless.

It’s been awhile since a novel has touched me deeply,  inspired me to look at life (and death), art and beauty in a new light… and actually moved me to take action in my own life. But that’s what happened when I read “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” a brilliant book by a French philosophy professor, which delivers far more truth than fiction.

It’s a series of eloquent little essays– on time, beauty and the meaning of life– delivered by two unlikely protagonists who live in a posh Parisian apartment block. Renee Michel is a 54 year-old frumpy concierge, who devours philosophy, music and art;  the other, Paloma, is a smart-ass, highly intelligent 12 year-old daughter of one of the tenants. Both are old souls and true intellectuals whose true talents and brilliance are disguised behind ordinary appearances.

They become friends and discover that intelligence and beauty can radiate from the most unexpected places, and people, when we look past the exterior and truly ‘see’ a person. As  Paloma says: ”Madame Michel has the elegance of a hedgehog: on the outside, she’s covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement of a hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creative, fiercely solitary–and terribly elegant.”

We all have our ‘quills,’ yet in today’s society so many people are readily dismissed before the beauty beneath has a chance to be revealed. That’s just one of the novel’s many insights. At one point Paloma is reflecting on life’s fragility and death’s inevitability and makes a new commitment:  ”I’m going to stop undoing, deconstructing, I’m going to start building. What matters is what you are doing when you die and… I want to be building.”

Well said.  I’ve decided from here on in my life I plan to be building. I am done with negativity, complaining and those who are always “deconstructing.”

And Renee, too, has something to teach us. At 54, after years of emotional solitary confinement, she had met someone and was prepared to love again. A good friend of mine was so moved by this that she decided, at age 58, to take a chance in her own life. Within days of reading the book, she went online, connected with a nice guy, and just returned from a weekend in Denver with who just might be the man of her dreams.  Fantastic.

Within life’s despair there are those moments of beauty, where time is no longer the same–what Paloma describes as “an always within never.”

I, like Paloma, am going to search for those moments of always within never, the unexpected beauty and wisdom in this world, even when it comes disguised as a hedgehog.

I highly recommend this powerful, elegant story that reminds us of what matters.