The prompt for Day 11 of the Bloganuary challenge is “What does it mean to live boldly?”

To live boldly generally means to live a life without reservations.  I use the word reservation becaues it will forever remind me of Anthony Bourdain.  A figure who has inspired me to travel and start a blog that led me here.  I would say Anthony lived a life that seemed bold on camera, and by all accounts, he was that guy.  He took a chance and submitted his unsolicited work only to find success in Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly years later.  We all know him for his travel shows, poetic words, on-screen humor, and adventurous spirit; and equated his life after the sucess with the idea of living boldly.  But, who was Bourdain before the success?  Wasn’t he living boldly when he decided to drop out of Vassar, and step into the culinary field?  I tend to think that the days before a person becomes famous or “find themself” are the introductory days to living life boldly. The days when we sacrifice sleep and go against the grain to persevere for what we believe in.   When we decide to try new things or even when it seems like we are hopelessly clinging to the old. Those are the things that equate to living boldly.  While this can seem like a subconscious event, to live boldly may take some effort.  It might involve facing fears, learning from mistakes, dealing with conflict, or embracing the past.

Honestly, living boldly isn’t easy or for the faint of heart, and there is no blueprint. For all I kno w

These are my five key basic elements to living boldly

• Bring your enthusiasm wherever you go
• Face past trauma, fears, and conflict when they arise.  Get it done early so youcan move on to the fun stuff.
• Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot
• Embrace your failures and the happy accidents that life springs on you
• Understand that you will never know everything, and life makes a fool out of all of us

In honor of Anthony Bourdain, a dearly missed father, son, brother, chef, foodie, traveler, writer, poetic….blah blah blah. I actually think he would hate his blog post and find my attempts a bit much!

I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion.  Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and isembarrassing – Anthony Bourdain