Yesterday it struck me how critical it is to walk through life with inspiring friends.

EVERY DAY I am inspired by one of my friends. They show me how to love. They encourage me to dream big dreams. They shift my focus from fear and inadequacy to possibility and potential. They are a constant reminder that there are no such thing as extraordinary people, only ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Spence is an Iron Man (just thinking about it makes me tired).

Keely travels around the world capturing stories of poverty and hope with her camera.

Jenni strives to empower, challenge, and encourage women leaders.

Justin and Trish bravely share their season of struggle with unbelievable candor and grace so others can learn from their mistakes.

(I am keeping this to a short list, but I could go on and on, and on and on.)

It is this simple. If you don’t have friends who inspire you, you need to find some new friends.

Right now. They will change your life. They will change your life for good.

How are your friends inspiring you?

I am one of those people who has lots of circles of friends. Single girl friends, church friends, work friends, “campus” friends, Powered by Hope friends, blogging friends, twitter friends, high school friends, college friends, Birmingham friends, camp friends…just to name a few.

So naturally I have several friends who have never had the opportunity to meet. Sometimes it is easier to keep the circles separate.

But sometimes it is fun to find a few friends from two different groups and introduce them, to play “matchmaker.”

Now, I am not talking about matchmaking in a romantic way. (Although that can be fun too.) Here’s what I’m talking about:

A few months ago I arranged a happy hour with the sole purpose of introducing my friends Bryan and Suzanne Norman to Matthew and Alyson Costner. I have known “the Normans” for a few years. They are some of my favorite people on the planet. They are passionate. They love good food. And they are great for a deep conversation about anything from faith to politics or for a night out singing karaoke (You should see Bryan do Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”)

I met “the Costners” through Twitter. I liked something about the way they interacted in 140 characters. My half marathon training gave me the opportunity to meet them “in real life.” I discovered my instincts were right. “The Costners” are great. And they needed to meet “the Normans.”

We all gathered at Eastland Cafe one Thursday evening to enjoy their $5 Happy Hour menu. I had the best time sitting back and watching these two couples enjoy each other. And I get just-plain-giddy every time I hear about them cultivating their friendship. I love knowing that I helped bring them together, that I am part of their story.

My friend Spence is the best at this. Awhile back he called and invited me to join him and a couple of his Compassion friends for dinner. I blogged about the evening because it was monumental for me. I felt invested in, like Spence hand-picked me to meet those folks. There was no awkwardness. We all just clicked. Unbelievably that was the first night I met my fabulous friend Keely. (If you are ever around the two of us, you will assume we’ve known each other for years.) I am SO GRATEFUL that Spence went out of his way to include me that evening, that he followed his instincts and introduced me to Keely and Ryan, that he played “matchmaker.”

Do you have friends that need to meet? People that you know will enjoy each other? What are you waiting for? Step out of your comfort zone and introduce them. Help bring people together. Be a part of their story.

Oh, and please share your “matchmaker” stories…

I had so much fun. It was one of those nights that was completely energizing (something I don’t take for granted in this season of Christmas parties and holiday hoopla). It was one of those nights when I reconnected with how much I love interacting with new and interesting people in a small group setting (not at cocktail party setting, that kinda freaks me out).

We talked about Compassion International. We talked 90210. We talked Battle Star Galactica (or “BSG” as I learned it is so aptly called).

We talked blogging. We talked steaming techniques (I’ll note the girls at the table had not-a-thing to contribute to this conversation). We talked books. We talked Glee. We talked Pioneer Woman. We talked Cross Point.

And of course, we talked iphone apps. I can honestly say I had NO IDEA there are so many helpful, entertaining, and utterly absurd iphone apps out there.

Here are just a handful of the group favorites:

TripIt - Online travel itinerary. Keeps all your plans (plane, rental car, and hotel reservations) in one spot. Added bonus TripIt let’s your friends and colleagues keep track of your jet-setting.

AroundMe - Everything you need to know about your surroundings. Do you ever wonder what is right around the corner? Where the closest Starbucks is? Where you can get gas before you hit empty? AroundMe has all the answers.

Words with Friends – Play scrabble with friends across the world. Or if you are like me, let all your twitter buddies know how small your vocabulary is. Trust me Words with Friends is fun, but be warned it is also addictive.

Dragon Dictation – Voice to text transcription that is stunningly accurate. I was skeptical but it was 100% accurate on my both my trial runs. I’m never going to drive and text again. I’m going to drive and dictate from now on using Dragon Dictation.

Literally I gasped as I learned about all the cool things I had been missing out on.

So….I imagine there are more apps completely not on my radar. Give it up. What are your favorite iphone apps?

The more difficult half of the story is WHY I have never wanted to define my future. To answer that question I have to dig a lot deeper.

I guess it all boils down to FEAR. I am afraid of sharing my deepest desires (especially with myself) because many of them feel very out of my reach. I am afraid of setting my expectations too high only to feel gut-wrenching disappointment when they are not met. I am afraid of establishing goals that I might not attain.

And so I have settled for a life without thoughtful plans. But I know I need to conquer this fear. Because I know that not until I define my aspirations, will I be able to work towards making them a reality. And I don’t want to stumble my way through life.

Why is it so scary to define our heart desires, put in writing the person we’d love to become?

PS – Today my friends Spence Smith and Lynn Moore are finishing an IronMan (2.4 Mile Swim, 120 Mile Bike, 26.2 Mile Run). Talk about seeing people have made a lofty and scary goal a reality. They are an inspiration for us all!

I didn’t know what I was going to write about it. Or even if I could write. I didn’t know if I would have any readers. And I certainly didn’t know that my parents would be printing off posts and showing them to their friends and colleagues (because I assure you if I knew that I would have never ever started). But most importantly I didn’t know how much I would enjoy the whole blogging process.

So completely naive, I began to blog. And I have loved every minute of it.

Six months later, I am committed to taking this to the next level. Meaning I am ditching my hastily thrown together design and going for something a little sleeker. Meaning I making a commitment to write more often, at least three posts a week. Hopefully by putting words to that commitment, I will make it so.

Today I am launching I’m Just Saying 2.0 at www.lindseynobles.com.  I believe if you subscribe via RSS feed or email that  will still work (let me know if they don’t). But be sure to bookmark this new address if that is how you find me. (It should be easy to remember since it is just my first and last name and .com. I am all about making this easy for you )

And I am still learning how to drive this thing. So PLEASE don’t hesitate to let me know if you find something that’s a little wonky.

PS – Special thank yous to Spence Smith for helping me do the heavy lifting, to Michael Hyatt for encouraging me along the way, and to Mary Hooper for my fun new header.

And with no further delay, I’d like to say “Weclome, again…”

It was really fun. And informative. Here were my top 5 takeaways:

1. I reconnected with the reason why I started blogging. I started blogging because I wanted to create an online network and share my life and experiences with them. I wanted to keep record of my life and my growth.
2. I decided to move from a wordpress.com blog to a self-hosted blog. I actually decided this a long time ago but I have been dragging my feet. But now I am hungry for it. I want more design options and I want more back end analytics.
3. I need to do a better job of organizing my posts. Admittedly, I am terrible about this. I need to create a few categories that represent my passions – Books, Food, Social Media, Causes, Religion, Travel, Leadership, Relationships. Also, I need to be more intentional about my use of keywords.
4. I am going to be more intentional about what I write. (Intentional, that word keeps popping up. It is not just in this post but also in my life that it keeps appearing.) I need to write about things that I am enthusiastic about. Things that naturally fit into the categories above.
5. And most importantly, I need to write more. A lot more. I am committed to writing three posts a week. I know I can do it. If you start seeing a post that is just a sentence or two, you know I have gotten desperate, really desperate.

And that was just the beginning of what I learned and want to apply. To read what others thought about the seminar, check out the live Twitter feed.

Oh, and if Social Media interests you, don’t take my word for it. Watch for their next LifeWork 2.0 session and sign up here.

Any advice on blogging or Social Media in general for a girl who is still just getting started?