Today I woke to the news that one of my favorite inspirational fashion icons, Alexa Chung, is starting her own fashion label. Long an admirer of her unique and understated sense of style, I find she is also witty, charming and refreshingly down to earth. I discovered this by stumbling on her amusing and fabulous book, It. In an article today in the Business of Fashion announcing the label, she honestly and openly talks about the stepping stones that led her to feel she could undertake the “feat” of starting her own label. According to the dictionary stepping stones are “an undertaking or event that helps one to make progress towards a specified goal.”

On my future to-do list for Accidental Icon, in addition to editing an on-line magazine, is to work with a creative director and develop a capsule collection. Like Chung, I need to see everything that I do as a stepping stone. The culmination of 10 years of hard work, such as collaborating with brands, working as an editor at large for Vogue and being a TV host, Alexa calls the new line the “resting place” for all those experiences and ideas. A wonderful reminder that good things take time as well as humility, new learning and hard work.

So when I feel like I just do not have the energy to have one more meeting, to write one more post, to make one more appointment, answer another email or feel like things are not moving fast enough, I need to remember Alexa Chung and all the stones it took her to make the path to the exciting news I heard today. Congratulations to her!

What stepping stones do you need to traverse to get to your “resting place”?