Just in case you’re new here, welcome! My wife Monika and I recently made a decision to commit our full-time efforts to this online space, which we have had such a blast designing, curating and conceptualizing for all of you. This particular step in our digital journey has been deemed the #KCCreativeProject. We sincerely hope that you can join us for the adventure, and also that we can inspire you in some way to start you own #_______Project. A lot of people have asked us how we made this decision, what was the driving force behind it, and also, how they can do a similar thing to follow their own dreams. It might seem unsurmountable, but we have broken it down into four simple but effective ways of looking at this process, so that that you can also start the journey of creating and chasing your own destiny. Continue reading to find out how!
ONE / PLANNING
Start by making some big decisions and then stick to them as your deal-breakers. Want to move to New York? Then don’t settle for Boston. But say you want to be a photographer who travels, don’t get hung up on where home base will be. Discover your most important nonnegotiable terms, and then begin to plan around them. Make some wish lists, some need lists, and then set yourself a budget. Some people thrive on a million To Do lists (like me) and some would rather go with the wind. What I have learnt is that all the details have a way of figuring themselves out but only once you have a made a good plan of what you will do, how you will survive, what to do in case of an emergency. Remember that plans are fluid and live documents that can constantly be updated.
TWO / RESEARCHING
Once your plan (draft versions are okay!) has been laid out, its time for my wife’s favourite part: research. Google is your friend, and there is a ton of resources out there including travel guides, forums, Subject-Matter-Expert guide books, etc. that will be able to offer you all the insight into what you need to make your project a success. For us, this included where to stay, how to find a place to stay, how much luggage and goods we could bring, how to figure out bank accounts including currency conversions, cell phones, time-zones and transportation. All of our research into the millions of variable answers to these questions is what further formed the plans we made in step one.
THREE / PREPARE
Preparation can mean anything depending on the depth of your project. For us, it mostly meant packing. As you can imagine, packing for this project was perhaps our biggest challenge. As my wife mentioned before, we decided (courageously) to travel with only two (!) suitcases each. Because I’m a writer, I have become very particular with the stationary I use (we are talking pens and papers that are brand and size specific) and so naturally I filled my suitcase with designer boxes full of post its and sharpies and pens and different kinds of paper. The reality is that these aren’t really the things we wanted to lug through Europe – especially when stationary is so readily available and also when I needed that pressure cargo for shoes. So I brought along my favourite pieces of everything from belts to socks and the rest were either donated or discarded. Stay tuned to read about what my wife did with (all) her clothes.
FOUR / CELEBRATE
Perhaps the most important (and often overlooked) component of adventures such as these is to make sure that you stop to soak it all in and enjoy the ride. This is why we decided to spend our last weekend in Calgary at our absolute favourite hotel right in downtown, where we work, shop and play. The Fairmont Palliser’s Royal Suite was the perfect space for us to come to after the tenants had moved into our home and we had finished packing, so that we could relax and reflect on everything that was about to come. We then celebrated the launch of this project with our family and friends at a local downtown resto-lounge. Again, although it might feel like a no-brainer to incorporate this step into the process, had we not came to the Fairmont Palliser to really make a moment at the end of this old chapter in our lives, we would have probably not even had a proper send off, or a chance to actually get excited and take a breather before the madness begins.
#KCCreativeProject
We are en route to Berlin as we speak, and honestly, the feeling is amazing when we look back at our planning, research, planning and the celebrations at the Fairmont Palliser. We just encourage you all to at least begin step one and two: plan and research. I know that even doing that will inspire you to chase your best life.
IN GENEROUS COLLABORATION WITH THE FAIRMONT PALLISER
