By: Kristen & Carter Williams, Xperience Growth Directors of Coaching & Consulting 

I’m pretty sure that like me, your year has turned out much differently than anticipated. A year ago we were about to board a plane for a 2 week trip to Italy filled with experiences like day-long cooking classes, milking goats on a farm, cheese making & just daily explorations of little villages in the Tuscan region of Italy. For us, we love experiences through travel. Our growth plan each year is filled with experiences for ourselves and our family. In March of this year when the world shut down, it became clear our plans would need to change, and now 100 days in, it’s become clear our end of year and plans into next year will be different too.

 Today I wonder, “where and when is our next adventure?” Even without travel, this doesn’t mean we cancel all experiences, we just have to create and get creative in order to live a different version of an experiential life. We are all partners of the Xperience organization because we value living xperientially  Our company’s mission is “Building Xperiential Lives through Real Estate.” Just because our lives have seen extraordinary change does not mean we can’t live Xperientially. Just like a goal, sometimes the road to accomplish a goal changes, yet ultimately the goal does not. We still have a mission to live Xperientially even thought our path to do that has changed.

One of the first places to reimagine your Xperiential life is through your growth plan – a monthly accounting of all things personal and professional that will create growth in the 6 Pillars to Live an Xperiential Life – Relationships, Career, Wealth, Health, Personal Growth & Spiritual. Examples of what might go on an Xperiential Growth Plan pre-2020 would be things like vacations to strengthen the Relationship or Health pillars or leadership seminars & trainings to strengthen the Career, Wealth & Personal Growth Pillar. I know for me we had a 2 week trip to France planned this fall & leadership conferences planned for May & November – all cancelled.   

As we reimagine growth within these 6 Key Pillars first start small. Ask yourself the question, what can I do to grow in each of these areas? Given the new framework of life that would be the the place place to start. For example, you may ask yourself “In order to strengthen my relationship with my partner/family/friends, what’s the one thing I CAN do? We asked ourselves that very question and decided to make a routine of ordering take-out from some of the best local restaurants and doing a Take-Out Date Night every Saturday night after the kids are in bed. From a health perspective, no longer is attending Orange Theory or our local gym something we are comfortable doing. So when we were invited to workout virtually with Camp Gladiator and loved it, we signed up and have created a habit of working out in our living room 3 days a week at 5am before the kids get up and our day gets started. From the spiritual pillar we now attend church live on YouTube every Sunday – which is actually awesome. We don’t have to rush out the door on Sunday and we can watch it in PJ’s together if we choose.

What I’ve realized in watching those in our organization, our team and within our own lives, we have continued to live an Xperitiential life. We’ve adapted what it means to live Experientially. I see some people mourn the year that has changed, and don’t get me wrong, I too am sad to cancel our vacations – yet as the BOLD law states, “focus on the plan, not the problem” we have chosen focus on what we CAN do for our family, our team, our organization and continue to live through experiences.

I recently polled a few of our team to ask them how are they living xperienitally in an adapted 2020 and here are all of the ways our team members are creating experiences. I trust you can add a few of these to your 2020 Xperiential Growth Plan to make 2020 a year to remember versus a year many want to forget. You can have a great 2020 if you choose to.

Ideas to Live Xperientially in 2020

• Outdoor activities: running, walking, kayaking, paddleboarding, tennis, hiking

• Volunteering at a food bank, Adopting or fostering a pet

• Virtual classes: Cooking, Baking, Wine tasting, Virtual concerts, Dance Class, Church

• Board games & puzzles

• Writing, Reading

• Crafting & creative arts, Flower arranging

• Send notes to friends

• Front porch drop offs

• Drive by birthday parties

• Scavenger hunts

• Weekly date nights

• Home improvement projects, Build outdoor space to enjoy

• Gardening projects, Create an herb garden

• Organizing & de-cluttering