When Planning Gets You Nowhere.

Planning can only get you so far. No matter how much you try to be prepared, nothing will help you learn more than going through an experience for the first time. No amount of planning will help you jump that step. 

When we first dreamed up Maggie & our Airbnb experience, Evermore, we didn’t have an airstream, we didn’t know where in the country we would put it, we didn’t know if we wanted raw land or land with an existing structure, we didn’t know what we wanted the inside to look like….we didn’t know a lot. 

What we did know is that this is what we wanted to do. 

Building & Planning for this entire experience ended up being broken down into 3 sections. Each of these sections required its own set of planning & its own set of learning. 

• The Airstream

  • The budget

  • The length of the trailer

  • The condition of the trailer

  • The layout of the inside

  • The materials used/aesthetic

  • Will we move it frequently or keep it stationary long term?

• The Location

  • The budget

  • Where in country we would put it?

  • What type of nature we wanted (mountains, forest, ocean, desert) surrounding it?

  • What relator & management company we would use?

  • Would it be rural or city?

  • Researching people/businesses who had done something similar

• The Land

  • The budget

  • Raw land so we would have a blank slate, or land with existing utilities and/or a living structure already on it

  • What additional improvements would we want to do?

  • Determining the layout for what we wanted if it was raw land

  • Who would we use as a contractor?

  • How much do we expand our vision for our first phase?

These are some of the questions we had as the journey unfolded. First it was focusing on the airstream, then finding land, then figuring out what to do with the land etc. 

I thought we had a good plan for each of these aspects, especially considering how much we were starting off with. 

Nothing could have prepared us for all the twists and turns that would happen with all three areas... some of them ended up looking like this:

• What do when the renovation of the airstream kept getting pushed back time and time again, ending in a 2 year delay for when it was supposed to be finished?

• Having to confront the renovation company & hold them accountable for deliverables & also mistakes they made because of a lack of communication. 

• Realizing that we didn’t budget the amount of times we would have to travel to see properties & then working our property. 

• What to do when your land has natural springs all over it, delaying when construction should be started because of the pooling of water & requiring a French drain to be installed?

• Losing half our income unexpectedly & having to pivot our plan because it was too far down the road to pause it

• Realizing how hard it was to literally know nothing about living rurally both in how far away stores are that are normally 5 minutes from us at home, but also how utilities etc work & what needs to be installed

• Facing countless challenges because having only an airstream on a piece of land presents all sorts of gray areas for both county & insurance policies - are we surprised that we did something unconventional?

In hindsight, no wonder we were stressed out of our minds because we were learning so many new things ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And for someone who likes to focus on one new thing at a time while I master it, this was a wild ride & a very good experience for me to go through. At no point during the entire process did we regret our decision, but it definitely pushed our limits for learning & trusting our intuition.

Put It Into Practice

If you have a crazy wild idea & have a feeling inside that it’s something that you want to pursue, don’t spend so much time on planning out every little detail. Most likely, it won’t go according to plan, & you’ll have to adapt as needed. It’s good to have certain things in place, especially your trusted community to be your sounding board (I sent many texts to my dear friend who owns airbnbs & values experiences like I do - what do you do about throw pillows??). But what keeps you moving forward with confidence? A clarity in who you are, what you value & the dream that’s in your heart. Trust that you will figure out a way through any challenge that comes up to meet you, & the end result of that trust & seeing your dream come to fruition will be incredibly fulfilling.

Cheers,

Lauren

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Everyone needs a little support in their life. Here are some of my favorite ways to support myself emotionally, physically, & mentally while I boldly design my own aligned life.

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