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Have you ever experienced something you would consider ‘life-changing‘? Christine and I had the privilege of traveling to the United States for the second time to attend the WPPI conference in Las Vegas. By most peoples standards, this will be considered a life-changing experience.

(if you have never heard of the WPPI before, it is the biggest gathering of wedding and portraiture photographers in the world. This year was attended by over 16 000 photographers with over 300 booths exhibiting any and every photography related service or product. Suffice to say that ideas, inspiration and opportunities are EVERYWHERE)

While seeing all the new businesses, meeting exceptional people and being inspired multiple times everyday, I could not help to think how my life has been changed. Until I recalled having exactly the same feeling one year ago after attending WPPI in 2010…

When Christine and I returned home after WPPI 2010, I had a list of new business ideas to be implemented as soon as I got back to the office. Sadly, looking at that list today, not much has been done in the past year.

So what will be different this year? What will make me look back in 2012 and be satisfied with the fact that I made things happen instead of just writing things down?

What I have realized through this planning and looking back episode is that you do not really have life-changing experiences. Rather, you have experiences that make you realize that you need to change. The real change does not happen as a result of seeing something, reading something or even meeting someone. Change will only happen as you start doing things differently every day.

So as much as I love having ‘live changing experiences’, the reality of the matter remains that only as I start doing things differently, will things start to be different.