Posts Tagged ‘anxieties’

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Are Societal Pressures Stopping You?
Thursday, March 14th, 2013

When pondering the idea of a career break, there are a multitude of hurdles one has to overcome. We have touched on the “career fears” that prevent one from embarking on a career break. Another fear we come across are those that society places on us. Many people can’t relate to taking a career break and veering off the expected path in life – and those people are the ones that can make you question your own decision.

Many of our career break experts for Meet, Plan, Go! share the reactions they received when telling family, friends and colleagues about their decision to take a career break to travel. And you may be surprised by how positive people can be.

Meet, Plan, Go! NYC Panel

So what were some of the reactions our panel received?

Brook Silva-Braga (A Map for Saturday)
Co-workers and family were surprised such a career-focused person would up and leave. They didn’t understand my ambition transcended money, it was an ambition for accomplishment and adventure in various forms. But in my experience very, very few people took a negative view of the decision; they were jealous or perhaps confused, they didn’t think it was realistic for them (for a series of dubious reasons) but they thought it was a cool idea.

(more…)

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Taking a Break From Your Career Break
Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Many of us leave our jobs to go travel the world thinking it will be the best thing ever. What could be better than not having to go into work every day AND having the freedom to experience foreign countries? I was one of those people too. I wanted to take a round the world trip for so long, and when I finally found a way to make it happen, I couldn’t have been more excited (ok, maybe a little nervous too).

My situation was a little different in that I quit my job in Atlanta in order to move to Germany after getting married. I decided this was the perfect time for my career break trip, even though my new husband Andy couldn’t come with me. I planned out a five month itinerary, used miles for a round the world ticket, and hit the road a few months after moving to Germany. Andy even booked a flight to travel with me through New Zealand for two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s.

I stayed in touch with friends and family back in the United States, and I Skyped with Andy as often as possible. I missed him, but that was to be expected. What I didn’t expect was to be so overwhelmed after a month in Southeast Asia by homesickness that I didn’t even want to get out of bed. Andy and I had spent the entire first year of our relationship long distance, why was this so much harder? I had dreamed of this adventure for years, why wasn’t I enjoying it more? I tried to brush it off as just your average culture shock, but after a couple weeks, I knew this dark cloud wasn’t leaving me anytime soon.

Finally, I decided the best thing I could do was take a break and go home to Germany to see Andy. It was a hard decision, and even though I knew I’d be back on the road two weeks later, I felt like I was giving up on my dream trip. But I also knew that I was missing sights and experiences due to my homesickness, and trying to keep going when I was feeling that way wasn’t fulfilling my dream either. So I booked a ticket to Germany and spent two weeks mentally patching myself together.

I spent three more months traveling after that break. My husband joined me for two weeks in New Zealand as planned, and I still missed him when I was on my own again. But I felt refreshed and better able to handle the rest of my round the world trip. My expectations were more realistic, and I was having fun again. Taking a break from my trip was the best decision I could’ve made.

Most round the world travelers don’t plan on going home until it’s all over, and sometimes that works just fine. But I learned that my travel dreams didn’t look the way I hoped they would, and that it’s hard to be away from those who are most important to me. And that it’s ok to feel that way. Maybe being with your family for the holidays is something you want to go home for, or maybe your sister is having a baby while you’re gone. Maybe you just need a little down time with your friends. Flying back home for a week or two doesn’t mean you’re giving up or doing it wrong.

It might just be the thing you need to keep going and enjoy your career break even more.

Ali Garland is an American expat living in Germany. Her travel addiction led her to visit all 7 continents before her 30th birthday. She recently returned from a round the world trip and is now fumbling her way through life in Germany. She is currently searching for the perfect salsa recipe. Ali writes at Ali’s Adventures, and you can follow her on Twitter, @aliadventures7. She also just launched a new travel-related website, Travel Made Simple.

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When the Light Bulb Went On
Monday, May 21st, 2012

Little did I know it then, but a letter to my mother my senior year of college has set me on a path that will inevitably change my life. 

It was 1995.  Being a naive college grad, I was eager for what was next in life, yet I was scared to face reality at the same time.  The letter I wrote to my mom that year captured my restlessness, my wanderlust, and my questions about how I was going to live my life now that I had satisfied all the prescribed obligations of early adulthood.  Now that I was free to choose what I wanted to do with my time, traveling and having new adventures was much more appealing than going to work.  Settling down to a cubicle?  Really?  Ugh, boring!  I was no stranger to travel having spent the previous summer studying in Denmark and touring Europe in my spare time.  I just didn’t know how to make my dream of traveling the world happen.

So, I did what any broke 22 year-old would do – I went to graduate school and then got a regular corporate job.   

Jump ahead 13 years through graduation and student loans, a move, a year of volunteering, a career change to the public sector, and numerous awesome vacations where I couldn’t help but want just one more day before coming home.  My trip and the desire to explore the world would always come to mind during those vacations and I would usually think it was just a crazy dream or that it couldn’t happen now – I had other things to do.

After being downsized early in 2008, I faced a crossroads.  Would I strike out on my own and start the business I’d been thinking about, would I travel, or would I try to find another job?  The economy was going south and I had a mortgage.  Being fiscally responsible was what I thought I should do even though my heart was on the road somewhere in Mongolia.  I made the decision to start the business and look for (and a year later, I ultimately found) a full-time job so I could keep paying the mortgage.  During that year, it felt like I was being slapped in the face every day to know I now had the time and opportunity to travel long term, but felt stuck with my current situation.  I thought I couldn’t spend the money I did have on anything other than necessities to keep myself, and the lifestyle choices I had made, afloat.

Fast forward through another 3 years of cubicle-land and a broken heart after being turned down for the fellowship I desperately wanted.  I remember the exact moment I was on the phone with my mom to tell her the news, tears streaming down my face.  The words came out of my mouth a bit flippantly, but nonetheless, I voiced what I had dreamed about since 1995.

“Maybe I should just go on my trip.”

Her response?  “Yes you should.”

And that was it – everything clicked and the light bulb came on.  It wasn’t that I was looking for permission.  It was that I had finally stopped thinking about my trip as an impossibility or a pipe dream.  I had finally decided I could really do it and realized it was more important to me than anything else.

So, the trip I’ve been thinking about taking since writing that letter in 1995 will happen in February of 2013.  Two unsolicited job offers were even turned down in the past year because I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer.

The enormity of my trip has been an eye-opener and has made me reconsider more than once.  What am I going to do with my house?  Where do I really want to go?  How much money will I realistically need?  Do I have to quit my job to make it happen or will I be satisfied with a month here, a month there?  Should I start a blog?  If I did, what would I write?  Am I crazy to want it this bad?  Even with all the questions, it’s really just logistics at this point.  Yes, there are decisions I have to make.  But, I’ve already made the one decision that really counts.

I’ve decided to GO.

Beth Fenger will strike out on her own in February of 2013 for her round the world trip to visit Patagonia, Cambodia, Mongolia, India, Turkey, Jordan, and Namibia.  She’s also an amateur photographer, zealous wine taster, obsessive trail runner, avid camper, adrenaline junkie, and finds her current career calling in the non-profit sector.  She can be found toting her camera, tent, and corkscrew, while running trails in various US cities and on her website, Trail*Licious, Twitter and Facebook.

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Breaking Free: Five Stages to a Career Break
Monday, April 23rd, 2012

For me, taking a career break wasn’t what rational people did.  Just quitting work was not “realistic.”  That’s what I had been raised to believe.  To get to where I am now–on a career break in South America since January–I had to go through five stages:

Stage 1: Envy

Having gone through university, I never took the opportunity to study abroad and was always envious of those who had.  My friends who returned from Italy, England and Spain with stories to tell was awe inspiring to me.  Then I had those friends who did the whole backpacking thing after college.  Again, that was a fleeting idea to me because (1) I didn’t have a trust fund and as a 22 year old, I did not have the finances for such an adventure and (2) I was of the mindset that after college I had to get my career started, and that meant entering the job market as soon as I exited university.

Stage 2: Regret

Envy inevitably leads to regret.  A few years into my advertising career, I was working in the New York City office of a company that happened to be based in London.  Upon threatening to resign, I was offered the opportunity to transfer to their London office.  While this was thrilling, my internal self was torn.  Being away for an indefinite period was exciting, but scary.  In my head, I thought about all the moments I would be missing back home and I knew my parents were not thrilled at the idea.  In the end, another company made me an attractive offer and I wound up staying in New York.

Stage 3:  Antsy-ness

One may ask, how can I be bored in a city like New York.  Living in New York, I’m constantly meeting people who are from other parts of the country — people who packed up their lives and took the dive to move to the big city.  I was once expressing to a friend of mine this envious feeling I had toward those people, and my need to take the same sort of plunge.  What she said has always stuck with me.  She told me I was one of those lucky people to have grown up with one of the best cities as my backyard.  For some reason though, I wanted more.  I wanted to live outside of my norm, to live outside of my box.  To live and work somewhere else, outside of NY, had an aura of excitement for me.

Stage 4: Guilt

The year 2008 marked a time of increasing unemployment.  At this point in my career, I had already “lived through” multiple rounds of layoffs at previous companies.  At the time, I was working for a national newspaper, and layoffs were fierce.  Colleagues would come into my office, worried about their jobs and the future of our team.  While I reassured them that we didn’t need to worry, inside my heart, I was truly hoping that my name would make the company cut list.  These thoughts made me feel a bit guilty as I watched the news and read about all the unemployed people struggling to pay their bills.  In truth, I wanted to switch places with them.

Stage 5:  Guts

It was the summer of 2011 and I was working at a digital start-up.  I always considered myself to be a person who did not shy away from a challenge, and I decided it was time to act.  What kept going through my head was the expression, “if not now, when?”  That meant getting some guts, quitting my job, leaving New York, packing up and saying goodbye.

I started to put my game plan together. I would give two months’ notice and travel to South America.  Focused on Ecuador, I started to look for volunteer opportunities in the country and borrowed Rosetta Stone from a friend of mine.

Fortuitously, lightning struck, and in September I was informed that the New York office would be closing its doors.  My head was spinning.  My team members were frantically updating their resumes, while I secretly thought to myself, “FINALLY! The stars had aligned and it was my turn.”

 

Sheryl Neutuch is a marketing professional from New York who took the plunge.  She is traveling, volunteering, learning and exploring in South America.  She is living her dream.

You can read more about her adventures on her blog, Smiling in South America.

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Fear of Quitting
Monday, February 27th, 2012

In our 2011 post event survey, the number one reason people were afraid of contemplating a career break was the fear that they wouldn’t be able to save enough money. No surprise there. But what was surprising was that a fear of quitting their job was second. Besides being afraid of not finding work post-break, what is so scary about the actual act of giving notice?

Lori Sussle, a member of our Basic Training community, was terrified to give notice. But the positive reactions she received from colleagues and friends took her by surprise.

Giving my notice and making it ‘really’ official was a lot more nerve-racking than I had originally thought it would be. I was nervous to give my notice for several reasons, one of which was that there was no going back after that!

My boss was unbelievably supportive, which was great, since he is based across the country and I have never given my notice on the phone before. I was shaking before I told him, after I told him and still shaking once our conversation ended.

Once I gave my notice, I felt comfortable officially announcing it. Well, a day later. I was still trembling as I prepared to hit send on an email I had prepared a week prior. Close friends and family had known of my plans, but those that I did not see as frequently were not as in the loop on my process, so I am pretty sure I threw some people for a loop.

As you can imagine the response to my announcement was overwhelming. There were three emails from friends that stood out to me.

Two of the three I had not seen in some time and therefore knew nothing of my plans. Neither of the two know each other but at the times in our lives when we were the closest, I considered them like an older brother, and I am pretty sure they felt like I was their younger sister.

The third just had a life change herself and did know of my plans, just not how far they had progressed. Here is an abbreviated version but you can get the point, and the support!

Wow. You once pointed out to me a saying “Leap …. and the net will appear.” Worked for me, will work for you. This is awesome. I will follow you along the way. Safe travels and keep me updated!
Once again, I am completely in awe of your youthful enthusiasm and adventurous spirit… have fun kid! I’m going to try to come [to my going away party] – figure it’s the least I can do for one of the ballsiest people I’ve ever known!!!
I AM SO FREAKING PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!I know the feeling of shaking, crying, fear and exhilaration all too well, and the funny thing is, it will only last until you leave. Once you’re gone, you’ll be swept-up in the sheer excitement of being in new places, seeing jaw-dropping beauty that the US simply does not possess, and feeling so completely FREE and independent.
YOU. GO. GIRL. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! You’ve just taken the first (HUGE) step to changing your life and fully following the mantra, “if not now, when??” Love it.

What reactions have you received when sharing your career break news?

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Marketing Your Career Break
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

How to market your career break, prepare your resume and incorporate your career break into interviews.

Before You Leave

1. Choose your itinerary with some thought about coming back to the workforce. All of these ideas can be highlighted on a resume or in an interview with a little creative forethought. Travel can be about building skillsets, and soft skills which are valued in the workplace.

• Include volunteering
• Learn how to blog
• Sign up for and learn how to utilize social networks
• Improve a skill such as a foreign language, photography, business through microfinancing, sailing, or cooking.
• Include some countries on your itinerary based on cultures you interact with in the workplace currently. For example, does your company manufacture something in China, or do you outsource resources from India; then these could be great cultures to explore and learn more about on your career break.

2. Update your resume with your most recent work experience! This is crucial to do now before you start traveling and forget the details of what you used to do.

3. Contact your business contacts and let them know that you are leaving to travel and why you have chosen to do so. Let them know the additional skills you expect to gain while traveling and when you expect to return back to connect with them again on a professional level.

While On The Road

1. Periodically stay in contact with colleagues and provide them updates of your travels and experiences. This will keep those networking and communication ties open. This can be as simple as keeping a blog or sending out a monthly email to friends and colleagues recapping your experiences.

2. A few months before returning:
• Take stock of what you have learned and how you have changed. What soft skills have you gained.
• Updating your resume with some of your travel experiences.
• Reach out to your networks and let them know that you’ll be returning shortly and looking for employment.
• Start communicating with recruiters.

When You Return

1. Consider what your goal is:
• Do you want to return to the ‘Briefcase’ on the same career track?
• Do you want to return to the ‘Briefcase’ but on a different career track?
• Do you want to utilize your skills and talents to pursue freelance work?
• Do you want to pick up the ‘Backpack’ and never return to corporate?

This is not a quick, or easy decision to make. It often takes a lot of soul searching and potentially negotiating with a significant other. The main thing is to not force a decision if you don’t have an answer. If the answer isn’t coming to you, then simply dip your toe into all of the options, send out resumes, and see where it lands you.

2. Update Your Resume:
You don’t have to hide your career break, you should address it. You may want a number of versions of how you address it depending on the jobs you are applying for.

3. Prepare for Interviews:
Understand how your travels contribute to who you are. This may take some careful retrospection, however if you kept a blog or journal while traveling it may become a bit easier. Consider what you learned in the various countries and cultures you experienced and how would that apply to doing business internationally.

4. Have a Positive and Confident Attitude about your Career Break Experience:
One of the most important things to possess as you are working your way back into the workforce again is to have confidence in your ability to do so. If you don’t believe that your career break was beneficial and you are simply trying to create a sales pitch, then it won’t be as successful.

Be proud of the experience and include it on your LinkedIn profile and Facebook Timeline.

As you converse with future employers and network with colleagues, you must ooze confidence about your career break. No regrets!

We get more in depth on how to market your career break and prepare for interviews in our Career Break Basic Training.

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Safety is Relative
Monday, February 13th, 2012

I was just sitting down to dinner at a deserted hotel a few miles from Chichen Itza when I got a frantic call from my wife that we’d been robbed. She had come home from school to find our front door wide open, a window broken, our cats escaped, and our place ransacked. She was scared, worried, and alone.

Not knowing if the perpetrators were still inside, she hid in the car while waiting for the cops to arrive. Thankfully, the hotel had WiFi and while both visual and audio Skype failed, SMS worked, so I was able to keep her virtual company during the three-hour wait. It pained me to be so far away, powerless to help. Eventually the police showed up, and she left to go file the report. There was nothing I could do but be thankful she was ok and hopeful that not too much was stolen. (It turned out that only our PS3 and a bowl of change seemed to be missing, most likely by a couple of bored and underprivileged kids.)

Ironically, before I left for Mexico, a number of people cautioned me, “Are you sure it’s safe?” The worst thing that happened to me was being swindled by a gas station attendant.

It just goes to show that safety is relative. While I was in what many consider an unsafe country, our home in the U.S. was broken into. For many years I’ve heard people say that they wouldn’t go to a country deemed risky by the State Department. And yet countries like Mexico, Afghanistan, and the Philippines are places where you can find exquisite natural beauty, rich cultural history, and warm-hearted people.

While it’s true that the chances of something unexpected happening in such places might be higher than in Japan or Norway, it’s wise to remember that danger exists everywhere, and crime tends to increase exponentially with population density. There are several U.S. cities in which many Americans might feel comfortable, but some foreigners might consider too risky, Oakland included.

One might be tempted to let the fear of the unexpected keep them from leaving home, yet even that isn’t a guarantee of safety. It’s better still to go out into the world, appropriately cautious but unafraid, and lead by example, treating people with respect and kindness. If and when the unexpected happens, the following two principles will work in almost every situation;

  1. Find a safe place, calm down, think rationally, and get help.
  2. Think positively, learn from the experience, and move on.

Learning to both manage a critical situation in the moment, and to let go of negative minimally-serious outcomes afterwards are key components to traveling safely in many parts of the world, and in your own neighborhood.

An adventurer at heart, Ted Beatie is at his happiest when he’s off the beaten path. His deepest passion is sharing the world through his photography and writing, which can be found at The Pocket Explorer.

He is also the managing editor for Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding, where he publishes a weekly Case Study series. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Financial Concerns: Start Saving
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Deciding to go on a career break is difficult enough, but the tough decisions don’t end once you finally take that plunge and decide to do it. After making the decision to go, the first question most people ask is, “How much is this whole venture going to cost?”

A lot goes into budgeting for your career break. Where you go, how you travel, how much gear you need, how open you are to eating new types of food, and how much discomfort you’re willing to endure all have a major effect on how much money you will spend.

The good news is that you’re going to have plenty of time to practice budgeting. The budget and money-saving doesn’t begin the day you leave. It starts right now. The minute you decide to go on an adventure like this is the minute you need to start focusing on money.

Where to Begin

Sometimes the most overwhelming part of the budget is figuring out where to begin. If you don’t already track your spending, then start now!

– Open an account on Mint.com and start figuring out where your money is going.

– Break down your income vs. your expenses.

– If your expenses exceed your income, then you need to make changes.

  1. Cut back on things like eating out and drinking at bars.
  2. Stop buying new stuff. Chances are high that you are going to want to get rid of a lot of you clutter before leaving, so why buy new items now?
  3. Consider getting a second (or third) job.
  4. Think about selling off a lot of your stuff. You will most likely come home from your career break and realize that you have way too much clutter. Get rid of it now – sell it on ebay, Craig’s List, or have a garage or yard sale.

Start Saving

Once you get to the point where you are bringing in more than you are spending, then it’s time to go into saving mode. Open up a savings account somewhere. Research banks that offer high starting interest rates or specials for the first year. Any extra little bit helps. Then start paying that savings account, otherwise known as your career break travel fund, as you would your normal bills. Figure out how much you can start putting away each month, and pay it as soon you receive a paycheck.

Any little extra bit you earn or save, put it in the travel fund. Start getting into travel mode. Saving for a trip of this magnitude is difficult. You will have to turn down a lot of fun events before leaving on your career break. Going out to bars, dinners with friends, movies, shopping trips with the girls-all are things you are just going to have to say no to much of the time. It’s frustrating, and there will be times you question if what you’re doing is worth it. It is. It’s just all a manner of how you spin it in your mind.

Bypass a night out on the town with your buddies? Congratulations, you just bought yourself four extra days in Thailand. Turn down that shopping trip with your sister? Good job, now you can spend another week in Argentina. It’s all about priorities, and when you make the decision to take a career break and travel the world, it has to be the top priority in your life.

Changing Your Spending Habits

Tracking your expenses and spending habits can seem daunting, but it is the best way to start saving & budgeting for your career break. This is an easy exercise created by Man vs. Debt so you can see where your money is going.

Draft a quick easy budget and start recording your expenses. The toughest thing about the budgeting process is just getting started. People try to spend hours creating their first budget – perfecting every single category or angle. This is a formula for failure. Take 25 minutes and complete as much as you can. Next week, revisit it for another 25 minutes.

1. Estimate your income – Round down whenever possible to convenient numbers. If on an extremely inconsistent income, start by budgeting based on last month’s income.
2. Brainstorm fixed expenses – Brainstorm your fixed, regular expenses. Those bills you pay every month. Round these up to convenient numbers. Don’t worry about being perfect – get as many as you can.
3. Brainstorm irregular expenses – This is the hardest part for most people – and where most budgets fail. Think ahead to any non-regular expenses or bills that are coming up in the next 30 days. Gifts, repairs, holidays, supplies, taxes, etc…
4. Accept that you are going to fail miserably – Do not try to be perfect. Round income down and expenses up. Give yourself fluff room. Next time, at least you’ll have a base with which to start and adapt. Simplify when possible. Take notes when things come that were unplanned.

Basic Training

We cover more on saving and budgeting in Career Break Basic Training, which includes interviews and helpful homework assignments.

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What’s Your Motivation?
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Most of the citizens of North America seem to be motivated by a good education, career, financial stability, home ownership, and a stable, safe life for our children. We want to provide for our families, and providing for our families is now defined by not only having a house and being able to put food on the table, but being able to buy nice cars, televisions, furniture, and plenty of other items that make our lives more comfortable.

Many Americans go down this path that’s laid out before us – this ‘American Dream’ that we’re all told about from a very young age. It’s what we strive for. It is what is engrained in our brains from a very young age. Motivation can be a funny thing though – not everyone is motivated by the same things. And maybe what you were previously motivated by has drastically changed. Or maybe you’re questioning what you’ve been told should motivate your life.

Doubting the ‘American Dream’

Since you are reading this, that means you must have some reservations about this so called ‘American Dream’. Are you right in the middle of your American Dream and asking yourself the following questions or having these doubts and thoughts?

– What if I have it all – the job, the house, the stuff, yet I still don’t feel fulfilled?
– I have done the right things, gone down the right path, worked really hard, yet I’m still not happy.
– I feel like something is missing.
– I’m just not happy with my current life path.
– I feel like everyone around me – my coworkers, my friends, my family – have different motivations and life goals than I do.
– I love to travel and have dreamed of doing it long-term, and I don’t want to wait until I retire.
– I have realized that there is more to life than working and collecting the most stuff.
– I want to spend more quality time with my spouse, significant other, and/or family, and it’s not going to happen within my current lifestyle.
– I hate my job, I hate my boss, and I hate my hours. In short, I’m burned out and need a change.
– I want to learn more, see more, and experience more.
– I’m sick of waiting to make my dreams come true.

If one or more of these thoughts resonate with you, it’s time to look deep and discover the “why”. Why do you feel this way – why are you motivated to make a change – and why are you waiting?

American Dream

Do Something About It!

It’s time to let you in on a little secret. If you wake up every morning with an empty feeling, dreading the workday that lies ahead, it’s probably not going to just change or get better without doing anything. Sometimes when your life just isn’t what you thought it would be, something drastic needs to be done. It’s time to stop waiting and take the bull by the horns. It’s time for you to do something!

Joining Career Break Basic Training course & community is one step in the right direction. Here you will find the motivation to actually go through with what many will deem to be crazy, reckless, and irresponsible. It is a challenge that you’ll have to deal with until you leave on that well deserved career break.

We can also help you tune out the naysayers and connect you with other people who have re-assessed their lives and what they want out of it. Reading other’s stories and the challenges they have dealt with along the way is an extremely helpful way of motivating yourself to take this next step.

Live Without Regrets

Making a life changing decision such as this one is not easy, especially when living in a culture that deems career breaks and long-term travel as unnecessary. If this was a simple decision, then more people would do it.

Though many factors come into play when thinking of whether or not to take a career break, it can really be simplified to one big choice. How do you feel about regret?

If you decide not to do it, and you stay in your current position and current life, do you think you’ll regret it 5, 10, or 20 years down the line? On the flip side, if you give it up, take the plunge, and travel the world, do you think that you will regret that experience down the line?

Basic Training

We cover more on how you can pinpoint your motivation in Career Break Basic Training, which includes interviews and helpful homework assignments.

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Career Break Terror
Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Your heart races, you start to sweat, and a state of intense fear overcomes you; this is terror. Chances are that on this journey to achieving your career break dreams you have experienced it. We all have. But the question is, will you let it stop you?

We recently had one of our participants in our Career Break Basic Training Community have this reaction to planning a career break:

Please someone tell me I am doing the right thing. I know I am but I am second-guessing everything right now. Why you ask?! I literally just booked my international flights ten minutes ago. Why this is freaking me out has me beside myself. It’s not like this was the first step of my planning process. I have gotten all of my vaccinations, I have bought my rucksack and have started to fill it, I have already put money down on a hotel (oh, a hotel!) to meet friends halfway through my trip and I booked an internal flight within Chile…yet booking my international flight scared the absolute crap out of me!? WHAT? WHY? HELP!

This is pretty typical Career Break terror that many feel when contemplating or planning.

I recently came across this video by one of my favorite actors, Edward Norton, who one would think should be more confident in his ability than ever. But he speaks instead about fear and terror in his profession that never goes away and how to deal with it.

I thought about his interview about fear in acting applies to fear in taking a career break and traveling. I agree with so much of what he says so it’s worth putting it in those career break terms.

It is 100% certain that your decision to take a break to travel will feel completely half-baked and you will think you will fail at it.

Everyone goes through this when contemplating a big change in his or her life; especially when you are taking a road less traveled. The fears might appear in the form of a constant state of irritation, it may be panic attacks (like our training class participant!) , or it may tears. But if you don’t push through those fears of failure, then you’ll never make change in your life. Change means fear. Change means potential failure. But always remember that change is good and necessary to grow.

People will tell you that your plan won’t work.

People will also tell you to work your butt off until you are 65 and then live your life. If you think that’s the answer, then fine, believe the people that tell you it won’t work. But seriously – when did you start listening to what others tell you to do? You are no longer a kid or a young adult. You can make your own decisions, take your own risks, and craft your own life. Make sure that you surround yourself with people who think it will work and thinks it’s a damn good idea!

As Edward Norton points out, “Getting used to that sensation of fear is a good thing. Get to a point where you realize you are in ‘that’ phase where you feel like you are sweating off three t-shirts a day because you are about to go off the side of a cliff. But you realize you can always buy more t-shirts.”

The key is to get used to the sensation of fear. Because this won’t be the first time on this career break journey that you will encounter it. In fact, know that this is only the beginning. There is inherent fear in traveling, fear in being alone, fear that you will get sick, fear that you will be robbed, fear that you are lost, fear that you are running out of money, and in a cruel twist – you will even have fear in returning to your home when the break is finished. Anticipate and embrace the inevitable sensation of fear. It’s not easy, but it must be done to get anywhere. You’ve been doing it your whole life from the first day you went to school, to the first time you dove off of the high dive at the swimming pool, why can’t you do it now? Don’t balk at the sensation of fear – push through it.

The good news is that as I type this – our career break training participant has started her career break! She pushed through and she’s having the time of her life now.

Will you let fear stop you?

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