Contemplating

Lost Job? Go Travel!
Monday, September 10th, 2012

Laid off? Go travel!

That’s not usually the advice that follows after losing your job. But for me, that’s just what I needed to fulfill my adult-lifelong dream.

After college, I chose the standard newbie route to travel for five weeks through Western Europe. I booked a tour and off I went by myself. I was not aware at the time that this would be the start of my travel journeys. Little by little, trip after trip, I’d get my feet wetter and wetter and take more adventurous journeys far across the world.

My trips prepared me for the BIG one. The trip that would be the best, the longest, the greatest trip of my time. I just kept getting sidetracked. Almost 5 years passed since I came up with a plan to just go. By this time, I was all talk. No one believed me anymore. I was starting to rethink things too. Maybe I would be okay with only the normal two-week vacations?

No, I needed more. However, three main things kept getting in my way: my job, life and love.

The job obstacle disappeared when I was laid off due to the economy. Everyone I knew was getting laid off, the job market in California was so bad. But that was exactly the ‘push’ that I needed and honestly, I wasn’t happy at my job anyway. I was unemployed for a little over a year. Since I was convinced this was the kicker that I needed, I spent this time researching, researching and researching. I have been brought up to save my money as much as I can and be thrifty, so luckily I wasn’t in a financial jam. I had plenty of savings to be unemployed before my big trip.

The life obstacle turned into greater strength and determination for me. The more I thought about my plan and laid it out, the more I wanted it. I also had a lot of support from family and friends.

And the love obstacle eventually turned into marriage. Just as I was getting the strength and determination to go, along came love and I just couldn’t pass that by, could I? Well, I was lucky enough to meet someone who didn’t shy away from my plan. He embraced it as much as I did.

We came up with a loose itinerary. He quit his job. We spent months downsizing our apartment. We sold the remainder of what we didn’t want at our two yard sales. What we wanted to keep, we moved into our families’ garages. We sold our car, got rid of our cell phone contracts, terminated utility bills and switched the rest of our bills to online payments.

We got married in November 2011, said our goodbyes for two weeks and then took off! So yes, this has been our ‘extended honeymoon.’ I feel grateful for sticking around for so long because now I get to experience this with my husband, my best friend.

I do worry about what this break in my resume will mean when I go back. However the spiritual and hands-on experience that I’ve gotten far outweighs a steady stream of work.

And here we are, we are about to embark on the next chapter in our lives. If all goes well, we’ll settle and start our new lives in Hong Kong. Sure, it took me many years of contemplation, but for a trip like this, sometimes you need that time to prepare and the extra wait can make it that much sweeter when you finally go.

So whatever kick you need, you’ll know it when it hits you – take it and go!

Teresa Yang lost her job due to the poor economy, but made the most of it by planning for her dream trip, getting married, and then taking off with her new husband on an extended honeymoon. So far they have been to Japan, South Korea, China, Taipei, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. You can find Teresa on Facebook and Flickr.

Dreaming of your own career break but not sure where to start?

Join us at the national Meet, Plan, Go! event on October 16!

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Tags: contemplating, personal experience
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Ideas for Planning a Career Break
Friday, August 31st, 2012

This post is brought to you by Thomson, which is part of TUI UK.

One of the most amazing things about humanity is that if you walked into a crowded room today and asked everyone about their dream destination, it’s very unlikely people would name the same places. You may have a yearning to go to Tenerife, Paris, Las Vegas, Moscow… but it takes courage, not to mention money, to take a career break and head out into the unknown.

The reasons people go on holiday are often quite obvious: for example, honeymoons, summers, rejuvenation, or family time. But people who travel for a month or more and discover new things go for less obvious reasons and their journeys begin long before they start researching destinations or flight deals.

The problem is that a vague idea of living in Las Palmas and teaching English doesn’t always translate easily into a plan – particularly if you have a family, career and other responsibilities to consider. We’ve compiled a few ideas that may help you:

Book an around-the-world ticket.

So many people begin their careers early, meaning they have less time to travel when they’re younger, meaning they miss out on the traditional gap years in skiing resorts and summer camps that are offered in many countries.

But why should gap years be reserved for young people? There are many temporary jobs available for people who have experience working with customers or with numbers, and if you’ve seen the benefits gap years have provided for your children, you may be encouraged to plan a year away alone or even with your spouse.

Learn something new

If you’re feeling stagnant or tired at work, it may be time to learn a new skill – not at university or by correspondence – but in a new country! Some of the career breaks you might like to consider include learning a new language, working with children, adventure activities such as scuba diving or sailing, cooking, teaching or mountain biking.

Give back

Many people choose to do volunteer work overseas as it has the double benefit of immersing you in local culture and providing you with the opportunity to do more than simply pass through the country. There are companies that provide placements for those interested in volunteering in areas like wildlife, conservation and community. This can include working with homeless children, teaching English, doing environmental work and raising awareness of conservation.

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli

A wonderful thing about traveling is that every person gets something different out of it, whether it’s wisdom or adventure, and every person has their own preferences when traveling, whether they’re eating in restaurants, shopping in markets, swimming lakes or hiking high up in the wilderness. And there’s no perfect time, bank balance or destination that you need to wait for, just go!

Jane Shelley is an Australian travel writer. She loves venturing to Asia, Europe, Britain and the United States, although when at home she lives in Sydney.

Tags: career break, inspiration, volunteer
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Inspired by Meet, Plan, Go!
Monday, August 13th, 2012

Thumbing through my daily devotional book, the April 20 reading caught my attention: “Want to know God’s will for your life? Then answer this question: What ignites your heart?” (from Grace for the Moment)

I knew MY answer.

My heart is “ignited” by opportunities to travel and to make an impact on other peoples’ lives through volunteer/mission work and cultural immersion. Putting those passions together with my God-given gifts was the start of my dream to “Travel with a Purpose.”

There were so many things I wanted to experience while traveling—cultural exchanges, international volunteering, mission work, and even working seasonal jobs. But, I knew I could never do it with 14 vacation days per year. Soon, there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t find myself contemplating leaving behind everything I knew in order to have the opportunity travel around the world.

It began to consume all of my thoughts, and so last October, when I heard about the Meet, Plan, Go! event, I knew I had to go.

Meet

The purpose of Meet, Plan, Go! is to “encourage and teach others how to travel the world and have it be beneficial to your career.” Last year’s event in Orlando was an opportunity for me to get inspiration, encouragement, and advice for my career break plans and to MEET current/former career breakers, such as Mike & Catrell Cooney of Cooney World Adventure, Jillian Tobias of I Should Logoff (hosting the South Florida event this year!), Shannon O’Donnell of A Little Adrift, Cheryl MacDonald & Lisa Chavis of What Boundaries and Ben Reed of Adventures with Ben.

Plan

My ultimate decision to be a “career-breaker” got more serious about 2 years ago but my specific planning didn’t intensify until about 6 months prior to my departure date.

Here’s my planning checklist:

6 months prior

? Research visas, vaccinations, gear, insurance, volunteer opportunities, travel plans, etc.

? Consider taking up travel blogging (to document your trip).

? Apply for/Renew passport if necessary (most countries require your passport to be valid for at least 6 months beyond the period of your intended stay).

? Register your career break with Meet, Plan, Go!

5 months prior

? Plan itinerary—to whatever extent you’re comfortable.

? Buy gear and supplies so you have time to try it out & break it in.

? Set up a Skype account to stay in touch with friends & family back home.

? Set up a DropBox account for easy access to your computer files.

? Get any required vaccinations.

4 months prior

? Book plane tickets and reserve accommodations (especially if traveling during busy season).

? Apply for any volunteer programs in which you plan on participating.

3 months prior

? Visit a travel doctor.

? Begin filling prescriptions (especially if you’re going to need Malaria prophylaxis).

2 months prior

– Apply for international and/or domestic medical insurance.

– Obtain any required visas.

1 month prior

? Change address and/or arrange for someone to handle “business things” for you while you’re gone.

? Take pictures of credit cards, passports, visas, etc. and email to yourself (if you lose them overseas, at least having a photo will make getting an emergency replacement a lot easier).

? Notify credit/debit card companies of travel.

I tend to think, if I could pull THIS off, planning a wedding one day will be a piece of cake!

Go!

Last October, inspired by the Meet, Plan, Go! event, I took the first committal steps to GO for my dream—I submitted 3 volunteer applications and got a plane ticket for 90 days in Europe, making it that much harder to turn back. I wanted to use these opportunities to serve God’s purpose for my life and to make use of the gifts, abilities, and passions that He’d given me.

Not surprisingly, as reality began to set in, fear also crept in—fear that I would fail or that I wouldn’t be able to get a job when I returned. And, fear is the enemy of progress. As Max Lucado said, “at the beginning of every act of faith, there is often a seed of fear.”

But, endless possibilities exist when you’re willing to make a change. And, I was confident that if I was doing my best to follow God’s Will, everything would be ok. It may not turn out how I think it should, but it will turn out exactly how God wants it to.

Sarah Schauer began her career break in June 2012 with a domestic seasonal opportunity before heading to Europe, Africa, South America, and New Zealand. She’s a financial analyst by career, but also plays beach volleyball, volunteers with foreign exchange students, and enjoys hiking & the outdoors. She’s a Christian who feels blessed to be able to experience this adventure of a lifetime participating in international volunteer opportunities, all out of the desire to make a difference in the lives of others and experience cultural immersion. You can follow Sarah during her experiences at her website, Travels With a Purpose.

Tags: career break, inspiration, national event
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Not Wasting Time: Taking a Second Career Break
Monday, July 16th, 2012

Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever and the rest of us? I just wanna wake up with more time on my hands than hours in the day. – In Time (2011)

In Time is a movie that really spoke to me. In the movie, the main character, Will, is falsely accused of murder and must find a way to bring down a system in which time is money. While the wealthy can live forever, the poor have to beg, borrow, and steal enough minutes to make it through each day. At one point, a character gives his time to Will and tells him, “don’t waste my time.”

How many times have you been in a pointless meeting thinking what a waste of time it is? So many of us waste time every day. We casually think that there will be time later. One of my strongest memories of seven years working on cruise ships was speaking to a widow who said, “we always planned to come here to Alaska together but there was always something that got in the way.” I heard over and over again, “don’t wait to make your dreams come true” or “you are so smart to travel like this while you are young.” I often felt like a character who had borrowed against time and was running to spend my time wisely traveling.

When my company went bankrupt after September 11, 2001, I thought I would never travel again. I just could not imagine how to make it happen. When George came in my life after an internet date and shared his dream of a year of exotic international travel, I was willing to jump with both feet and share his dream. During our eleven month adventure in twelve countries, our relationship deepened, and our life together evolved. We really learned to be a team.

In the movie, In Time, Will talks about what he would do with plenty of time.

Henry Hamilton: If you had as much time as I have, on that clock, what would you do with it?
[Will looks at the clock on his arm showing how much time he has left]
Will Salas: I’d stop watching it. I can tell you one thing. If I had all that time, I’d sure as hell wouldn’t waste it.

I have been graced with the option to travel and act outside the box. Lily Tomlin said “the trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” When I dropped out of medical school and went to Club Med and Princess Cruises to see the world, I didn’t have a clue of the adventures I would find. I would say a theme of my life is that I have not wanted to waste my time.

Recently George and I were provided with another opportunity to drop out of “normal” life. We left July 1st to start a year in South East Asia. Leaving this time is so different. I wish I could write a letter to myself and get it this time four years ago as we were preparing for our first voyage together. Everything seemed so hard and so complicated. We had to build a storage unit in the garage which we used for the first one-year trip and for two summer trips. Now we will be gone again for a year. We are about to rent our condo for the fourth time. The first time I was so worried: will my relationship work out? Will the tenant break all our dishes and windows and things?

George has gotten a leave of absence again. I am saying good-bye to hundreds of children again. We are working on travel insurance, moving files, and finding the best things to bring with us in our backpacks. This time I actually have a backpack. For our first year trip, I freaked out and left with two small bags but no backpack. A few years ago, George bought me a backpack and now I love it.

I had to be patient with myself then. I was so worried. But I lived. I survived. Getting right up close to my greatest fears has let me see some of the best times. On the last trip, I lost sixty pounds and we got engaged underwater. Both were tremendous surprises. For this trip, I cannot even begin to imagine what we will discover together. I only know that we are living our dreams and I cannot wait to see what will happen next!

In the movie, Sylvia realizes that maybe it is worth it to step outside of your zone and take a chance.

Sylvia Weis: Oh, no? The clock is good for no one. The poor die and the rich don’t live. We can all live forever so long as we don’t do anything foolish. Doesn’t that scare you? That maybe you’ll never do anything foolish or courageous or anything worth a damn?

I am glad I took the risk and said YES when George asked me to go with him on his dream trip. For me, it felt foolish and courageous and it makes me feel so alive to be getting ready to go again on another “Big Trip.

Lisa Niver Rajna, M.A. Ed. is an accomplished travel agent, blogger, speaker, science teacher and member of the Traveler’s Century Club, a unique travel club limited to travelers who have visited one hundred or more countries. Lisa and George Rajna spent eleven months wandering Southeast Asia from Indonesia to Mongolia where they fell in love, got engaged, and now as a married couple are writing a book about their journey. They left on July 1st for another year in South East Asia, follow them at WeSaidGoTravel.com.

Tags: career break, contemplating, reflecting
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Courage Versus Money
Monday, June 18th, 2012

“Viajar nunca e uma questão de dinheiro, mas de coragem.”

This line comes from the book O Aleph by Paulo Coelho and when translated into English it means “[t]ravel is never a question of money, but of courage.”

Reading that quote got me thinking – while I love what it says, is it truly accurate? If you do not have a penny to your name, would you still be able to go off and see the world (or even the next town down the road) fueled simply by your courage alone? It is doubtful that you would be able to walk up to the Virgin Atlantic counter at LAX and secure a flight to Europe with nothing but a smile, but if you have the courage to get out there and take chances, you just might figure out a way to make your travel dreams a reality.

Having courage allows (or maybe forces) you to be creative and find solutions to life dilemmas. You want to travel but don’t have enough cash? You could sit at home and click through someone’s Pinterest travel board without having to muster up any courage at all. But chances are you won’t be seeing the Eiffel Tower in person any time soon. Or you could take action and figure something out that gives you a better chance of ending up in a new country.

You could offer to fly as a courier transporting someone else’s belongings in exchange for a plane ticket. Or find a volunteer position overseas that would cover the cost of your transport to that country. You could embark on a hard core savings plan to afford a ticket to the city of your dreams and trust that you’ll figure out the rest once you step out of the airport. I often think of that scene from Titanic where Jack, with barely a pence in his pocket, wins a card game getting him a ticket to board a fancy (although doomed) ocean liner. If he sat at home and thought “I have no money to go out and travel so I’m not even going to try,” yes, he’d still be alive but with a lot less adventure in his life (and isn’t that what life is all about?).

I believe Paulo Coelho’s quote really applies to those of us “in the middle” financially. People who have at least some money and who are able to decide how to spend it. The truth is that I DO have some money (and some frequent flyer points) but I have chosen to use it on things like rent, shopping, car payments and eating out with friends.

As passionate as I am about travel, I really could make up my mind to sell my things on Craig’s List, give up my apartment and use my rent money to buy a plane ticket. And once I’m there, what would I do to pay for transportation, food, clothes, medical expenses and accommodations in my new city? Would I take a job, rely on the kindness of strangers or perhaps rob and steal to get what I needed or wanted?

If travel is something you really want to do, you CAN do it. You just must accept that other areas of your life will change, and that it is okay that they do. You will have to let go of your current lifestyle, and that, as Mr. Coelho says, takes courage.

Nailah Hayward is a recent corporate escapee who, not long after writing this article, took her advice to heart and worked up the courage to quit her job to embark on her second round the world trip while exploring new career options outside the cubicle. You can follow her travels and her trips outside her comfort zone on www.theressomuchtosee.com.

Tags: contemplation, courage, inspiration
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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.

Tags: anxieties, career break, reflecting
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How to Take a Career Break to Travel
Monday, March 26th, 2012

If you attended a Meet, Plan, Go! event, get our newsletter, have followed our Briefcase to Backpack blog, follow our @MeetPlanGo twitter stream, or follow our Meet, Plan, Go! Facebook page then I’m guessing that this is the question that you are dying to get an answer to. Right?

So – how do you take a career break and travel?

Believe it or not, I have an answer for you and it’s simple.

Just do it. (thank you Nike marketing geniuses!)

Okay, I understand that many of you just wrinkled your nose and shook your head and are about ready to close this web page because you don’t believe it’s that simple.

Fine – for those of you who want a more complex answer then my answer is to spend a lot of time scouring through the internet doing searches on Google like these:

“How can I travel?”

“What insurance do I need for travel?”

“How do I not hurt my career if I take a break to travel?”

“What should I do on my career break?”

“What are good volunteering opportunities?”

“How can I save money to travel?”

“How do I travel on a budget?”

“How to travel solo?”

“What do I need to do to prep for extended travel?”

“How do I tell my employer I want to take a break?”

“What do I do when my family/friends don’t support my decisions?”

“How do I find a job after a career break?”

Eventually you will find all of your answers you are looking for. You will realize that taking a career break isn’t rocket science; nor is it only for the well off, or for those people who have traveled their whole life, or for new age hippies, or for the young, or for the single, or for those who are daring. You will realize that it’s attainable for everyone no matter what your situation. If you want it bad enough, you can do it.

However all of this searching and research takes time…lots of time. You will get lost in Google results spending hours and hours down an insurance or round-the-world airfare rabbit hole and you still may not have answers. Many professionals don’t have the time to do all of this research and work you have other things to do – like work more hours than you should, and take care of your family.

Wouldn’t it just be easier if all of this information you needed were in once place and there were people there in that place who you could ask questions to and get answers quickly from a human being?

No, you aren’t dreaming…this career break resource and community utopia exists.

You can get access to all of the resources you need in one place and meet others who have done it or are planning it who will support you and cheer you on in your career break goals.

Learn more about why Career Break Basic Training will help you accomplish your travel and professional goals, who should join, what you get from Basic Training, and read testimonials of people where are now on the road.

You can even check out a Sneak Peak series to see what kind of information you will get access to in order to help you plan and take your career break travels.

And if you sign up before the end of March, you can get it all for a steal – just $99 (a discount of $50!), PLUS coupons you can use towards your travel itineraries and airfare worth $175.

Do the math…you will end up on top AND you will save the time of searching endlessly through the Google “travel” rabbit hole.

See – it’s just that easy. Now all you have to do is

Just do it.

Tags: basic training, career break
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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?

Tags: anxieties, quitting
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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?

Tags: anxieties
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Taking the Time to Step Back
Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Lacey Laken has been “on the road” since September 2011 and so far her career break has taken her to Spain, Morocco, Italy (where she lived with a family for six weeks), Paris, London, Kenya, Tanzania and is now in India. She plans to be traveling through the summer of 2012 and blogs about the food she encounters along the way. She shares with us what led to her decision to take a career break from a law career that she actually enjoyed.

I lived in New York City and worked as a corporate bankruptcy and restructuring lawyer during the four years leading up to my departure. Before that, I spent nearly six years living in Melbourne, Australia where I went to law school (and also received my bachelor of arts degree). Australia is where I first became attuned to the concept of taking a year “off” to travel, because it is such a common practice there. For various reasons I never considered doing it while I was a student, but it was an undertaking that I admired.

Lacey Laken in Italy

When I got a job as a lawyer in New York, I finished my studies early by taking summer classes and handing in assignments before the end of the semester to get to the U.S. in time to study for the bar exam. I suppose since then – June 2007 – I never paused; it was go, go, go for the next four years. During the financial crisis, I was fortunate to be employed in an area of law that was made very busy by the downfall of the economy.

One thing I always managed to do, despite how busy work could be, was to take my vacation time, which I mainly spent overseas. In those four years, I visited Belize, Peru, Israel, England, the Czech Republic, Austria, Turkey, Egypt, and also went back to Australia four times.

It was after I returned from Turkey and Egypt in July 2010 that I decided to take a career break. I suddenly became so aware that there was a whole world to see, and I would never be able to do it in four weeks per year maximum (a year is not long enough either, but at least it is a good start!). I also realized that it was important for me to pause to think about my future and make a conscious decision that I was doing what I wanted to do and living where I wanted to live, rather than continuing both out of habit. I know that many people do not have the opportunity to take a break to reflect, and because I did, I think it would have been a mistake if I had not taken advantage of it.

Leaving my job ended up being one of the hardest things I have ever done. It became clear to me how much I respect my colleagues, who are also my friends and mentors. Since I have been traveling, one of the biggest realizations I have had is that I do really like my job and where I worked. I am proud of the projects I worked on and hope I have the opportunity to do so again. It is also now very clear to me how much I love New York, which I was glad to confirm. Like I said, because I worked in a sometimes all consuming field, it was so easy to slip into a routine, without taking the time to step back and think about what I was doing; for that reason alone this trip has been worthwhile.

Over the course of a year, my itinerary slowly evolved. I started off by choosing the places I most wanted to visit in the near term that I had not been before (in particular, Spain, East Africa, Japan, and Russia) and structured the rest of the trip around those destinations. I have left some flexibility, but do have a skeletal international flight structure booked. This way, I keep moving but am also able to make new plans as I go if I have a new idea or am invited to go somewhere.

Anchovies in San Sebastian

One of my favorite things about travel (and living in New York) is finding and experiencing good food. I have been documenting my culinary experiences on my travel and food blog – 365bitesaroundtheworld. Before I left, I had actually decided I was not going to write a blog because I thought it would be a burden. Eventually, after many suggestions from friends, I changed my mind. I find there to be two challenges to keeping a blog – staying disciplined and keeping readers interested.

I chose to focus on food because it is something I already devote far too much attention to and a topic many people are curious about. In the end, 365bitesaroundtheworld has been a great project for me. It keeps me on my toes while traveling and it has been a great way to keep in contact with people. It will also provide a great record, beyond the scope of photographs, of my trip, which is something I probably would not have had the discipline to do otherwise.

Food is an obsession many travelers share. What has been your favorite meal on the road?

Tags: inspiration
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Contemplating

Lost Job? Go Travel!
Monday, September 10th, 2012