Career Break

When people add the element of globe trotting to their break, then it is career break travel. It may mean that you tick off a bucket list, travel around the world or simply go live as an expat in another country. Basically, it is about shaking up your normal routine in a big way with your passport in hand.

There are a few things that make a career break unique, namely that you should have a career that you are breaking away from. This puts the typical career break age range from 27 to 57 years old. Younger and it might be considered a Gap Year and older it may be considered retirement.

A career break is simply dedicated time away from your job. It may be something that is planned for or something that is unforeseen. It can be from 1 month to 3 years. Anything shorter than a month really falls into the glorified vacation bucket.

A few career break myths are as follows:

★ It is too expensive, you must be rich

★ A gap on my resume will ruin my career

★ It is not safe to travel abroad

★ I can not travel because I have a family

A career break does not equal career suicide. In fact, it will even help your career. You will build skills you can put on your resume such as confidence, patience and smart risk-taking. And a break will allow you the time to reflect on where your career is to date, how it may have gotten off track and how to refocus on what it is you really want to do.

Career break myths are all there to rationalize your fear and result in keeping you cemented to the life you think you have to live.

You do not have to have a trust fund, it is possible to take a break if you do not have much money saved. And it is certainly possible to save money in order to take a career break no matter what your circumstances. In fact, it is never too early to start.

Some people plan and save for several years and you can also get travel costs from those who have come before you. A key place to start is to determine roughly how much you will need to travel around the world. You may realize that you may have to change some of your spending habits but if you really want the career break bad enough, you will find a way to start saving. It is about priorities.

We know that realizing a career break takes a lot of planning. The tools and resources to assist you in making your career break decisions from Where to go, to letting go, to actually going. The briefcase to backpack community will cover destination ideas, how to leave your job and commitments behind and putting your 'regular life' on hold. During your preparation educate you on travel safety, packing tips, language barriers, booking flights, choosing insurance, as well as helping you through the struggles and anxieties of taking the 'big leap'.

Often all we need to make change in our lives is a little push and encouragement. That is why we created the meet plan go career break Conference for people with similar goals and travel dreams to meet face to face to get the support they need to take a career break leap. It is like our website but with real people who you can talk with face to face.

Travel filled that void in the past when I would take my two-week vacations, but I was looking for something more. I wanted to brace yourself for the ultimate cliche to make a difference or maybe it was more selfish than that and I just wanted to smile at myself in the mirror again.

Start purging now. Closets first then paring back your living areas.

The nervous excitement I felt while arriving at my decision I put to good use. I began to clear out closets, I figured even if I could not make the break, I would have clean closets and if it did happen, I would have less to deal with as moving day drew near.

Downsizing our stuff is no small task when living in a society that encourages acquisition.

A break is a career defining, not a career defeating. The word "break" often has a negative connotation. A break up, break down, break in, break the law, break a leg and the term 'career break' is no different. People think of it as a bad thing.

However, a growing body of evidence shows that taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves productivity and creativity.

Taking the step of quitting is something that seems pretty hard to do but it all depends on what we want to do in life. Like most change in life, the hardest part is within your own mind. Once I actually did it, I realized that I can achieve whatever I want to, I just had to go for it. If I can do it, you can do it, too.

The concept of a career break is still quite novel, most of us do not have very many people in our social groups who have ever taken one. Unfortunately, this often means that all of your excitement over the idea of leaving your job in favor of long-term travel may not engender the kind of enthusiasm you are hoping for amongst your friends/co-workers/family. Even if you are just looking for support rather than advice, you should expect to be assaulted with many, many reasons why it is a bad idea and you are crazy for even contemplating it.

Do not hide your passions but work them into your life and job and take risks to do so. If you have the passion to quit your job and travel then you also have the passion to stand up to others plans/advice and be happy doing it. Your good at what you do, so be confident about negotiating leave.

Research shows that about 90% of the people who read online media do not actually participate in the conversation, consumption vs production. I understand, communicating online is not for everyone.

However a percentage of that 90% are not lurking because they want to but because they feel like they have to. They are staying in the closet because they can not yet let people know about their career break plans. They must stay in the closet in order to remain at their jobs and while they quietly plan their getaway.

Everyone is always preaching about saving for an education, house, rainy day or retirement. But retirement is such distant ship-smoke on the horizon.

Presently, 35% of people over 65 work. And both those numbers will keep growing as the cost of living ratchets up.

The best reward for saving money for your senior years. You hereby have permission to sneak some straw from your nest egg when you have one to practice retiring. Go away, far away, for a week or 13 or so. Then come back and work (and invest) some more.

While we are at it, let us be more specific and twisted. That is, let us twist the usual year's resolution advice to make it more fitting, fun and hopeful.

If your life feels boxed in or you want to live outside the cube, take note and take heart.