How can you do what I did?
If you read my website, subscribe to me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, then I’m guessing that this is the question that you are dying to get an answer to. Right? I’ve spent years trying to help people get answers to this question. I have even started businesses about it , Meet, Plan, Go! , done presentations on it, and have done a number of interviews about how to do career break travel.
I am writing about this popular topic again because there is a momentous occasion we are celebrating over at Meet, Plan, Go! Career Break travel website. This week we celebrate our three year anniversary! It was 3 years ago when I was living in Vietnam and Michaela was in New York City busy getting married, that we originally launched this idea to provide people career break travel inspiration and resources and we called it Briefcase to Backpack. Here, you can see just how far we’ve come in those three years – Celebrating Three Years of Career Break Advice
Table of Contents
How do you take a career break or sabbatical 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-trip airfare ‘rabbit hole’ and you still may not have answers. Many professionals don’t have the time to do all of this research becuase 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 this 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.
Anniversary Celebration
Associated with this big anniversary occasion – we wanted to party of course! However with me in Europe and Michaela in New York and our wonderful career break audience spread all over the world – it’s sort of hard to organize; even for a uber planner like me! So we did the next best thing, we decided to give our readers something…the gift of a career break. We have knocked the cost of our Career Break training course/community down by 1/3 to only $99. Plus – we threw in discounts worth $175 to help plan your itinerary and airfare tickets. You’ll end up ahead in the end! Just be sure to sign up before the end of March!
See – it’s just that easy. Now all you have to do is
By Barbara Weibel March 26, 2012 - 12:58 pm
Congratulations on your anniversary Sherry! And for anyone reading, Sherry and Michaela are the true industry experts on career breaks, so if you’re thinking about taking one and want to know how to do it, you can’t do better than their course.
By Anis Salvesen March 26, 2012 - 7:38 pm
Congratulations on your 3 year anniversary! I was so inspired attending a couple of the Meet Plan Go events in San Francisco and have been following the blogs of some of the travelers you directly inspired to take a career break. Here’s to the continued success of MPG and the career break movement!
By Adina | Gluten Free Travelette March 27, 2012 - 5:29 pm
Congrats on your anniversary! Someday I hope to make it towards a career break – I can see it on the horizon at least. Anyway, just wanted to stop by and say that I nominated you for the Versitile Blogger Award here; http://glutenfreetravelette.blogspot.com/. Just a fun award to shine some light on some great high-quality new-to-me blogs!
By Sherry March 27, 2012 - 6:16 pm
Thanks for the kind words and nomination! I guess I shouldn’t tell you that one of my very best friends is the Director of planning for J Crew! 🙂
By Brock - Backpack With Brock April 1, 2012 - 7:58 pm
Happy anniversary! Your story is inspirational for others wanting to do the same thing
By Sherry April 2, 2012 - 3:09 am
Thanks Brock!! It’s been a fun journey so far and can’t wait to see what’s around the next corner!
By Beauty Uganda April 4, 2012 - 8:37 am
You are right Sherry. Its that simple. But in this day and age many are looking for more complex solutions to simple decisions….I left my job 2 years ago an i am having fun…
By Heather Stearns April 5, 2012 - 12:14 pm
Hi Sherry,
My husband and I just celebrated our 1-year Location Liberated anniversary yesterday so we’re about two years behind you. I can’t wait to get to year 3 because year 1 was phenomenal!
You are so right about telling those longing for career breaks to “just do it.” This is a much more direct way to get moving than the endless Google searches that turn into paralysis by analysis! A lifestyle shift takes a bit of planning and action but this leads to endless possibilities!