How does quitting your job and heading out onto the open road sound? Today is all about giving you the kick in the pants to get started on making your career break travel dreams come true.

Since you’ve joined Career Break 30, it means you must have some reservations about the direction of your career or the so called ‘American Dream’. An important first step is to ask yourself  why are you motivated to make a change – and why are you waiting?

What is a Career Break and can I do it?

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. 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. When people add the element of globe trotting to their break, then it’s 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’s about shaking up your normal routine in a big way with your passport in hand.

Career Break Travel Myths – There are plenty of myths out there that will discourage you from thinking career break travel is possible. We tell you why it’s not crazy.

Career break Benefits –  Getting away is essential for effective thinking. Combine your career break with travel and reap even more benefits. Exposure to cultures that function differently from our own – from language to social customs to public transport – awakens the brain, alerting it to a much broader range of possibilities for being, living, and creating. You will come back to the workforce with skills other peers won’t have. And you will stand out in a positive way.

The First-time Traveler – Not all Career Break travelers are super-experienced. You don’t have to have already been all over the world to take a Career Break.

The Naysayers – While the detractors like to think that you’ll end up in a gutter somewhere if you dare veer off the path set forth for you by society, chances are the opposite will happen.   We’ll tell you how you can combat the Naysayers.

What You Can Get Out of It?

It’s not very difficult to tell people why you want to leave your current job to get out on the road to travel. All travel lovers have pondered and dreamed of doing something like this. And while simply getting out of a daily routine and seeing and experiencing the world is amazing, there is so much more that someone can get out of a career break.

Hiking the Inca Trail, seeing Angkor Wat, and visiting the Taj Mahal are certainly huge motivating factors that push people out the door. But it’s also important to ponder what else you can get out of a trip like this. It’s possible for you to:

• Learn another language
• Find a new career
• Learn how to travel and live with less
• Learn how to budget and spend your money wisely
• Make your relationship stronger with your spouse
• Bring your family closer together
• Learn all about new cultures

Getting Over Your Fear

Overcoming Fear and Mental Hurdles – You are here because you want to make a change in your life; you want to shake it up. Hold on tight because change isn’t easy. Change is wrapped up in fear, and fear is big and bad. It can make any endeavor seem like a mountain that is insurmountable at times. The end result of letting fear take over is that it keeps us stuck where we are. We can assume that since you are in CB30, you don’t want to be stuck where you are – right?

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?