5 Tips On Letting Go and Getting Started Travelling...

How to lose your job – and travel the world

One of things I am often asked is how to go about leaving a perfectly normal job, car, house, dog, friends and a social life to travel on a long term basis. It is, in truth, a difficult question to answer as each person has their own perception of needs and security as well as expectations and fears.

In order to come to some conclusion we need to analyse our routines and take a deeper look at what ties us to the life we live and what we can do in order to fulfil our dream of travelling the world.

For some it is easy, at a young age we have probably not bought into the consumer lifestyle and for gap year travellers it is quite a simple step to get on the well trodden path. For others and older travellers perhaps, and I mean here anyone who has a real job and some commitments, the path is a little less clear and guidance is needed.

1. Lose your job.

Keep your focus on your dream

This is not actually the most difficult step. In reality once you have set your sights on the dream of travel the work ethic can seem a little more difficult to maintain especially when you are staring at your PC Screen and drooling over the background picture of a paradise island or standing in front of a class of sixteen year olds teaching the mysteries of calculus!

We are all different though and it can be daunting to toss away a perfectly decent job for the uncertain future of travel to distant lands. Let us be clear here, In order to be semi secure, unless you have oodles of cash, certain transferable skills are a necessity and can make life on the road a lot easier. Teachers will find the TEFL or similar qualification a boon to making money on the road, other skills such as sports instructors can find avenues of work in some great locations. The hospitality industry is the same worldwide and with a little effort jobs can be found here as well. For the most part working abroad is not as difficult or as stressful as we may first think and it requires just that step forward onto the plank in order to overcome the fear.

Difficulty 5/10

2. Sell your lover

Allow yourself the dream

This may cause some pain but unless you are prepared for a long distance relationship, and all that goes with it, I recommend being single on the road. Not only does it make it easier to be relaxed in mixed company but it also lessens any feelings of guilt if the BF is looking after your dog while you are hanging out naked at a full moon party.
Difficulty 7/10

3. Be homeless

Okay if you own your own home then renting it out is a perfect solution, it will not only bring in some extra income but it is there for when you come back. By the way who said you were coming back? Otherwise sell everything you really don’t need and put the rest in long term storage or in the attic of your parents/friends. This can be quite traumatic as those wonderful items you have been hoarding for the last god knows how long will finally have to go. Be ruthless and chuck as much away as you can, the less you have the cheaper and easier it will be to store them.

Difficulty 8/10

4. Keep in touch

If you have completed the above steps it may be necessary to have a permanent contact address while you are away, banks, utilities and government agencies are a stickler for wanting to know where you are. Mail Boxes Etc or some other such convenient address should fit the bill. They will forward on your mail to wherever you are in the world, at a price, and will take package deliveries for you.

A Skype account or similar is a great way to keep in touch, with the added services you can have a permanent number that will call your internet account or a local phone wherever you are…sorted.

Difficulty 4/10

5. Torch your car and set the budgie free

Surely the thought of summer romances will entice you from your dreary desk job

The things we really love are our cars and pets, sorry boyfriends and girlfriends but it is true! The car may be a beaten up piece of $%^&* but we love it, it is our passion, well bad news, it has to go. It’s just steel, plastic and old Dr Pepper bottles anyhow so clean it up and sell it. Our pets are different, they love us as well, but they still need to be removed from the loop, a good home for Benjy the mutt may need to be found but he will come around and eventually forget you…( have a little cry now).

Difficulty 10/10

Hopefully you are all still with me here, no chickening out on the road to somewhere. Let’s recap; we have told the boss to go stuff himself, chucked the boyfriends clothes out into the yard, evaded the landlord, given half our worldly goods to the Salvation Army, gone undercover like a spy with our communications and set Clarence the budgie free from his cage. What now?

Now you are free, free to cock it all up and have to come back sheepishly to your old job. Free to explore new continents on a one way journey, free to make new friends and lovers, your mission to boldly go where no man/woman has gone before…you get the gist.

It’s your choice now, grab some guidebooks or none buy a round the world ticket or a one way ferry ride it doesn’t really matter, the road is now open and truly the world is your oyster….enjoy!