Be patience.
Once you book your one-way flight you are hooked! There is no better way to get motivated to make your dream happen.
We booked our flight to Vancouver about 8 months in advance. On one hand this gave us reasonable time to get ready but on the other hand it is way too long for your mind to stay focused on day-to-day basic. Once you book your flight you are done. No more excuses. This is the true deadline. Life milestone which is going to twist your up-to-date routine. It will seems like miles away since you book your flight but stay patience. It will come.
These are a few things we found helpful to focus on:
Stay focused on your 9 to 5 job.
At the end of the day this will pay your bills and will be the main income for your saving schedule.
You know well in advance you will be “out-of-the-game” probably in couple of months. It takes enormous discipline to keep doing what you have been doing till now and still perform well. You know you will be gone but sure you don’t want to leave mess behind your back for at least these to reasons:
A) You never know if you ever want to come back.
It is always a good idea to keep this opportunity door open. Anything can happen on the way (you get financially broken or just tired of this nomadic lifestyle).
B) You might need a very good reference after being out of the 9 to 5 job for so long.
Imagine. You might come back one day and start applying for new job. After not working in 9 to 5 system you might get a lot of “weird” questions and this reference might justify most of your answers.
"Do your 9 to 5 job well t ill the very end. It is more important than you might think!"
Keep it discrete.
It is actually for your own good to keep it quiet at least at professional level connections. The very last thing you want is your manager to discover about your travel adventure from some one else and way in advance of your departure. Not only it might look bad for your professional growth which you can still make in the last months before you go but mainly people will keep talking and asking questions you won’t know the answers yet. It will be tough but keep your travel plans for yourself till the end (or at lest till the day you hand your resignation) but it is definitely worth it! At the end, we are sure, you will get a lovely surprise and definitely unexpected support like us.
It will be hard to find common topics with your colleagues on daily basics and not to get too suspicious about your travel plans.
IIt is already tough enough to wake up every morning and do your 9 to 5 job since you booked your one-way flight ticket to the other side of the World right?! We bet you since then you are only counting remaining days and hardly thinking about something else then what is laying ahead of you. But don’t worry. It will come sooner than you might expect and at the end you will be glad for any extra day you can get before your departure.
At the end we both got amazing response and support to our traveling plans from both of our employers.
The DAY "D" is here
The day “D” you have been looking forward for so long is here. The day you marked in your calendar as big milestone to your freedom. Feeling nervous? Feeling like you need more time? That’s ok. We were the same! We were sweating on the way to our managers that day. But here is the secret: there is a big chance they will react completely opposite than you expected! Both of our managers and their managers took it very well and became very supportive to our decision and future plans. We were both offered place when we came back and good reference when we need so.
At the end you are not leaving to get a job somewhere else. You are leaving for your personal project and you might always come back.
What's after?
The day you will leave your 9 to 5 job door for last time, you will feel relieved. But it won’t be for long. Soon your head will start to question everything: Was it good decision to leave your stable job and financial security for freelancing and not-sure-what-money-I’m-going-to-make-next-month? Maybe I should have stayed longer to save up more? Or how I’m going to relay on your savings you haven’t managed to save? You will figure all of these answers while traveling 🙂
