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Should I quit my job and travel the world?
My favourite thing about travel blogging is connecting with our readers.
I ADORE the emails we get from readers sharing their stories and their fears. It inspires me and gives me motivation to keep helping people overcome challenges so they can live the life they really want.
We get a lot of questions and sometimes I’m not sure if I can give the best advice. A recent question was so borderline as to which way to go, and so relevant to many people, I thought I would share it here and ask your opinion.
I’ve included my response below, but I, and the person contacting me, would love to hear what you think.
It would really help him to make a very important, and life-changing decision.
I’m 26 years old and from Chili. At the moment, I’m in your beautiful country Australia. I have been all over the East Coast which is stunning (I loved Whitehaven). And in a few weeks more I’m going to Melbourne. But then I’m leaving because I’m going to NZ and after that to South East Asia (for 3 months) and Europe (for 1 month).
I already have been in many countries in my life (20) and on this trip I’m going to visit 16 more countries.
I love traveling and I would like do it for the rest of my life. The problem is I’m a Navy Officer and this year I asked for one year off without pay (this is the reason why I’m here). Being in the Navy is not too bad, you can travel around your country and live in different locations. It’s not bad money, but I don’t like it.
But if I stay in the Navy for 13 more years I can get my pension, that means, if I quit, the Army will pay me good money monthly, for the rest of my life, just for nothing. With this money I could travel around the world without problems. But if I quit before 13 years I wont receive anything.
Also with the pension I can get free health, I mean if I get some injury, medical problem or disease, all the costs are going to be free, for me and for my family. So it’s all about stability, good money and good health.
But like you told me, that is not my real dream. My real dream is traveling around the world. I wanna be everywhere, I wanna meet new people, new places, have more memories, stories, videos, photos, etc., and I don’t know if I want a normal life.
I don’t want to be normal. I want to be different, make crazy things and then the people can watch my videos and say “wow, he has been all over the world, in amazing places doing whatever he wants. He has a free soul.
What can I do?
Every day I ask myself the same questions over and over again. Maybe at 39 years I will be too old to travel and it wont be the same if I start traveling now. What do you think? Could you give me some advice please, I’m very confused about what to do?
My response:
Tough decision for you to make! You are definitely at a crossroad. Usually when we are at this place where we agonize endlessly, we really know what we want to do, we are just afraid to take the giant leap.
What you need to do is write a list for each choice – the good old pros and cons. Then for either decision, think
“In 10 years time, what will my life be like if I decide to do this? What will my life be like if I don’t?
I would suggest even projecting yourself forward to a time in that future and writing a day in my life diary entry as if you are actually living it. You’ll have to do this in a quiet space and dig deep within your soul so you can tap into what your true feelings would be.
After you have done all the analyzing and fact gathering and have a clear idea of what your life would be like for either decision, and what your possible regrets would be, you need to sit and allow the right answer to come up from within you, from your gut and your heart.
If you meditate, this would be a good time to do it.
Sometimes you may have to sit on this decision for several days or weeks. Don’t push the process, just let your inner knowing speak to you. Constantly check in with your body to see how it feels with your choice.
Don’t let your head make the decision. Listen to your gut. Your gut knows.
I know this might sound like a strange way to approach making a decision, but it is the best. Your mind speaks through fear, your heart and gut speak the honest truth and will guide you to the right path.
The very last thing you have to do then is to take a giant leap of faith. What ever your decision is, trust it is the right one and everything will work out perfect. Believe that you have the support of the Universe to make it happen.
Just some of my thoughts:
- You say you don’t like the Navy. It’s hard to bring a lot of happiness and fulfillment to your day when you do something you don’t like.
- Your decision at the moment seems to be based upon money, which is very fair, but try to look it from the angle of making a decision based upon your heart’s calling first. Money can come to you in so many different ways and you don’t want to say no to your heart because you are afraid of not having the money to do what you want.
- Maybe continue with the Navy for now, but start putting intentions out there from today for something else to arrive for you where you can still travel and earn money doing something more you are interested in.
Usually the money will come when we follow our heart, BUT it’s very difficult to trust in this, so you may have to take slow steps in order to gently build that trust and push out your comfort zones.
What would you do?
Would you quit your job and travel the world?
Share your thoughts below…
