Be Present

The team behind Briefcase to Backpack, Sherry Ott & Michaela Potter, recently attended the Travel Blog Exchange conference (TBEX10) where we were able to meet many of the people we network with online in the flesh. The experience of having our virtual worlds collide with our physical lives impressed upon us the importance of old school networking.

The digital world is king. Most of our interactions are done digitally now; just think about your average week of texting, social networking, and emailing. Even for people who don’t live online as I do, the digital world has crept into the heart of our days. When was the last time you mailed a letter, or called someone’s land line? Do you even have a land line? We read our news digitally, we date digitally, we even manage to purchase our gas without ever having to see or talk to another person. Physical interaction is old fashioned.

In the world of digital connections sometimes I forget the power of simply being physically present. So when the panel of travel writers and editors sat down in front of the audience and actually started talking I was a bit startled; they were real people talking to me. Their wise voices emoted rise and fall in pitch, and there were pauses for emphasis. I could read their facial expressions and most importantly understand their tone. All little things I have come to take for granted in the flat world of reading text online.

The panel was impressive. Even though I had met some of them before in social settings, it felt different this time. I was here to hear them speak about there craft – in person; I was present.

The expert panel of writers and editors talked about the importance of story telling as opposed to simply describing the situation. They discussed the importance of arc in a story, and writing using all of the senses. As I sat and listened to them it hit me; none of what they were saying was rocket science. In fact – I’m pretty sure that in my digital world of Google searches I could have found these exact pieces of information if I had googled “how to write a good travel story”. But listening to them speak the words and see their expressions and body movement gave it all a different impact.

It inspired me.

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Benefits of Using a Career or Sabbatical Coach

Deciding to change your career or take time off from your current job can be very challenging on the mind and soul. Add travel plans on top of that and you may get discouraged enough to abandon your career break dreams. Tara Russell, a certified life & career coach through her company Three Month Visa, shares with us the benefits of using a coach to help guide you through this life-changing experience.

What are the benefits of a travel sabbatical and what types of activities do you recommend to your clients?
I think the greatest benefit of travel sabbaticals can be summed up by one of my favorite quotes from travel writer Pico Iyer: “Travel is like love: It cracks you open, and so pushes you over all the walls and low horizons that habits and defensiveness set up.” When we are home, we can begin to define ourselves by our routines and labels (i.e. our careers, our consumer habits, etc.) For example, I’ve had clients come to me and say “I’m a top-level executive consultant with 15 years delivering Six Sigma expertise to tech firms in Silicon Valley” or “I’m an eco-conscious soy-latte-drinking, Prius-driving reusable-grocery-bag-toting Yoga nut!” All good stuff, to be sure…but not who these people really are at their core.

Travel removes us from our habits and routines and lets us rediscover ourselves anew. It expands our horizons, gives us fresh and new perspectives, strengthens our sense of adventure, pushes us to challenge ourselves and feeds an appreciation of our own courage and abilities. By the time those same clients came home, they were able to say “I am someone who survived and thrived during 15 months of solo travel…who watched the sun rise over Machu Picchu and set over the steppes of Mongolia, who learned new languages and opened up to new cultures…who made life-long friendships out of chance acquaintances, etc.” Those are gifts that come home with you and last a lifetime.

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Benefits of Taking a Break Before Changing Jobs

Ready to change jobs or careers? Pamela Skillings, a successful entrepreneur, certified career coach, and the author of Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams, explains why you should consider a break before doing so.

1. What are some benefits of taking a break before changing jobs?
Ovid wrote, “A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Often, people who are burned out at work simply need to step away to see the bigger picture.

They usually return from a career break with renewed energy and creativity, new perspectives on life and work, and clearer priorities. Your career break can not only help you restore balance, but can also provide needed inspiration for success in the next phase of your career — a “bountiful crop” of ideas and achievements.

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How Sabbaticals Benefit Companies and Individuals

If you are fortunate enough to love your job AND work for a company that offers a sabbatical program, it would be wasteful for you not to take advantage of the opportunity to take a sabbatical.

yourSABBATICAL is a firm that partners with businesses to deploy programs that attract, retain and accelerate top talent through the use of highly planned and structured leaves of absences. Having worked with many Fortune 500 companies and their employees, they are experts in the area of creating sabbatical programs with defined goals and measurable results. Here they discuss the benefits to both you and your employer. Read more

Benefits: A New Era of “Retirement”

There are numerous benefits of taking a career break – most of which can only be measured by you. Whether you are looking for an opportunity to reexamine your life goals or time for self-discovery and inner growth, cultural career breaks give you the chance to get out of your element, which greatly helps in the process. By visiting other cultures and opening yourself to new experiences, you can learn so much about yourself – thus giving you insight you might not have gained from remaining at home.

When Sherry Ott grew tired of her corporate life, she decided to pack her bags and hit the road for 16 months. At the end of that journey, she learned new things about herself, which helped her in developing new life goals – which included saying goodbye to corporate life as she knew it. Among her goals listed were taking ESL classes and staying in the US no more than 6 months out of the year. And within months of her return, she was on her way to Vietnam to live and teach English.

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