Year off? Why taking a Year Off is awesome AF – 7 benefits gained by taking a personally funded year off work. I did whatever I wanted.
Hey buds, I wanted to kick off this post with a question.
So please enlighten me, what is the main reason you wake up and go to work everyday?
More specifically, do you go to work for personal fulfillment or only for money?
The reason I ask is because, from my own experience, chasing money is the wrong fucking game!
For the readers that don’t yet know, I spent a year away from the day job in 2016. And it wasn’t a year off at my parents house type shit. I provided for myself.
To sum up what taking a year off was like in four words:
It was fucking remarkable.
Quite frankly, the time away literally changed my freakin’ aura.
Something magical happened during that year off, I swear to you!
It brought me back to my youth and helped become an adult at the same time.
You see, when young, most people don’t know themselves well enough, which makes it easy to become someone you’re not.
But as you age, the combination of self-awareness and wisdom derived from ones experiences begins to accumulate.
Honestly, though, manifestation or whatever you want to call it is a real thing.
I truly believe that things happen for a reason and thoughts are physical.
Though, there’s really no magic or anything supernatural occurring at all.
In my opinion, if you begin to focus on yourself, a natural attitude shift occurs.
Once you realize this the world can be yours.
So how does this all work?
Start By Taking a Year Off
During my year off, I was granted the opportunity to write a guest post detailing how an idea to quit the day job became an action. Unfortunately, the Blog I wrote the article for stopped blogging so the article is no longer online. Otherwise I’d include the link.
Anyways, I enjoyed writing that post as I got the chance to provide more details on why I resigned.
Taking a year off turned out to be a low risk trade-off in the big scheme of things.
It was totally worth spending the money for the following reasons:
Time To Think
Don’t you dare even think about overlooking this one!
Thinking is very powerful and life would be much better if more people actually did it.
The reason that thinking is so important is because it helps you understand your WHY.
What makes you tick in life?
What does your ideal day-to-day life look like?
There’s a lot to think about, especially if you’ve been avoiding it.
Patience really is a virtue in this process. Because you’re going to have to spend a lot of time pondering what’s important to you.
Rest Up
I was at a point where personal issues left me feeling exhausted all the damn time.
Before my year off, it felt as though my mind and body were slowly rotting away.
At 29, my body was seemingly beginning to fail me.
Candidly, I don’t take kindly to forcing myself to sleep.
There’s always so much on mind mind all the time that I need to process. But the moment I wake up, the routine starts all over again.
Before the year off I would routinely stay up until 2,3, or even 4 AM.
This poor sleeping routine continued for years even though I’d have to wake up for 8 a.m. the next morning to prepare for the commute.
During my year off, fortunately, my sleeping pattern began to align itself with the rise and fall of the sun.
Stop Being a Shell of Yourself
Circumstances squeezed every bit of life out of me until there was almost nothing left.
I was becoming an expressionless, nearly dead individual just passing time.
I was becoming overweight because I didn’t make time to eat properly. I caved for that morning doughnut one too many times.
I was eating fast food because I was too tired and because I required the chemical happiness.
That McDonalds cheeseburger was the highlight of my day. Not…
My clothes weren’t fitting as well anymore, but I let it slide because I let myself think I didn’t look good anymore with new clothes anyways. I aged.
Sorry, but it’s just the truth.
Please realize how important it is to maintain yourself physically.
On another note about being a shell of yourself, realize how important it is to maintain originality. Have the courage to be disliked for what you believe in.
Once you do, the magic starts to happen. That’s when all the right people start coming your way.
Gain Back An Optimistic Perspective
Remember that optimism you had as a student?
Well, it’s still there, it’s just tucked away.
It’s been pushed aside ever since you decided to trade your life away for benefits and a pension.
You only get to live once for fuck sakes!
The key is to find the right combination of skills and interests to help others. That’s where the fulfillment comes from—giving to others.
Get optimistic about your potential.
Purpose Over Money
Here’s how I see it.
Life is full of trade-offs, but in the end, pursuing purpose over money is by far the way to go.
And don’t just take my word for it.
Take this recent quote from Bryan of Income Surfer if you don’t believe me.
“you have a great many more options once you kick money out of the decision.”
I thought that was a fantastic quote and it made all the sense in the world to me.
Further, if you do take a year off and put an honest effort into all of the items on this list, I truly believe opportunities will come your way.
It took some time, but some really cool things are starting to open up for me.
Hang Outs
When you have more flexibility in your life, people will come your way too.
Being authentic will draw the RIGHT people and eliminate the residue from your life.
A lot of people, including myself in the past, say the word “no” too much.
After a while it becomes a habit.
However, if the year off taught me anything, it’s that relationships are probably the most important part of life.
Not only do they enhance your life, but they may lead to opportunities down the road.
My advice would be to go with the natural flow and say yes to the good people in your life as much as possible.
Pursue What You Love
Once you’ve had the time to think about what your ideal day-to-day looks like, you can go on an all-out pursuit to reach that vision.
My ideal day to day would be working as a Blogger and dividend investor.
However, that vision is like any other achievement in life—all great accomplishments take time.
It doesn’t matter if you want to be the CEO of a corporation or a professional blogger.
In my estimation, reaching success in any field takes about the same amount of time.
Both require years of rapport-building and time to acquire the necessary skill set.
The key is to focus on building the BEST individual skill-set that works for you.
Watch Magic Happen
The last part is hard to put into words, however, I had to include it because I’m beginning to grasp how this all works.
If you take a year off and really focus on the reasons on this list, you’ll have a renewed perspective on life.
I strongly believe that.
A year away to focus solely on yourself will provide you with the attitude shift of your lifetime.
In turn, that change in attitude will forcefully bring upon a more purposeful life.
Question: Would you ever consider taking a year off to pursue your passions? What is the biggest deterrent to trying it?
I am not a licensed investment or tax adviser. All opinions are my own. This post contains advertisements by Google Adsense. This post also contains internal links, affiliate links, links to external sites, and links to RTC social media accounts.
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