What is a grown-up gap year? Gap years are productive at any point in your life. Just as your opportunity to follow your entrepreneurial dreams doesn’t expire, your opportunity to take a gap year doesn’t expire either. When taken in later in life, a gap year might be defined as a career break or sabbatical. It’s a break from your current situation. However you define it, your grown-up gap year creates the opportunity to develop additional clarity and new skillsets. It’s time to self-develop, absorb, and practice as you continue along your path or redefine it altogether. Travel. Daydream. See the world. Focus on career growth. Be inspired and recognize the many benefits of taking an adult gap year!
“Am I too old for a gap year?”
Well that is a million dollar question many people asked.
The answer: No!
It is most typical for young adults to take a gap year between ages 18-21, but there are no rules. Adults can take a year too. Grown-up gap years offer time to stop and evaluate your situation after you have some work experience and are crafting your future path.
Have some fun with this!
How about:
- The entrepreneur’s gap year
- Midlife gap year
- Midlife crisis gap year?!
- Mature aged gap year
- The hairless gap
- The golden gap
- The grey gap
You are in the right place to get started.
Whether it’s career break or time to reassess. Maybe you were looking to take a sabbatical anyway to start your business. It’s very similar to a student taking a gap year; you are simply more experienced. At any time in life for an infinite number of reasons, we need this time. Your grown up gap year can mean anything as long as it means something worthwhile to you.
If you’re lucky, you get to stay grown-up for a very long time, so a grown-up gap year might be at age 26 or 76 – or any time in-between – or maybe after.
It’s never too late to experience amazing sites and place, to have the conversations and tell the tales.
We can take gap years any time. You opportunity to take a gap year doesn’t expire! You define it as a gap year – or define it however you want.
Start crafting your grown-up gap year plan!
Whether you’re Creating, Designing, or Making.
Choose your words. Make it yours. Just make it a plan so you get the most out of this time. When it comes to adult gap years, it’s about self-discovery, wanderlust, and the opportunity to recharge.
What if your grown-up gap year actually has no purpose. It’s to wander or it’s to sleep. It’s to open a door for inspiration to float or flutter in.
That’s fine. You still have adult responsibilities, so plan on handling them.
‘And plan not to let anything else interfere with your time.
Think like an entrepreneur in terms of maximizing time, budgets, and resources.
Plans are not painful. They ensure you get where you are going on your own terms.
Being highjacked is not typically a positive experience, so take yourself seriously, be inspired, and avoid it.
“I am currently out of the office.” ~ DD (spoken with no apology)
Why are you out of the office?
- You Quit?
- Took a sabbatical?
- Are you following your dream?
- You’re checking off a bucket list while driving income?
- Building a new career?
What’s driving you to take this time?
- Midlife crisis?
- It’s time to pursue your dream?
- The opportunity arose?
- You are tired of waiting for the opportunity to arise?
- You’ve been reflecting? Contemplating?
The decision came as a result of a positive or negative change in your
- physical health? Mental health? Financial status?
- Losing job or losing someone you loved and/or admired
- It’s just time – and you realize time has been on your side but it’s not infinite.
The decision came from somewhere – and it was powerful enough to change your desire or ability to continue doing what you were doing, right?
Cheers to you for recognizing it and taking this chance on yourself.
Not everyone has this strength.
Motivation doesn’t always come from excitement and being ready to go.
Sometimes motivation grows after you are forced to take a step and testing your will and fortitude. You then learn to better manage your time. To budget. To maximize resources.
Realize you are a resource. Your time is limited to 24 hours in a day, and you need to budget it.
This time is yours. Be inspired:
“Take time off to give to yourself, in a sense to fill yourself up to fullness, to where now you can overflow in giving.” ~ John Gray
“Doing something that lights you up isn’t taking time OFF work, it’s taking time ON life.” ~ LinkedIn
It’s time to live a life well-lived.
“Sometimes you need to take a break from everyone and spend time alone, to experience, appreciate, and love yourself.” ~ Robert Tow
“There may come a time in life where a life-changing break is needed. Have the courage to listen to your body and intuition, and invest that time in yourself as best you can.” ~ isntshesteller.com
But by taking time away, getting myself off the treadmill, and just slowing down and learning, I felt I had so much more to give back. And maybe that was something that need to happen for all of us.” ~ Lindsey Buckingham
“No reason to stay is a good reason to go.” ~ Unknown
“I’m taking some time off. This is my year of rest and relaxation.” ~ Ottessa Moshfegh
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ~ Helen Keller
“I love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” ~ Og Mandino
There are many reasons to take a gap year.
Your adult gap years may require a career break in order to craft an itinerary.
It may involve travel, a campervan, becoming a volunteer or a backpacker!
Who knows! Maybe you will stay in a hostel or connect with Workaway. Gap year ideas abound! You might even find yourself explaining why you didn’t want to return! !
Maybe it’s an organisation like GVI that taps into your heart as well as your skillset. Maybe you’ll become a digital nomad and share life on the road, touching thousands of people!
Don’t quit. Or do quit.
Maybe think in terms of a sabbatical.
Often times, companies will make an accommodation if you approach them professionally and with a plan. Perhaps that plan can also boost your career upward or in a direction that both empowers you and serves them well.
“I don’t like to think of it as being fired. Instead, I prefer to think of it as being on indefinite leave with a sabbatical flair.” ~ J. Cole
What’s a sabbatical?
“Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms. ~ Walter Brueggemann
Walter Brueggemann is the world’s leading interpreter of the Old Testament and the author of 150 books.
Though our article is not focused on the bible or religious references, Brueggemann’s thought can extend far beyond its religious basis.
Just as the word sabbatical was derived from sabbath, but we also now define it in more secular terms as a break, a sabbatical is intended to refresh us and be transformative.
“I feel like everybody needs to take a sabbatical and go to Russia and Africa and work in orphanages and really witness true suffering. And then you’ll just feel ridiculous forever complaining about anything. Everybody needs that kind of reality check.” ~ Madonna Ciccone
“My juices needed restoring. I needed a sabbatical from the record business.” ~ Norman Granz
“During my sabbatical, I spent two years not listening to my songs at all.” ~ Ricky Martin
“In 2004, I took a one year sabbatical to finish my second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. At the end of that year, I was not done with my book, and had to in effect resign from work. I did. I never went back.” ~ Khaled Hosseini
Before embarking, take some time.
As with your business planning, you need to understand your goal and make a plan to utilize your time wisely – and you need to understand your timeline.
If you are taking an actual year, don’t get started in month #7.
It’s lucky 7, yes, but it’s also 6 months wasted.
What if 1 year is too much or not enough? You need to know this.
What’s driving you to create this break?
Understand yourself. Understand your needs. Then make a plan.
It’s okay to wish for experiences over things, but as an adult, we get to experience adulting every single day with adult sized bills every single day, so have your plan. Think through your options and make the time work for you and plan your comeback as well as coming back… IF you are coming back!
Let’s leave off with 2 quotes from anonymous Business Insider readers:
“I gifted myself an adult gap year for my 30th birthday. I’ve never been this happy and I’m the most broke I’ve ever been.” ~ Unknown
“I saved up to take a sabbatical. I’m broke now, but I finally found joy.” ~ Unknown
No matter your age, you’ll learn so much, especially if you’re going to hit the road and travel the world. Don’t forget to return! Show other people considering this that it’s time to take the reins, a rite of passage in adulthood as well as youth, and it’s never too late.
Entrepreneurs – Budding entrepreneurs – Be inspired.
Determine your perfect time. Go on a gap year and step out of your comfort zone. Make it happen!
You got this.
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