Travel To A More Balanced You: How My 3 Sabbaticals Led to Travel Coaching
By: Rebecca Thomas
"In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time."
A quote by Author Anthony J. D'Angelo that sums up my sabbatical experience
perfectly!
Travel has been a love of mine since my early twenties, but life sometimes takes us
on a different path. At 22 years old, after my degree in Travel and Tourism and a rite
of passage backpacking through Asia and Australia I fell into recruitment! Twenty
years later I’ve come full circle and am ecstatic to marry together my passion,
profession and purpose.
I believe it’s all possible once we find balance. Which, hand on heart I can honestly
say I’ve finally found. But it hasn’t always been this way. Rewind 7 years, I was
living in Sydney working consistent 60-70 hour weeks in a highly target driven
environment. Living for the weekend and seeing my family once a year for two
weeks if I was lucky, it certainly wasn’t a life of design.
Life on Manly Beach, Australia; Image credit Rebecca Thomas, Feel
Good Getaways
Two successful sabbaticals involving travel have transformed my world
unrecognisably. Fast forward 7 years, my husband and I now spend the European
summer renovating a barn in rural France which means we are closer to UK family
for 7 months of the year. When the weather starts to cool, we take off for sunnier
climates! Heading back down under to visit our Aussie loved ones we also lace
travel through the journey where possible.
I consider travel to be an incredible educator, healer and source of inspiration.
Stepping out of usual routines, outside of your comfort zone and immersing yourself
into different cultures can help break down limiting beliefs. By being exceptionally
intentional on my second and third sabbaticals I began to dare to realise what was
possible and start to turn dreams into a reality.
So, what did I do wrong in my first sabbatical and how did I make the next two really
count?
Timing
Without really knowing it, I took my first sabbatical in 2011 when I emigrated to
Australia. However, the timing of our second sabbatical was much more intentional.
I had come to a career crossroad. I’d achieved the Director title I’d strived years for,
was responsible for a large team and was unsure what I wanted in my next chapter
of corporate life.
My husband and I had spent 5 years in Sydney gaining Permanent Residency. He
had fallen deeply in love with Australia and was keen to sell all assets in Europe and
make it our forever home. I simply couldn’t imagine being that far away from family
forever and wasn’t ready to commit. We had therefore come to a personal crossroads too. There were decisions to be made, solutions to be discussed and compromises to be reached. What better way to do so than with an intentional period of sacred time off work?
Sydney Harbour, Australia; Image credit Rebecca Thomas, Feel Good
Getaways
Intention
Whilst embarking on our first sabbatical I didn’t consciously set any intentions for our
period of time off work. Catastrophic! Of course, we collected memories and
enjoyed our time travelling but it was more like an extended holiday. Our path was
already set in Sydney and the process of settling into a new country, new job, new
community was overwhelming. To be honest, it didn’t go too well. Gosh, anyone
would have thought I may have needed a coach!
By the time our second sabbatical arrived, I had already become curious about doing
some inner work. I’d started to integrate reflective practices into my day, practice
yoga and explore my connection to a deeper sense of purpose and social impact.
I was passionate about regenerative travel and committed to how our time staying
locally could positively impact communities. To raise awareness of this, document
our travels and learn the new skill of web design, I set up Community Back Pocket.
A travel blog to showcase local hospitality and advocate against tourism leakage.
Our intentions for this 6-month trip (which turned into 8 months) were so incredibly
clear. Together we would spend time back in the UK with family making memories
and exploring the idea of potentially moving back. We would visit our derelict barn in
rural France that we bought 15 years prior to see if still resonated and could be part
of our future. Sacred time was carved out to focus on considering our future as we
travelled through Europe. Dreaming about what we wanted life to look like and how
we would achieve it.
Our derelict barn, rural France; Image credit Rebecca Thomas, Feel
Good Getaways
Why couldn’t we have our cake and eat it? Based on the two key factors being that
we both hate the cold and that I longed to be closer to family in the UK for more than
two weeks a year we created a vision of what living our best life could be.
Integration & Action
This is where the magic happened!
Rather than returning back to life as it were before the sabbatical, my husband and I
sat with a beer overlooking Sydney Harbour and made a pact. We wouldn’t let the
experience become a distant memory and instead would take action and turn our
dreamed-up future into a reality.
Together we planned how much capital we would need to renovate our French
dream house and what income we would need to sustain our somewhat location
independent lifestyle. We then worked backwards and arrived at a 5-year plan.
Being mindful of stepping back into bad habits I was determined to lace rituals into
my life that served me moving forward and kept me focused and accountable.
Breaking down our five-year plan into yearly smaller steps I vision boarded every
January. Not only did this get me excited but helped me stay on track through the
year with the visual as my screen saver on both my phone and laptop. I continued
on my yoga journey and started to expand my curiosity into different modalities
including breathwork and sound healing.
After two years back in my demanding role as Director I quit! I knew that if I wanted
to walk a different path, I needed the one thing my current situation couldn’t give me.
Time. Time for self-development. Time to heal. Time to get curious about how
future me would fit into our future plan.
After falling into a short contract role and before committing to a permanent role, I
took my third sabbatical. This time it was solo! Intentionally so, I wanted to be
certain our plan was genuinely going to make me happy for the next life chapter.
Two weeks prior to going off on leave I attended Gill McLaren’s Think. Plan. Live
seminar. Everything she shared on defining and designing your best life resonated
with me. My husband and I had decided on what our best life looked like, but here
Gill explained how to achieve it into 6 simple steps.
Taking time out whilst in Thailand I worked through Gill’s strategic frameworks, used
the tools, took her pragmatic advice and started to define my Who, What, With, Why,
Where and When. Discovering my strengths, values and passions I started to
explore what I wanted future me to evolve into.
Once back in permanent work, Covid lockdowns were a gift. More time to integrate
and take action. In the words of Harvey Mackay, ideas and visualisations are great
but worthless without action.
Taking action; Image credit Rebecca Thomas, Feel Good Getaways
Finally Finding Balance
In the three years between my last formal sabbatical and exiting Australia for a new
life by design I focused only on what I knew would serve ‘future me’. I engaged a
coach who helped me combine my passions, values, skills desires into a
commercially viable business. I learnt the art of circle facilitation. I listened to
thousands of podcasts and I enrolled onto the world’s only Travel Coach Certification
program.
Thanks to The Travel Coach Network, I’m now a certified transformational travel
coach who inspires, challenges and supports clients to make the most of their
sabbatical or career break using travel. I work with individuals who are at a career crossroads, have important personal and professional decisions to make, are totally
burnt out, recently retired or between roles.
I’ve let go of the guilt that surrounded not being at every wedding, birthday and god
damn milestone there is. Instead, I savour the fact that I’m time and location
independent enough to enjoy those I choose to. I’ve shed old belief systems framing
how work is supposed to look. Alternatively, I’m creating my own path, one that
serves me and those I love. Relationships are thriving either side of the globe and I
am loving having my cake and eating it!
After 3 sabbaticals, I’ve finally found my purpose and wake up every morning
committed to help create a kinder, more connected and equitable world.
Us living life by design; Image credit Rebecca Thomas, Feel Good Getaways
This article was written by Rebecca Thomas, Founder and Director of Feel Good
Getaways, a sabbatical and career break coaching service. Rebecca is an ocean
loving, yoga practicing, story seeking, cocktail drinking, regenerative tourism
advocate who lives for tasty food and beautiful places with the people she loves.
Connect with Rebecca on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
