My Mature Gap Year! - the virtues of a Career Break

Like many Australians after finishing my studies, I took off in the late 1980’s with my then partner with a backpack and a lot of naivety as part of my “rites of passage” into full adulthood. After 6 months in hostels around Europe we landed in London for a couple of years during what was then known as the “big bang”. I was in financial services in the City, my partner was in publishing – we felt like we were in the centre of the world.

Fast forward to November 2015, after almost 5 years back in London my role had come to a natural end and my partner of 15 years and I were hankering to move back home to Sydney. In the intervening period since my first gap year I had really concentrated on my career, lived in Hong Kong for six years, moved back to London, and was incredibly ambitious. I was looking after myself professionally but had there been a personal toll that I was unaware of? Being professionally conservative, when moving between firms I had always made sure that I never resigned from one until I had a new role secured at another. I was always on the treadmill – with limited breaks between roles.

On leaving my last role in the UK - I had no new position lined up in the UK, in Australia or anywhere else for that matter. We had rented out our house in Sydney for another year and initially I felt petrified. Since that time travelling in the late 80’s when I didn’t have a care in the world I got a shock to realise that my personal identity had been completely eaten up by my professional identity and the pursuit of status. No more emails, conference calls, decision-making, no more office politics, no more drivers called James, no need for a suit. Suddenly, I realised that over the years many things that I enjoyed personally were sacrificed for the sake of my career. I really did want to be a DJ once, my cycling had fallen by the wayside and I was reading for enjoyment less and less. While my career was fun and exciting and had taken me all over the world I had really sacrificed a pound of flesh to get to where I was – which suddenly felt meaningless.

This may sound like a self-indulgent first world problem and in many aspects it is. I now feel very lucky and grateful for what life has thrown at me but it really took some time to reframe from self-indulgence to feeling liberated. I can’t really pinpoint a particular time but suddenly I felt the most free that I had ever been it was a time to explore and do very silly things – to get the playful back. We started exploring the world and decided not to worry about career or work - just see what happens. All of our exploring was about friends and our interests. We explored modernist architecture in Palm Springs with old friends from Sydney; did a cycle tour around the Mayan temples in Mexico with friends from London; a road trip around the US national parks stopping in on friends from Sydney in Moab. Had a long weekend in Portugal with friends from all over Europe. Did a cycling boot camp in Mallorca for a month. Explored the Hermitage in St Petersburg with friends who were learning Russian and went to Eurovision in Stockholm with our best Swedish friends to name a few …

Having the time off was so restorative it changed my personality for the better, stress disappeared, I became inquisitive a gain and it was wonderful to be in full explore mode again. It was also wonderful to NOT have a job to go to – no commitments were in the back of my mind – which made the experience much much more pleasurable. I cultivated one of the best handlebar moustaches ever – which would not survive in the corporate world - a bit of juvenile rebellion but hey why not? Our cycling got much better but I have yet to re-explore my DJ side. My partner and I got even closer – spending so much time together was wonderful and he said that he got the fun Mark back during this time.

I feel very lucky and privileged to have been able to have this experience and for a lot of people this may not be possible. However, if life throws you the chance DO IT! Most of us a very risk averse and would feel like we are jumping into the abyss – I know I did. Anything is possible – AiRBnB your house or apartment, join one of those house swap sites – you will not regret it. Use those points you have been accumulating as part of the hideous work travel schedule. Learn that language, do that trek, see those monuments, explore your historical interests. Follow your passions!

In a past life I went to a “motivational” session run by a world leading speaker that my firm had hired – he told us that at this stage in our lives we are never going to be the actor, DJ, tour operator or whatever we dreamt of when we were younger. It depressed me at the time – I am now saying bullshit to that – follow your dreams whatever age you are … the dreams may have changed but we still need to dream.

We had a lovely life in London, a beautiful house and garden in Haggerston, a cottage in Kent but the call of home was too great. We have been back in Australia now since the end of 2017 - and its been a bit of a wild ride .... more to come!