Freedom Lifestyle

WE'RE GOING TO NEW ZEALAND... to live in a van đź«Ł (our sabbatical plan)

• Sam Laliberte • Season 6 • Episode 100

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sneak peek into our exciting plans for a multi-month sabbatical in New Zealand

Ever dreamed of exploring New Zealand in a van? In this solo episode, Sam shares show sabbaticals aren't just about travel; they renew your perspective and energy.

Takeaways:

  • financial aspects of taking a sabbatical (how we’re navigating our nerves about pausing work)
  • the 5 key pillars / goals we’ve set for this mid-career break  
  • our strategies for managing income streams and maintaining client relationships while on sabbatical
  • how to leverage travel hacking and credit card points to make your dream trip affordable
  • Our NZ bucket list: freedom camping, the Great Walks and Kiwi Burn

Get a sneak peek into our meticulous plan for our four-month adventure around the world, with stops in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Costa Rica.

Resources:

About the show:

Sam Laliberte -  entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to “have it all” - financial, location AND schedule freedom.

Speaker 1:

Hello, freedom Seekers, we are back. It has been a few months since I've connected with you here and I've truly missed it. I'm coming off what feels like a season of just fully seizing summer and capturing it. I don't know about you, but for me, I'm always trying to find that balance between making sure I have all the peak experiences and big adventures scheduled into my summer, the big things I'm going to look forward to, the big moments where at the end of the year, I look back on the year. These are the things I'm going to remember but then also making sure I have a lot of chill weekends, those Saturdays where you look at it and you're like, actually I have nothing planned today and someone invites you for a random dinner and you can just say spontaneously yes to plans like that. This feels like the first summer where I actually nailed that, and it's because I didn't do any international traveling. In fact, I haven't left Canada since my last work trip, which was in April. That's not true. I went to Germany for one night to see Taylor Swift for the heiress tour that I really don't think that counts as traveling, though that was just one very long, epic day to go see my girl Tay. Another story for another time. The point is is I found that balance and I think it's because go figure, I stopped traveling.

Speaker 1:

Not traveling has meant that I've had time to go so much deeper in my friendships that are in BC, in the community in the town that I moved to a few years ago. If I'm being honest, it was feeling like my relationships were suffering. I've been digital nomading and working remotely now since 2017. And when people would talk about community and their community, I didn't really know what it meant. I didn't know what that felt like until I just spent more time in Squamish and was just around for these, like Thursday night pickleball games or a Friday night dinner with friends or an afternoon hike All of these casual experiences before I would come home every few months and the conversations ended up having to be a little bit surface level because so much time had passed since I had seen them last that you were just exchanging stories. You were just exchanging the highlight reel. You weren't really like getting into things.

Speaker 1:

But now that I've just been around more, I can just go so much deeper with my friendships, like okay, tell me everything about that. What can just go so much deeper with my friendships, like, okay, tell me everything about that. What were you thinking? The highs, the lows like I want to know a play by play of that experience. Because we got time right. So I feel like I've loved that and I wouldn't have been able to do that if I had been traveling all the time. Right?

Speaker 1:

Go figure, you work so hard to build this digital nomad lifestyle and then you start to miss what it's like just being in one place, not traveling so much has also meant that I could show up better at work and for my clients. I have now run two cohorts of my 90-day coaching program, which I've talked a little bit about on the podcast before. But it's a 90-day program where I help you either launch or grow something. And because this program involves having literally unlimited access to me essentially I can't imagine having to run this program while also navigating time zones and flight schedules and making sure I have good Wi-Fi I've really been able to go deeper with my clients and give them everything and finding the freedom in that, finding my own freedom lifestyle in being in one place. And this has really just made me come back to the whole premise of this show, which is the freedom. Lifestyle is going to look different for everyone and it might look different for you at different times of your life, like it gets to be fluid. You can choose what freedom and flexibility means to you on a month by month, quarter by quarter, year by year basis. The whole idea is making you the creator of your life. You're the one driving this thing, you're designing it and you get to choose what freedom and flexibility looks like for you.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you're going into a season where you're going to be working 40, 50 hours a week, but it's very focused on something that is important to you and meaningful to you, and that's freedom for you during that period. Maybe you're going on a sabbatical into New Zealand where you're not going to be working for a few months and are just going to be traveling and adventuring, which is ultimately what I'm here to talk to you about today, despite having such a great summer and the fall in the horizon where I'm going to be soaking up more time in BC, not traveling, going deeper with my clients. Shoulder season is coming, the rain, the snow, the cold and for me that usually means it's time to go. I'm about to blow my life back up and go back into the chaos of traveling, because jared and I are starting 2025 doing a multi-month sabbatical in new zealand, where we are both going to be taking a break from our jobs and just focus on our relationship, our personal development, focus on the fun and adventurous side of our lives, and I want to talk a little bit about that, because this decision to take this gap of employment was not taken lightly. Jared and I are in very different situations. I have my own business with multiple revenue streams. He's been working for one employer for six years. It's a very different setup. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about how we came to this decision as a couple, how we prepared for it so that we could actually take this gap in employment, and also what we have planned Maybe give you a little preview of what we're doing on this trip places we're going, big experiences.

Speaker 1:

We're investing in cool resources that we've found that are unique to New Zealand, because maybe New Zealand is on your bucket list some point in the future, or maybe it's in your short-term itinerary and you're listening to this episode for inspo. That is what I have planned for you today Introduction to why we're taking a sabbatical, how we were able to do this in our careers, what we have planned, what we're going to actually do, where we're going to go, how we're going to travel around. You probably saw in the title we are going to be living in a van for one month of it, so we'll talk about that, and then also what success looks like for this experience. Hopefully you leave feeling inspired to plan for your own sabbatical one day. Before I get into that, I will mention that if you're on my email list, you probably already saw an email go out this past weekend about how this is going to be your last chance to work with me. So I am running one final cohort of your next 90 days.

Speaker 1:

Q4, starting October 1st will be the final chance for you to join the program. This is going to be the biggest group I have yet. I'm going all in with this group of dreamers, giving you everything I have, knowing that it's going to be a while before I can show up for my clients in this way again. So really looking for a few more dreamers who are ready to end the year strong. Everybody who's already signed up and showed early interest is so committed. I'm really excited to be working with everybody. I'm really excited to introduce people in the program to each other because I have attracted some really cool clients over the years. So if you've been considering working with me or you had eyes on this program, this really is the time Starting January I will not be working, which we're going to come back to and talk a little bit about that, because I'm definitely nervous about not working and taking a break from my clients, so I'll also share a little bit about how I'm going to do that and keep them engaged. Clients so I'll also share a little bit about how I'm going to do that and keep them engaged. But Q4, final 90-day sprint. You can learn more about the program at whatsyourfreecom slash next 90 days. Book a free call with me. We can chat about it, learn about your goals, see if it's a right fit, but quickly. Service-based entrepreneurs you can either be early stage or more established who also have a podcast or are leveraging their personal brand in some way to build an audience for their business. That is the group of people who are in this program. If you are either of those and you have something that you want to launch or something you want to grow before 2024 comes to an end. I'm your girl, let's chat.

Speaker 1:

New Zealand as a destination for our sabbatical has been on the bucket list and intention now for years. We originally actually envisioned doing it with a dog. When we made our vision board for like a five-year horizon, we pictured living in a van and actually having a dog with us the whole time, and then we were going to bring the dog back to Canada and that was going to be how we got a dog. We are no longer involving the dog in our plan. I'm sad to give up that part of the dream. I think it was maybe a little bit too ambitious, but ultimately we have a cat and I don't think the cat is ready to share space with a dog. So we are postponing our dreams of getting a dog, my husband and I but we are saying yes to 2025 being the year that we do the sabbatical and we live in a van.

Speaker 1:

So ever since we moved to Squamish in 2020, we have really become educated on van life. That is a big part of the culture here. We have friends that own the makerspace in town and they have an entire program where you can go there with your van and learn to outfit it and how you can live in your van. We have campgrounds all around town that are free for people to live in their vans. There's even drama around the Walmart parking lot in town because people who live in the vans were like living in the parking lot and like peeing in the parking lot and people didn't like that and honestly, that's kind of fair. So I know a ton of people that live in their vans and we just have always been so curious about that, about this idea of just living in your car, essentially, and where do we want to sleep tonight or where do we want to go? Or sometimes we'll be at the park for like a slacklining meetup and we'll say like, oh, do you live in squamish? People would say I do right now and say what do you mean? Well, my van's parked on this street this week and I don't know what I'm doing next week and maybe in a couple months I'll be up here and it was just always so fascinating to us. And so, go figure, we're gonna literally fly to the other end of the world, from Canada to New Zealand, to do something that people literally do on the public street near my house. But that's okay, we have accepted that. That is our plan, as silly as it sounds, new Zealand is also pretty similar to Squamish and BC especially. We're going to be mostly in the South Island, which I'm going to talk a little bit about the differences and how we chose which one.

Speaker 1:

But the decision to live in a van really got sparked when we came to Squamish in 2020 and we learned a little bit about that lifestyle. We knew that every six, seven or so years we would be ready, jared, let's be clear. Jared would be ready to take a break from work. So we last took a big break from our work in 2018. We did a four month backpacking trip across south america where we were not working and we loved it. Of course, going on full-time vacation with your husband traveling, traveling the world Sounds pretty good. It is pretty good, and so, while we don't have the trust fund to do that indefinitely also, we probably wouldn't be satisfied by that we knew that we'd be ready for something like this again in five, six or so years. So the time is now. Jared feels ready to take a break from work. He's had those conversations with his employer. They have approved it. I'll go into some of the nuances that I feel comfortable sharing on his behalf in a second.

Speaker 1:

But we got the okay to move forward on that idea and when we thought about living in a van, we thought about just renting from one of these companies. When we went to Burning man, we used Cruise America and very quickly found out that 90% of people who go to Burning man we used Cruise America and very quickly found out that 90% of people who go to Burning man use Cruise America. We were a little embarrassed, honestly, driving around in this van that had just the branding all over it super basic, super templated experience, also quite expensive, with a lot of rules. So I just kind of accepted that that would be my fate in New Zealand until we found this website, camplify, which is essentially a peer-to-peer digital marketplace to connect people who have recreational vehicles or RVs with people who want to rent them. And an RV is just, I think, a broad term. When I picture an RV, I picture like a big motorhome kind of we're going to be renting just a van. There's not going to be like a shower or a full kitchen in it, um, so much smaller, not really sure how to describe it yet, but I am going to include some pictures on social media and if you're on my email list, you already know the exact van that we rent in. But this website I'm talking about Camplify. It exists in New Zealand, australia, spain and the UK.

Speaker 1:

I was so excited when I saw that, because not only could we get something that was a lot more affordable, but also something that was super cute. Ours is a 2011 Mazda Bongo and it's named Fernando, and it's totally outfitted to be able to live in it and make your own food. We have a kitchen in the back with just a sink, a two burner gas stove, a small fridge, even has a toilet in it, which really gives it this status that's important in New Zealand, which is a self-contained status. So if you have a vehicle that's considered self-contained in New Zealand, you could take advantage of freedom camping, which essentially is this rule and legislation in New Zealand that if you have self-contained vehicles, you can pretty much camp for free or at a very minimal cost in different public areas, different beaches, different forests or other scenic spots. Okay, so freedom camping is a really fun and cool, unique way to take in New Zealand's beauty, and it's regulated, so it still protects the environment and all the local communities.

Speaker 1:

But this is something that we thought was really interesting and a way that we wanted to experience New Zealand. We also felt like, okay, we're in our mid-30s now. Every year, I'm getting more and more picky, more and more particular. 30s now. Every year, I'm getting more and more picky, more and more particular. Realistically, how much longer do I have where I'm going to be in this phase of life, where I'm willing to actually live in a van and live in this type of environment? So the time is now. We're super excited about this. We got the van booked, we have a bit of a route picked out, which I'm going to talk a little bit about in the episode.

Speaker 1:

But one key event that we're looking forward to, that we're going to be bringing the van to, is Kiwi Burn. So Kiwi Burn is New Zealand's regional version of Burning man, which I've talked to you about on the podcast. I've talked to you about what actually happened last year when we attended. It's a little R-rated. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, please don't listen to it with your parents. But this is an annual event that happens in New Zealand that has those same principles. So self-expression, community art, self-reliance leave no trace. And it happens to take place in January when we're going to be there. It's going to be on the North Island. I had a friend that has gone and said really great things, so we hope to go.

Speaker 1:

I say hope because what's different about this regional burn is that it's almost 100% volunteer-based, and next year they're actually going to make it 100% volunteer-based. So this year there's only about 400 tickets that are being sold in the lottery, similar to Burning man. If you want to buy a ticket to go to Burning man, you have to enter the lottery and see if you get lucky. Both times I went to Burning man, I got lucky and got tickets to the lottery, but no one else in my group did so it does really feel like not guaranteed that you're going to get one, and even less so knowing that there's so few for the Kiwi Burn. You might be thinking, sam, why wouldn't you just volunteer? Like, don't you love volunteering, putting on workshops and giving back? I really hope to. I'm trying to investigate that.

Speaker 1:

If you have been following me on Instagram, you know that this summer, jared and I launched Conscious Kitties, which is a new brand that we're operating under that brand name when we offer ourselves up as event facilitators and workshop hosts. So this summer was the official launch of conscious kitties. We got booked to deliver workshops at a few different pretty big festivals here in canada, including base coast, and we have three solid offers that we're now shopping around to different festivals. We would love, love, love to give a workshop at Envision Music Festival. That's definitely on our dream list. There's a really cool event in Portugal called Boom. That would be very fitting for us, definitely like conscious music festivals and Kiwi Burn. If they'll accept that as a volunteer role, we would love to do that. So we're navigating it.

Speaker 1:

But right now we've planned for those five days to be at Kiwi Burn with Fernando, our van and our home. For the first month or so that we are in New Zealand, we're lucky to have some friends in that area of the world, which is pretty cool. So we have some friends that live in Christchurch in New Zealand and another friend that's going to be in Nelson, and then we have friends in Australia actually who that's going to be in Nelson, and then we have friends in Australia actually who we're going to start the trip in Australia and they're going to come with us. But if you're thinking about going to New Zealand, the big spots that are on our radar are definitely Queenstown, wanaka, milford Sound, christchurch and Nelson definitely want to make it to Wellington. I think that's closer to where Kiwiburn is. That's probably as north as we'll go, but we're really going to focus on the South Island.

Speaker 1:

I think if you're going to New Zealand, that's one of the first decisions you want to make. If you have a short period of time, am I going to go to the North or the South Island of New Zealand? They really differ in geography, climate, population. So the North Island is definitely more populated, more tropical, lush landscape, has, like major cities like Auckland and Wellington, a lot of geothermal activity. Versus in the South Island, it's more rugged, very alpine scenery, cooler temperatures, fewer people, more of a hub for outdoor adventures hiking, skiing, wind sports.

Speaker 1:

We decided we're going to primarily focus on the South Island. We really want to do a lot of hiking because in New Zealand they have the Great Walks. I think there's 10 of them, but they're officially titled the Great Walks of New Zealand and they're a collection of premier hiking trails that all have just incredible scenery, really well maintained paths, very diverse landscapes. They're often multi-day hikes, so hikes where there's going to be huts set up for you partway through where you can sleep in or do backcountry camping, where you actually hike with your tent which is our plan and actually just pitch a tent along the way for yourself. So there's 10 of them. Definitely, one that we've already booked and are planning for is the Routeburn track, and that one's a three-day track, so we'll be sleeping for two nights in the Alpine just bringing our tent hiking with it. We still need to get a new two-person tent and invest in some gear, but we're really excited about that.

Speaker 1:

So kind of chose the south island to have a trip that's more focused on adventure, activity, nature. Another thing in the south island is they have a town called nelson. They're really known for their water sports. Jared has been kite surfing for years. He's gotten really good. Honestly, I'm so proud of him. It's very sexy watching your husband excel at a sport and be so strong and athletic and, dare I say, masculine, if you know. You know so he's very good at kite surfing, but I have no desire to become a kite surfer. It's very challenging. He's so good at sports and this is probably the hardest thing I've ever seen him have to learn how to do. So I can't say I'm really that drawn to it.

Speaker 1:

But when we were in Italy in Lake Como last summer, we ended up just finding ourselves at an area of Lake Como that was really known for wind sports and they had wing surfing, also known as like wing foiling. It's basically a sport where you are using a handheld inflatable wing, so kind of like a kite or a sail, and you're holding it and you're using that wing to catch the wind, while also standing on a board, and so we tried that in Lake Como on just like a paddle board. That was what our lesson was with. I think it's easier to learn on that and I felt like I got it right away and it was really fun. I felt badass in my wetsuit and just so sporty and athletic and it was cool to learn a sport that takes advantage of a whole other part of nature.

Speaker 1:

Like living in Squamish, I do a lot of mountain stuff, but we're on the ocean and I never go down to the ocean front and do sports down there, like kite surfing has just been Jared's thing. So we think wing surfing can become our thing and we found this town in Nelson, which has like proper camps where you can learn and go to the camp and get instruction every day and they videotape you and you watch yourself and just make a lot of improvement in a short period of time, which is what I need. I think that if I'm going to do it, I want to commit and I want to go all in and this kind of feels like the time to do it Not really working, living in the van, waking up in Fernando, heading down down to I think it's a lake or an ocean I got, I got to learn that, but I know I'll be using the wind. That's the plan in terms of key things we really want to do kiwi burn, doing some of the great walks, doing a sports experience like wing surfing, where we just like set up in a town and just live and breathe the sport for that period of time, and those are like the key adventures that we're going to do. We're going to bookend the trip with Australia to start, so basically arrive just in time for New Year's. December 28th is our flight from Ontario, so we'll do Christmas in Ontario and then head to New Year's in Australia, hang out there for about 10 days with some friends, do New Zealand for a couple months, one month living in the van, and then we'll end that experience by, I think, going to Fiji, maybe doing some surfing in Fiji we have some friends that might be there then and then ending in March in Costa Rica, going to Envision Music Festival and then spending six weeks after that in our all-time favorite spot in the entire world, puerto Viejo, costa Rica. At this point you've heard lots about this will be our sixth year returning to the jungle and seeing our friends there. So that is the plan for the whole four month journey.

Speaker 1:

One of the ways we were able to afford this trip, which we're going to talk a little bit now about how we are able to pull this off, is through credit card points, and I have been talking about this a lot on the podcast. I've had some great episodes about travel hacking where they get very detailed on this, but I will say we found the best deal I've ever seen on a flight point offer ever 54,000 points to fly from Sudbury, ontario, to Brisbane, australia, on December 28th, one of the most expensive times to fly. So that is three flights Sudbury to Toronto, toronto to San Francisco, san Francisco to Brisbane for 54,000 points. To put it in perspective, that can easily be a round trip flight within Canada. So the fact that we found that we were just so stoked as soon as we saw that we took the deal right away.

Speaker 1:

If you are not collecting credit card points yet, you are missing out. This is literally free travel money. This is investing in your future digital nomad freedom lifestyle adventures. As a canadian, my favorite credit card for this and I get nothing for mentioning this, I'm literally just having your back is the aeroplan visa infinite card. They have infinite privilege and just the regular infinite. I have both but the regular infinite. They have this amazing welcome bonus. I've done it a few times. I'm looking at the website right now. It is live the first year. You don't have to pay for the credit card and you get 40,000 Aeroplan points. So 40,000 aeroplane points just for signing up. It was 54,000 points for me to fly all the way to Australia from a very small town in Ontario where it's already expensive to fly to Seriously get on this. I'm so glad I had some travel hacking mentors that reminded me of this potential, because when you're not going to be working for I don't know, three, four months, we'll see what I decide. I'm pretty fluid. Jared has a specific plan mind and me of this potential, because when you're not going to be working for I don't know three, four months, we'll see what I decide. I'm pretty fluid. Jared has a specific plan, so let's get into how we were able to take that time off.

Speaker 1:

Jared is doing a formal sabbatical. He works for a company that already had unlimited vacation as a perk for working there, which is pretty amazing. But because this is going to be a longer period of time off, he needed to do a proper sabbatical. Essentially, that's like an extended period leave from work Typically lasts several months to even a year. It allows that person to take a break from the regular job for any type of personal, academic, professional growth, and it's becoming more and more popular because it really allows your employees to take that time for themselves to come back to work refreshed, excited, having fresh perspectives, new energy, being excited about their job, which, if someone's been working at your company for long enough time to be eligible for a sabbatical In Jared's case it was about six years you could probably be pretty burnt out. So the alternative is you lose that employee altogether and now you have to replace that person. So I think it's a no-brainer. It's a win-win for the employer and the employee.

Speaker 1:

Not all sabbaticals are paid. Some are unpaid. Some employers do partial or fully paid sabbaticals. I'm not going to get into all the details of Jared's arrangement because that's very personal, but I will say he's going to get paid to travel, right? I, on the other hand, do not have an employer who is going to be paying me, so I need to rely on my savings and passive income streams.

Speaker 1:

So when it comes to passive income streams, a huge one for us has been renting out our townhouse on Airbnb. I did an entire solo episode earlier this year on how we've been able to be so successful on Airbnb. If you haven't listened to it, go listen to it. I also share some funny stories about things that have gone wrong, but our townhouses are going to be available for five months, so having someone rent that out so I don't have to be paying my mortgage as well as paying for my van Fernando as well as the various Airbnbs that we'll be staying at is huge. We just like, literally in the last two weeks, locked in a lovely couple who is going to be renting out our place for the entire five-month period. That is the longest time we've ever had one consistent guest. Before that it was three months, which we were thrilled about. But to have someone committed for five straight months where there's no turnover, not worrying about cleaners, not worrying about welcome guides, not worrying about unpaid, not worrying about welcome guides, not worrying about unpaid days, while you have a natural transition, is incredible. And it gets even better. They agreed to watch our firstborn Bagheera, our wonderful cat. So Bagheera is going to get to live in her home and be cared for by these cute people who loved her when they saw her and we feel really good about her being in their company. So that's amazing. That is going to be one revenue stream that I have coming in.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that's really in my control, that's different from Jared, is yes, jared has this stability and security with one employer who pays him every month. What he doesn't have is uncapped income employer who pays him every month. What he doesn't have is uncapped income. So I have the ability to turn on more income when I need it right, and so I now know I've got another 90 days before my trip. Q4 is coming.

Speaker 1:

I am ready to turn on more income. I'm planning to make significantly more money in these three months than I made in the previous three months, which means intentionally saying yes to opportunities that I maybe would have said no to, because in the past I've been trying to work less than 30 hours of work per week, so that's like an obvious one but also just getting really good at launching new offers to my existing clients, upselling to my existing clients and just seeing what I can do with the people who are already in my funnel and who have already worked with me in the past. I've been an entrepreneur now since 2017. So I have thousands of people on my email list, hundreds of clients who have paid to work with me in the past. How can I reach out and engage that group to turn on more income, launch things that maybe didn't exist before and just really turn up that dial on income?

Speaker 1:

Knowing that I'm going to be working less in January, which is another reason I'm doing such a big push for this 90-day program I am worried about losing this momentum, though I think it's a real fear. As somebody who has this amazing client base that I've been nurturing, that I love like. I don't want to lose them. A perfect example of this is I have been producing the podcast for Brave for over three years now. I love this team. I love the host. I love the internal team. I love the content. It's such a good fit. I love this team. I love the host, I love the internal team. I love the content. It's such a good fit. I feel respected, they respect me, and it's just been a really incredible consistent income source and just stable project that I've really been able to own and leverage for three years now. I don't want to lose that for a four month trip and adventure and so for them.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking really creatively about how can I hold on to that client, how can I batch content, do more work in November, december, so that in the new year we have a bunch of content scheduled out and maybe that can work and I can keep my contract with them entirely. You know, similar to my coaching clients, I have some really amazing people in my cohorts that I've been working with who stayed on until the end of the year, which is amazing. Like everybody who was in the first cohort renewed not only for another cohort, they actually signed on for six more months. So I have these amazing people I'm going to just support until the end of 2024. I don't want that to be goodbye forever. So I'm thinking about, okay, what is an async product? So a product that doesn't require me to be live on a call with them, that I can sell them, that can start in January, that keeps them engaged with me, keeps them getting value, keeps them feeling supportive, also still bringing in revenue for myself, but, most importantly, keeping those relationships so that when I do come back I can keep that momentum and I have a lot of exciting projects that I'm returning to.

Speaker 1:

Because a big reflection point for me and kind of a point of tension between Jared and I in this trip and like an area of resentment I realized was kind of starting to build that I needed to just address or it was going to ruin the trip was the fact that I really don't need a vacation. If I'm being honest, this sabbatical is more for Jared. Like I, I kind of live the freedom lifestyle. I'm always working part time. Things are good, projects come and go, clients come and go. There's a natural ebb and flow to my work that just leaves me in a state of always feeling like I have abundance of time and excess. I don't feel burned out versus him, can't really speak for him. I'd like to but I won't. He has been with one company now for six years and that's a long time. To have that mental load on one consistent company, project vision team Like that's a lot of weight to be carrying and be going full speed for six years. So he really deserves a break. It's time for him to, you know, get quiet about what he really wants for this next phase of his life and his career, return to the job with a lot more clarity and fresh perspective. So this is definitely for him.

Speaker 1:

For me, I'm really doing this for our relationship is what I realized. Like Jared and I thrive when he's on vacation shocking, wow, what a big insight, right. But seriously, I'm so looking forward just having those few months with him where we're just doing nothing but enjoying our lives and prioritizing all the things that make ourselves happy physically, mentally. The number one priority each day is like what kind of adventure do you want to go on? What do you feel like doing and just designing each day together, like he's my best friend. And ultimately, if it meant losing all the progress and momentum I've built in my business over the last several years just to have this adventure with him and have this time for a relationship. I would choose us. I would choose us, and he hasn't taken time off like this since our backpacking trip in 2018, so I'm excited to go on this journey with him and really make lifelong memories that I know, will just be another core chapter in our relationship journey and our lives together.

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I also have confidence in myself that if I absolutely needed to start over, if I came back to literally no business and no clients and no revenue and I had to start from zero, I could do it right. I've done it before. I can turn back on the momentum. I'm the one who did it the first time. So if I need to, I can do it again.

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And at mid 30, I still got a lot of life to live. I am going to be working for a while still Four months in the grand scheme of my career. If it's a four month period where my bank account is going down instead of going up, that's scary. It is, but it's so temporary and if we really zoom out on the income line, it is barely going to be noticeable. And so I'm having to do a lot of mental work, a lot of like money stories and relationships with money and being okay with this and being okay with indulging and just enjoying myself, maybe doing something that feels hedonistic or indulgent or radical, and just being okay with that and not labeling it as any of these negative things, but instead taking my own advice, which is life is meant to be lived and life is meant to be enjoyed.

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And if you have a business that you can pause to go on adventure with your husband and a time where he really needs it and is inviting you to go, and you can pause that business and say, yes, that's amazing, that is something to be really proud of. And so, just trying to look at it that way but it's it not always easy I am scared and it feels like a lot of pressure. It also feels like, okay, well, I'm going to be giving up a lot in my career and my business for this trip. It better be worth it, jared, which is also not fair. So, also trying to check myself, we're very clear with what success looks like for this trip. We kind of have these five key pillars we're focusing on. Let's see if I can name them.

Speaker 1:

So okay, experiencing van life and really feeling like we did that and we had that full experience, pulling out new insights about ourselves. So, taking the time to just be quiet with ourselves, journal, do some self-improvement, personal development, inspirational podcast, just deep thinking, pull up some new insights about ourselves, master a new sport. So wing surfing, wing foiling I think is going to be that we really want to leave this experience with a new sport. The relationship so have a pleasurable time together and make core memories that we look back on in our relationship. And then what was the fifth one? Oh yeah, animals.

Speaker 1:

I was like I'm not going to australia without being immersed in kangaroos and animal experiences, being in the wildlife. So, yeah, wanting to have some pretty cool animal experiences, which I think we're gonna do, I found this area. It's, uh, north Stradbrook Island or North Strati, they call it. We are going to be camping on a beach where the kangaroos come for sunrise and sunset. So, yeah, that's another big goal is like animal and wildlife experiences and that's what we want to get out of the trip and we're not going to put so much pressure on it to be anything other than that we're not going to be able to do it all like already we're kind of FOMOing where we're like oh my god, two months is not enough in New Zealand, we want to go here, we want to go here, we want to go here, but we also don't want to be like running from one place to another, completely frantic and not being able to enjoy it. It's like also just accepting that you can't do it all and just making the most of the experiences, but remembering, like, what you're trying to get out of it, and so if the experience doesn't check off a couple of those five pillars, then we're not going to prioritize it and we're just going to prioritize maybe being in a spot longer so we can be more chill, pull out more insights about ourselves, connect more deeper as a couple. Yeah, so that's how we're thinking about it.

Speaker 1:

I hope this inspires you to either look at New Zealand or consider planning to take some time off, either on your own or with your partner. I think it's so healthy to do, whether you're feeling burnt out from your job and you want some new perspective, or you want to transition from one thing to another rather than just jumping into the next thing. Plan to have that break. I think is so invaluable, and then you know, even if you don't need a break, but maybe your partner does, how can you invest in co-creating that experience together and making it work for both of you. I think it's so healthy and I don't think this is going to be our last 2018, and then 2025. We'll see when the next one is, the next time we need it or want it or desire it. The world is big. I want to be doing more than work, even though work can be pretty fucking cool sometimes. So I'll leave you there.

Speaker 1:

If you want to work together, whatsyourfreecom slash? Your next 90 days is going to be the last chance to join this cohort of dreamers. You will have unlimited access to me. We will work together. We are going to end the year strong. I'm also going to be launching things. I'm also going to be growing by the end of the year. So I'll be on your team. I need this just as much as my clients do. I hope to see you there. Let's chat, let's see if there's a way for us to work together in Q4. And until next time, freedom seekers, enjoy your freedom.

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Sam Laliberte

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