A lot of students have gap years and in fact, I am currently in the stages of planning my own gap year which will take place in the next year or so. However, I have noticed that there are a lot of different things to think about when it comes to planning these so I thought I’d share a few of the things that I have done so far so it might be a bit easier for you. I’ll also go into details about why I think gap years are so great.

Why should you have a gap year?

In my opinion, there are so many different reasons why you should consider having a gap year. The first is that it will give you the chance to travel to somewhere that you have always wanted to travel.  They say that travel broadens the mind so I don’t see how this can be a negative thing at all. The second reason that I think a gap year is a great idea is that it gives you a great life experience.

Being at University myself, I know how easy it is to lose touch with real life sometimes. Sure, there are still a lot of things to do and it is hard work sometimes, but there are no bills to worry about (yet) and no budgeting to do. Travelling in your gap year will force you to have to think about your costs and how much you are actually spending. You will have to think about hotel costs, food and much more as if you don’t, you’re not going to be able to get home. This is something that I would imagine would keep you in good stead for the rest of your life.

Task #1 – Figure out what you want to do

There are a whole range of different things that you have the chance to do in your gap year; some people will travel the world and others will choose to get a job and earn their selves a bit of extra money. Of course, figuring out exactly what you want to do or where you want to go in your gap year is the first thing you will need to think about.

For me, I have always wanted to travel around Europe as cheaply as possible. This is what I am currently aiming to do in my gap year, at least for some of it anyway. Once you have figured this small thing out, you will be able to start planning your year.

Task #2 – Budget for it

Of course, your gap year will require at least some money, even if you aren’t going to be travelling the world or anything extreme, so it might be worth thinking about getting a job. Take my idea of travelling around Europe for example, even staying in hostels whilst backpacking as cheaply as possible is going to have some cost to me.

It is for this reason that I have begun thinking about earning money for my travels in advance. I could of course travel somewhere and work whilst there, but I want to be as free as possible during my gap year, so it makes more sense for me to plan ahead. I am now working around 20 hours a week at a local shop near my University which earns me a bit of extra money, most of which I am saving for my travels.

Task #3 – Actually do it

This is the hardest part for a lot of people (myself included) as most people will always dream of having a gap year, but many will never actually do it. Yes, a gap year can be scary, especially if you are planning on travelling to unknown countries and living off a small budget, but isn’t that the fun of it? Think about it, once you finish University, you’re more than likely going to have a full time job and what I refer to as ‘real life’ will begin.

Having a gap year will be your last real chance to be completely free of any ties so you need to actually do it! This is what I keep telling myself, as it is easy to talk yourself out of it. I am now close to having enough money (I think) so I’ll be thinking about heading off as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Obviously, there is a lot of other things that you will need to think about such as whether you will travel with anyone, how long you will go for and so forth, but these are the three things that are the biggest decisions in my opinion. They are also the things that you will need to think about before you really start planning the details of your trip.

I wanted to share with you all some exciting news and also fill you in on some changes around here in the coming months. As you know, it has been my goal for the past year or so to build a new career for myself and find a way out of a job that I feel absolutely no passion for. The reason I started this blog was to explore exactly what it was that I wanted to do with my life, and also to share my passion for exploring the world and finding something that would allow me to earn living while doing exactly that.

Over the past few months I’ve been sharing with you ways in which you can become location independent and earn a living from anywhere in the world, and in doing this research I’ve finally found that thing that I believe I’ve been looking for all along – a career path that will make me happy, give me flexibility, and challenge, inspire and scare me all at once. Initially I felt like I wanted to be a career travel blogger, but I believe this site has evolved into something different – I’m beyond the days of wanting to spend my life living out of a suitcase and on the road 365 days a year, but I still want the freedom of being able to pop over to the US or back to Australia for the summer while still having all the creature comforts of home wherever I choose that to be (at the moment London is it). And I believe this site has evolved into being a lot more than a travel blog – Hopefully it is a resource for others on the same path as myself looking for a career that will give them everything they are looking for and more. I hope that through exploring these topics myself I have been able to provide useful information to budding location independent entrepreneurs and travel bloggers.

So, in saying that, I’m excited to share with you all that I soon will be entering the exciting and terrifying terrain of starting my own business. I don’t want to share too much at this stage but I can tell you that it will be a UK online store specialising in an area of interest and passion for me, and I hope to launch it sometime in the next 6-9 months. Coming to the realisation that starting a business is going to be the only thing that will truly make me career-happy in the long run has been extremely nerve-racking, but I’m so excited for the time ahead – and to be honest, it’s also a relief after two years of searching and yearning for a ‘sign’. They say that ‘when the student is ready the teacher will appear’ and this has certainly been true for me – the concept of setting up a business has always been an option, but for some reason (perhaps it’s the fact I turn 30 in a few months) recently I’ve felt like it’s make or break time and honestly put some thought into it.

So what is changing around here? Not too much, I’m happy to say – I’ll still very much be blogging and running this site, but as of now I’m not going to stick to a certain post schedule. This is mainly due to the lack of hours in the day for me right now while I still continue to work full time for another couple of months while setting up my business and  getting things ready for launch. My plan is to work until the store goes live, and from that day on I will be officially self-employed! I really look forward to that day and the ride I’m about to willingly put myself on.

As I navigate my way through the set up process I’m sure there is going to be so many things to share with you guys, so I’ll be posting regularly about how things are going, and sharing my lessons learnt and other bits and pieces that I think will help anyone thinking of also taking the plunge. I’ll still be continuing with my blog updates on income and stats, but these will be 6 monthly moving forward – that way there will be lots to report while still being frequent. I still have a few trips planned here and there, so I’ll be sharing these with you also. My hope is that within a year or two of starting the business I’ll have a lot of freedom in where I base myself, and I’m hoping my dream of moving to New York will be happening sooner rather than later too!

If you guys have any questions, please feel free to shout out, and as always I’ll be replying to comments and emails as much as I can so please continue to say hello every now and then!

Melbourne is stunning this time of year – not too hot, not too cold, just right for sitting out for a few wines along the Yarra of an evening. This shot was taken from Southbank, the city’s hip restaurant/bar promenade along the bank of the river – the best place for people watching in the city, you might even spot a local celeb if you’re lucky!

I’ve just spent an amazing few days in the Malaysian capital and I loved it there! Apart from the weather being amazing, the food was fresh and delicious, and our hotel overlooked these two beauties – perhaps the cities most famous landmark. If you have the chance to visit, check it out – I have a feeling it’s going to be the new Bangkok!

Greetings from Dubai! This picture was taken from the hotel Al Qasr which overlooks the iconic Burj Al Arab. Today I’m meeting up with some friends to do the done thing here in Dubai and have a very long, very boozy lunch! Happy weekend everyone!

‘This is bootcamp, not Hollywood!’ This is the phrase that has stayed with me after my first ever bootcamp experience, and while it brings back some great memories now, the moment I first heard it at 5.30am being bellowed from the mouth of an Army dude dressed in camouflage, not so much. This is the kind of talk that makes you wonder what the hell you signed up for, but thankfully this bootcamp not only pushed you to your physical limits during the day, but it pampered you and your aching body at night.

I’ve always been one for keeping fit, strong and healthy, so I jumped at the chance to recently take part in this first ever bootcamp by the new Lifestyle247 brand. There were always things that appealed to me about bootcamps, but being a food lover (don’t even start with the wine) and someone who struggles with being told what to do (I channelled my occasional disruptive compulsions at school into making paper planes) I could never bring myself to go on one, because at the end of the day, when I take a holiday I want to feel rested, not starved and yelled at for a week!

Thankfully, Lifestyle247′s bootcamps were the complete antidote to this – lots of exercise and fresh air during the day (including dance, long hikes, kettlebells and sprints) many laughs with our trainers (they thought they were tough, but after seeing them take a Bollywood dance class, we knew better) hot tubs, workshops and spa treatments in the evenings and the food was to die for – Lets just say that if I could’ve taken home the lovely chef Miranda I would be the size of a house – probably not the best start after returning home from a fitness holiday. And to top it all off, being at the peak of a valley in the Yorkshire Dales in a huge luxury barn conversion makes everything better – even the 5.30am starts!

So all in all, I had a fabulous long weekend! I came home surprisingly rested, relaxed and ready to tackle pretty much anything. I would definitely recommend checking out Lifestyle247 if you are planning a trip to Europe in the future, you’ll not only get fit, pamper yourself and lose some pounds, but you’ll get to see some countryside and stay in the most amazing barn too – the perfect mix for a wannabe fit foodie loving traveller!

Previous Post – Photo Of The Week: Summer In Positano

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It’s not long now until the days are longer, the sun comes out to play and hopefully we all get a holiday! Italy is such a stunning place to relax over the summer months, and it’s photo’s like this that remind me how amazing summer is during the cold depths of winter. I’d love to be visiting Positano this year, where’s your dream summer holiday destination?

January was a tough one to beat with it being my one year blogging, but February managed to top it! Here’s what went down…

Goals Achieved

February 7th was officially my blogging anniversary, so it’s been fab seeing that whoosh by and gearing myself up for the next one. February was a great month – income was the highest it’s ever been, I took part in a fantastic-ly fun press trip (stay tuned for a post next week on this!) and I also networked with quote a few bloggers and industry peeps both online and at events.

Things have been pretty insane lately, so I’m definitely looking forward to the trip I have booked next week – a month of travel bliss! I’ll be visiting Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and then Australia, I can’t wait! My last proper trip was six months ago, so this feels like a long time coming, that’s for sure. I’m going to force myself to relax and try not to think about work too much, and will be doing my best to get a tan! I’ll still be blogging while I’m away (maybe not so frequently though), so keep an eye out for some hopefully sunny photos and tweets from the beach!

Month 12 Stats

Traffic - 6,938 visits (Down slightly from last month, but hey, it was a short one – thanks February! Traffic is increasing steadily but gradually though, and most of this is thanks to Google – now my site is over a year old I’m hoping this continues)

Link Building – The last month has been crazy busy, but I’m regularly doing link exchanges and also finding that people are linking back to my site too, which is great.

Content – I have been trying to mix it up with content recently and fill some of the destination gaps and also try to answer questions that I’m regularly receiving from readers in regards to location independence/blogging. If there’s anything you think I’ve missed please let me know and I’ll cover it in an upcoming post.

Twitter Followers - 2,064 (Up 25 since last month)

Facebook Fans - 631 (up 12 since last month)

RSS Subscribers - 210 (up 5 since last month)

Alexa Ranking - 238, 142 (Increasing – hoping to get below 200,000 again soon)

Income – It was my best month ever! I made $1553 in advertising which consisted of a few  renewals and also taking on two new clients which purchased multiple ads. It’s exciting seeing this number increase as it means people are starting to recognise this site as a solid resource – this makes me very happy!

About My Monthly Blog Updates

I wanted to start these monthly updates to hopefully help other bloggers out there just starting out or wanting some support in starting to monetize their site or growing it in some way. I certainly don’t claim to know it all, but I’m hoping that the lessons that I learn will be helpful and inspirational to others looking to make a living from blogging.

So, I think it’s fitting to put the question out there and see what you would find helpful to read about in these monthly updates – I will do my best to include it each month, so please let me know!

Previous Post - Photo Of The Week – Port Fairy

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Back when I used to live in Australia, every year my friends and I would go to Port Fairy (a coastal town around 3 hours drive from Melbourne) at the start of March for ‘Folkie’ – the famous folk festival that takes place there annually. It’s usually a debaucherous long weekend filled with copious amounts of alcohol, dancing and taking the piss out of each other as much as possible, and I can honestly say that if you ever have the chance to go, you will not forget it in a while, unless of course you indulge in a little too much cask wine, in which case anything is possible!

Previous Post – Inspirational Traveller Guest Post – Brendan From Vagabundo Magazine

Next Post – Month 13 Blog Update