The term "retirement job" sure sounds like an oxymoron, but it's become all the rage for recent baby boomer retirees. After all, the point of retirement isn't homogenous across the board: Not everyone wants to stop working altogether once they've retired. In fact, many people save their greatest passions for their retirement years because they'll have more time to spend doing what they love, without worrying about whether or not it will pay the bills.
VocationVacation lets you dip your toes in to test the waters of your dream job before taking the big plunge. And it's not just for retirees. It's a great option for anyone seeking a new profession, including recent graduates just entering the full-time working world and those in need of a mid-life career change. VocationVacation offers a chance to turn passions into lucrative careers, regardless of whether you're just now leaving those responsibility-free college days behind or crossing the threshold from a lifelong career into retirement.
Just think: If you could do anything for one day and potentially turn it into a career, what would it be? Sports announcer? Comedian? Artist? Photographer? Brewmaster?
Can't make up your mind? There's a
dream job finder on the company's Web site to help you decide, as well as a long list of already available VocationVacations to get the ball rolling.
Depending on the passion of your choice, VocationVacation provides access to more than 300 mentors for a fee of between $600 and $2,000. The company then sets you up with a mentor in your field of dreams for a one- to three-day total immersion mentorship, allowing curious workers looking for a possible career change (or those simply trying a particular trade over the short term) to immerse themselves in a lifelong aspiration for a few days.
These experiences can open up worlds (both figuratively and quite literally) of opportunity for growth, whether financial or personal. These mini "working vacations" are worthwhile whether they prompt a new direction for your career or help you realize that your "what-if" career may not be such a dream after all. In either case, these out-of-box experiences are sure to be unforgettable, beneficial getaways. And it's one vacation that will double as an investment.
So instead of taking your less-than-fulfilling desk job and simply shoving it, now you can take your dream job and start living (and loving) it.
If you don't want to shell out a few hundred (or thousand) bucks for a mentor through VocationVacations, there are other do-it-yourself resources.
Check out
Delaying the Real World by Colleen Kinder for more great ideas and resources for thinking outside the cubicle and turning your dream job into a reality. Although the work's subtitle suggests it's geared toward 20-somethings--a younger audience who's not yet ready to run the rat race--it does offer a vast array of ideas for a change in pace that will appeal to all ages.
Get Your Motor RunningThe aforementioned book helped motivate me out of my office chair. And I realized I could just as easily write my own anecdote about "delaying the real world"…or, rather, LIVING it. It was the perfect time to move out of my element for a few months to make my goal of implementing an alternative therapy program in a much-needed environment a reality.
Although I'm stateside again and back in the swing of the workday world, my philanthropy hasn't stopped. In fact,
it's only just begun. My long-term goal is to ship books to children all over sub-Saharan Africa so that they, too, can revel in the delight of storytelling.
I'm currently collecting children's books to ship to St. Mary's Hospital--Valley Trust, the Don McKenzie TB Hospital and the Don McKenzie Clinic for HIV in the KwaZulu Natal province in Durban, South Africa. Check out
Easter in Africa and
Books for Botswana for more on my first overseas charity venture at the
Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence in Gaborone, Botswana.
My work even inspired others to get involved. I was awestruck when I received an e-mail while I was overseas from a family who changed their traditional celebration during Christmas to help the cause. See
House of Peace & Campfires for details.
Go ahead: Make your dream a reality. I dare you!
