(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)
1. Quit My Job – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $0.00 for charity.
I was almost 38 at the time that I made the 40 by 40 list and I felt the milestone birthday breathing down my neck. I felt like something was missing from my professional life. I was working as an Urban Planner for the federal government. The unfortunate thing is that the agency I worked for wasn’t so interested in what an urban planner had to say. So in October of 2007 I made a big change. I quit my government job in urban planning to get into travel planning.
I love to travel and I really love to plan travel. As soon as I returned from one vacation I was planning the next one. I like dreaming about the possibilities, I like doing the research, I like crafting the perfect itinerary, and I love to share my travel experiences with others. Combining this with my undying love for organization made travel planning a natural, if somewhat risky, choice for me. I knew the pay would be bad, but the prospect of being able to talk about travel all day at work seemed like more than ample consolation for a reduction in salary.
Well, as you will read in the update for #2 on my list, travel didn’t quite work out for me…so I quit that job after a year and am back working in urban planning at least temporarily.
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