WHAT I discovered ON getaway (THOUGHTS ON BEING A travel WRITER)

Posted: 07/05/2012 | July 5th, 2012

“Isn’t your life a vacation?” people asked me before my cruise. “You’re always traveling!”

Yes, I’m always traveling, however it’s not a getaway — travel for me is work. It’s fun work, as well as I’d rather be a travel blog writer than back at my old workstation job, however it’s still work. All these blog messages as well as fantastic suggestions don’t come naturally. I search whatever out, do research, as well as comply with up so visitors to this site have the info they requirement to travel the world cheaper, better, as well as longer.

Back when I was just a easy backpacker, I had nothing to do as well as all the time to do it. daily was Saturday. Now, that’s not the case. I keep in mind when I was composing my book in Cambodia. buddies would state to me, “Let’s go get crazy tonight,” as well as I would say, “I can’t, I have a Skype satisfying in the morning!”

That’s the genuine reality about travel writing: it’s not a vacation; it’s a job. just like any type of other job. many people picture me in far-off locations doing fantastic things, going on crazy adventures, as well as jet-setting to exotic locations. And, sure, that happens. however so does the side you don’t see on the blog: sitting in my space for days doing work, repairing HTML errors, working on books, composing blogs, having Skype meetings, as well as answering emails. (On a great day, it only takes me two hours to response all the concerns I get!) nobody believes about all the back-end stuff that goes on, as well as in some cases it feels like there’s much more of that than actual travel.

Last week, I went on getaway since I needed a break from work. I needed to relax, fail to remember about everything, as well as hit the reset button.

My getaway taught me a lot. First, I realized that the old adage about your body taking a week to unwind is totally true. It took me six days at sea before I lastly stopped believing about work. (It didn’t assist that royal Caribbean provided me totally free Wi-Fi, which implied I was still inspecting Twitter, email, as well as Facebook.)

At one of the numerous conferences I went to recently, somebody asked me if I believed I would still be doing this in 10 years. My instant response was, “I hope not.” as well as then I went on to qualify it, as if I had to validate my answer.

While on this cruise, I had a great deal of time to believe about my knee-jerk reaction to that question.

And as I believed about it, I realized what’s been bothering me about blogging lately: this site has ended up being much more work than fun. My second realization was that somewhere along the line, travel had ended up being a job. I never truly desired this to be a job. I just desired a method to make money to travel more. Back in 2008, I wished to understand what might keep me traveling the world. Being a travel writer!

Now, I like traveling as well as delight in this blogging thing much more than I’ve delighted in doing anything else, however the unexpected realization that your enthusiasm has ended up being a task can be a shock. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve come to recognize just exactly how much of a task this site is. My travels are totally different than they were when I utilized to be a easy backpacker. On the one hand, I like what I do as well as the people I meet. however on the other, I not-so-secretly desire I might go back to a time before this blog when daily was Saturday as well as I might do whatever I wanted.

What my getaway truly taught me was that as a travel blogger, it’s so simple to ended up being consumed by your blog that you can in some cases miss the forest with the trees. As a blogger, you’re always connected, there are always emails to answer, you begin to look at your trips with the blog messages they can become, and, before you understand it, your life becomes your blog as well as your blog becomes your life.

And when that happens, you get burnt out, and, like in any type of other job, you lose your terminate for it. You don’t dislike it, however it’s now “work.”

And then the light bulb in my head came on: I requirement to take much more vacations. I requirement to take much more trips offline as well as trips that won’t make it on this blog. Not all my travels can be about this blog. Some just requirement to be for me…and only me.

While I was gone, my blog didn’t explode. My visitors didn’t all hit unsubscribe. The world didn’t end. No email came that needed an instant response. My life wasn’t over!

Over the last year, I’ve let this blog ended up being my life instead of it just being part of my life. It’s so simple to be linked that I (and I believe numerous other bloggers) fail to remember that we can disconnect as well as whatever will be all right.

So, I say thanks to my recent getaway for reminding me of a reality I’d forgotten:

We ought to work to live, not online to work.
 

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