3 Ways to Take an Adult Gap Year and Why it Might Be Helpful for You to Take One

A gap year or month is usually when students take time off between school and college or college and work to travel alone or with friends. The same can take place for adults after working for 5-7 years or more. It’s not about parties or living it up but rather self exploration, learning new things and wanting a fresh start. After working for many years, it is natural for our bodies, minds, just like the ground and soil to need a reset, rest to be able to give, grow and move forward. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on.

• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose.

• 2:10Jay Shetty?

  On purpose. That's drink A G one dot com forward slash on purpose. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. Confidence isn't something Mazda finds, it's something they practice. That's the thinking behind every Mazda. With proactive safety features designed to help keep you more aware, more connected and more engaged with the road ahead. It's why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports safest new car brand and has won more twenty twenty six I I H S top safety pick plus awards than any other car brand. As of July twenty twenty six. Visit W W W dot I I H S dot org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Visit Mazda U S A dot com to learn more.

• 2:53Jay Shetty?

  Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. If you repeat this week, this month, this year, for the next three to five years, are you going to be closer to who you want to be and where you want to be? Or are you moving further away?

• 3:16Jay Shetty?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose. My name's Jay Shetty. Whether this is your first or fifty first listen, I'm genuinely so grateful to have you here as part of the community. You're genuinely not a subscriber, a follower. You're a community member because I love it when you share themes, topics and ideas and participate in the conversation beyond the podcast. And that's really what's inspired this one. I'm always looking at the groups that I've created on Facebook. I'm looking at D M's, I'm looking at comments and I'm seeking inspiration for the next topic, the next themes, the next ideas that you want me to tackle in these solo episodes. So trust me, I am listening, I am totally aware.

• 3:58Jay Shetty?

  And as you notice, I share a lot of your reshares and insights from the podcast as well. So keep those coming. But this truly is our fifty first podcast since we started around six months ago. And that for me is a huge, huge feeling. It's so, so exciting and I can't wait to share more insights with you on just how amazingly you have responded. Responded to this podcast and how incredible it's doing. Thank you so much for all your support. Now, as you know, this podcast is all about adult gap years and why it might be time for you to take one. Maybe you're interested in one. And this actually came from a group discussion I was having both online and offline. And so many of my friends now getting to a place in their life where they're taking a gap year,

• 4:43Jay Shetty?

  or they're taking a sabbatical from work, or they're taking a gap month, or a few gap months. And I started to notice this trend. And then I was looking at online chat rooms and conversations. And I saw a lot of people saying like, yeah, I think it's time in my life that I need to take a sabbatical. I need to take a gap year. I need to take some gap months. So I thought, why not create a podcast to share some of my insights around gap years, gap months, sabbaticals, how they work in your life, how you can get the most out of them, and what impact and benefits they really have in your life. So one of the things I'd like to start off straight from the bat is that I've taken so many gap years or months in my life.

• 5:24Jay Shetty?

  And I can only say good things about them. And I can only say that they've been powerful in my impressions, powerful in growing my skills, and powerful in my learning. And so just for those of you who don't know or have no idea before, a gap year or month is usually when students take time off between school and college, or college and work to travel alone or with their friends. Now, the same can take place for adults, usually after working five to seven years or more, could be 10 to 15 years. And it's not about parties or living it up, but rather it's about self exploration. It's about learning new things. It's about learning and exposing yourself to new cultures. It's about wanting a fresh start and perspective.

• 6:08Jay Shetty?

  And like I said, it's also referred to as a sabbatical. And that idea actually has its origins in the Hebrew Bible, right? So every seven years, farming and agricultural work was paused to give the land a break, a rest, or a Sabbath. After working for many years, it's natural for our bodies, minds.

• 6:30Jay Shetty?

  Just like the ground and soil to need a reset to rest to be able to give, provide and grow again. So, so many of us, because of our conditioning from the educational system, because of our conditioning from parenting, we think we literally have to go from one level to the next level, to the next level, to the next level. Now, if you've ever played a video game, you don't get a rest period, you get a loading period, right? You get a refreshing period, but you don't get a rest or reset period. So we've almost been conditioned to believe that you go from one thing to the next thing, to the next thing, to the next thing, to the next thing, to the next thing, to the next thing. And that's just how life works. And the crazy thing is that when that's been your experience of life, you almost see taking rest as a negative thing.

• 7:16Jay Shetty?

  Right? You almost see taking a break as a bad thing. You almost see taking a month off, oh my god, you must be so lazy. Taking three months off? What are you even gonna do at that time? Taking a year off? What are you crazy? Who's gonna pay your bills? So these ideas actually become less and less popular because of how we've been conditioned to look at rest. Now, I know when I was a monk, I used to sleep about four hours and we could do that because we're meditating for so much longer. Since I left being a monk, I don't wanna sleep for four hours. I sleep for my eight hours if I can. That's my focus of trying to get good eight hours of sleep.

• 7:55Jay Shetty?

  And because it's so important to me now, for a few years, the corporate world, the business world, the entrepreneurial world, it wore sacrifice and pain as like a badge of honor, like not getting enough sleep was a badge of honor. Overworking was a badge of honor. Not going on holidays or vacations was a badge of honor. It was like, you're only serious, like you're only real if you don't take breaks, right? You're only real if you never ever go on holiday, right? Like you're, you're only like the real deal. You're only really working if you're only working. Like, it was, it was literally like that. You're, you're, you're only work, sorry, you're really working if you're only working. That was the... That was the emphasis. That's how people saw it. That's how we were perceived.

• 8:40Jay Shetty?

  And that's not true anymore. We realize that just as the land needed a Sabbath or a rest, we need that too. Now, of course, our weekends can be that, our weekday evenings can be that. But sometimes we're looking for shifts in our life. Sometimes we're looking for redirections in our life. Sometimes we're looking for rerouting in our life. And when you're trying to overcome a big transition, when you're really trying to shift, when you're trying to reroute, that's where gap months, gap years, and sabbaticals start to be really powerful.

• 9:24Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. I know how important every hire is for a business. If you need to make the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed sponsored jobs helps find quality candidates when you need the most. You can reach who you need based on whatever criteria you're looking for, like skills, certifications, or location. In fact, people are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast.

• 10:07Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe, listing items is a quick and simple process. And once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet. Be less wasteful and maybe make some extra money along the way. And if you've been thinking about a wardrobe refresh,

• 10:52Jay Shetty?

  this can make it feel a little more worthwhile. You're not just letting go of clothes, you're getting more value from what you already have. Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Home should be a place that feels like a sanctuary, a space that truly reflects who you are. But it can be challenging to balance style, budget and endless options. I was looking to create a dedicated calm space for my morning meditation and reading, but I was struggling to find pieces that felt grounding but could also stand up to daily use. I went on Wayfair and found a beautiful, solid wood accent chair and a bookshelf. Now that corner is my favorite place to anchor my day.

• 11:36Jay Shetty?

  The quality is incredible, it's built to last, and it completely shifted the energy of the room. Plus, you can shop with Wayfair Verified, where product specialists carefully vet items for quality and functionality, so you can shop with more confidence. And if putting it all together sounds like a headache, Wayfair can handle delivery, installation and assembly. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Right, this isn't just about I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I need a holiday. This isn't just about I just need seven days off by the beach.

• 12:20Jay Shetty?

  This is like, I need to reflect on where I'm going. I'm feeling like the compass of my life is telling me to slow down and that I need to move in another direction. I'm, I'm feeling like I know that if I lived this year, every year for the next five years, I would end up much further away from where I want to be and who I want to be. That's what gap years, gap months and sabbaticals are so powerful for. If you're having that reflection right now, and this is the best way to do it, close your eyes. No, I mean it, literally close your eyes. Apart from if you're driving, if you're driving, please do not close your eyes. But if you're not driving or doing anything that requires vision, of course, close your eyes.

• 13:03Jay Shetty?

  And if you are driving or doing anything else, then come back to this exercise. But I want, and you know, take a screenshot of this moment in the podcast right now so that you know when it is, so that you can come back to it. And I want you to close your eyes. I want you to visualize your daily process of what you do at work, what you do in life, your daily habits. Like almost walk through your day in a chronological order from the moment you wake up to when you get to work, to when you get home, to when you go to sleep and everything in between. Visualize the process.

• 13:41Jay Shetty?

  And really now visualize your Monday, your Tuesday, your Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, do it all.

• 13:58Jay Shetty?

  And ask yourself, if you repeat this week, this month, this year, for the next three to five years, are you going to be closer to who you want to be and where you want to be? Or are you moving further away? Because it's these incremental, small shifts that can totally reroute a ship.

• 14:28Jay Shetty?

  When a ship is being rerouted, it's not just, oh, we're going left, we're going right now. It's these small incremental steps to get the ship into the right direction. Being a small number of degrees off from where you want to be can take you in a totally different direction. You can open your eyes. I want you to think about it like that. And that's what gap months, gap years, and sabbaticals are so, so powerful for. And that's why they're so important in so many people's lives. So, you know, most people never take one of these. My first one was just before going to university.

• 15:12Jay Shetty?

  And I ended up that year doing a lot of voluntary work, doing a lot of philanthropic work and traveling as well and working part-time to pay my bills that I had. And that was such a powerful year in my life because it made me so self-aware. I developed skills so that when I went to university, I was actually coming from a much more mature place and I knew myself better. It also helped me focus on decide what I really wanted to study. Right? And what I really wanted to dive into and what I really wanted to learn so that I could be more focused as well. Now, the next three were when I became a monk and that was straight after graduating. From my degree, I went straight off, turned on my corporate job offers. And those three years, of course, which you've heard about and I can't wait to tell you more about.

• 15:57Jay Shetty?

  I mean, I haven't told you half of, I haven't even told you a quarter of the story of that. We'll definitely get into that. And then the one year I took again was to integrate back into the world when I came back from being a monk. Now, all of them was, oh, wait, wait, I forgot one. And another one was when I was trying to move on from my corporate job into doing what I was passionate about, which is what I do now. So in my life, I've taken multiple transition years. And I'm actually going to relabel and rename these years right now. They are not gap years. They are not gap months. They're not sabbaticals. They are transition years, transition months and transitions, right? They are transitions. And I say that because when you hear the word gap year or gap month, it's like, wow, why have I got a gap in my life?

• 16:41Jay Shetty?

  No one wants a gap in their life. Like, why do you want a gap in your life? But we have to have transformational transitions in our life and that requires awareness. It requires focus, right? How is something going to evolve or how is a transition going to work in your life? If you're not even aware of that transition in full. So I really want you to think about these as transition years. And gap years feel scary because the majority of people don't do them. And gap months seem less trendy than gap years, so even less people do them. And that's not a good reason sometimes. And one of the things you have to really ask yourself is, do I need a gap year? Or do I need a gap month, right? Do I need a transition year or do I need a transition month or months? It's not just about making this trend of doing a year.

• 17:26Jay Shetty?

  But the point is, if you're looking to reroute, if you're looking to redirect, if you're looking to reflect. If you've gone through something traumatic, something challenging, something big. And you need a break, you need to press pause. If you are someone who wants to change careers, if you're someone who wants to focus more on your family. If you've got a big shift you want to make in your life. This is something worth considering, right? Especially career changes, life changes, family changes, changing country. Those are important things. Now, I want to talk a bit about how gap years work for students because a lot of the reasoning why they do it and how they do it can be similar as well for adults, right? It doesn't change that much because if we didn't do it when we were younger,

• 18:10Jay Shetty?

  it's likely that we're going to do it when we're older. So 230,000 people between the ages of 18 to 25 take some form of gap year break or transition year, right? And this also applies to adults too, right? It's like there are reasons for breaks like the ones I've given. And 60% of the 230,000 said it helped them choose what subject they wanted to study at university. Now, how is this applied to adults? Well, if you're confused about what you want to do with your life and you take a month or three months of unpaid leave or paid leave from your career to figure it out, 60% of the 230,000 people that did that felt more certain about what they wanted to do next.

• 18:54Jay Shetty?

  A lot of us feel rushed in to do something. A lot of us feel like we just ended up doing something or settled for it. A lot of us just jump from job to job to job because we're going for benefits or paycheck, but don't feel it's meaningful or passionate or purposeful work. Now, 80% of people believe their gap year added to their employability. It increased their network. It increased their understanding of different cultures. Maybe they learned a new language. They came back more enthusiastic and driven for work because they missed it. Imagine feeling the feeling of missing work positively. Not feeling like you missed out and you have to catch up on work, but you missed work. Gap months, gap years and transitions have such a powerful place

• 19:37Jay Shetty?

  in reinvigorating our enthusiasm around work. And it's normal, right? This is what we also forget. It's normal to lose the zest, the passion for a career or something if we've been doing it for quite a long time or if we got into it in the first place for a reason that we can't change now. Maybe it was something your parents wanted you to do. Maybe it was something that was reliable. Now, sometimes a gap week can be enough to reset and reboot, but we have to treat it differently from a holiday. So here are some of the scientific reasons and the research behind them. So People who take transitions or gap years or sabbaticals, it actually promotes wellbeing. It reduces their stress and it gives a whole new set of opportunities to develop new knowledge and skills.

• 20:21Jay Shetty?

  And this is exactly what people are using it for, right? It's not just about how, oh, can I go and sit on the beach like that you can do on a vacation? But it's okay, what can I learn? What can I grow in? What am I going to do as my next step? The second thing that research has found is that people who came back to their roles after transition years, transition months, or a transition month, actually were more confident in their role because they felt they could think outside the box. They felt that their new experiences from different industries, different ideas could inspire them. The people and the stories they'd heard had changed the way they thought about the same work. See, we need to be able to bring fresh eyes to our workplace.

• 21:00Jay Shetty?

  And we never bring fresh eyes if the same eyes have been looking at the same thing for the last X number of years. So that fresh experience of meeting new people, having new experiences, is such a great way to get started and such a powerful way to make a difference. So I highly, highly, highly recommend, that is one of the reasons as well. And this was incredible and this work's applied to specifically corporate careers. But people who left, obviously leaders had to take their place. And usually we think those leaders would take their place. But actually what it did is it helped companies build legacy better. Leaders stepped up more, became more effective and responsible.

• 21:42Jay Shetty?

  And then when they came back, the leaders got their jobs back and they were able to collaborate better. They had someone who understood their pains, their challenges better. And a lot of companies now, some of the biggest corporates in the world, are starting to do paid sabbaticals. They actually know that they're going to lose people if the work's not meaningful. And so actually being able to give people a month off or three months off is actually going to keep people in the long term. And this is a long-term thing for you too. There's only so long you can keep pushing yourself. There's only so long you can keep burning yourself out, right? There's only so long that you can keep putting yourself through those challenges before you run out of steam.

• 22:22Jay Shetty?

  You don't want to kill yourself for a company that would, you know, that would leave you tomorrow if you drop dead. Like, the company's not going to care. And so it's so important that we care for ourselves. And mental health leave is becoming more common. You know, being able to have that leave, which is paid and unpaid, is becoming more common. So this isn't just about you taking a risk, right? This is not at all what I'm recommending. I'm not at all recommending a risky strategy of just leaving everything and leaving it all behind. I'm talking about practical methods of us realizing if this is right for us. Now, this was a story that I found in a Forbes article that I wanted to share with you. So it's a story about a man named Michael Tieso.

• 23:03Jay Shetty?

  And he was working in a windowless cubicle at UPS, right? And of course, he was thinking about how he wanted to leave and move on. And inspired by all the travel people in his world and the travel blogs that he'd been looking at, he decided to save up enough money so that he could travel for a year. Now, he brought his lunch to work. That was one of the first steps that he did. He started selling a lot of stuff on Craigslist. He downgraded his apartment, which takes a big, you know, a big decision, from 1,400 to a $200 bedroom, right, in New Jersey, which you may say, wow, that's crazy. I'm not ready to do that. But listen to this. And in a year's time and on a 50,000 salary, he had saved $15,000.

• 23:47Jay Shetty?

  And then he headed out to China, to Southeast Asia, to South America, where he could live on a budget and he could live on less. And people there are living on $18 to $25 a day, right? And then after that, he was using some of the things that he'd saved up. And he said he knew that working in a corporate office wasn't for him. And he took on a part-time teaching gig in the other country as well. But he knows, but through traveling, he said, I discovered so many other things I could do to earn a living. Right now, that's not a magical approach. You can see there's a lot of strategy there. There's a lot of planning there. But what I'm giving you is ideas and thoughts about how your life could become more meaningful by you investing time in meaning.

• 24:31Jay Shetty?

  If you never make time for meaning, how can your time become more meaningful?

• 24:38Jay Shetty?

  Right, if we never make more time for meaning, how can our time become more meaningful? And so, these are just some examples of how you can do it. So I want to talk you through four steps. These are the four steps of how you want to go about it. The first thing you want to ask yourself is, why do you need a transition month, months or years? And how much time do you need? Like, why do you need a gap year or a sabbatical? And how much time do you need? And the best way to do that is to start with your weekends and your weeknights. Spending your weekends and weeknights on the things you love, things you're passionate about, are going to help you understand how much time you really need off. Do you need a month? Do you need three months? Or do you need the year? And I would recommend that you start thinking about it as a month off.

• 25:23Jay Shetty?

  A, because it's the most practical, it's the most financially viable, and it could actually solve most of your challenges, right? And you could go back to the same job. And one month, three months and a year, all count. You could move straight back into the same career that you had. And so I would really look to that. How much time do you need? And why do you want that time? What is your deep why? If you know why you need something, you will find a way towards it. Find your why. In my case, before I went to university, it was I really wanted to do charity and philanthropic work. When it was becoming a monk, I knew that I wanted to develop those skills that I learned as a monk that I wouldn't get anywhere else. When it was transitioning to live my passion, I knew that if I didn't break then, I would have got too comfortable in my corporate career and had to make a change.

• 26:07Jay Shetty?

  And actually, they say that the ideal age for taking a gap year is between thirty-seven to forty. Age's thirty-seven to forty, right? We're not saying it's our twenties. Usually, a lot of us get stuck into something in our twenties and we start working. But actually, thirty-seven to forty is a recommended time for a lot of people to take adult gap years, right? So that's what you want to think about first. The second thing you want to do is you want to see how this is going to help you overcome your inner fears and your insecurities. You want to overcome your excuses like, "Oh, a down economy is a bad time." Researchers say that down economy could be a good time because companies are trying to hold on to their talent, but they may want to be able to give you some more. The way at that time would time off.

• 26:49Jay Shetty?

  And this is what I'm talking about, that it has to be done practically. So you want to give yourself an opportunity to research and overcome those excuses. The third thing is, when you start making a plan, you want to start saving up ten dollars, a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars per month, right? You want to start putting that aside. Now, the crazy thing is, let's say you did this, and in three months' time, or six months' time, or a year's time, which is usually the amount of time it takes to prep today, Kegapia. So I want to point that out, that overcoming your inner fears and your insecurities takes about three months to a year. So it's not like, oh, I decide today I need a gap year, and you take one straight away. It's like, okay, I need a gap year. Let me start planning for the next three to twelve months to do this. Now, let's say in three to twelve months, you decide not to take a gap year. Guess what?

• 27:34Jay Shetty?

  You just saved twelve thousand dollars, right? You just saved twelve hundred dollars. You just saved a significant amount of money that's going to be useful anyway. So if anything, it teaches you good habits. But if you know you're planning for something, it also gives your mind at ease. See, when the mind knows it has another option, it calms down. Your mind gets more stressed when it feels it has no options. And that's why careers that we're not passionate about kill us, because we think we have no other options. We don't realize what's out there in the world. We don't realize the opportunity that exists in the world. We only spend time with people that are like us, that work in the same companies, that look like us, that think like us. And when you're around people that look like you, think like you, and behave like you, you forget that there are people that are different to that.

• 28:17Jay Shetty?

  And so it's so important that when we travel, when we move, when we work in different environments, we learn so much, right? We learn so much. And the fourth and final step is you building, through that strategy, that three to nine to twelve month plan, you start building faith and confidence. You start recognizing why it's so important, and you keep asking yourself that question. If I stay here in the same place for any longer, is this going to be the right place where I want to be? Is that who I want to be? And you start building faith that you need to take this step. And we forget that, right? We stay in the same place. Because we think change is going to be hard.

• 28:58Jay Shetty?

  We forget that staying in the same place can sometimes be the hardest thing in the world. So like I'm saying, I'm not expecting you to go broke. I'm not telling you to take loans. All I'm saying is really reflecting on, do I need one month? Do I need three months? Do I need 12 months? Where are you at on that spectrum? And then creating a three month, six month, nine month, 12 month plan to get to that stage is the place to start, right? That's where you get going. And this is why we need to take more gap years and months in our life. It's like a forced reset, right? It's a way of giving ourselves more time and energy towards something we love or finding what we love, or an opportunity to discover something new.

• 29:41Jay Shetty?

  And so often we waste our weekends and evenings. But a gap day to start off with, a gap weekend can also be a great idea. And we shouldn't underestimate the power of giving ourselves space, right? We never see space in people's diaries, which means you have no space to think, no space to readjust, no space to change direction. And imagine if the roads that we drove on had no spaces. When you don't have any space, then you just stay on the same track, only to realize down the road that you're not going in the direction you wanted to go. What's the point of climbing up a ladder if it's against the wrong wall? What's the point of driving down a nice road if it's not the road you want to be on? Well, what's the point of getting to a destination only to wonder

• 30:24Jay Shetty?

  why you ended up going in that direction? And it's so weird that we do that. It's so strange that we do that. So I really want you to think about this deeply. This is not a rash decision. This is not a please test this out this week kind of podcast. It's something to really think about, something to really reflect on. Do you need a gap month? Do you need a gap year? Do you need a transition in your life? Do you need a moment in your life to reflect? Can you start doing it on weekends and weeknights as a starting point? And start building it out? Can you save up to just take one month off? Can you speak to your employer about finding out about how they work with sabbatical packages? Because a lot of employers do today. Remember, this is your life.

• 31:08Jay Shetty?

  It's up to you to get the right care, the right support, and to move in the right direction. So today's podcast was all about adult gap years, adult transitions, and stepping towards that. And why they're so powerful for your self-discovery, exploration, learning a new habit or skill, traveling to a place you've never been before, working in a new country, all experiences that only make you a more valuable asset to your family, to your friends, to your company. Right? The more you grow, you only become more valuable. You have to have faith that personal growth is the most valuable thing to your professional growth. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.

• 31:53Jay Shetty?

  I hope that you enjoyed today's discussion. It was definitely an open-ended, thought-reflective, thought-provoking podcast, very different from some of the other ones, because I really wanted to talk about this topic with you. I know it's a hard decision. I realize it's super challenging, but I wanted to give you some insights and thoughts that could get you started on the journey. Thank you so much for listening. Make sure you share this with students. Make sure you share this with your colleagues. Make sure you share this in your workplace. I want people to really take care of their mental health. I want you to really take care and be aware of burnout. And I really want you to be proactive about your self-care and your personal growth and your personal health. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you again next week. Thank you so much.

• 32:39Jay Shetty?

  Thank you so much for listening through to the end of that episode. I hope you're gonna share this all across social media. Let people know that you're subscribed to On Purpose. Let me know. Post it. Tell me what a difference it's making in your life. I would love to see your thoughts. I can't wait for this incredibly conscious community we're creating of purposeful people. You're now a part of the tribe, a part of the squad. Thank you for being here. I can't wait to share the next episode with you.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' health care to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes, and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, theHouseMajorityPac.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.