I did funemployment for 3 months, too (11 months, if you consider part time work). This is a great post on it.
OP really hit the nail on the head -- one of the hardest parts of the time off is not having work-related goals and being OK with it. When you're employed it's easy to spend time imagining what you'd do with your time off. When you have this long stretch of time off, it's hard not to think about work. I was ashamed anytime my mind would drift to worrying about "what work will I do next?". In the end I think this is natural and OK, but it's important to fight the urges.
However, I don't agree that you should have 0 goals. You should have personal goals, just not work/career related goals (and OP kind of means this).
All of those non-work things you told yourself you want to do? Now is the time to do them. Travel the world, go backpacking for weeks in the woods, live out of your car, read too many books, appreciate art, volunteer. Take chances and explore.
The single biggest question you come to terms with in your time off will be "Who am I?".
You'll realize that since childhood you've always been working towards career/life goals. Get good grades in K-12, do well on SATs, get into a good college, choose a good major in school and work hard to learn, get internships, get that perfect job, work your way up the ladder in that job, get married, buy a house, have kids, make more money so your kids can repeat this cycle.
When you take the time off without goals in the typical "life flow" you'll have moments of existential crisis because you're not doing what you're "supposed" to be doing. These are important times. Learn to embrace the feeling. Smile and remind yourself that you're not doing what you're "supposed" to be doing because you're doing whatever the hell you want to do.
Just don't squander your unhinged time. Spend it wisely exploring the world and yourself.
When you get back to the "real world" you'll never see it the same again :)
I'm in the 'funemplyment' situation since december (with little bits of work here and there). After a good two to three months of terrifying nothingness I started noticing new desires and goals, many of them completely different from the 'bucket list' of should-do's I had accumulated over the previous post-college years of working as a freelancer (and consuming massive amounts of Hacker News).
I think if I had started working on my should-do's right away, I would've remained stuck in this Hacker News fueled desire to write an app, start a company, learn a new programming language, attend meetups, or 'hack my hourly rate'. And if I had traveled, I would've done so not to find solitude or adventure for the sake of it, but rather so I could tinker on some project or connect with 'interesting' people.
Now, I'm not arguing that these are bad goals. It's quite possible I will do these things too. But I'm very happy that I chose to 'do nothing' for a while, as it awakened old goals and desires that I had completely forgotten about since I started working.
Strongly agree with this. Travelling the world, doing an ambitious programming project, learning a new language or starting a hard weight lifting program is a whole lot of work. It's moving your ambitions away from one type of work that society says you should do, and moving it into another type of work that society says you should do.
The moral of this story is: Have the guts to take a step back from your goal systems for a few months. Don't worry. Be happy. Chill out. Relax. Have sex or whatever. Complete Portal 2 in one sitting. Eat more chocolate than you should.
Way too many of us have been overachievers our whole lives, and keep overachieving even when we have the opportunity to refrain from doing so. This article, which I found brilliant, says that you should try to stop doing this for a while, and see how it makes you feel. If you can feel the existential angst come on full bore, you might want to take a step back and think about what that means.
The single biggest question you come to terms with in your time off will be "Who am I?".
Yep. Did about 2 years of funemployment (including freelancing and an attempted startup), and one of the things that still gets me to this day is "Who am I? Why am I living? What is the purpose of this? What is the Big Plan?". Not in a depressive sense, mind you, but in a very questioning way.
Once you've been doing it for a month or two, and you see that the world continues to spin without all of that stuff you were raised as seeing as so important, you really start to question what's actually important in life.
At least for me, it changed my approach to interviews completely--the person interviewing me is just some gal or dude, and there's nothing special about them other than that they have a say in my hiring.
Between startup fluctuations I've - practically speaking - been unemployed but financially stable.
I must say, I lose my mind not having "a project" or work. For the author, his project was pushing stop, not forming goals and playing Starcraft. Good for him!
I'd get depressed without a cognitively challenging project at least on the horizon.
For some people, keeping their minds busy and dreaming is their "junk tv" - often in the form of work.
> For some people, keeping their minds busy and dreaming is their "junk tv" - often in the form of work.
I'm not sure if you're using the 'junk tv' analogy as an explanation or self-criticism (or something else), but it seems to me like 'junk tv' is a good analogy to explain why even for self-challenging individuals it might be good to not do this for a while, in the same way that not watching junk tv, or spending some time in silence might be worthwhile for over-consuming or overly chatty individuals.
"When you get back to the "real world" you'll never see it the same again :)"
I've been thinking about taking 9 months off (specifically traveling China, and learning Mandarin).
I'm worried that with all that taste of freedom I'll have an even harder time coming back and sitting in an office 8hrs/day (some weeks it's already like pulling teeth)
Then don't. It's really pretty easy to get in to contract programming (making assumptions here). Especially if you default to long-term contracts. It's basically like a job but you get to pick how many hours you put in.
OP really hit the nail on the head -- one of the hardest parts of the time off is not having work-related goals and being OK with it. When you're employed it's easy to spend time imagining what you'd do with your time off. When you have this long stretch of time off, it's hard not to think about work. I was ashamed anytime my mind would drift to worrying about "what work will I do next?". In the end I think this is natural and OK, but it's important to fight the urges.
However, I don't agree that you should have 0 goals. You should have personal goals, just not work/career related goals (and OP kind of means this).
All of those non-work things you told yourself you want to do? Now is the time to do them. Travel the world, go backpacking for weeks in the woods, live out of your car, read too many books, appreciate art, volunteer. Take chances and explore.
The single biggest question you come to terms with in your time off will be "Who am I?".
You'll realize that since childhood you've always been working towards career/life goals. Get good grades in K-12, do well on SATs, get into a good college, choose a good major in school and work hard to learn, get internships, get that perfect job, work your way up the ladder in that job, get married, buy a house, have kids, make more money so your kids can repeat this cycle.
When you take the time off without goals in the typical "life flow" you'll have moments of existential crisis because you're not doing what you're "supposed" to be doing. These are important times. Learn to embrace the feeling. Smile and remind yourself that you're not doing what you're "supposed" to be doing because you're doing whatever the hell you want to do.
Just don't squander your unhinged time. Spend it wisely exploring the world and yourself.
When you get back to the "real world" you'll never see it the same again :)