How do you know when an idea or movement is taking off? One measure might be a big, meaty article in the New York Times.  Or, better yet, the Sunday Times!  

That’s precisely what will happen for the Career Break cause on Sunday, October 17, when this piece, Making the Dream Trip a Reality, hits the stands in the NYT Travel section.

In it, author Susan Stellin writes:  

It’s a dream anyone with a passport fantasizes about once in a while: ditching everything to travel the world for a year, or at least long enough to forget about office life.”

The article goes on to discuss the possibilities and pitfalls, and quotes several members of our MeetPlanGo tribe.  It’s available online now, if you’re curious (or not a NYT subscriber) and has already amassed dozens of comments, from the encouraging…

…do it, Do It, DO IT! We saved for years, planned for months, and have never been happier. We feel younger, healthier and more in love with life than we could have imagined. Hey, you only live once, right?”

to the downright skeptical and cynical…

Nice idea, but there’s no way I would quit my job at 51 and take the risk of long-term unemployment when I return. Likewise with selling my apartment. This just doesn’t mesh with responsible retirement planning unless, of course, you have the ingenious idea to operate seminars on traveling the world that people will pay you for.”

I left my own long comment, of course, espousing my “seize the breakaway” philosophy, which I’ve been living for the last 20 years…  

Considering yourself blessed may be the first step to breaking away. Another is to watch for the right timing, as one comment noted.

Lose your job? It happens, so why not be ready and use that break. Had a good business year or got a bonus? Trust the fates and ride away on that windfall. Planning a family but want to run wild before offspring tie you down? Go!

Visit friends and family overseas. Caretake in the Caribbean. Home-school while island-hopping. Housesit in Oslo while that family is on holiday. Frankly, there are countless ways to run away–and kind souls eager to help you.”

Harboring your own wanderlust or getaway dream?  I invite you to check out the article.  Pass it around.  And post a comment of your own.  If you’re a seeker (or a believer), help us make this kind of work-life flexibility and freedom mainstream–or at least a more visible and valid lifestyle choice.

Finally, I’d like to shout out a special congrats to my new friend and compatriot Sherry Ott (and her partners at Briefcase to Backpack) for scoring this nice piece of press–and galvanizing a movement whose time has finally come.

Full speed ahead!