A while back I heard about a guy who gave some of his employees one year with pay to do whatever they wanted, to pursue whatever passion they would if they didn't have to work a 9-5. I've often wished for that opportunity so that I could devote more time to writing, block off several hours a day as if it were a job to do so. Focus: if given one year with your current salary to follow whatever passion you have or do whatever you wanted to do, how would you spend that time ?
If I had a year off with current salary, I would definitely try writing on a full time basis, I've always wanted to do that. The tough part of something like this is when you don't 'have to go to work' the world has a funny way of imposing a lot of stuff on you that eats up your time. For instance, I only have about 25 hours of work a week. Not bad, right? Unfortunately, that work is spread out over the entire day - and because I work 'part time' I end up doing all the house work/chores/run errands, which gets me right back to 'working' full time. I'm not complaining, but it seems funny how people can be very liberal with your time if you don't have a 'full time' job. The other thing I'd do with a year off is be Kevin Spacey from 'American Beauty.' Minus the getting shot part, of course. Oh, spoiler alert in prior sentence.
Travel with my camera. No question. I'd ditch most of my bills: probably rent a storage unit to put most of my crap, rent out some cheap, tiny apartment so I had a place I could go back to, buy a new laptop for processing, and spend everything else on plane tickets and living expenses. Plan out a route to hit the best weather along the way. Take ten thousand photos. I wouldn't have a year and I wouldn't be getting paid, but I've got my eye down the road towards whenever I next change jobs. I've got a chunk of cash saved and I'll probably take off for a few months, do some traveling around Europe and see what I can see. Come home when my money runs out.
I would travel like mad man. Hit all the places Ive always wanted to see in North America and elsewhere. Ive only been to Europe once, never been to Asia or Africa so Im sure I could fill up a year, travel cheaply if Im smart about it, and just see the world.
Good chance I would spend the year drinking my way around the world. If I could afford the flights that is otherwise I'd just get real acquainted with the local pubs.
I'd be a ski bum. I have a long list of resorts I want to visit some day, and I figure I could knock em all out in one season if I had the time. I'd want to drive everywhere, so I'd get an SUV and make up a little sleeping area in the back. I couldn't leave my dog behind, but I'm pretty sure she'd love tearing it up in the snow all over the country. I have no idea what I would do with the other 7 months in the year though.
I'd spend the year trying to grow my side business to the point that I could support myself full time doing that instead of going back to my actual job. Which would mean I get to spend the entire year building custom smokers and making barbecue all year. I'd also take some time to travel around the country to all of the major barbecue regions to try out the best of the best and pick up any tips and pointers that I could.
I would pack up the motorcycle and tell the wife and kids not to burn the house down. I probably first would head out to see the four corners of the United States, run up to Canada, Alaska before heading south for the Winter. Maybe make some time to go backpacking a bit also. A more realistic vision is making sure I exercise an hour a day and pursue a couple of business ideas I have had.
I am with the majority so far, as in i would travel all over the world, and would love to take pictures of every were i went. I was always to cheap to travel when i was younger and regret it now. It would be even better if my wife could get the same year off, not cause I had to have her around but it would be even more money to travel.
If it was more than a year, I'd probably go into clinical psychology to become a shrink and help people. Since it is only a year, I'd go traveling with the focus of going to see old shit. Old castles, tombs, shit like Stonehinge, Great Wall, etc. I'm a bit of a history buff. I'd toss in like whale watching, playing with Dolphins, snowboarding and ziplining. I'd also take some improv classes and make a run at stand-up. Not saying I'd be good, but I'd sure give it a try.
Sea of Cortez with a sail boat and a small skiff fishing and diving, from Puerto Penasco to Cabo and back again zig sagging through all the islands. I would probably end of just staying there.
I'd probably combine two of the most popular answers: travel and write. I'm currently trying to write my first travel book whilst also working full time. I'm about 160 pages into the first draft after three months-ish work. I imagine it's a hell of a lot quicker writing a book about something you've already lived through than writing a novel. What I'm working on at the moment is mainly about my trip to Algeria but also throws in some past travels to Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Karabakh and Transnistria. If I had a year off work plus a year's wages I'd probably spend six months travelling followed by six months writing. The travel would either be across Africa from Gambia to Eritrea through the Sahel or through Central Asia, from Xinjiang to Iran. The writing would be done in a rented house somewhere in the Western Isles, where it's cheap, away from temptation and is familiar enough not to distract.
I want to go hunting, dotting my way across North America. I'll start in Canada and work down to Mexico. Every type of game is game, but I'm not bringing home the meat. I'll be traveling by small RV with a big BBQ pit/smoker trailer. I'm cooking the meat for anyone who wants it in whatever town/rural area I'm closest to, and the skin, head, horns, whatever goes to the first person who claims it. ... Wait a second. Is this a year off assuming you're single and child-less? Or in your current predicament? Because in my current situation, if I'm off for a year and getting paid (and she's not "?!?!?!?!") I'm gonna do a shit load of work around the house, 24/7, until I collapse. Then wake up and do it again. She will make me pay for my sins of luxury. And maybe I'll get sex if I ever clean out that shed. Maybe.
I'm already planning to spend next year travelling, first around South America and then to London where I'll try and find bits of work to combine with savings and fund trips to various places in Europe and North Africa. So, Focus: I'd that that without the 'find work in London' bit.
I would hook up the camper to the truck on day one and travel all over the US returning home on day 365.
In my dreams I'd be traveling. If I were single and childless I would probably do similar things to what others have posted. And then if I had time and money left over I might take classes in something that I enjoy. But in reality I would have many non-work obligations that would require me to stay put and require me to spend my salary on the same types of things that I always spend it on, because that is the whole point of having a job. So here is my super boring reality response: I would use that time to do projects around the house - stuff that I want to do but have not the time to do it myself or the money to pay someone else to do it. I posted a pic here once that happened to show my hideous kitchen wallpaper - that would be the first to go. The projects would be with the eventual sale of the house in mind. I would also do other stuff that results in money savings but requires time I don't currently have - coupon clipping, strategic sale shopping, selling shit on ebay, etc. For personal edification, I would probably try to write a novel. I've had some ideas floating around in my head - not for the great american novel, but something pulpy that I would enjoy writing and be thrilled that I actually finished and say that wow I actually wrote a frickin novel. And if I somehow managed to publish it and make a little money, that would be gravy.
Travel. To every Major League ballpark in the country. Spend some time in the mountains. Spend some time on the beach. Come home. Renovate my house.
I would drive cattle from Texas to Montana, but on one of those dude driving things like in City Slickers. Hopefully I would find some gold, but it's not essential.
I would pay good money to watch that reality show. "The Search for Curly's Gold" starring Roxanne and the Rooftop Pony, Thursdays at 8:00 on TLC. 7:00 Central.
If I were single and free... I'd set up month-long apprenticeships with half a dozen custom gunmakers out West, to spend time with and learn from some of the top craftsmen in the world. I'd travel from here to Oregon, across South Dakota, Montana, British Columbia, and Idaho. The trip itself would be worth it, but sometimes I wish I had the freedom to further learning the trade and especially from those who I admire most. The rest of my time would be in the Minnesota wilderness, hunting and fishing up and down the state. If I had a full year to dedicate to it, I'd try to tag at least one of every legal species of fish and game in the reg books. I'd get a truck or van and live out of it with a tent and my dog, checking off the critter list as seasons pass. I'd have my camera on me the entire time too, so I could thoroughly document everything in photos and video for later. If I had to stay here in Minneapolis, I'd skip the internships and just work in my shop every day. Sleep in and work 'til I'd get the opportunity to see what I can really accomplish by putting in a real week's worth of work at my bench, something that full-time work deprives me of. But I'd still try to spend half my time outdoors too.