This month’s cover story in Outside Magazine is entitled “50 Ways to Change Your Life” — and one of those life-changing strategies comes from yours truly. In the section called “Give yourself a hall pass,” by Amy Marr, I share four tips for creating travel-time in your life:

“I don’t have time” is the most overused excuse in the book. “Too many people sit passively, waiting to get enough time off to travel,” says Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding. “But it will never happen, because the American corporate world isn’t set up to reward you with free time.” Potts’s strategies (below) will help you create your own.

1) Take all of your vacation time
Studies consistently show that Americans rarely take all of their allotted time off — even if it’s a measly two weeks. It’s yours. You’ve earned it. What are you waiting for?

2) Negotiate a sabbatical
“These can be paid or unpaid, depending on the situation. The bottom line is, an unpaid leave of absence is better than none at all.”

3) Fine-tune your career to create more natural pauses
“Many people are getting more creative at doing seasonal or contract work, which frees you up for travel.”

4) If all else fails, quit (but first devise a solid six-month financial backup plan)
“Make strategic use of a time-honored personal-freedom technique popularly known as quitting. It doesn’t have to be reckless. As Pico Iyer says, quitting is often “a step in a better direction.”

The article doesn’t seem to be online, but Outside can be found at most American libraries or newsstands.