I took a sabbatical… Are you planning yours?
I took a 7-month sabbatical in 2017. And I’m sharing that plainly at the behest of my recent podcast guest, DJ DiDonna. DJ is the founder of The Sabbatical Project and author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One. In research, DJ and his research team found that the biggest predictor of someone feeling permission to take a sabbatical is having an exemplar in their life, someone who has done it themselves to demonstrate that it’s possible and survivable.
Now I’ll be honest that I haven’t always shared my experience out of reputational risk. I’ve found that people often envy those who take sabbaticals, yet institutions look down upon them. How many companies ding people for career gaps?
Despite what DJ shares in his book, I still don’t think the external world has the right perspective about sabbaticals. But that’s also why DJ did his research and wrote his book. My hope is that DJ’s work normalizes sabbaticals, and I do agree with him that it is beneficial to share stories to demonstrate the value of taking them and that they are within reach.
Now what do we even mean by a sabbatical? DJ doesn’t love the term, and that’s partly because it makes it feel too special, like it isn’t something that can and should be commonplace. Yet it is a societal term we know that explains the intention. DJ defines a sabbatical as “a container to put whatever your wishes and desires are inside of.” And that means sabbaticals can be used for many purposes.
Some of those purposes are connected to why I think it’s valuable to consider sabbaticals as an important element of how we navigate life and work today:
The way we work today is intense. Most of us get to a point of exhaustion and burnout. It’s too easy to get pulled into the day-to-day rhythm of our life and find it hard to get off the treadmill, reduce our pace, and calm our nervous system to fully recover after a hard stretch.
We can wake up one day after years of working with our head down and ask, “Wait, how did I get here? Do I still want the trajectory I’m on?”
Our world and our work world are changing, and so are we. Which means we benefit from periodically pausing to reassess. DJ said in the episode: “If we don’t give ourselves the chance to envision another version of ourselves, we’re probably not going to have a transformative experience.”
Finally, our ambition goes through stages. It’s not unusual to hit a point where you want to reconsider your life and work. As DJ agreed in our episode—ambitions change. They accelerate, they decelerate, and sometimes they change course. This is yet another reason to allow space to hear ourselves and allow what comes next to emerge.
Which brings me to something I now believe about my own sabbatical: it is one of the most ambitious things I’ve done. I also believe it was courageous, because it takes nerve to go against the norm.
I had been wanting to take a sabbatical for four years after having held two demanding jobs, working at a start-up and then an agency. It was a long-held Right Ambition—it was a personal goal that I was motivated and committed to putting effort into figuring out how to make it a reality. My need for a break didn’t align with being ready to take one. Plus, when I desperately wanted to take a sabbatical, I instead took a job, while my husband left his. I waited it out until I could create the right conditions—my finances in place, a work opportunity that presented itself and made the space available, and my husband’s work situation also aligned with taking a pause.
I fell into all 3 sabbatical archetypes that DJ speaks of—Achiever (work on nailing down an idea), Explorer (travel), and Seeker (what’s calling to me). Plus, I did the first thing he advises, which is to allow 6-8 weeks to decompress, recover, and find your “humanness” again.
But I’ll also be transparent in sharing that my sabbatical wasn’t all fun and games. Sure, I had wonderful experiences, but it was also angst-filled. What would happen next? Where do I want to go? Will something show up for me?
This is why I think having a plan is helpful, and is another reason I appreciate DJ’s book. When I took my sabbatical, I still wish I was more clear and declarative about my intentions, hopes, and desired outcomes. Even simply stating, “I want a pause to rest. I want space to research and play with curiosities. I want time to explore through travel. My desired outcomes are: to feel recovered, to have had fun developing ideas, and to enjoy the richness of new experiences.” Even that would have calmed my nerves. I would have been well-served stating—my intention is not to have anything “figured out” during this time. My intention is purely to enjoy.
I went to an event in San Francisco to hear DJ get interviewed about the book, and there were a lot of questions about privilege—are sabbaticals just for the privileged? In some ways, yes—it is a privilege to be able to step away from paid work. But in other ways, no—for some of us we can simplify our lives and thoughtfully plan to be able to take sabbaticals. To be sure, it can also be easier when we haven’t gotten too far into life and have obligations. But it’s more attainable than most of us assume, as examples in DJ’s book show.
Now, given all this, you still may not be able to take a sabbatical, but the intent can be brought into daily life. A daily, weekly, or quarterly pause perhaps centered around one of DJ’s archetypes of being an achiever, explorer, or seeker. DJ offers suggestions like: practicing disconnection, starting a journaling practice, exploring what’s close to home. Maybe there’s a week where you set your sights on accomplishing something like writing a short story at an artist residency or taking an in-depth music class. Or you find a local monastery or meditation program to participate in. Or you plan a long weekend to explore a close-by historical landmark.
Or take on the challenge: as DJ asks, “What are you doing in 2032?” You have five years. Start planning your sabbatical now.
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Sustainable Ambition offers a strategic approach for pursuing our professional and personal goals in a way that is motivating, meaningful, and manageable from stage to stage, rather than be all consuming in a way that compromises other important aspects of our lives or sacrifices our well-being.