Heeding The Call
I don't think I recognised exactly what it was that initially pulled me into a different season of my life, when in the midst of a thriving aviation career I kinda just took off to do something completely different for a while. Rob Bell has a lovely way of describing the difference in naturally occurring energies in us, like a grasping energy of control, and a letting-go open-hand kind of energy that relinquishes control, and how we would be wise to toggle between the two as the rhythm of our lives shift, dance and turn.
The first sabbatical I took was 3 months away from flying to go work with troubled kids in our organisation's boot-camp for under-served teens and young adults programme. A few years later it happened again, this time for much longer and I took off for a whole year this time, completely dropping my tools and career and progression and place-in-the-pyramid for 12 months abroad and studying. It was pivotal, and I had moments of realisation about the depths of my passions and interests and gifts that I could have discovered no other way. I remember walking around campus some days acknowledging to myself that I was truly happy, and laugh out loud moments when I couldn't wait to bike to class to hear another world-class lecturer tell me all about some wonderful finding that I found utterly absorbing and fascinating. It was bliss.
The reality was that year away did cost me in some ways though. While all my contemporaries were refining their skills that year and becoming very good at what we were expected to do, I was off being exposed to new ideas, foreign cultures, uncertainty, and alternative worldviews. But I wasn't consolidating my expertise and getting reps on the thing that my current career was ultimately most interested in.
When I got home from that year I had a steep curve of catch-up to play which hurt me, and it took some grind to get back into the saddle and feel like I was 'back'. It wasn't until much later I stumbled upon the brilliant Stefan Sagemeister's TED talk on the Power of Time Off and in one graphic he explains the reasoning and the benefit for taking some of your retirement years and interspersing them throughout your working life. You get to rejuvenate your creativity, work on back-burner projects that may have otherwise stalled and gone nowhere, and come back feeling invigorated and inspired to pick up the scent again with a renewed sense of purpose and vigor. Sounds good.
I took this advice again 5 years after my first foray into sabbatical, this time for a year riding a motorbike around South America at the end of my first career, having packed in the flying for the wide open road and an inevitable shift in career trajectory that a dramatic riding-into-the-sunset physically signified.
Being Savvy with Your Sabbatical
While packing-it-all-in and crossing Amazon river tributaries by dugout may all sound pretty cool, I don't think I held a mature view of some of the downsides of my decision to let go the bowlines and just sail away. Freedom is one thing, financial independence is quite another. I was lucky in that I had savings accumulated from 7 months in Afghanistan that sustained me throughout that year away and into my next phase of retraining, and this was a financial trade I was happy to make, but not everyone will feel comfortable with that and I'm not ok with that calculus now either. Phase of life matters, life goals matter, and now my focus is much more around getting off the salary treadmill, so a different approach to sabbatical is required.
The other lesson I learned was the energy cost of structuring my time away with almost no constraints. Without a clear 'what's it for' guiding me I reverted to type and just rode and rode my way around a massive continent which eventually drained my wanderlust through the floor and made me super grateful to return home for some routine and stability. I gained a huge appreciation for the simple pleasure of a morning routine in the comfort of my own home, and the satisfaction of a weekly cadence of progress and productivity. To this day I reflect frequently on the inevitable tension between the day-in-day-out that allows for reps and the platform for progression, and the paradigm shifting creativity explosion that travel and unstructured space allows and encourages. Grasping energy, open hand energy.
Synthesis
This time around I'm completely happy with the tradeoffs I've made for my upcoming next sabbatical. Instead of a year I'm taking 3 months, and instead of galloping off I'm staying still to write and reflect. This time I haven't accumulated a financial cushion to sustain the time away, instead I have bundled together as much time away leave as I can to get the necessary stretch of clear space. My family and I are getting out of town for this period as I think the change in scene is an important part of the refresh, and I've negotiated to spend some time with like-minded academics where we can riff and hang out in a way that is complementary but not forced. I have some vague ideas on the boil for what I might reflect on, but the territory is unmapped and there's vast savannahs yet to be explored.
cjG
#mygroundtruth