#54 Big Time Off: Power of Sabbaticals Planned or Not | DJ DiDonna

In the book, you talk about... kind of leading up to your sabbatical and and stepping away from from your company i think it was your dad's 70 something uh birthday and you know you you had to step away for a phone call and just a feeling of people in your life had a perception that you are busy and maybe you would always say you're busy and so they'd reach out less and less and that that really resonated with me with you know bless my mother you know she's always like i know you might be busy but i'm still calling and reaching out and you know and after a while it's like hmm you know you're getting up there in years as well i want to make sure that you always feel free that you you can call and not just assuming that everything in my life is busier you know or too busy busy for you so that That resonated with me.

I have to imagine there are other, I think what you call catalysts or inflection points that speak to people.

They might be big, they might be small.

That might be little inklings of,

hmm,

maybe I want to switch something.

Maybe I want to create more time or space in my life.

What are those common ones?

You know, most people wait until something bad happens that, that pulls them out of normal routine life.

Um, you know, about two thirds of sabbaticals are catalyzed by a negative event.

So health crisis, relationship crisis, job crisis.

Um, I think we're just not good as a species.

You know, we, we avoid difficulty.

We avoid change.

Um, we generally prefer to know what, think we know what the future holds.

Um, But there's also this group of people and organizations that have set these inflection points and set aside time to be present and be outside of work as a matter of course, as opposed to an exception.

So one of the points of the book is identifying things from kind of a gap year to, you know, a mid-career reset or grad school, a long honeymoon or, you know, baby moon, being an empty nester, pre-retirement, kind of identifying these inflection points that you can plan for and allotting them kind of the appropriate time to sanctify them and, you know, spend that time in your life.

maybe that fits in with what you were just saying earlier that maybe there are these inflection points that are going to come up in the future so where you do have the luxury to plan and then there may be moments where you don't plan and you're forced into it for those two-thirds that they have time off forced upon them um what do you often see what are some techniques in reframing it happened Now what? And how do I think about it?

The first thing to do is to avoid that reflex, which is we're kind of taught from an early age that you should be employed, you know, 100% utility from you graduate from high school or college, like employed the entire route until retirement.

A sabbatical asks you to say, all right, I'm going to take a beat or two before I start looking for a job.

And again, easier said than done if you're able to save and you have the kind of privilege to take a step back.

But ideally, if you're kind of saving and thinking about time off in the future, it'll be more possible.

And so assuming you can do that, instead of rushing into searching for the next job, it's really stepping back and saying, okay, I want to try to heal.

I want to congratulate myself for the leg of the race I just ran.

I want to imagine and run experiments and practice a little bit different version of myself just to see if something else pops out on the other side.

In the book, you talk about... kind of leading up to your sabbatical and and stepping away from from your company i think it was your dad's 70 something uh birthday and you know you you had to step away for a phone call and just a feeling of people in your life had a perception that you are busy and maybe you would always say you're busy and so they'd reach out less and less and that that really resonated with me with you know bless my mother you know she's always like i know you might be busy but i'm still calling and reaching out and you know and after a while it's like hmm you know you're getting up there in years as well i want to make sure that you always feel free that you you can call and not just assuming that everything in my life is busier you know or too busy busy for you so that That resonated with me.

I have to imagine there are other, I think what you call catalysts or inflection points that speak to people.

They might be big, they might be small.

That might be little inklings of,

hmm,

maybe I want to switch something.

Maybe I want to create more time or space in my life.

What are those common ones?

You know, most people wait until something bad happens that, that pulls them out of normal routine life.

Um, you know, about two thirds of sabbaticals are catalyzed by a negative event.

So health crisis, relationship crisis, job crisis.

Um, I think we're just not good as a species.

You know, we, we avoid difficulty.

We avoid change.

Um, we generally prefer to know what, think we know what the future holds.

Um, But there's also this group of people and organizations that have set these inflection points and set aside time to be present and be outside of work as a matter of course, as opposed to an exception.

So one of the points of the book is identifying things from kind of a gap year to, you know, a mid-career reset or grad school, a long honeymoon or, you know, baby moon, being an empty nester, pre-retirement, kind of identifying these inflection points that you can plan for and allotting them kind of the appropriate time to sanctify them and, you know, spend that time in your life.

maybe that fits in with what you were just saying earlier that maybe there are these inflection points that are going to come up in the future so where you do have the luxury to plan and then there may be moments where you don't plan and you're forced into it for those two-thirds that they have time off forced upon them um what do you often see what are some techniques in reframing it happened Now what? And how do I think about it?

The first thing to do is to avoid that reflex, which is we're kind of taught from an early age that you should be employed, you know, 100% utility from you graduate from high school or college, like employed the entire route until retirement.

A sabbatical asks you to say, all right, I'm going to take a beat or two before I start looking for a job.

And again, easier said than done if you're able to save and you have the kind of privilege to take a step back.

But ideally, if you're kind of saving and thinking about time off in the future, it'll be more possible.

And so assuming you can do that, instead of rushing into searching for the next job, it's really stepping back and saying, okay, I want to try to heal.

I want to congratulate myself for the leg of the race I just ran.

I want to imagine and run experiments and practice a little bit different version of myself just to see if something else pops out on the other side.