Making the most of your Sabbatical
Sabbaticals come in many shapes and sizes. Some are forced upon us and others are well planned in advance. Some only weeks long in the form of a pause between employers others months or years in duration while skills are retooled, batteries are recharged, and well earned adventures are pursued. Regardless the key to a successful and fulfilling sabbatical is to be on sabbatical. Not unemployed looking for your next gig, not unofficially away from the office but inundated with quick calls for a little guidance from a lost employee or wandering boss.
As a technology professional I have had the supreme pleasure of two sabbaticals in the last decade and a half. The first came when my major media conglomerate employer purchased another company and suddenly had way too many IT personnel on staff. Funny, like you can every have too many IT personnel on staff. The second came much later after more than a decade of long days and lost weekends tending one of the premier financial institutions of the global economies computer infrastructure.
In each circumstance, one forced and the other planned, the relief from the pressure cooker was instantaneous. Soon enough I discovered the neurons in my brain were still firing like a cyclone unleashed, I craved the smell of ionized air from thousands of pieces of electronic equipment stacked in racks and lined rows simultaneously running at full power, and I missed the hyperbole cataclysmic adrenaline rush from a major outage and the mad dash to scale the sheer face of the disaster just in time to avert embarrassment, tarnished reputations, and financial loses for the company.
Also in each circumstance the gravitational pull of what I was and what I had been doing with my days and my life kept mentally pulling me back to the job, to the task, away from my sabbatical. Tarnishing the luster of the possibility of the now while my preprogrammed mind kept replaying the last commands entered over and over.
The 1st step in making the most of your sabbatical is to be on sabbatical. Dump the work baggage, either you don't work there anymore and it doesn't matter or you company is quickly learning to appreciate you in your cloistered absence. Unplug from that machine you will never recharge if there is a constant drain on you.
The 2nd step in making the most of your sabbatical is to have a plan, a goal, a real or ulterior motive for taking this time for yourself. Go beyond the generalities of I think I will travel. Create and itinerary, buy your tickets or pack you backpack and get going. If you are taking a break to upgrade your skills don't tepidly dance around the perimeter of the skill dive head in and immerse yourself. This sabbatical will not last forever and you may not get a chance to come this way again. Make the most of it.
The 3rd and final step in making the most of your sabbatical is to remember to enjoy it. This is a break for you and you deserve it. Don't let the mundane and trivial of everyday life become your focus and drain away the luster of the possible. Don't become a pseudo grumpy old person with an idle mind and a sharp tongue. Fill your day s with the things you would never do or could never do while dedicated to your job. Fill your days with the possibility of tomorrow and what you will be then.
