Seven Takeaways from Sabbatical And an Announcement …

?Trigger warning: Length. Therapy. Work and not work. Implied cuss words.

Earlier this year I followed advice that I’d given out many times: if you can, take a sabbatical between jobs. It’s the only time you won’t be worried about what you’re not getting done. I thought of this as a wellness and creativity break. So many people wished me well that I feel duty bound to provide some lessons learned and update. In no particular order, takeaways from sabbatical:

1.????Six months was a perfect amount of time, especially coming out of COVID. It just takes a while to rest, catch up on sleep, and plot all those things you’ve wanted to do. We took a 4-week vacation for the first time in my life, visited 8 countries, completed seeing all 50 states, played with friends, went to the Ben and Jerry’s factory, had some painting and remodeling done and just had fun. By month 3, I could actually relax while reading a novel, in a chair by the lake. By month 4, I could read a deep novel and by month 6 I could even finish a bad novel before throwing it against the wall. I was having a hard time focusing on a long magazine read before sabbatical.

2.????It really is easier to focus on your health when you’re not working; I used an app (see comments for link) to track my wine consumption, #Peloton , and other aids to reach some fitness and weight loss 100-day goals.

3.????You’re never too old to get your act together. I felt wounded and decided that therapy would help. Not only did it accelerate my recovery – it has brought me to a new level of understanding what matters to me and where I want to go. I’m grateful to have found an incredible practitioner who I will continue working with even though I’m back at work.

4.????An insight from said therapy is that who I work with matters most. That’s because people matter most. I talked to some incredible people over the past few months, and what really touched me were the people who opened up and were vulnerable about themselves in one way or another. If you have ever kissed death on the cheek and said, “No love, our timing is off,” you know also that it’s not necessarily an easy work topic. Maybe it’s that post-COVID we’re not willing to put on a fake smile any more, but I was touched by the genuine sharing and reflection of several of the people I talked to about next roles.

5.????Reiterating a prior post, if you’re doing work that is aligned to your personal mission, retirement is not appealing. I have a tattoo on my forearm from the last line of Ulysses by Tennyson (see comments for link to full poem). The gist of the poem is that after traveling the world with his fellow adventurers, he finds ruling a kingdom more suited for someone with the temperament of his son. For him, life is meant to be a continued sailing “not unbecoming men that strove with Gods,” ending with “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

6.????I have tremendous renewed appreciation for makers and creators. Writing a novel is hard work, especially when your aim to express empathy with the human condition. So in spite of throwing a novel against the wall, I still admire the effort to get it done. I’m about 90% through my first draft, with a mid-November deadline to an editor. I’ve been in the midst of WWII and the Bauhaus for the last six months, so hopefully all that work will pull together into something that another person doesn’t throw against a wall.

7.????The people who love you come through. The good people come through. The rest, well, * them. Again, this theme of people matter most. The most touching thing that anyone did was something I want to pay forward. Someone in my last organization called me during my last weeks in role, and ran through a list of ways in which he had enjoyed working with me. Even now it brings tears to my eyes because of the thoughtfulness and human connection. No matter how awkward we might feel when someone leaves, what a touching way to honor the time we’ve spent with another person.

And now the announcement: I'm so pleased to announce that I'm joining one of the most influential and dynamic learning solution providers in the world -- Learning Technologies Group -- as head of customer strategy . If you're interested in where the industry is going, need to freshen up your technology stack, or want to work on your learning strategy, I look forward to talking to you soon.