Week #1: No default plan

TL;DR: Busier than I thought. Covid-jab recovery, several catchup conversations, and the feeling of “no default plan”. Some new ideas too.

The first week of sabbatical time was more eventful than I’d expected. For starters, I flew back to London from Delhi, got tested for Covid twice, then got the booster jab and spent a few days recovering from the resulting low energy. I found that cooking was a good way to snap out of it, and dished out sabudana khichdi, kanda poha, baingan bharta and egg curry, all of which turned out pretty well. Misal-pav is on for tomorrow.

I also got the opportunity to reconnect with several old friends from my school and McKinsey days, who called to check if I was actually serious about this sabbatical thing :) Not surprisingly, the feeling of wanting to take some time off is spreading as fast as a virus, and with friends going through a “should I, shouldn’t I” in their heads, here are some of the things we discussed as important considerations

• Being clear on the why. Common whys were wanting to rest the mind, wanting time to explore a new industry to start up, and wanting to spend time with family/ on things one cares about. I noticed a growing realisation in mid-career professionals (most are 10-20 years post graduation) that work was but one part of their identity, and that they were beginning to care less about professional appearances, likely aided by the fact that all of work is now encapsulated in a screen for many people.
• Being able to afford it. Many can afford it financially (and certainly for a few months/ even years), but more important was the emotional angle. We spoke about the importance of family support and understanding, and how typically one spouse holding down the fort makes this an easier step.
• Knowing how a sabbatical work could impact one professionally. For those with blue-chip resumes, I think there is limited downside risk. In fact, taking the risk of trying something new is likely a double win: If it becomes 10x or 100x (on whatever metric one chooses), BAM! Win right there. If it “fails”, well then the willingness to take such risk is likely to be perceived quite favourably by a future employer. So, win there too. We also agreed that this all makes sense until it doesn’t ;) Let’s see.
• Having a loose plan. I spoke with someone who intended to take a few months off, and before they knew it it was much longer. And while they weren’t sad, they certainly regretted letting time slip by. Others I spoke with were very J like me, and so we agreed that having a loose plan, probably a bucket-list level one, was a must. Tick some items off, and one can make sure there are no regrets.

I hope to have many such catchup conversations in the coming weeks. I learn something new from each one, and feel fortunate to have a circle of friends who can be peer mentors in the most unexpected ways. A friend suggested to me that I document the answers to a few questions like “In the past year what has given you the most joy?” and publish them (anonymised version, of course!) since they might serve as interesting mile-markers to younger professionals, in the “What do people who look similar to you actually care about in 5-10 years?” I quite like this idea, though I don’t know that I’ll publish anything. I’m curious to know what others think!

The other interesting thing that happened in week #1 was that I had a half-dozen conversations around startup / new business ideas. Some with people who’re committed and early in the journey, and some with folks in the concept stages where the ideas are still flowing and changing shape. To those who know me, you’ll know that I get a lot of energy from such chats, and all of them ran over the 45-60 mins we’d set up. That’s the topic for another post, though. I promised some people 2-pagers from all the ideation, and if this post gets any longer… :)

To wrap up, week #1 went by and felt pretty productive, all things considered. “No default plan” feels like the best way to describe it, and to describe the feeling of living it!

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P.S. Obligatory cat pic. Here, she watches me type this post, and probably wonders whether I’ll recharge her toy fish once I’m done.

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Footnote: This post is a manually created copy of the newsletter I'm maintaining on?substack. Until I figure out how to write-once-publish-everywhere.