Why periodic sabbaticals are a good thing?

I can vouch for for the life-changing power of sabbaticals. Six years ago, I took 9 1/2 months to travel around the world. One of the best things I ever did. I moved from the consulting business to the media business quite easily.

And last year, I took 7 months off to go learn Spanish. Now, I am enjoying doing freelance work that gives me ample time for personal learning and growth.

Sabbaticals are a time to recharge, refresh, and revitalize yourself. When life expectancy in the Western world is around 80 years, and the average person changes jobs 5-7 times in her career, it is hard to imagine how you can work 35-40 years straight, with almost no breaks in between.

And the fact is, an enlightened employer will look forward to having an employee with diverse life experiences.

So, go ahead, plan your sabbatical.

From http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/07/08/notes070805.DTL

We are designed, weaned, trained from Day 1 to be productive members of society. And we are heavily guilted into believing that must involve some sort of droning repetitive pod-like dress-coded work for a larger corporate cause, a consumerist mechanism, a nice happy conglomerate.

But the truth is, God, the divine true spirit loves nothing more than to see you unhinge and take risk and invite regular, messy, dangerous upheaval. This is exactly the energy that thwarts the demons of stagnation and conservative rot and violent sanctimonious bloody Mel Gibson-y religion, one that would have all our work be aimed at continuously patching up our incessant potholes of ugly congenital guilt, as opposed to contributing to the ongoing orgiastic evolution of spirit.

It is not for everyone. It implies incredibly difficult choices and arranging your life in certain ways and giving up certain luxuries and many, many people seemed locked down and immovable and all done with exploring new options in life, far too deeply entrenched in debts and family obligations and work to ever see such unique light again. Maybe you know such people. Maybe you are such people.

But then again, maybe not. This is the other huge truism we so easily forget: There is always room. There are always choices we can begin to make, changes we can begin to invite, rules we can work to upset, angles of penetration we can try to explore. And if that's not worth trying, well, what is?