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Old 01-25-2022, 11:12 AM
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Default Soulbattical?

Hi All -

I borrowed the term, soulbattical, from a wonderful book by Shelly Paxton. A former, high powered executive, she stepped away from corporate life and made time to nurture her soul and find her true purpose, before”rebranding” herself and becoming an author/speaker/entrepreneur.

At first blush, this seems like something only the privileged can do, but it does not mean “dropping out” and doing nothing while you find yourself. But, it does mean tapping into what what really motivates you professionally, and in turn, often leads to stepping away from soul-sucking work.

I am wondering if anyone here has taken a “soulbattical” or regular sabbatical? If so, how was it? Did you do anything special to prepare? What did you learn along the way?

Thanks!
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Old 01-25-2022, 11:24 AM
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I came about a half inch from doing just that last week.

Still not out of the woods yet

I did take 3-4 months off twice when I was in my early 30's, and it was quite a lot of fun!

Lots of travel to music festivals, mountain vacations. Never felt more free.

I had a reasonable but not large savings at the time and when it started heading south I found my next "gig".
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Old 01-25-2022, 11:57 AM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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Originally Posted by Kh1967 View Post
Hi All -

I borrowed the term, soulbattical, from a wonderful book by Shelly Paxton. A former, high powered executive, she stepped away from corporate life and made time to nurture her soul and find her true purpose, before”rebranding” herself and becoming an author/speaker/entrepreneur.

At first blush, this seems like something only the privileged can do, but it does not mean “dropping out” and doing nothing while you find yourself. But, it does mean tapping into what what really motivates you professionally, and in turn, often leads to stepping away from soul-sucking work.

I am wondering if anyone here has taken a “soulbattical” or regular sabbatical? If so, how was it? Did you do anything special to prepare? What did you learn along the way?

Thanks!
At a point in the 1990s I walked into my boss' office and said "I'm fired.".

My wife and I never thought we'd have kids, I had very strong technical skills, and pals who did a lot of truly expert and adventurous outdoor stuff. I had worked with the beginning of public Internet availability, web, and telephony. I did projects and consulting to facilitate around 5 years of spending 3-4 months a year fly fishing, skiing, river running and sailing. I was a licensed guide for part of that.

Part of preparing was my skill set and associations to keep working or consulting to maintain some income. I got a drift boat, better back country gear, a very capable guide rig, and some lightweight travel stuff so I could do airline flights too.

It was a big contrast from from wearing suits to do mostly Internet, messaging and firewall related projects at a major insurer and corporate food giant.

This was all aided by the .com to .bomb days. Some of my projects in that time were research for high asset investors and startups. If anyone remembers the earlier CNBC Squak Box on cable days, I did research for a somewhat regular talking head guest they'd have. I was fairly sure .com would turn to .bomb from some of that.

I'm trying to figure out how to do something like that again and not fully retire. One of my wife's cousins in Europe shares my cycling interest. He's got places in Luxembourg, Iceland and Normandy. I'd like to leave his home in Luxembourg on a bicycle and end up in Scotland or Iceland.
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Old 01-25-2022, 12:13 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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I have long thought that winter was the most restful season. In nature, everything slows down. While others look at nature in winter as stark, I see it as still and peaceful. As a result, I have long practiced a sort of "dormancy" in the winter. As a working stiff, I am unable to simply quit the world and go on walkabout, so my dormancy is fit around the rest of my life. I make a real attempt to slow down and limit my extracurricular activities. Because the whole atmosphere of winter makes it easier, I spend more time thinking, reading, and playing music for myself, rather than for clients. My lovely wife got me a comfy chair and lamp and set up a nice reading nook for me that gets a lot of use around this time.

I eventually came across THIS article by Emily Walshe on the importance of an off-season and the discipline of dormancy. Emily's thoughts paralleled mine.

One thing that I have discovered is that I need far less TV media and social media than I usually consume. Another thing I've learned is that I can drop into this sort of dormancy rather easily by just thinking about the whole atmosphere of winter and by setting up a listening list that helps me go there. Here are some favorite pieces of modern music for that:









And how about one old one? Here's Pachelbel's Canon in D, slowed to half speed with an overlaid a double-time pizzicato arpeggiation of the implied chordal structure of the piece, played on the cellos, laying atop the bass canon to keep the structure from bogging down. The result is quite restful.



Find the things that calm you. Yes, you can engineer your own mood and attitude to slow down and relax.

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Old 01-25-2022, 12:39 PM
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Having worked both in the private and public education system, every summer was a paid soulbatical.

Often times, music festivals and travel went hand in hand.
I just don’t know how folks mentally survive on 2 weeks vacation each year, even if they love their job
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Old 01-25-2022, 12:41 PM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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What did you learn along the way?

Thanks!
I should have mentioned that what I learned stuff in that time.

-Be bold and honest. In that time I described watched and met people who made some poor choices. People who had same negative results whether their addiction was to a substances, person or their god. People who lost or squandered good opportunities.
-Be brave. Fearful people do stupid things.
-Know or learn to live outside of your comfort zones. We can all usually do more than we think.

It was also a time I learned even more that I'm married to one of the most beautiful people on earth.
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Old 01-25-2022, 01:08 PM
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No, I never took a "soulbattical" and rarely used all my vacation. I did better when I kept working.

However, I changed jobs four times over my career to get out of situations that were just going nowhere. That was my solution: look for a better path. And I did eventually find one, although it took quite a few years for even that direction to open up.

I found that when things got difficult, the best thing to do was to put my head down and work at my job and stay out of office politics or anything else that was outside of that path to the goal. After a while things would clear up and I could feel good again about what was happening around me.

I also found that I could keep working at my job very effectively while I was also mentally recovering from whatever the last onslaught was. So, in some sense, my "soulbattical" took place on the job, repeatedly, where no one else had any idea that I was coasting a bit to recover my mental strength.

- Glenn
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Old 01-25-2022, 01:09 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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I should have mentioned that what I learned stuff in that time.

-Be bold and honest. In that time I described watched and met people who made some poor choices. People who had same negative results whether their addiction was to a substances, person or their god. People who lost or squandered good opportunities.
-Be brave. Fearful people do stupid things.
-Know or learn to live outside of your comfort zones. We can all usually do more than we think.

It was also a time I learned even more that I'm married to one of the most beautiful people on earth.
These are really good comments... Right on the money!

- Glenn
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Old 01-25-2022, 03:37 PM
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I am in that mode of thinking right now.

I am deeply entrenched in a corporate career. It may sound easy to walk away from the comfortable income but its more than that - this is how I care for my family. While I can certainly quit the grind and find something I love, I love taking care of my family more so I do this. And giving this up would be selfish of me because my family would be the ones making the sacrifices.

I always actively look for a "love it" job with a tolerable compensation and will likely do something drastically different before I finish working forever.

But I supplement my working grind with something I love

For many years of my life I was an adjunct college professor and love teaching so that was my passion. I made my money at my "day" job because teaching didn't even pay enough to cover gas to the school, but I did it because I loved it. I did that for many years.

At another stage of my life, I had stopped teaching and got into very hardcore online gaming with friends - I was actually pretty high up in the ranks of my game and I did this for many years.

At this stage of my life, I am insanely passionate about music and guitars and my band. And I plan on doing this for many many years.


So, I find my life passion and soul's work outside of my job. I still teach/lecture/advise and I still play games but music consumes all my passion energy.

Now....when I retire, I will really get engaged with these loves.
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Old 01-25-2022, 04:10 PM
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These are really good comments... Right on the money!

- Glenn
Thank you.
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Old 01-25-2022, 06:13 PM
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A 'soulbattical' sounds like one of those great ideas that I would have loved to try. But, not being a 'corporate' person with that kind of resources, I doubt the various banks and loaning institutions would have taken a 'soulbattical' on me paying my bills.

Instead we stayed the course, worked hard, kept our nose to the grindstone and lived beneath our means while saving hard. It has allowed us to pay off our home, send three kids to college and retire at the ages of 60 & 58. And now we are on a a full-time 'soulbattical'! And it's AWESOME.
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Old 01-25-2022, 06:24 PM
Tnfiddler Tnfiddler is offline
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At some point in the near future, I’ve got to walk away from my job, but I’m not there yet for retirement purposes. I do experience a getaway and mental reset every afternoon when I go to the barn and spend time with the horses and watch my boy rope! Those magnificent creatures have a way of reaching inside you and taking all your cares away! Fixing to head there now!
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Old 01-28-2022, 10:23 AM
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A 'soulbattical' sounds like one of those great ideas that I would have loved to try. But, not being a 'corporate' person with that kind of resources, I doubt the various banks and loaning institutions would have taken a 'soulbattical' on me paying my bills.

Instead we stayed the course, worked hard, kept our nose to the grindstone and lived beneath our means while saving hard. It has allowed us to pay off our home, send three kids to college and retire at the ages of 60 & 58. And now we are on a a full-time 'soulbattical'! And it's AWESOME.
I too feel my retirement has become my "soulbattical"

I spent the last 18 years in higher education and like Mr. and Mrs. Methos, we worked hard, got our fiscal house in order, and are now both retired and we also see it as AWSOME!

I understand the concept of sabbatical (higher ed, remember?) but never wanted to take one. Many of my colleagues took one and it did them wonders academically but it just wasn't for me. I guess I'm just not the sabbatical sort.

But retirement was always my goal and now that that goal has been reached, I'm happier than I've ever been.

Best,
PJ
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Old 01-28-2022, 12:08 PM
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I am wondering if anyone here has taken a “soulbattical” or regular sabbatical? If so, how was it?
My wife took a sabbatical and taught at the Tokyo Institute of Technology for a year. (She's a structural engineer.) I tagged along. It was certainly a memorable experience. She loved Japan, didn't want to come back.
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Old 01-28-2022, 01:52 PM
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My "Soulbattical" has always been hiking, day hikes. I have never been financially secure enough to take time off for a lengthy one but applaud those who can and do. But just getting out in nature does refuel my soul.
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