Jul
22
Two months into my sabbatical
At the end of May, I decided to take a mini-retirement. After working for 6 years, it was just the right time for a sabbatical. “Sabba” is “seven” the seventh in a sequence has been the day of rest since old-testament times. Seventh day of the week is the sabbath. Seventh year of working is a sabbatical. Things at work were going fine – I had even just gotten a raise. But I had just finished a project and it was a good time. Now, it goes counter to society’s common sense to take a break from earning money and status. For me, money and status are not bad reasons to work, but I wanted to take a sabbatical for the following reasons, in no particular order:
- Get in touch with myself again.
Once a co-worker came to my apartment, looked at the sparseness of furniture in my apartment, and concluded “you live like a college student.” If there is one thing I have learned from Japan, it is minimalism. Years of living sparsely have allowed me to accumulate enough savings that I can safely step out for at least a year. My college self would have leapt at the chance – so herein was an interesting discovery, after working these six years, I have become more complacent than I was. Instead of leaping at the chance, I actually struggled with the decision for half a year. Where was that “Damned the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” me? Was I getting too complacent?
I once temped as a translator at a large law firm in San Francisco, and one of the partners agreed to have lunch with me if I would take the job. When I asked, he told me his billable hourly rate was $380. I asked him about how he came to be a lawyer, and his job satisfaction. One thing he said particularly stuck with me. “I figured I’d work for awhile, make a lot of money, but then I got a nice house, a nice car, I got married, started my family, and just got used to making this much money.” He was comfortable, but wondered how things might be. His lament was that he’d let his expenses grow such that he was tethered to his income. There was no doubt he was very good at what he did, but he did not speak with passion about his work. Maybe, if he had the financial freedom, he would have explored other things.
Our lunch together left an impression on me. I vowed I would keep my expenses low, to keep my options open.
- Have more time to explore other interests.
Work at the company was really fun, but I wanted more time to think laterally. I’m a Certified Hypnotherapist, and since quitting I’ve had more time and energy to deepen my studies and see clients, in a way that I would not have been able to. I’m confident now that I could go back to working at a company, as I had before, and still take clients on the side. Additionally, I’ve been devouring books at two to four per week – absorbing new ideas in a way that I could not have if I were working a full-time job.
- Experience unstructured time.
Many people work hard all their lives, and then discover that retirement isn’t all that exciting. I wanted to experience retirement at a stage in my life where I can still implement things that I learn. I have already learned, in fact, that retirement is not that exciting. This already means that I will never work with retirement in mind as a goal, trying to console myself in a mediocre job.
All this unstructured time is still something that I’m uncomfortable with. Office work, with it’s daily rhythm and structure, is nice because it absolves one of having to think too much. Now, I have to live consciously. The primary challenge, I have found, is to keep myself challenged with things I like doing.
- Make sure that I am not using work as an excuse for anything.
I have often heard people give work as an excuse for not doing things that they would like to do. I want to be sure that I am not using work as an excuse. Certain things are much easier to do – nowadays I go swimming nearly every day, and it feels really good. I’ve also biked to Aikido and Sabbath dinner, and found it’s actually faster than taking the train. What was keeping me from doing these things was some sort of psychological barrier – I never consciously blamed work, but it seems I’ve become more open to certain things. If I ever go back to working at a company, I know that the psychological barrier to doing such things will be lower.
In short, there is nothing wrong with work – but I want to choose work consciously. Not work because it is a matter of course.
