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Steve Jobs' Sabbatical: The One You Don't Want

Sabbaticals (or career breaks) are a strong, hot and growing trend. The benefits of sabbaticals for companies and individuals are lauded.  Sabbatical stories inspire us to want one of our own.  But, there is one sabbatical you do not want – ever. The one Steve Jobs is on.

An individual’s choice to go on sabbatical does not generate a drop in the company’s stock….unless of course, you ARE Steve Jobs. But those stocks will likely re-bound.  Jobs may not.

Technically, Jobs may be on a medical leave of absence – a kind of forced sabbatical.  Whatever term suits you best, you call it that.  Just know that your health is the most critical factor in your life and will determine what kind of sabbatical-taking future you’ll have.

While topics here are wide ranging, they do not include wellness, ideas for insectivores (you got it, they only eat bugs) or showtimes for Dr. Oz. However, part of my job is to get you to think, so here we go. Let’s talk about your physical well-being for the future.

If having to take a break from your job to restore your health is not what you want to happen, what are you doing to try to make sure you don’t?  Where’s the pain in your plan – exercise, food, annual check-ups, organic martini’s?

My pain is the 30-minute daily walk – a simple exercise generating research touting the benefits so massive that it could take up 4,000 of the 5,000 parking spaces in Microsoft’s new monster garage. I can find the time to do it.  It’s on my calendar in Outlook.  And I have cute walking outfits. HOWEVER, I DON’T DO IT MOST DAYS.

I don’t know what you need to do to make sure you keep your health now and into the future.  I hope you know.  And, I sure hope you do it.

It’s Monday afternoon and I’m pushing to complete three work goals so I can meet my friend, Teresa (CEO of her own 26-person firm who does a B+ job in the exercise department).  Lookin’ good in my lime green fleece and knock-out scarf, I’ll be making this day count for my future health.

And you?

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About Barbara Pagano

Founding Partner, yourSABBATICAL.com.

Barbara has spent more than 20 years helping leaders excel and facilitating for Fortune 500 firms. She has shared her leadership insights with audiences totaling more than 300,000 executives from companies like Coca-Cola, NCR, Target, and Turner Broadcasting, and she has personally coached almost 3,000 executives from companies including American Express, AT&T, and BellSouth. Barbara’s research on credibility, the diagnostic tools she has developed with a leading company in the assessment industry, and her focus on skills and measurable improvement offer leaders proven methods for building trusting, high-performing relationships. She inspires, teaches and holds leaders accountable for results. She is co-author of THE TRANSPARENCY EDGE: How Credibility Can Make or Break You in Business (McGraw-Hill), chosen by Fast Company magazine as a “Book of the Month.” The book is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Transparency-Edge-Elizabeth-Pagano/dp/0071458840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291230117&sr=8-1.

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Barbara and her daughter, Elizabeth, became fierce advocates for the sabbatical movement after experiencing their own six-month sabbatical, during which they sailed alone for 2,000 miles on a 43-foot sailboat named “Revival.” To read the story of their sailing sabbatical, go to http://yoursabbatical.com/about/team/pagano-sailing-sabbatical/.

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One Response so far (add yours)

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    On January 27, 2011 @ 2:54 am.


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