Seek Renewable Energy? The Feel-Good Test Yields Answers on How to Spend Your Time on Sabbatical

A sabbatical without a plan is a vacation.  And while you might think that just getting “away on vacation” will fill your energy bowl – you are mistaken.

A planned, career break with goals gets you closer to rejuvenation.  But if you seek sustainable, energy renewal to bring back to your life and career, your best check in with your joy meter before your final decision on what your should do with your time away.

If your sabbatical doesn’t connect to positive emotions, you might as well just keep up your cycle of work-work-and-more-work.  You won’t get much from a career break.

Let’s look at two real life situations:

1. Jenny’s sabbatical plan involves trekking in the Himalayas for eight weeks, helping build a school in a village. With all the glamour that might hold for some of us, Jenny feels so-so about her sabbatical.  She’s pranced along mountain tops her whole life. The Himalayas are not a big deal.
2. John’s excitement about his time away from work can be described as “over the top.”  While he has half the time Jenny does (only four weeks) and he won’t set foot out of his back yard, he jokes with co-workers about how much fun he’s going to have growing a beard and donning a tool belt at dawn.  John is renovating his bathroom.

The science of stamina supports “energy renewal” as a key to high performance.  Researchers point out that most people are dealing with ever-higher performance demands putting in longer hours end up exhausted, disengaged and sick.   According to the Wall Street Journal (Employers Hold Off on Hiring, October 20, 2009), if you are still employed, you are working harder because employers have learned how to wring more out of fewer people.

Now seems a critical time to focus on sustainable energy as a goal for a career break – either to maintain high performance, wellness or to keep ahead of your peers (in case you do acknowledge a competitive streak).

And yes, companies are rolling out sabbatical programs even in this economy (see previous post) while some individuals opt for their own. (Check out Joseph Quaderer’s sabbatical post.  He left his job and home in the Hamptons for a year in Africa.)

Research by Loehr and Swartz (The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time is the Key to High Productivity and Personal Renewal) indicates that individuals who incorporate daily rituals to renew energy (such as taking regular breaks during the workday, controlling email and spending time on activities that give them a sense of purpose) out perform peers. If employing daily rituals results in energy gains, how can a sabbatical that comes every 4-7 years compete?

A purposeful time away from work can generate a deep reservoir of renewable energy and a sense of well being for a long period of time.  Yet while some sabbatical experiences become a mere bucket-list event (as in – check, I did it), others live on.   The difference? If you engage in activities that connect to a high level of positive emotions, you up the ante that you will receive the benefit of renewable energy.  In other words, be careful what you choose to do.

Let’s say you have a couple of ideas for an upcoming sabbatical experience.  Take a moment and rate each of those ideas using a 1-10 scale (1= Generates a tiny level of feeling; 10=Generates a heap of feeling) on these positive emotions:

(I floated these around as I’m not feeling very list-oriented today.)

Joy                         1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Interest          1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Enthusiasm       1   2   3  4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Pride         1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Courage               1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Inspiration          1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

If your goal is renewable energy and a sense of well-being, pay attention to the ideas that scored high.  If an idea has a lower score, you can try expanding the experience or adding elements that move it up the scale.  Otherwise, dump it.

Some individuals engage in a sabbatical experience that looks much like a grueling workweek – long hours slogging up Kilimanjaro in brutal weather and diminishing air.  Others choose a passive, seemingly frivolous activity – re-reading the works of Shakespeare on their front porch.

Turns out, it’s not what you choose to do that has the payoff or how much time you have, it’s how you feel about it.

Want to use your sabbatical to build long term satisfaction with life and build a reservoir or energy?  Make a list of ideas on what you’d like to do, then get in touch with your inner euphoria.  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10.