Boot Camp: Kick-Start Your Sabbatical Planning

Planning a year sabbatical can be an exciting time, but it can also be a daunting task, especially for a business owner like Karen Bloom. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of her company, as well as her 60th birthday, Karen plans to take a sabbatical in the year 2012. In order to make sure the planning stays on track, Karen joined Meet, Plan, Go’s Career Break Boot Camp.

What inspired you to join Boot Camp?
I had been talking about wanting to take time off in 2012 and about how I would have 2011 to do the planning but I was also complaining that I didn’t have enough time to really start the process. I kept telling myself that I would carve out the time and to not beat myself up, but I was worried that the planning part wouldn’t happen and I might never get to the sabbatical.

I read about the Meet, Plan, Go! meet-ups in the USA Today but had missed the Chicago event. I was pleased, however, to see some information about the upcoming Boot Camp after the first of the year. I signed up right away and was totally surprised and thrilled when I got a message about participating in the beta. I was worried that maybe I was doing the Boot Camp too early since my plan is for 2012, but this has proven to not be the case – the Boot Camp couldn’t have come at a better time for me.

What aspects of Boot Camp have helped in your sabbatical planning?
I always knew that I wanted to do some form of volunteerism and tourism and I had one BIG idea but hadn’t scaled it down to reality yet or begun to make any sense of it. I thought that I wanted to take a whole year off (if I could) and I wanted to go to 3 continents and volunteer and then travel. What the Boot Camp helped me do is put some structure around my BIG idea and help me balance out my life here and what I can do there. Now I am thinking about my sabbatical year in parts. I am thinking that I will break up my year and try to do 3 months in one continent with volunteerism taking up some portion and then tourism taking up the rest. Then, ideally, I would like to return to Chicago to check on my business, my property and my family (aging mother and various brothers/sisters/nieces/nephews) for a month and then go out and repeat that process again in another part of the world. I would like to do some immersion work in Spanish and am captivated by the GeoVision Conversation Corps in South America so I want to fit that in at some point.

Unlike others who are willing to give up their homes, pets, and their lives for an indefinite period of time, I know that I want to be able to return to my life, my business and my home but I want to have a chance to do these things while I am still capable. I want to give back to this amazing world we live in and I want to immerse myself in the richness of other cultures. When I am old and dying what I want are the memories of a life well lived and I need to stop the action and make sure that I am working on those memories now before it is too late. That said, my everyday life is pretty amazing, too, and I will be happy to return to it.

As a small business owner, what are your plans for your company while you are away?
I own an executive search business and have been lucky to have many long-term employees working for me. They are very competent women and I know that I can count on them to continue to work productively. We are a small firm so I am mostly concerned about all the things that I do because as a small business owner you must wear tons of hats. I have talked with my accountant about setting up an enhanced relationship with him so that clients get invoiced and bills get paid. I will have to assign various other responsibilities to my staff and hope they can deliver. It really is a trust exercise because as much as they may be invested in what they do, it is still my business and I am the driving force every day.

Do you need guidance for your sabbatical planning? Be sure to check out Career Break Boot Camp. Classes begin January 9, 2011. The first 20 people who register for Boot Camp will receive a $100 gift certificate towards any of the Unconventional Guides by Chris Guillebeau. And every person who registers will receive a free copy of his book, The Art of Non-Conformity. This will provide an added dose of inspiration to fuel your travel dreams.