Is it time for you to take a sabbatical?
What this creative learned during a 3 month winter break.
If you are anything like me, you have probably experienced a time in your life where everything felt overwhelming. Each email, calendar invite and file upload sent you into a mental fog. There has maybe even been a time when you have wondered if a sabbatical would cure this dreaded feeling, the burn out.
I took this past winter off from work. After a few months of dealing with a health crisis, on the tail end of year long personal crisis, I was forced into the realization that I needed to empty my plate and recenter myself, (e.g., the mythological Phoenix). I had surgery in mid December, and spent the week recovering in bed, mentally anxious about those counting on me. That led into Christmas season, where I felt unprepared, and exhausted to give our boys an incredible holiday. I knew I couldn’t keep going like this.
No good work comes from a burnt out Creative
“Creative people need time to sit around and do nothing” -Austin Kleon
I have always loved working. I truly enjoy lifting up others in my work, and supporting the businesses who hire me and working with them towards their goals, while being able to use my creative talents. But— creativity is a privileged work, and really only blooms at the crest of Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I was not there.
Even though I was trying my best, I was failing at every turn. I was in a cycle of a self-fulfilling prophecy, filled with the shame that I was not doing good enough, and then I objectively was not doing good enough. Waking up exhausted, the slightest tension would bring tears to my eyes, and I had no desire to be social, which for me, is a major red flag that something is wrong.
So— I just stopped everything. A week or so into not working, I deactivated my Instagram for almost a month. I needed to fully remove myself from the ecosystem of social media marketing in order to have the rebirth I was so desperate for.
What does a sabbatical even mean?
Merriam Webster defines sabbatical as “a break or change from a normal routine”. We can trace the origins of both sabbatical and Sabbath to the Greek word sabbaton. Sabbaton itself traces to the Hebrew word shabbāth, meaning “rest.”
I knew I needed a break, but my ego would not let me take one. I feared that giving into that feeling made me weak, and it would be a more concrete example of “failure” in my business, and as a person. Upon retrospection, it is very similar to when a small child protests bedtime. Parents know the more upset their kids are to go to bed, the more they need to go to bed. You try and reason with them, like, don’t you know how lucky you are? You get to put on your pjs and crawl into your fresh bedding with your stuffed animals. I would tell my kids, “I wish I was going to bed right now”.
Of course, nothing really is stopping you from a metaphorical 8 PM bedtime. For the love of God, take a rest.
Sabbaticals can look many different ways, depending on your work, but for me, as a consultant who runs their own business, it meant I did not accept any work and I did not get paid. I wish I would have planned it out better, eased into it, but I just pulled the plug one day. I was done.
Is It Time To Take A Sabbatical From Work?
What did I learn during my sabbatical?
In these months off, I have been resting, organizing, eating, digging, observing, thinking, and waiting.
Today, on the first Monday of spring, I will start back at work. It will look different than it used to, and I’m excited to share that when the time is right. In my time off, I asked myself, how do I want to spend my days? Most of these daydreams include writing. Writing in my garden, with chickens. Traveling to Europe with the boys, writing while they play. Writing from my home office. If lucky enough for inspiration to strike, writing in my notes app, unaware of the surroundings.
That is where you come in, and this substack account. If you are interested in creativity, branding and marketing that doesn’t lead you into the burn out, I am your girl. We will keep each other in check, all the while geeking out together on self-help, SEO and the latest SAAS.
My substack doesn’t have a cute name yet, or a logo, but that will come when its time for it. Right now it’s just me, and you and these words between us.
My next post here will be about what I have learned, and observed, about social media marketing in my time off. If this is something you are interested in, please subscribe.
Keep reading: Research: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals
Love, Britta
PS: I’m thankful to my husband, Reeve, for supporting this break, emotionally and financially. I know taking 3 months off of work is not a possibility for most, and the luxury is not lost on me. I am so grateful to him in this hard time.
PPS: My friend and the incredibly talented photographer Melissa Marshall has been a major inspiration to me for years, her creative genius and her year long sabbatical. She returned to work recently, is sharing her Archive and launched a few new offerings. Read her post here.
Interesting that I used the word sabbatical in the title of my most recent post and then came across this first post of yours. Very true that if I had not taken those two weeks away my life today would have been different. Not necessarily better (though it was pretty wonderful, as I will be writing about) just different. Nice post and I can’t wait to catch up.
I feel like I’m going through this in a way. Thank you for sharing. 💗