Coworker rarely find themselves discussing career breaks around the water cooler.  But they ought to. Because just under the workplace radar, sabbaticals stay in the news—if sometimes in odd iterations. Here are 5 stories, er, floating around the internets and other media…

• Breakaway Sailing from NYC; Lawsuits Still Unsettled       

Norwegian Cruise Line paid this website the ultimate compliment when they christened their new super-ship, “Breakaway.” But they forgot to ask permission, pay appropriate royalties, and give us free rum punches. We’ll let the courts decide; ‘nuff said. Meantime, the buzz is big. You can sail out of NYC to warm locales—and eat your heart out at 29 “dining experiences,” including a seafood restaurant lorded over by celeb chef, Geoffrey Zakarian.

• The Sabbath: Now a Sad Day

Our local paper recently offered a Sunday feature about how Sundays, once a day of rest, are now a day of stress and dread. Yep. Nowadays, most folks pack their Sundays with activities and errands and do lists—and largely skip the part about sleeping in, worship and fellowship, and a hearty Sunday supper. 78% worldwide experience these doldrums, with 59% reporting a “really bad” dose. As for me, I’ve always hated “60 Minutes.” That ticking represents the weekend—or is it life itself?—coming to an end (after some depressing sensationalism and this word from our sponsor).

• Fast Company Suggests Slowing Down

Meanwhile, Fast Company’s Laura Vanderkam writes a “Work Smart” column and calls sabbaticals “a great tool.” Wow! Who knew!?! Her story profiles a burnt-out employee who took six months off, came back refreshed and ready to re-invent her career, and went on to write a book called “Falling in Love With Work” all about it! Evergreen takeaways: Use your vacation days; schedule in free time; and “claw yourself time to think.”

• Iowa Professors Suffer Sabbatical Shortage

We’ve ranted before about Iowa’s legislature way overstepping their bounds by slashing sabbatical budgets at the University by more than half (assumedly out of shameless jealousy and control freakism). Now, three years into their knuckleheaded bullying, teachers are indeed lamenting that without these working breaks, they are having a harder time doing research, publishing books, creating new courses, and (in one’s case) launching rockets.  Hey, politicians: Keep your dirty hands out of smarter worlds. 

• Students Need Sabbaticals, Too

Elsewhere in academia, Northwestern senior William McLaughlin advocates in the school paper for student breaks, travels, and gap years. He reflects his own year off before college, biking in Beijing. College years can already be a multi-year, ivory-tower BreakAway, if you ask me. Summers off! Spring breaks! Low taxes! Still, we applaud his vision, even if we cringe and disagree with his assertion that, “Old age is no time to start things.” Hey, Big Ten Boy: Who says you won’t want re-bike Beijing when you’re “old” and gray?

Any age is a good time to start something, right?

While beer-storming (that’s beer-sipping + brainstorming) over the holidays with dear friend and Meet, Plan, Go! rock star Sherry Ott, we discussed the Wall Street Journal’s recent article on Baby Boomers and career breaks—and what a potential movement (literally) may happen if, indeed, Boomers begin breaking.

From that chat was borne my 2014 mission. For the next year, every month, I will write a column about Baby Boomers for the briefcase-to-backpack site.

They’ve kindly published it already, but these days, who doesn’t believe in multi-purposing? So let’s get off our Boomer big butts and get this show on the road!

• Not the greatest generation?

We Boomers are a mystifying bunch. I say “We” because I was born in 1960—toward the end of the Baby Boom (1946 – 1964) and have loved riding the surge that followed. We sprang to life during an era of relative convention and conservatism. Then we boisterously rejected all that and, as lore has it, sold our souls to sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

We still like those things (and, increasingly, Viagra, hearing aids, and legalization). But as history writes our story, there’s often a lingering haze of disappointment about what we accomplished with our passion and promise. After all, we preached peace but have enabled costly wars that drag on for decades. We marched for equality yet bitter human-rights fights rage on. We imagined a world less ruled by The Man, Big Brother, and Uncle Sam—yet fear for our freedoms, privacy, and jobs.

Now we’re 50 – 68 years old. If we still fantasize about running away to Woodstock or San Francisco, we probably lack the means and zeal—or are afraid someone might steal our job. Hell, two-thirds of us (in North America) don’t even use all of our modest vacation allocation. Is that a buzzkill or what!?! A haze of disappointment, indeed.

• Let’s change the world—one (vacation) day at a time

But it’s not too late, right? If you’re reading this—Boomer or not—you’re not dead yet. And the best time to take an extended journey is…anytime! Like, when the stars finally align! When you’ve saved some money! Gotten divorced or widowed! Watched your nest (or nest egg) go empty! Or gotten fired or learned you have just one year to live.

In other words, perhaps there’s no perfect time for anything. Yet somehow we find time to fall in love, get an education, buy and sell homes, raise families, manage careers, and move around. If you hang out on this site, you’re likely thinking about moving around.

So we’ll explore what it means to prioritize long-term travel—and the whys and hows and more. We’ll revive forgotten promises and unfulfilled fantasies. We’ll celebrate trips we’ve taken, probe vital topics, and ask the big questions like…

If we’re afraid to go, how do we face down fear and build up faith?

What’s money got to do with it?

What about options like staycations, couch-surfing, and home exchanges?

How will we redefine retirement?

Can we embark on ambitious adventures while managing a health condition?

Why do we work so hard and long—and how can we escape that blessed curse?

How do we keep hope alive through mini-breaks, vacations, and leisure?

Have we become immobilized by our families, homes, gadgets, and stuff?

What are pros and cons of going solo, with a partner, or the whole famn damily?

Since we might live beyond 100, how do we make a work/life plan for that?

As our travels may suggest, why are less fortunate cultures often happier than U.S.?

Shall we start scheming for a Boomers on BreakAway Summit?

• Up, up, and away…

We’ll check out some stats and facts, and get lost in far-out places like Bequia. We’ll share tips and tales from been there/doing that sources like http://travelpast50.com. And above all, we’ll laugh at ourselves and yet hope to inspire each other to go up, up, and away—whether it’s the adventure of a lifetime, or simply using all our vacation days.

P.S. What do YOU want Big Boom RoadShow to explore? Please add your comment below, or send me a private email through my website. Thanks!

The year is already 5% done, with January more than half over. Here in the Polar Vortex, we couldn’t be happier; only four more months till the tulips poke up. Oh well, every day holds a little mystery and magic, right? If we can’t get down and dirty in the garden, we can always try to find fish under the ice. Here are some more ways to keep it real this year…

5 More Ways to Keep it Real

1. Don’t order it, cook it. Did you know Americans now spend more money on prepared foods than home cookin’? Yep. We’ve reached the tipping point—and that includes on our bathroom scale. Let’s get out of line and back into the kitchen.
2. Go whole, not hacked. Those food factories love to slice, dice, mince, and mash the ingredients (and flavors and colors and preservatives) til you’re not really sure what you’re tasting—and the label reads like a chemistry experiment. Want good taste? Grill salmon. Steam some rice. Chop a fresh salad. Your body will thank you.
3. Journal more, post less. Caution: Journaling may lead to navel-gazing. But posting may lead to narcissism. Private pondering made Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, and Woody Allen great. SM fixations usually lead to Silly Mundaneness.
4. Don’t just “like,” appreciate. Our ability to express approval has been reduced to little clicks of “likes,” a thumbs-up icon, or (if you’re really lucky) a smiley face. Want to make someone’s day? Show and tell them how much you appreciate their assistance, kindness, and unconditional “like.”
5. Slow down, stay longer. Manpower Group recently reported that 69% of North Americans didn’t use all their vacation time last year—for the third year in a row. What’s more real: Your job or your free time? Hey! Go away! And when you get there, hunker down and sit a spell!

Happy New Year. Let’s hope it’s a good one by making it real.

Today’s stumbled-on stat is that 93% of US adults will set a New Year’s resolution for 2014, and 54% of them will be health-related.*

That’s good. We’d all have a better year with improved eating, sleeping, and exercise. But as I stare at the screen, I resolve to stare less at screens and seek what’s real instead—and reckon that would help both health and mental health.

5 Ways to Keep it Real

1. Say it, don’t text it. Texting’s passive-aggressive patterns can work well for quick or witty bits. But hearing someone’s voice—or seeing their face—brings bigger smiles.
2. Skip the selfie. Oh sure, you could take another picture of yourself to show your online “friends.” Or…you could photograph real friends and family whenever you gather.
3. Look long-term. Speaking of pics, the trend is all about take, post, check “likes,” and hurry on to the next shot. Here’s an idea: Get a quality camera and shoot lasting memories.
4. Make plans. Social media ups the spontaneity potential. But it can also lead to nowhere. Sometimes living for the day beats living for the moment.
5. Don’t go out, hang out. Most folks love to spend money—at the mall, the concert, the game, the eatery. But what about chillin’ with best buds? Priceless!

That’s enough for today, since one goal for the year is to seek attainable intentions. But since the year’s turn offers a great chance for reflection and is a holiday the whole world agrees on, perhaps a Part Two will be in order…

* Ipsos Public Affairs

Well, well, well. Just when some might think the Career Break movement has taken a break of its own, the WSJ pumps out a powerful article about Baby Boomers embracing the “Midlife ‘Gap’ Year.”

Read all about it! The 60-year-old couple who escape their routine and sell their stuff and high-tail it to a mountain retreat. The tech exec who takes the early-retirement package and weaves her love of textiles back into her life. The New Yorker who cuts his film career and flies off to three three-month adventures.

Gurus from Encore.org, Reboot Partners, and more offer tips and stories. AARP provides survey-sez results that verify the profound need for career breaks, since many retirees report disturbing dissatisfaction.

Yet the article reminds us that sabbaticals need not be about African safaris and sailing the seas.

“Sometimes they may do very little,”

writes author Anne Tergesen.

That may raise the question: But isn’t that what unhappy retirees complain about? Maybe. But perhaps the difference lies in the mindfulness, planning, and intention that happens to those committed to BreakAways as a way of life.

And whether you choose to catch up on sleep or climb every mountain doesn’t really matter. The point is to stop off the treadmill. Do what matters. And take your time.

Like many of us, my lists have lists—and my journals have journals. Any more, the “journals” come in myriad forms: notebooks, tablets, folders, docs, and even crumpled Post-its. Atop that proverbial pile sits boxes of photos, a virtual terabyte of iPhoto pics, and online stuff; all tell more stories. It’s enough to make a guy give up and just keep the thoughts to myself.

But then something happens. You see your kids journaling—without prompt. You stumble on an old entry that strikes up a memory like a forgotten, favorite song. You realize the archetypal beauty of just plain writing, and then find a “clip” like this one, from Fast Company, entitled The One Easy Daily Habit that Makes Life More Awesome…

So ponders writer (and lifetime journaler) Laura Vanderkam. She describes her on-again/off-again relationship with journaling and maintains that doing so boosts one’s gratitude and happiness quotient; she even says science backs that assertion!

Some of us don’t know much about science. But we do know this: You almost always feel a little better when you sit a spell and write about the roses. Blossoms don’t last forever; memories do. But only if we find a way to preserve them for later. Try a gratitude journal, suggest Vanderkam and Fast Company. Gratitude is great, I agree, but I say let it all air out.

• So many media, so little time?

Perhaps the biggest problem these days is deciding which platform will best house your reflections. Does writing on computer count? What if your computer loses ITS memory? Is Facebook a journal? What about Twitter and Instagram? A blog? Is it a personal journal at all if you’re sharing it for others to LIKE?

How might one ever compile all this information into a, say, book? Is it possible? If so, who has time?

Well, we all do. We’re all equally rich with time, and what better use of that finite commodity than to cease the chase and put pen to paper?

I enjoyed lunch with a friend today—the mother of three young children. Their family may be the only one I know that has managed to keep their kids internet-free. Oh sure, there’s some TV. But that’s it. Can you imagine? Could most kids survive?

“Oh, they’re so busy. They wouldn’t have time for all that,” my friend humbly reflected. But isn’t everybody busy any more? Isn’t “I’m so busy!” the mantra of our era? And yet…

The average American kid spends 7+ hours per day on entertainment media.

I’m concerned—about my own family, naturally, but even moreso about the long-term effects of generations of humans evolving this way. Doctors are officially worried too:  A recent article in Pediatrics magazine recommends a max of two hours. The problems associated with media over-consumption include:

• Violence
• School difficulties
• Obesity
• Sleep deprivation
• Social dysfunction
• Cyberbullying (which has now been linked to several suicides)

“It’s their world,” has become my cop-out surrender over the years. After all, my folks didn’t stop me from buying big stereos, playing in a rock-&-roll band, and watching Gilligan’s Island. And many parents resort to,

You know, as long as they’re doing well in school and playing sports and seem well-adjusted…”

But maybe the crisis is not so simple. It’s NOT their world; it’s ours. And it’s our responsbility to keep our progeny from turning into sick and tired cyber-zombies.

This tug-of-war is far from over. I’m getting back into fighting shape.

A son’s friend asked me the other day, “Do you think I could learn to play guitar?”

I had just tuned up my Yamaha full body from the 70s—and took the opportunity to make a little joyful noise.

“Well sure,” I replied, “anybody can. It’s the singing that’s the hard part!”

• Practice, practice, practice

Doesn’t really matter what you want to do: If you want to be good at it, you must practice—even if you’re born with a gift. Sometimes, that stinks. In outdoor sports, that can mean playing through mud, storms, and grizzled coaches. In music, it can mean years of lessons, drills, and dedication. “No one enjoys practicing!” a professional musician once told me with a laugh.

• Play, play, play

But at some point, practice becomes play. And those scales that once made you scream might skate from your fingertips. You become one with the strings and music happens without a thought. (In fact, thinking only gets in the way.) Worries can’t compete. The world melts away and you get lost in good vibrations, as if in meditation.

Happy is the home that keeps messy with musical instruments around.

• Too messy. Oak leaves last longer than parchment paper. Just when you finally finish spring cleanup, the trees start shedding again. Who enjoys raking? Nobody who has dozens of old trees within earshot.
• Too much schoolin’. Biggest buzzkill in the world? BTS. No, wait: Getting a 9-5 (which might mean 7a-10p) job after college; that’s worse. Here’s a great education that you never forget: Hopping the wrong train when somewhere far away, and ending up exactly where you’re meant to be.
• Too much indoors. Outside feels open, expansive, easy—and the less clothes, the better. Fall puts the clothes back on and the walls in charge.
• Too dark. 9-21 means the first day of fall, and the first day of darkness impending. Not until six months later do the days get longer again. Fall marks the march into the winter solstice—a day to celebrate, but a lousy day to catch some rays.
• Too much change. The Beach Boys once sang about Endless Summer. But look what happened to them. Fall’s like a freak show that turns lithe youth into craggy spinsters. Around here, people put away their convertibles and dig out heavy parkas.

The good news is: Autumn offers the best season to leave—to somewhere new. This vagabond has caught trains, planes, and autos for extended BreakAways to everywhere from Florida to Italy and Milwaukee to Auckland.

Does autumn harsh your mellow? Fear not, and listen to those crazy voices within.

Maybe it’s a great time to do the wild thing…

Who are these a-holes shutting down the government? Don’t they know 800,000 just-folks employees depend on their paychecks? That millions more work on the food chain that serves them? That our economy (which has been though quite enough lately) could lurch back into near-depression?

This website avoids getting political. Until, of course, we’re mad as hell and can’t take it any more. I mean: This country has flaws, but dang it, we do good work. And for our hard work, we get an occasional day off. A vacation. Maybe even a career break (of our own choosing, not Uncle Sam’s). And with any luck, retirement before the c-word or heart attacks strike us down.

Speaking of: It’s about a healthcare law that a few troublemakers don’t like. They don’t want to provide; they want to Just Say No. They don’t care that it’s been debated for decades. Gradually (almost) phased in with tedious compromise and consternation. And even passed our Supreme Court’s smell test—the same Supreme Court that has otherwise has leaned right and sucked up inappropriate power for a long time. Our founding fathers would puke, regardless of party affiliation. Let’s get on to the next spat.

Americans are a blissfully blithe bunch. But this citizen can’t say, “How are you?” today without somebody expressing anxiety. An admirable centrist shows anger. A probation employee wonders when his “grace period” might expire. A radio report compares us to Italy. Italy? It’s a great place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to vote there.

Last Friday night, under the lights, I watched a high-school football player go down hard with a possible neck or back injury. Action stopped for a dreadfully silent hour while trainers and coaches did their best, an ambulance eventually arrived, and they boarded him and drove off to the hospital.

Who knows if he has health insurance? If his family doesn’t, the tab on that unfortunate stumble probably runs around in the thousands—before any serious care might occur. Does our nation not want to take care of innocent pre-schoolers, minimum-wage workers, and high-school athletes?

Guess not. In fact, let’s shut the world’s largest employer down over this tired argument. Let’s drag down the whole nation—nay!—the whole free world!—while these arrogant, ignorant, belligerent butt-heads play war games with our daily trust at stake.

Never been a fan of Merr-ka’s gun laws. But supposedly, they were created to keep the government in check, which made sense at the time. Maybe it’s time again. If we march and throw them into the Potomac River, there will be no government guards to protect them.