Reality check time. Running away is NOT a good idea. Don’t try this at home. Wouldn’t be prudent. Bad idea. Just stay home.

Fit hit the shan all over the place this weekend. MLHSHD (major league high stakes high drama). It’s all family and personal and serious and stuff, so you DON’T want to hear about it. Let’s just say that the world does NOT stop, genuflect, or even say, “How can I help?” when you’re trying to BreakAway. In fact, the treadmill only speeds up.

As George Jetson said over and over:

“Jane! Stop this crazy thing!?!”

Heck, on a good day, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with Stuff Management, dishwasher emptying, laundry mashing, and schedule shuffling. If you could beam me there, Scotty, to that island of peace, that would be great. But prepping and packing and transporting? Not peaceful at all. No way. No thanks.

Earth to Kirk: Sit down. Get back in your box. Don’t drink that Kool-aid and for God’s sake, don’t serve any to your family! Keep life simple. Go organic. Wear a helmet.

• BIGGEST OBSTACLE TODAY: Reality.
• ODDS OF GOING TODAY: 55% (Let’s get real…)

Have a game plan. For any game worth playing. This “Shifting Careers” column offers a spot-on Sabbatical story well worth studying.

Barbara Raab brings a perspective that this Breakaway boy may lack: What it’s like to tell The Boss (and your workplace team) you want time off and make sure their needs are met—all without getting canned or kicked in the can. Ms. Raab has it “easy” in a way we self-employeds envy, though: She’ll return to a job and benefits.

That sounds pretty good about now. Last time 2 Heads shut shop to run away, we left when business was booming (the dot-com melt-up). But we came back to see billings cut in half for two years (the dot-com blow-up). If that happens again, Boy Genius here may lose money AND faith.

Let’s have a make-believe, virtual conversation with Ms. Raab…

“A short walk that nonetheless feels far away.”

That proves that, even if you stay in the ‘hood, everything changes. My personal preference, as written up in the Sabbatical Suggestions, is to seek new sights—as in, leave the country, if possible. That guarantees new perspectives. But her approach is appropriate for her Mission.

“Updating my own skills.”

Amen to that. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with trades and technology any more. She’ll make quantum leaps and return a more savvy employee. In my world, this Hiatus includes confronting my technophobic ways with 2 new cameras, many new puter programs, an i-Touch, and this here website.

“Figure out if you can afford it.”

She can—mostly because she proudly stays out of debt and chooses a simple-enough lifestyle. Agreed, as illustrated in the “11 Commandments of Fiscal Fitness.”  That said, I also believe there are many times throughout life when it’s best to break out this five-word mantra: “It’s not a financial decision.”

“Offer solutions.”

Brilliant. Vital in the workplace. But if you’re flying off, you may also need to anticipate issues and provide solutions for residence, schools, yard, pets, relatives, organizations, and of course, your bowling team.

“And, oh yeah, somehow get my own radio show.”

Really? Get out!?! I thought I was the only cat around here with that dream! Tell ya what, Barbara, whoever gets there first has the other on as a guest asap. Okay? Cool!

The short answer: It appears the Sabbatical schedule is taking shape. Let me tell you where we’re going (though we’ll probably end up someplace else…)

• St. John
• St. Vincent
• Bequia
• Grenada & the Grenadine Islands
• Puerto Rico

Odds are we’ll be sleeping in hotels, guesthouses, condos, lodges, resorts, and no doubt a shanty and airport and broken-down bus at some point. The itinerary is coming together in that way that 555-piece puzzles do: First around the corners; then the edges; then chunks of the multifarious middle. Then, abruptly…OO-bop sha-BAMM! It all somehow fits.

Leaving you to wonder: If it was all there in the first place; why was this so hard!?!

Kind readers, forgive me for neglecting to babble about the flurry of planning activity that precedes taking a 69-day Breakaway. But gosh, it just don’t make great reading. I know: I read it all…and then deleted half of it (not nearly enough).

Anyway, planning takes on a life of its own. I can’t keep up with it myself—to say nothing of the rest of life’s demands.

Tonight, BTW, that includes directing dozens of grade school musicians who will be serenading diners at the school’s annual fund-raising spaghetti dinner. (Funds go toward a class BreakAway for bonding and science to a lakeside retreat Up North.) With my 6th grade violinist, we shall perform 4 Beatles songs: Eleanor Rigby; Hide Your Love Away; Yellow Submarine; and Blackbird.

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.”

Thanks, Paul.

“And we live a life of ease.
Everyone of us has all we please.
Then the band begins to PLAY.”

Thanks, Ringo.

• COUNTDOWN: 43 Days
• ODDS OF GOING TODAY: 90%…a new HIGH! : )

Well, shiver me timbers! Not only is the world not flat, but this fabulous couple has logged (or should I say “blogged?”) enough travel to know. Try this site—if you need some inspiration, or feel like your get up and go has gotten up and gone.

Know what else is cool? They just do it. They don’t babble about BreakAways, preach about imbalance, or drone on about debt. Oh sure, they’ve got something to sell there. But they’ve got to find some way to fund their next Big Break, eh?

The Pre-Socratic Pythagoreans were wrong! The world is round; no more excuses about staying put cuz you might fall off the face of the earth! Moreover, travelmates are everywhere! We are not alone!

BlogStar Seth Godin today writes about the need to attract—and retain—top talent. As he puts it,

“It only takes 10% as much effort to hire someone in the bottom 90% of the class. And it takes the other 90% to find and cajole and retain the top 10%.”

Don’t mean to repeat myself—or to beat a dead Horsted—but once you get those four-star performers, and they stay and keep giving moremoremore, give them a BreakAway now and then. If there is a better way (beyond mere pay) to keep key people, please tell me all about it.

My 2-person corporation would love to know. After all, we constantly seek ways to prevent an exodus of crucial, if crotchety, stakeholders.

Exxon made $15 billion in profit for Q3, so reports the AP (and all news sources) today. Q3: You know, that’s when we all were enjoying taking road trips with friends, or to the reunion, or to the cabin up north—while paying north of $4 a gallon.

Ain’t that America? When the little people (albeit often in their big vehicles) want to have some fun, the Big People find a way to make it hurt. $15 billion. That’s just nuts.

• $15 billion would provide 1.5 million people $10,000 seed money to start their Sabbatical.
• $15 billion would transform the economies of countless poor nations.
• $15 billion could provide the start-up funds for dozens and dozens of smart companies developing alternative energies.
• Heck, $15 billion could transform Exxon into oil + alterna giant—that is prepared for the future, when the oil runs dry.

But that’s not the way Exxon works. They are very used to making profits; one could almost say they’re addicted to it, like drivers are addicted to gas. Check out this AP factoid:

“If one-time gains like bankruptcy settlements and spinoffs are stripped away from other companies, Exxon Mobil owns the record for the top 10 most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit.”

Yes, it’s true. In the previous quarter (Q2), Exxon made (only) $11.68 billion, the second-largest profit ever. For those of us watching our pennies and trying to save for a vacation, a BreakAway, or retirement, we have three reaction-options: Buy the stock; refuse to hold the stock (on moral grounds); Go for a ride (maybe on your bike) and don’t think too much about it.

I like the third option. Shift gears, let capitalism do its wild, funky thang, and ride on.

Uh-oh. Drop me in the shallow waters before I get too deep…

One of my teachers recently prescribed homework, and it included a chapter from the book, A Path with Heart:  A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life, by Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield’s book, A. 

If you are in the mood, please give this passage a read…

“It is possible to speak with your heart directly. Most ancient cultures know this. We can actually converse with our heart as if it were a good friend. In modern life we have become so busy with our daily affairs and thoughts that we have forgotten this essential art of taking time to converse with our heart. When we ask it about our current path, we must look at the values we have chosen to live by. Where do we put our time, our strength, our creativity, our love? We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration, or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?”

Having just written about the costs (non-financial) of Breaking Away, this excerpt arrives like a sunbeam at dawn this morning. At the 49-day Countdown, it’s darn easy to get all hot and bothered about why NOT to go. But what about the costs of skipping this blessed chance? Mr. Kornfield speaks to that.

BTW, one must be careful of this sort of self-help inspiration stuff. It can lead to painful shoulder shrugging and eyeball rolling. Then a dodgy desire for more. Then yoga, meditation, classes, teachers, sunrise rituals, and more. Been there, doing that.

It can be corny, but often effective. Rather like religion. Which, according to R.E.M., most of us have lost.

Yoga by the lakeshore: Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. I thank the heavens; my body thanks me. The candles show the light until the sky starts to glow. Then, the sunrise is most awakening and stunning—today, anyway. Sometimes it’s even better than sleep.

What about these matters of the heart? What about “heart?”—a word so overused and Hallmark-abused that this writer dares not to type it often. Yet without IT, we can become, “So busy with our daily affairs and thoughts that we have forgotten this essential art of taking time to…?” Fill in the blank. Taking time to…

A sabbatical is, at its best, taking time to let the heart speak. To shut up and listen—to feel the beat. To follow its request list. To pay attention to your mates as their heartbeats take voice.

It’s a time to dance wide-eyed into the great mysteries and, with any luck, make discoveries both childish and profound. Could be as simple as building a sandcastle with your kids. Or trying new foods. Or making music. Or just stepping out of the distraction-laden routine to follow wherever your heart may lead you.

Okay. Enough of that. There’s work to do, whether my heart is in it or not. But soon soon, that work will more resemble my Life’s Work.

Come along! (Or get the hell out of the way…)

• ODDS OF GOING TODAY: 75%

Lest anyone think that taking a big BreakAway is merely a financial expense, let me assure you that is only the beginning.

Today, as I try to calm my brain before bed, it keeps brooding over that list. It looks something like this…

• Work income mostly stops
• Work upon return is exponentially more uncertain
• Most living expenses (mortgage, etc.) don’t take a break
• The kids’ will miss out on school, sports, activities
• The cat will bum out
• Alluring job opportunities for this winter have been turned away
• Any Bad Thing (injury, illness, theft) could ruin days
• Family disharmony could too
• Coming home (to much winter) may be depressing

Is it any wonder most people don’t do this sort of thing? I mean, even people with money, freedom, or audacity may have more common sense. HELP!?!

• ODDS OF GOING TODAY: 55%

2 fishermen just leisurely floated by, both on cell phones.

Ish! Even guys who fish?

But of course. Often these days while I toil in the office or gardens, I hear some booming male voice drifting over the lake. One response might be, “You tawkin’ to me?” But they never are. They’re usually on their cell phone. 2 dudes in this case. Yapping at someone somewhere else—rather than to each other. Just like teens on a date.

Usually, I’m happy to see guys fishing nearby, even though they sometimes stare and refuse to wave. (My office sits on the shore of a nice fishing hole.) Visiting friends say, “Don’t you get tired of those guys hanging out right there?” I reply,

“Nah, they’re mellow. It’s their Zen—and their lake too.”

Plus, it brings back happy memories of dads and grandpas.

What is fishing if not an exercise in patience, persistence, mystery, and hope? Is it not a mini-Sabbatical? 9 out of 10 fisherpeople say yes!

Could it be a mini-Sabbatical?  A sanity break?

(Never mind that they also say, or should I say yell, into cell, stuff like, “Hey Rich, so what’s goin’ on?” and “How ‘bout them Vikings yesterday?” and “Truck fixed yet?”) Banal stuff, most on-deck cell phone chats, eh?  

The fishing pros who win contests need no cell phones. Depthfinders and fishfinders, sure. But beyond that, going UnPlugged is good. Silence never scares the fish away—no matter what you’re fishing for.

But who am I to judge? We are a nation—nay, a world!—of talkers.

At least they’re out there, making the time to BreakAway and float a bit…

How quickly things change.

Islands now in play: 10? 12? 55? Interesting options have arisen on many now, some large and some small. Grenada and the Grenadines (an archipelago of many isles) probably remain the top choice. But a new rental opportunity—one that’s hard to refuse—has come from Dominica. So that’s back in the running. Didn’t I write that off several days ago?

Be careful what you blog about!

St. Vincent looks alluring. Bequia (near St. Vincent) is calling. Carriacou (near Grenada) has some nice possibilities. And the flight home leaves from San Juan, so we’ll need to spend some time there before heading home—not only to see that American gem, but to break up the trip from way down near Venezuela to way up near Canada.

Of course, there are more outer islands near all of these—boat, ferry, sail, or swim. Yet I know my bias (especially with not enough days and 2 charming children, AllBoy & CurlyGirl) is to hunker down in one place, or maybe 2, but not more than 3. I am neither a pirate nor a Caribbean nomad. It’s better to make friends, get to know a place, and stop running around like bizzee Americans for a while.

I’m wondering if we’re being indecisive. But I’m not sure. Meantime, it’s sure swell to have options.

• ODDS OF GOING TODAY: 85%