Over the past 2 weeks, “Yoder & Sons,” a column by a WSJournalist and his boys, has been pondering whether Father & 14-year-old Levi should get “crazy” and take a 6-month fantasy trip.  Most readers say “Go!”  So does this father—and his son—and I submit this photo as evidence enough. 

My son, you see, loves to fish.  So imagine his ecstasy when we were strolling seaside on the island of Grenada and a bunch of brawny fishermen demanded that he scramble down the breakfront and help them haul in the nets.  He likes school too.  But this stuff just don’t happen—not even in World Cultures class. (Here’s his version of the story, on his blog.)

In this case, Steve & Levi Yoder are kicking around the idea of a tour studying the history of Western Civilization, paleontology and things.  That’s a bit more ambitious than fishing during our island-hopping adventure last year.  Still, the same thing will happen.  Total strangers will surprise them and, metaphorically, time and time again, snag them in a unimaginable net. 

Those pictures will be worth 1,000 days in school.  As one woman with some serious Sabbatical experience wrote,

These journeys cannot be compared to a week here, two weeks there.  They are life-changing, relationship-building, memory-sharing, character-challenging adventures.” 

After two BreakAways with my children (and two without), I can only emphatically, wholeheartedly agree.

• BUT:  Some Say Stay Home.

Of course, not everyone encourages the Yoders to chase their dream.  One glum soul called Steve’s “dangerous odyssey” “outrageous,” and stated,

Your wife should have you declared incompetent.” 

Ouch!  I guess that makes a lot of us hopeless.  But don’t ask this inept dad:  Ask my children.  They seem to love love where their parents “incompetence” takes them. 

• Will Yoders Go?

So far, Steve’s being poker-face Yoder.  But I bet they’ll get their getaway.  He’s playing the Deathbed card, after all: 

On my deathbed, will I be glad I was prudent — saved money, paid the mortgage — or will I have a twinge of regret that I didn’t take my last remaining teenager on a quixotic odyssey?”

You’ve got a great job, Mr. Yoder.  One of the best.  Many of us are jealous.  But while some of us may not have your career success, we somehow manage a journey with a son around the world.   Homeschool two kids through the Caribbean.   Take one whole year off before the offspring arrive.  And never, ever regret those choices. 

We even pay the mortgage and keep the pantry full.  Somehow. 

• Go!  Go!  Go! 

So I’ll join the cheerleading chorus and assert that this is, literally, a once-in-a-lifetime alignment for Dad and Son to see the world, experience history, and bond nonstop.  And as for Mr. Yoder’s career, methinks this trip would only increase his knowledge, perspective and occupational capital. 

About son Levi:  Don’t wait too long, Dad.  The boy in that fishing picture is already many pounds and inches older.  His voice has changed.  Peachfuzz is emerging. 

If it’s difficult to escape now, it’ll only become moreso.  You’ve already seen one son grow up fast and disappear to college.   Now’s your chance to stop time and haul in some nets together.

Remember Sundays? Back in the day, Sundays were a time for sleeping in, singing at church, brunching out, catching a game on TV, sneaking a nap, and enjoying Sunday supper—a peaceful prelude to the busy week ahead.

WAY back in the day, the Christian and Jewish traditions mandated that one day per week be set aside for cessation from work.  The modern-day “weekend” evolved—a fine upgrade, rather like a two for one.  But does the pace really slow down any more? 

These days? Not so much.  The freeways were packed the last two Sundays; the Mother’s Day jams were anything but sweet.  Seems like few folks slow down for Sundays anymore. 

Sundays have also become fair game for kids sports (games, tourneys, practices—even over the dinner hour and into the evening).  Lots of  productive people use Sunday night to prep for their work week.  And ‘round here, many neighbors use that evening to mow, leaf-blow, and catch up on their yard labor. 

But all is not lost.  The parks are often packed with happy picnickers.  The smell of bar-b-que floats in the air.  And in the land of 10,000 lakes of leisure, the pontoons drift by with families and friends all aboard. 

If you’d like to take back your Sabbath, just do it.  Unplug your digitalia, hop on the hammock with a good book, and cook up a simple, healthy feast.  Heck, try going to a place of worship for God’s sake. 

If you want to learn more about Sabbath traditions and rationales, pick up “The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time” by Judith Shulevitz—who has given the notion a lot of thought as culture critic for the New York Times, and asserts…

Our schedules are not the only thing the Sabbath would disrupt if it could.  It would also rip a hole in all the shimmering webs that give modern life its pleasing aura of weightlessness—the networks that zap digitized voices and money and data from server to iPhone to GPS.”

If you don’t have time to read—not even on Sundays—check out Shulevitz’s four-minute interview with everyone’s favorite talking head, Stephen Colbert.

By the way, have you ever noticed that Colbert does not do his show on Sundays?

Now and then, a Sabbatical story comes along that is too good to pass up, and too good not to pass along. 

Meet Todd Babiak.  Todd is a writer based in Edmonton—on a year-long BreakAway with his family in Paris.  He’s having a gas, as this article describes.  He’s also finding that sabbaticals bring surprises. 

• France can be uncouth!

Babiak’s latest book is called Toby:  A Man.  It’s about an etiquette commentator for a TV station.  (Now there’s a job with few openings!)  After studying manners for so long, Babiak decided to do a year in Paris—in hopes of landing in a place where civility truly is alive and well.  Well, is it?  He answers…

 Vulgarity is global now; we can’t get away from it.” 

• Peeing on main street

Babiak tells the story of walking his daughter to school one morning, only to pass by two men peeing on a building amidst a busy street.  Now, anyone who’s spent time in Europe knows that such practices are common.  Still, it can be a buzzkill to pursue a course in grace, and instead experience coarseness. 

• Babiak has the last laugh

Our Sabbatical seeker is eating it up though, as one tends to do in Paris.  His faux blog, Tobyaman.com, features the commentary and Q&A of the uber-refined Toby—who is “suing” Babiak for writing that unauthorized biography.  It’s full of hilarity on many levels. 

Clearly, Todd Babiak and fam are having a great time, even if the French manners ain’t what they used to be.

Best of all, they still have five months to do Paris—public pee and all.  Enjoy!

Good news:  Author Dan Pink has a new book coming out on 12-29-09. Better news:  He’s taking an interest in Sabbaticals!  That gave me courage enough to invite him to visit BreakAway, and he kindly did, responding:

Glad you liked the Sagmeister post, gladder still you hipped me to your website. It rocks. I think you’re on to something big. (In fact, I write about this trend in my upcoming book.)”

Sagmeister, of course, is the world-famous graphic designer who closes his shop and takes a year off every seven or so—and generated quite a buzz when he preached about it during his TED conference appearance earlier this year. 

Mr. Pink may be one of the most in-demand thought leaders of our time, but he still found time to talk about what we’ll soon be reading—and Sabbaticals too.  Thanks, Dan! 

BA:  Your last book, A Whole New Mind, seemed about what the world needs now.  Would you say your new book, DRiVE, is more about what individuals need now?

Pink:  I actually never thought about it that way, but I think that’s not a bad way to put it.  One way to think about it is the last book was about the what of work. This book is more about the why—why we do what we do.  But there are a lot of lessons in this for individuals—about how they can find their own motivation, and maybe even set up a context that allows other people find their own motivation.

BA:  You describe that it’s time to move beyond the “carrot and stick” approach of work. What some of the new motivators—and can employers provide them? 

Pink:  We tend to think the way to get better performance out of people is carrots and sticks; we sweeten the reward, or stiffen the punishment.  That’s true for some things.  But science shows that for creative conceptual tasks, those sorts of motivators don’t work very well, and often have a whole array of collateral consequences. Sure, we need baseline rewards.  If people feel they’re not getting paid fairly, then there’s not going to be much motivation.  But once you get past that baseline level of compensation, it’s not even about fairness or massive amounts of money.  It’s about fair pay.  Money ceases to be a motivator, and in fact can be a DE-motivator.  So the goal, in many ways, is to take the issue of money off the table. 

The real motivators are things like autonomy, mastery and purpose.  Autonomy means the ability of people to direct their own lives—to have control over their time, technique, and team.   Mastery is the desire to get better at something that matters.  As for purpose, that’s serving something larger than ourselves.”

(more…)

photo by Kirk Horsted

I did my best thinking when not under pressure…. I had all sorts of fears that we would lose clients, be forgotten or have to start from scratch. And none of these fears came true. ….it is a simple time-planning event. I put the plan in the agenda, work out the finances and tell the clients.”

What parents should be looking for is the opportunity for their children to have their lives transformed by what happens inside the classroom and out of it.  And that can’t come without access to faculty who have had the opportunity to recharge their own intellectual reservoirs.”

Most professors have no business going on “sabbaticals” at all and certainly not every six years.”

Sabbatical at most places is not a year but a semester, and faculty are expected to do research and, at some institutions, provide evidence of production. Hm, pretty cushy!”

As for the sabbatical, of course the root is from sabbath, or rest. Fields were allowed to lie fallow every seven years so that they would be more productive. (The extension of this is the jubilee, which is the year following seven sabbaticals, when sins and debts are forgiven and all may start anew.) It’s not a new idea, by the way, and many institutions other than universities award them; I can’t see how it can be figured into the equation of the current cost of tuition.”

The feeling of balance and serenity we’d so desperately sought, and found, is already gone, swept away in the pace of this frenetic city.”    

…Yep, the comeback can be crass, but it’s still so worth it. 

In many ways, moving abroad is the new sports car of the mid-life crisis.”  

Although some rare birds fly off on BreakAways throughout life, a mid-life crisis may offer serendipitous alignment.  And really, it can be so much more beneficial than, say, an affair, a divorce, or even a Porsche. 

The couple discussed taking time off before, but it was the sudden death of a friend, diagnosed with cancer at age 54, that spurred them into action.”  

It’s easy to get complacent—or too patient.  But life can implode in an instant.  So get going when the going is good! 

It took about six months to find the perfect balance.”  

A sabbatical is not a sure shot to bliss.  That’s why giving yourself as much time as possible ups the odds of finding ultimate enjoyment. 

As a family, we bonded closer than ever as we trekked into unfamiliar emotional territory and over geographical borders.”  

There may be no better way for a family to get connected than to disconnect from the daily agenda. 

The longer we were gone, the less we missed Calgary.”  

Although many people claim to “love” where they live, this family proves it’s easy to fall in love with the larger world too.  There’s a lot to love!

Increasing numbers of professionals are taking up sabbaticals offered by recession-hit firms seeking to cut costs but avoid redundancies. In return for a drop in salary of between 70 and 75 per cent, employees can take a unique opportunity to restore their work-life balance… But do the pitfalls of being away from the office outweigh the positives?”

 

The article by Judith Woods offers some insightful anecdotes and real-life examples of people who have chosen to say Yes. Here are some of the key themes:

Amen!  Bottom line?  People everywhere are learning—if by force—that there’s more to life than work, and that jobs come sans guarantees. 

If you dream of a sabbatical but your job gets in the way, here’s the good news:  the typical American simply can’t count on job stability any more.  So a BreakAway window will probably appear many times during your career. 

Check out these stats that suggest your “job,” over the long run, may be less of a barrier than you think…

• 3 to 5:  Career changes the average person will have by age 38
• 10 to 14:  Jobs the average person will have by age 38

Depressing?  Or liberating?  How about both, depending on what chapter you’re in at any given moment and how your money-management skills are holding up. 

But here’s one last stat that IS truly depressing…

•  77   Percent of people who hate their jobs

These digits come courtesy of the professional motivation column, “Outswimming the Sharks,” by Twin Cities entrepreneur/author Harvey Mackay. His column today has some jolting numbers.  But, as usual, he is encouraging about your prospects.

So am I.  If most of us will have a dozen careers—and hate our jobs anyway—what’s stopping us from taking some transition time between gigs?  Why don’t we launch into something we’d love to do, rather than remain handcuffed to jobs we hate? 

That’s the opportunity, folks.  Your chance to swim toward calmer seas, and away (for a while) from the sharks will come. 

Be ready.