2024 was a very different year than I've been used to. For the first time in my life, I stopped working, spent 60 days snowboarding and over 50 days hiking, read books I otherwise would have never contemplated and travelled to new countries. It was both exhilarating and terrifying.
This is the story of my sabbatical year.
Some context
At the beginning of 2024 I was 32 years old. I'd worked ever since finishing university, mainly self employed. Working six days per week, split shifts and long hours all became normal occurrences since 2013. In an attempt to reduce my work hours, I switched to a 5 day working week back in 2022.
Work life balance was going very well, I was seeing my friends and family on a regular basis and never felt like work was taking over. I did not feel overwhelmed.
Everything was going well, and this is exactly why I chose to put it on hold for a year.
I'd read the book "Life Span" by David Sinclair a few years prior and remembered an interesting idea from it.
The author explained the difference between life span and health span.
Life span refers to how long your heart beats, regardless of your health status.
Health span refers to how long you stay healthy and can enjoy all that life has to offer.
Naturally, the book explained how to increase health span. Living longer, if you can't enjoy it (imagine being in a coma) shouldn't be the ultimate goal.
One of the ideas proposed was breaking up the typical working years (20-65) with sabbaticals every 10 years. The intention is to stay engaged longer in our job (with the assumption we enjoy doing it), and to enjoy things we typically hold off until retirement earlier.
The traditional process of working until we are around 65 and then quitting cold turkey poses two problems that resonated deeply with me.
Problem 1: Quitting work like that takes away something we are passionate about. Again, assuming you love what you do here. Sinclair demonstrated that for some people, not having something to work on every day led to lower living standards.
Problem 2: What we may want to do in retirement when we have more time might not be feasible at the age of 65. I personally enjoy snowboarding, split boarding and other higher risk activities. It's reasonable to assume I will not want to do those after a certain age.
Taking a sabbatical every 10 or so years seemed like a good idea to address both dilemmas. Pushing retirement a few more years back thus staying engaged in work longer and taking advantage of the physical capabilities I currently possess.
The year leading up to the sabbatical year
At the end of 2023, I was one decade into my work and enjoyed it. So far I had that part of the equation ready. I just needed a little push. I can tell you right now that when life is going exactly how you want it, it's a little hard to say "Hey you know what, I'm going to put this on pause for now".
The nudge came from my partner, who, in 2022 expressed her desire to move to Europe. After talking about it at length, we decided to go through with it.
2023 wasn't very different than previous years. I'm not much of a planner so I didn't plan anything in particular. I knew I wanted to go to France, and my plan was to show up and go from there.
From a professional perspective, I let my clients and coworkers know of my decision as soon as I made it. Managers were told even earlier, of the possibility that me moving might happen.
The truly gut wrenching moment of 2023 was my last two weeks of work. I'd worked with all my clients for over 2 years, some for 8 years. Saying goodbye to someone you've seen 2-3 times per week for 8 years is not easy.
The Sabbatical, what I learned
I won't bore you with what I did during 2024, if you are planning on taking one, I encourage you to do exactly what you want to do.
Here are some things I learned from this one that will help me plan the next ones better.
One year is a very long time. I personally think that 6 months is better for my needs. I tend to grow restless when I don't do anything and continually staying active with activities that don't bring in money is financially challenging. Which brings me to my next lesson.
Not working is ok! I was very nervous to stop working for a whole year. I though to myself "What on earth am I going to do with all that time?". It did take me a few months to really enjoy doing other things than work. The key for me was to get extra curious about what I was doing. Snowboarding was always fun, but it became fascinating once I started taking care of my board myself, learning the weather patterns, studying maps and practicing basic skills on bunny hills. I'd always enjoyed reading, but never took it very far. I developed the habit to write down all my thoughts after a book, comparing those thoughts with other books, got more interested in the authors and not just their works. This can be done with any hobby or endeavour. I didn't go into such details in the past simply due to a of time.
Tignes in the summer Extroverts beware. I am an extrovert, always have been. I love being around people, especially my friends and family. When I started my adventure, I left all of my community. My friends, girlfriend, clients, coworkers and family. I ended up alone for the first time in a very long time. In and out of itself, that turned out to be a good thing as I learned to enjoy being alone. I also made friends during 2024. It still was somewhat of a rude awakening for me though.
Long term strategies are hard to evaluate in the short term. Did I do the right thing? Will this sabbatical help my health span? Will it negatively impact it? I won't know until many years. Enjoying the present moment is important but it's hard when things were going so good. I was enjoying many moments in the years leading up to 2024. I enjoyed many moments in 2024. Moments that would have otherwise never been experienced.
Have a plan for the transition out of a sabbatical. For me, knowing how I was going to transition from the sabbatical back into the work life was important. It may not be important to you. Having a year off to explore all the things you love will open new doors and new possibilities.
Final thoughts
Taking a sabbatical year was daunting to me. The feeling of falling behind in my career was ever present. I won't be able to gauge the success of its intended purpose (increase health span) for many decades, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed it. And that alone is enough for me to repeat this unforgettable process in the future.
Looking at 10 years down the road, I might have kids, I'm not sure about where I will be career wise and what else life holds for me. I'd like to think I will have the same hunger for adventure and exploration to do this again,
Hi Clem, Thanks for sharing your noughts and experience on your sabbatical! 🙂