Archives for Expert Perspectives
Want to go from Employee to Entrepreneur? Attend A Unique Sabbatical Experience in Bali.
Do you see your future as an entrepreneur, freelancer, mid-career breaker or creator of social change? You can gain skills, tools, insight and knowledge to make your idea happen … if you’re willing to move quickly. Why take a chance and zoom off to Bali in October for three weeks? Because seizing opportunities are how […]
CBS Segment, “More Professionals Taking Sabbatical,” Features yourSABBATICAL.com
A recent survey found 16-percent of companies now allow unpaid sabbatical leave. Human resource consultant Dan Ryan says sabbaticals are growing in popularity, partly because expectations on the job have intensified. The pace of work now, especially after the economic downturn, is very frantic and the sabbatical is a very innovative way for companies to hang […]
TEDx Talk on Sabbaticals Sends Misguided, Dangerous Message
I love TED talks and TEDx too. Don’t you? Still, you should not believe everything you hear. Todd Babiak is co-founder of Story Engine, a start-up that uses story-based strategies to make organizations and leaders better: more focused, more cohesive, more influential, more human. I enjoyed his June 2011 TEDx talk, “Tell Me a Story” […]
Why Your Career Path Should Have No End
Life expectancy is ballooning, but really, who’s paying attention? I wasn’t, and the results were a transition that could have been better navigated. Entering my third act of life, I ended up confused in a swamp land of outdated information, no great “how-to” bestseller as a guide and social benchmarks that just didn’t fit anymore. […]
Experts Identify Extreme Workers’ Ultimate Success Tool - “Get Away from the Job”
Fast Company Magazine’s 2012 two-part series on Generation Flux was their best – intoxicating and evil at the same time - in the last five years. Robert Safian, an author and the magazine’s editor, challenged every conventional thought left in your brain about how to be a successful and survival in the present state of […]
Bring Back the 40-Hour Work Week? Can We Noodle on That?
In the third debate, the President’s history lesson -“we don’t use bayonets and horses”- prompted big buzz, smiles and controversy. But, although billed as a last resort, bayonets still do play a part in military arms, just not a significant one. Another idea - a killer idea - also steeped in history moves toward a […]
Oh the Things You’ll Learn! Three Notable Sabbatical Books
We can learn a lot from the story line, “sabbatical idea to departure.” But, the story of what happens next provides the best information to help us to look closer at our own ideas about taking time out from work Who doesn’t want answers to these questions: Just how did those teenage daughters like being […]
Money Does Buy Happiness: Here’s How Much Moolah You Need and Why
In the pursuit of happiness, how many times have we asked ourselves, “How much money is enough?” only to quickly realize we have no idea. Finally, we have the answer. According to the latest research, once you have about $75,000 a year, earning more doesn’t really help. Not surprisingly, people with a comfortable living standard […]
Where the Spirit Leads, Feet Follow: Walk, Baby, Walk
While extreme sports fuel many, the rest of us are not, nor do we aspire, to be in the club. For a lot of different reasons, we don’t want to go “peak bagging.” We’re not fit enough, strong enough or brave enough. Still we’d like to “live bold” and “dare to do more.” The urge […]
The Purpose-Driven Sabbatical: New Approach to Achieve the Happy Factor
Without purpose, a sabbatical won’t make you happy. I’ve interviewed many individuals who thought all they needed to do was negotiate the time away, arrange for their work to get done, and instruct the tech department to dissolve temporary access to their email. Then, totally disconnected from work life, the grand experience of their sabbatical […]
Think Small (very small) to Uncover Optimism for Work, a Future Sabbatical and Life
Our local food pantry executive director, Timothy Evans, wrote an eloquent essay, “Who Are You Gonna Listen To?” for the June Manna Food Bank-Pensacola’s newsletter. Evans ponders the obscure economic indicators celebrity economists use to discern the message of the economic recovery he keeps hearing about on broadcast news. He says he’s hardly encouraged since the message of […]
Workplace Changes Will Bomb if New Life Stage Has No Name
By this time tomorrow, 11,000 more people will turn 60 and this blog has touted best-selling author, Daniel Pink’s declaration that a revolution is on the way - a demographic revolution changing the future of the workplace. Realizing at sixty that they have another twenty-five years to do the things that matter most, this best-educated, […]
Attention Skills Gone to Pot: What Did You Expect From Your Connected, Crazy Life?
Thomas Metzinger, a philosopher, argues that the Internet isn’t changing the way we think, but it is attacking our finite commodity of “attention.” Feeling strongly about our “attention management,” the philosopher worries. “Attention is a finite commodity and absolutely essential to living a good life,” he laments. Given that, you and I won’t be living our […]
Experts Say We Already Have What It Takes. Oh What Rubbish.
Can you remember the last bad day you had? The one where the future seemed dimly lit and you felt frustrated not knowing what to tackle first? Well, today’s mine. Bad mood and overwhelmed, I feel my life has a thousand loose ends and the dragon that will slay the fears of my future is […]
Is “Writing” One of Your Sabbatical Goals? Advice from a Prolific Writer on How to Be Successful
Many people tell me that writing – a book, short story, an individual life story, or poetry – is a goal for their time away from work. That inspired me to turn to Casey Hawley, a colleague and one of the most prolific writers I know, for advice on how a finished writing project really […]
Becoming Remarkable: Follow Chris Guillebeau - At Any Age
AARP would do well to pay Chris Guillebeau big bucks to be a spokesperson for their 50-something crowd. Chris won’t be eligible to join AARP for about 20 years, but so what? His writing is sharp, his message has guts, and his passion is contagious. Chris Guillebeau has strong opinions about life, work and travel. […]
Getting Life Right: Jane Pauley’s Here to Help
There may be nothing more powerful to get you off your procrastinating toadstool than listening to stories of other people’s 50-year slog through life until – bingo – they get it right! While the first step may be negotiating that sabbatical you want or changing careers, let Jane help you. Relegated to the last 20 […]
Difference Between People Happy in Life and Those Unhappy? Advice From a Super Smart Shrink
Presented as “deep thoughts” for 2010 graduates who are poised to make decisions and take action about their lives, this conversation between CBS Sunday Morning contributor Ben Stein and his shrink is astounding and crystal clear. No matter what date is on your diploma, read it. It could change the direction of your life. Ben Stein’s segment […]
Living the Width of Your Life: How’ya Doing on That?
No matter that I’m in the midst of a frantic pace of checking off a long to-do list of work items before I start to pack. A precise collection of words can make me pause. This one did. “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just […]
Being a Strategic Life Entrepreneur
Creating a sabbatical requires a strategy, otherwise you might end up taking off work but not using it as a springboard to revitalize your life. For your plans to really be effective, you might need to re-evaluate how you see yourself in general, then you could more easily get down to specifics about creating time […]
Life Entrepreneurs Manage Change Differently
Taking a sabbatical could give you an opportunity to get to know yourself in a new way, and lead you to handling stress, challenges and change differently…. “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those most responsive to change.” This is a quote from Charles Darwin, and I […]
Life Entrepreneurs and Social Action
Being inspired and called to action is vital to a Life Entrepreneur. What if you could design your sabbatical to fully engage in some volunteer activity that you have secretly dreamed about? What if you could find a group like this one and be more involved on a regular basis? Wouldn’t it make sense to take […]