The world is a poorer place because people don't have time for creativity in whatever form. Creativity thrives when it is given space and is easily drowned out when life is just too busy. I love the idea that Sagmeister came up with. It makes so much sense.
I wrote recently about boredom. I remember vast periods of time being totally bored as a child and it taught me so much. I taught myself to draw and paint and multitudes of other things. Today everyone is overwhelmed. I think overwhelm is the new boredom but without any benefits.
I started my creative journey 11 years ago, age 47. I've not stopped growing ever since.
Apologies for the long response to your article but it's such an important subject.
You make such a good point Susan. Overwhelm kills creativity and we are never bored. I (and probably not you) am not bored because I love spending my time writing and reading. I am a bit amazed when an adult tells me they are bored when there is so much learning and cool stuff available for us to do which then feeds more creativity!
I absolutely agree! My friend and I visited Brantwood last week, the home of John Ruskin the Victorian art critic, artist and writer. He spent the last 28 years of his life there (I think) to write. How wonderful that would be. He loved his garden too but mainly he wrote. I felt slightly envious. To have all that space to be dedicated to your passion. How wonderful. Also, it overlooks the Lake Coniston. A pretty great view too!
No, I am never bored. It's more a question of what should I do next? Read/write/paint 🤔
Ah yes, I too have felt that ping of envy at the thought of a delegated space (with a view!!) and seemingly endless time. I believe that might be the best kind of wealth.
Couldn't agree with you more Susan. Creativity is a lifelong journey, and the sooner we begin treading down that path, the better!
As the Chinese proverb goes: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now." It's never to late to express oneself through creativity! So glad you're here!
Susan, starting your creative journey at 47 and continuing to grow is truly inspiring. No need to apologize for the length; it’s an important discussion after all :)
This is so true. In 2018 I had to take time off from work to recuperate from a surgery, and I spent most of the days writing. I had been writing inconsistently all my life and only then I understood that I need mental space to let the words flow. In the next year, and after a few health problems, I decided to take a year off from work and it was a turning point to a much more creative life.
I'm sorry you had to find your true passion because of surgery but perhaps in many ways, you're grateful for that? It sounds like it was the catalyst for change. It's wonderful to hear you grasped that opportunity and ran with it. It's brilliant! 🌟
I quit full-time teaching many years ago to write full-time. It was a risk and I gave myself two years to sell a book. I did. I've taught anyway since then at workshops, conferences, master classes, and a recent six-year stint at Michigan State University which I'd originally left a few years after my PhD and teaching there. I loved teaching but I was sure, back then when I left, that if I only had summers off in which to write, I wouldn't have enough time to really launch and maintain my career. 27 books later, I have no doubt it was the smart move.
Thanks for sharing. I'm making slow progress on the 4th (!) rewrite of a memoir (but this time I think I really can do the story justice / write it well!). I've dabbled with the idea of taking a year off to get more speed. I know in hindsight I would likely say it was the best decision, but it's hard getting to that decision without knowing the future. Especially when I actually really like my job.
I hoped that I could be rehired at MSU if I didn't sell a book, but there was no guarantee. We did have another salary in the family, but not enough to keep things going without me making money as a writer or getting a job again if writing didn't pan out. So time off was a risk--but also a gift.
Whatever your choice, good luck with your memoir! I love that genre and my memoir was one of my most successful books in terms of speaking engagements: I toured in the U.S., Canada, and Germany for close to five years.
I really needed to read this today! After being made redundant 7 months ago, and not knowing my calling, I have been berating myself for being lazy and not finding a job. 2 weeks ago I decided I was on sabbatical. That feeling of freedom lasted 1 week before the negative lazy monkeys in my head took over and told me to find a job. So you cannot imagine my delight at reading your perspective this morning. Thank you 🥰
I know few people who say. "I wish I had worked longer." I concluded some years ago that full-time work was highly over rated so designed work that was part-time, half or less of what I was doing previously. It wasn't easy to leave a full-time, well paid job, but it was worth it. Maybe it's part of the risk-reward ratio and maybe it's just breaking free of expectations of others along with the American work hard, get ahead syndrome. Americans seem to work more hours and days than people in other cultures that are healthier and happier than seems the case in the U.S.A. I am looking at why the U,S. dropped from # 16 to #23 on the Gross Happiness Index and my sense is they are overworked, tired, frustrated and disappointed with the results. Stress factors are additional variables in this equation. Sabbatical and sabbath from the same root word meaning "rest." More time to rest, relax and reflect - yes, I vote for that.
Love 🙌. So good and exactly where I’m at currently with my career. Thank you Jen for the timely wisdom. Any thoughts for finding our vocation after a long period filling some lemonhead’s money bucket?
I changed from technical/leadership work to writing and working with words. One of the exercises that had a big impact, in retrospect, was writing about what a perfect day would be like for me. I really took the time to think about what I wanted, to let go of my fears and beliefs that were holding me down (idleness is bad, was a strong one) and wrote about writing, swimming, walking in nature, and meditating.
I can tell you that I’ve had many of those perfect days since then.
Lisa! What a great question. It took me a while to figure out my vocation while on sabbatical (~8 mos) and even then, I fought it. The irony about our calling is that is tends to be the thing we most resist. Steven Pressfield does a great job describing this "resistance" in his book "The War of Art." So perhaps you should ponder what you resist most, but know deep down is what you should be doing? Just an idea!
You are able to pack so much wisdom and thought in such few words! This one especially engaging as I started my sabbatical a year ago and am still enjoying my "otium" (thanks for adding that word to my vocabulary). Though I am yet to discover the true calling or meaning in life, I feel a certain sense of happiness in the journey of discovery. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with fellow travelers.
I also came to think that maybe this journey, the recalibration with our inner compass of curiosity, is purpose and meaning in itself, and as long as we can nurture these aspects, anything we do in life can be our calling. For a moment in time or for as long as it lasts.
Ajai! So happy for you. Its a blessing to take extended time for yourself, and I hope that you've learned so many invaluable lessons during your time off. I hope that your answer will come for you sooner rather than later
I left my job as Editor-In-Chief (at Sunbelt, a small press in SoCal that I still work with and love) to be a freelance editor, at 50. I'd always loved editing, but as EIC I spent most of my 40 hours a week doing budgets or in some way worrying about money, not art. I've been happy and successful, to the extent I require, ever since, with so much more time to myself every day (since nature abhors a vacuum I wrote a book and found a publisher; now my extra time is spent on marketing and promotion!)
The idea of regular sabbaticals makes so much sense - especially from a wellbeing and creativity perspective - and I imagine must really help with retention too
I loved reading this. I worked corporate for the past 5 years and left corporate in January. In the past few months, I've been able to reflect on what I really want (from a career and otherwise), and spent more time on hobbies. And have still been working, but not in a corporate sense, which has been refreshing.
Maria, that sounds like a refreshing change indeed. I find that stepping away from the corporate world can open up so much space for personal growth and hobbies. It’s great that you’ve taken time to reflect on what you truly want. :)
Love this! In Spain there are almost like these "mini-sabbaticals" and I believe it makes a big difference in overall wellbeing, at least from my own personal observations. Every summer and Christmas holidays there tends to be extended time-off, anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Two times a year you know you have extended time-off to look forward to, instead of just 10 days a year total like at many companies in the US.
I wish more companies would implement the work/life/sabbatical timeline (I would half it even, 6 months off every 3-4 years!)
Yes yes! I was fortunate to be able to take extended maternity leave while living & working in France: 6 months off every 3 years, each time one of my 3 children were born. I remember thinking, after the 3rd birth, "ok how do I find a way to take 6 months off every 3 years?" I ended up also leaving my corporate job & creating my own consulting business. 🙂
Thank you for this. After 25 plus years as a teacher and writer, I realize that, though fairly burnt out right now and deeply disappointed with the corporatization of higher education and the ways that late stage capitalism has deflated it (as well as at the way my salary has fallen behind virtually every other sector, including the nonprofit sector), I did do what I set out—and wanted—to do. Creativity and leading others to it has been at the center of my life for all that time and I can’t imagine it any other way. I’ve also had 3 6 month sabbaticals to delve deeper. A whole year would be a dream. But I am grateful for what I have had and what I have been able to do. It’s good to remember that from time to time.
As someone who works full time in corporate and also writes a newsletter, I would say that I could only realise how much I needed creativity in my life after I took the plunge to do what I love. We all have dreams, but a lot of these dreams never see reality because people fear taking action, always looking at how deep the fall could be. But I say that chasing your dreams doesn't have to mean that you have to risk it all. You just need to do something about it every day, for 10 mins or for 1 hour. You will see how much your dreams will start to look achievable when you show up consistently.
At the age of forty-five I was forced to retire. I wasn't fired or 'let go', it was my own manufacturer's rep business. It was medical. Took about ten years to find out the cause of what was happening to me. Turned out to be a neurological disorder. In this case Parkinson's. For the first five years, my neurologist, one of the best in the business, number two at the University of Michigan, and I would monitor symptoms making sure it was just Parkinson's. You make the five year mark and you in a high percentage of people that don't get Lewy body dementia from Parkinson's. Fifteen years later and it is stilll just Parkinson's, well managed through exercise and physical therapy (number one), taking meds and on time (Us Parkies get to take carhop/levadopa. My kids always kidded me, "Pop did you take you Ladopa today?" So it is just Parkinsons - a tremendous gift in so many categories, like humility (true true humility), patience (IA virtue I danced with, before Parkinson's , and now embrace every day many times. I gained real empathy for those who are disabled. I learned that life goes on in a massively beautiful way even when the ability to physically do some things I loved, are no longer possible. My faith saved me. It gave me Hope. It quatumly expanded my ability to love unconditionally. Thank for sharing this part of you with us. I am always grateful.
There’s so much in and in-between the lines of this post.
In 2021, I quit my highly successful corporate job in IT to do a sabbatical but in a different way. I went (back) to university. But in a different country in a completely unrelated subject: marine science 🐳
I always had my fall-back plan to return to my career. So it was technically a sabbatical. Little did I know that it would set me on a completely new path which I am now curiously venturing.
Thanks, Jen for another thought-provoking essay! I am blessed to love the work I do. I am literally living out my childhood dream. However, sabbath and sabbatical are concepts that need developing in my life. I appreciate your insights and urging on this topic. Love and blessings!
The world is a poorer place because people don't have time for creativity in whatever form. Creativity thrives when it is given space and is easily drowned out when life is just too busy. I love the idea that Sagmeister came up with. It makes so much sense.
I wrote recently about boredom. I remember vast periods of time being totally bored as a child and it taught me so much. I taught myself to draw and paint and multitudes of other things. Today everyone is overwhelmed. I think overwhelm is the new boredom but without any benefits.
I started my creative journey 11 years ago, age 47. I've not stopped growing ever since.
Apologies for the long response to your article but it's such an important subject.
You make such a good point Susan. Overwhelm kills creativity and we are never bored. I (and probably not you) am not bored because I love spending my time writing and reading. I am a bit amazed when an adult tells me they are bored when there is so much learning and cool stuff available for us to do which then feeds more creativity!
I absolutely agree! My friend and I visited Brantwood last week, the home of John Ruskin the Victorian art critic, artist and writer. He spent the last 28 years of his life there (I think) to write. How wonderful that would be. He loved his garden too but mainly he wrote. I felt slightly envious. To have all that space to be dedicated to your passion. How wonderful. Also, it overlooks the Lake Coniston. A pretty great view too!
No, I am never bored. It's more a question of what should I do next? Read/write/paint 🤔
Ah yes, I too have felt that ping of envy at the thought of a delegated space (with a view!!) and seemingly endless time. I believe that might be the best kind of wealth.
Couldn't agree with you more Susan. Creativity is a lifelong journey, and the sooner we begin treading down that path, the better!
As the Chinese proverb goes: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now." It's never to late to express oneself through creativity! So glad you're here!
Susan, starting your creative journey at 47 and continuing to grow is truly inspiring. No need to apologize for the length; it’s an important discussion after all :)
... love this journey as well as live it ha ha.
Thank you! I live this journey. I hope it never ends... until the end! I want to be growing until the day I die.
This is so true. In 2018 I had to take time off from work to recuperate from a surgery, and I spent most of the days writing. I had been writing inconsistently all my life and only then I understood that I need mental space to let the words flow. In the next year, and after a few health problems, I decided to take a year off from work and it was a turning point to a much more creative life.
I'm sorry you had to find your true passion because of surgery but perhaps in many ways, you're grateful for that? It sounds like it was the catalyst for change. It's wonderful to hear you grasped that opportunity and ran with it. It's brilliant! 🌟
I quit full-time teaching many years ago to write full-time. It was a risk and I gave myself two years to sell a book. I did. I've taught anyway since then at workshops, conferences, master classes, and a recent six-year stint at Michigan State University which I'd originally left a few years after my PhD and teaching there. I loved teaching but I was sure, back then when I left, that if I only had summers off in which to write, I wouldn't have enough time to really launch and maintain my career. 27 books later, I have no doubt it was the smart move.
Thanks for sharing. I'm making slow progress on the 4th (!) rewrite of a memoir (but this time I think I really can do the story justice / write it well!). I've dabbled with the idea of taking a year off to get more speed. I know in hindsight I would likely say it was the best decision, but it's hard getting to that decision without knowing the future. Especially when I actually really like my job.
I hoped that I could be rehired at MSU if I didn't sell a book, but there was no guarantee. We did have another salary in the family, but not enough to keep things going without me making money as a writer or getting a job again if writing didn't pan out. So time off was a risk--but also a gift.
Whatever your choice, good luck with your memoir! I love that genre and my memoir was one of my most successful books in terms of speaking engagements: I toured in the U.S., Canada, and Germany for close to five years.
I really needed to read this today! After being made redundant 7 months ago, and not knowing my calling, I have been berating myself for being lazy and not finding a job. 2 weeks ago I decided I was on sabbatical. That feeling of freedom lasted 1 week before the negative lazy monkeys in my head took over and told me to find a job. So you cannot imagine my delight at reading your perspective this morning. Thank you 🥰
Thank you so much for sharing this, Tory! I hope you're still enjoying your sabbatical and are learning, growing, and thriving!
Thank you for remembering and asking. I’m doing well - exploring 😊. I hope all is well with you too.
I know few people who say. "I wish I had worked longer." I concluded some years ago that full-time work was highly over rated so designed work that was part-time, half or less of what I was doing previously. It wasn't easy to leave a full-time, well paid job, but it was worth it. Maybe it's part of the risk-reward ratio and maybe it's just breaking free of expectations of others along with the American work hard, get ahead syndrome. Americans seem to work more hours and days than people in other cultures that are healthier and happier than seems the case in the U.S.A. I am looking at why the U,S. dropped from # 16 to #23 on the Gross Happiness Index and my sense is they are overworked, tired, frustrated and disappointed with the results. Stress factors are additional variables in this equation. Sabbatical and sabbath from the same root word meaning "rest." More time to rest, relax and reflect - yes, I vote for that.
Love 🙌. So good and exactly where I’m at currently with my career. Thank you Jen for the timely wisdom. Any thoughts for finding our vocation after a long period filling some lemonhead’s money bucket?
I changed from technical/leadership work to writing and working with words. One of the exercises that had a big impact, in retrospect, was writing about what a perfect day would be like for me. I really took the time to think about what I wanted, to let go of my fears and beliefs that were holding me down (idleness is bad, was a strong one) and wrote about writing, swimming, walking in nature, and meditating.
I can tell you that I’ve had many of those perfect days since then.
I love this!
Lisa! What a great question. It took me a while to figure out my vocation while on sabbatical (~8 mos) and even then, I fought it. The irony about our calling is that is tends to be the thing we most resist. Steven Pressfield does a great job describing this "resistance" in his book "The War of Art." So perhaps you should ponder what you resist most, but know deep down is what you should be doing? Just an idea!
I’ve found that getting to know your strengths is a great starting place! Look up the book, “True Fit” by Jim Beqaj — it’s super helpful!
Oooh, thank you Jenn! I will definitely look into this book. ☺️
Great article!
You are able to pack so much wisdom and thought in such few words! This one especially engaging as I started my sabbatical a year ago and am still enjoying my "otium" (thanks for adding that word to my vocabulary). Though I am yet to discover the true calling or meaning in life, I feel a certain sense of happiness in the journey of discovery. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with fellow travelers.
I also came to think that maybe this journey, the recalibration with our inner compass of curiosity, is purpose and meaning in itself, and as long as we can nurture these aspects, anything we do in life can be our calling. For a moment in time or for as long as it lasts.
🙌🏻 Yes!!
Ajai! So happy for you. Its a blessing to take extended time for yourself, and I hope that you've learned so many invaluable lessons during your time off. I hope that your answer will come for you sooner rather than later
Couldn’t phrase it better: there seems to be so much meaning, value and food for thought in every single line of this post 🤍🙏🏻
I left my job as Editor-In-Chief (at Sunbelt, a small press in SoCal that I still work with and love) to be a freelance editor, at 50. I'd always loved editing, but as EIC I spent most of my 40 hours a week doing budgets or in some way worrying about money, not art. I've been happy and successful, to the extent I require, ever since, with so much more time to myself every day (since nature abhors a vacuum I wrote a book and found a publisher; now my extra time is spent on marketing and promotion!)
The idea of regular sabbaticals makes so much sense - especially from a wellbeing and creativity perspective - and I imagine must really help with retention too
I loved reading this. I worked corporate for the past 5 years and left corporate in January. In the past few months, I've been able to reflect on what I really want (from a career and otherwise), and spent more time on hobbies. And have still been working, but not in a corporate sense, which has been refreshing.
Maria, that sounds like a refreshing change indeed. I find that stepping away from the corporate world can open up so much space for personal growth and hobbies. It’s great that you’ve taken time to reflect on what you truly want. :)
Love this! In Spain there are almost like these "mini-sabbaticals" and I believe it makes a big difference in overall wellbeing, at least from my own personal observations. Every summer and Christmas holidays there tends to be extended time-off, anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Two times a year you know you have extended time-off to look forward to, instead of just 10 days a year total like at many companies in the US.
I wish more companies would implement the work/life/sabbatical timeline (I would half it even, 6 months off every 3-4 years!)
Yes yes! I was fortunate to be able to take extended maternity leave while living & working in France: 6 months off every 3 years, each time one of my 3 children were born. I remember thinking, after the 3rd birth, "ok how do I find a way to take 6 months off every 3 years?" I ended up also leaving my corporate job & creating my own consulting business. 🙂
Thank you for this. After 25 plus years as a teacher and writer, I realize that, though fairly burnt out right now and deeply disappointed with the corporatization of higher education and the ways that late stage capitalism has deflated it (as well as at the way my salary has fallen behind virtually every other sector, including the nonprofit sector), I did do what I set out—and wanted—to do. Creativity and leading others to it has been at the center of my life for all that time and I can’t imagine it any other way. I’ve also had 3 6 month sabbaticals to delve deeper. A whole year would be a dream. But I am grateful for what I have had and what I have been able to do. It’s good to remember that from time to time.
As someone who works full time in corporate and also writes a newsletter, I would say that I could only realise how much I needed creativity in my life after I took the plunge to do what I love. We all have dreams, but a lot of these dreams never see reality because people fear taking action, always looking at how deep the fall could be. But I say that chasing your dreams doesn't have to mean that you have to risk it all. You just need to do something about it every day, for 10 mins or for 1 hour. You will see how much your dreams will start to look achievable when you show up consistently.
At the age of forty-five I was forced to retire. I wasn't fired or 'let go', it was my own manufacturer's rep business. It was medical. Took about ten years to find out the cause of what was happening to me. Turned out to be a neurological disorder. In this case Parkinson's. For the first five years, my neurologist, one of the best in the business, number two at the University of Michigan, and I would monitor symptoms making sure it was just Parkinson's. You make the five year mark and you in a high percentage of people that don't get Lewy body dementia from Parkinson's. Fifteen years later and it is stilll just Parkinson's, well managed through exercise and physical therapy (number one), taking meds and on time (Us Parkies get to take carhop/levadopa. My kids always kidded me, "Pop did you take you Ladopa today?" So it is just Parkinsons - a tremendous gift in so many categories, like humility (true true humility), patience (IA virtue I danced with, before Parkinson's , and now embrace every day many times. I gained real empathy for those who are disabled. I learned that life goes on in a massively beautiful way even when the ability to physically do some things I loved, are no longer possible. My faith saved me. It gave me Hope. It quatumly expanded my ability to love unconditionally. Thank for sharing this part of you with us. I am always grateful.
There’s so much in and in-between the lines of this post.
In 2021, I quit my highly successful corporate job in IT to do a sabbatical but in a different way. I went (back) to university. But in a different country in a completely unrelated subject: marine science 🐳
I always had my fall-back plan to return to my career. So it was technically a sabbatical. Little did I know that it would set me on a completely new path which I am now curiously venturing.
Freud was asked, ‘what is mental health?’ He replied, ‘the ability to love and to work.’
Thanks, Jen for another thought-provoking essay! I am blessed to love the work I do. I am literally living out my childhood dream. However, sabbath and sabbatical are concepts that need developing in my life. I appreciate your insights and urging on this topic. Love and blessings!