In modern American society, hustling and achieving carries with it a moral value. Those who work hard earn their rewards with financial fruits that enable them to spend more and ultimately work harder to continue the cycle. What is less celebrated and only reserved for those lucky enough to serve as tenure faculty in our finest academic institutions is the concept of sabbatical.
Derived from the Greek root “sabbatikus” and the Hebrew “sabbath”, the sabbatical honors the importance of balancing activity and rest in order to grow into our greatest selves. God called upon the Israelites in Leviticus 25 to rest the land (and themselves) in the seventh year. Although I am not a religious person, the deep and profound spiritual wisdom that accompanies the principle of sabbatical resonates with me.
After seven years of committed contribution to an organization I believed in, I found my energy and purpose depleted. This was after leading teams through a global pandemic, and a year after a career shift within the organization. Setting stretch goals, working harder, trying harder, and pushing myself to build a greater inner capacity for work while judging myself for not being enough had taken its toll. I put my head down and worked through that seventh year even though my hair fell out, my mental health suffered, and I found myself on a bus with a destination misaligned with my self-identified professional purpose. It took every ounce of inner courage I had to disembark from that destination with all its strappings of success and into the unknown.
As I write, I begin my twelfth week of my sabbatical. My original intent when I left my job was to jump right in and start building a professional coaching practice and write a book, but what I really needed was rest. I took an online course for a certification in business analytics and made the decision to seek more education within the coming year in my chosen profession of nursing. What I needed was the gift of space to develop a new skill and realign my purpose with my values.
What I do know is that in twelve weeks, my relationships with those I love have deepened, my health has improved, my strength and endurance has improved, I am no longer plagued by pain that got in my way of being the athlete I aspire to, and I am surprised by how “accomplished” I feel even without awards and accolades from external sources. Moreover, the space away from work in the traditional sense invited the humility I needed to invest in earning my BSN after 20 years as a registered nurse and two healthcare-related master’s degrees.
I never stopped looking for my next professional role, and it has been a true test of resilience to endure the uncertainty and false starts in a slow and arduous process. I have faith that with the time and space for the gift of discernment, I will emerge from my sabbatical with a deeper sense of purpose, and a role within an organization that enables me to bring my greatest gifts forward to make a difference in our health systems.
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