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- What a great and timely question! :) I quit a week ago to take a year-long sabbatical.
> 1. What pushed you to do it?
The pursuit of curiosity, for the most part. That's what makes quitting a lot harder when you have a good job and nothing to complain about: you feel like you're making a huge mistake on a whim. Doubly so when you consider the state of the job market at this time.
That said, we don't live to work; we work to live. It's a lot of risk and uncertainty, but you should remember that while some unknown bad things can happen in the future, unknown good things can happen too! [1] When you own your time, you increase your luck surface considerably: you have more opportunities to travel, to wander, to play, to meet new people, to tinker, to discover.
So I've been thinking and reading about this a lot. The final push came from two books I read: "The Pathless Path" by Paul Millerd [2] and "The Inner Compass" by Lawrence Yeo [3]. I can't recommend them enough.
> 2. What will you be doing? (Even if nothing!)
I have a huge Steam backlog to beat... :) Besides that, I'll be studying computer science and maths. Programming language theory, compilers, and functional programming are particularly close to my heart.
But, most importantly, enjoying life!
- This period of doing nothing is termed the "neutral zone" by Ritvik Carvalho (^1).
> "We need not feel defensive about this apparently unproductive time-out at turning points in our lives, for the neutral zone is meant to be a moratorium from the conventional activity of our everyday existence. In the apparently aimless activity of our time alone, we are doing important inner business.", Transitions by William Bridges.
Your post resonated with me deeply. I quit my job in April 2023 to spend 2 years doing nothing "productive". Although I was doing well at work, I lost the hustle. The flame of curiosity seemed to have gone out. I wondered what happened to my past self who was constantly preoccupied with different interests and hobbies.
I thought that traveling would give me some fulfillment. Yet, traveling for the past 7 months left me unfulfilled. I realized the real journey was inward: rediscovering my passions and interests. It's difficult to do that while carrying baggage from your current job.
Here's some further reading below if you're interested. Don't hesitate to reach out, I'm curious to learn what you've done to rediscover your interests and curiosities, and I'm more than happy to share my learnings.
1) https://ritvikcarvalho.substack.com/p/career-transitions-and...
2) The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd
- "Pathless Path" is a great book about reevaluating values with respect to work. I'm about halfway through and strongly recommend it.
- amazing, thanks for sharing. I was curious if there's already a name for this local travel. Micro-travel or planless-travel are close. Mini retirements are another term I like to use. I heard from the Pathless Path book (I think), which is traveling for up to 4 weeks - it's not 100% related, but it is what came to mind when I heard Microadventures.
- I try to support writers directly. eg. You can purchase Paul Millerd's Pathless path on his gumroad page and it comes with both the ebook and audiobook: https://pathless.gumroad.com/l/pathlesspath
Tanbooks also sells mp3s of their audiobooks directly on their website. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle changed my life profoundly for the better. https://tanbooks.com
- For my life journey, these sabbaticals were transformative. I had several tough. I love the definition by Paul Millerd, "mini-retirement." Instead of waiting for your retirement in the sixties, take more minor once along. I wrote more about how it shaped me in "Finding My Pathless Path" at https://www.sspaeti.com/blog/finding-my-pathless-path/.
