I am getting ready to take a little vacation. In an article at Inc.com, Ivy Sea recommends that we should treat our vacations like sabbaticals.
Sabbaticals in today's world refer to an extended time completely away from one's normal work. At a university, this is usually either a semester, or in some cases, an entire year. In the corporate world, we hear of executives taking exotic sabbaticals. Some companies (Timberland and Men's Warehouse, for example) even have a form of sabbatical in their company benefits. For an entrepreneur (or a recovering entrepreneur now teaching entrepreneurship), the thought of an extended time away from our business or work is unimaginable, impractical, or even impossible.
Sabbatical comes from the word Sabbath. If we look at the Biblical roots of the Sabbath, we see that it means the day of rest. But the intention was to not only rest the body and the mind, but also to refresh our souls.
If we look at our time off as simply a day to recharge our batteries to get ready to rejoin the battle, we are missing the point. It becomes simply a day to be physically removed from our workplace, but never completely mentally (or in today's world electronically) away from our work. For so many of us, vacations blur with our work. We are never more than a cell phone or an e-mail away. People never think twice about intruding on our time off. Our minds never fully get rest, and our souls, well, we plan to deal with that in a meaningful way in some distant future.
So if we can't take extended time away, and our time away never really seems to be time away, how do we really get a sabbatical from our business or our work?
Ivy Sea's article from Inc.com offers some insights:
Use the term sabbatical
Words can be very powerful. If we call our two weeks away a sabbatical rather than a vacation, it clearly tells others and reminds ourselves that this is much more than just a physical time away from our work.
Be clear about your goals and intentions
If we go in without a plan, old habits will prevail and it will just be another time away from the office. Commit to actions that will help rest your mind and your body, and refresh your soul. but, set modest goals so as not to recreate the often frantic nature of work. A simple plan is often best.
Prepare your business
This can be one of the more difficult steps for an entrepreneur. It means that you must not only delegate the authority for people to act while you are gone, but to make sure they have the knowledge and confidence to keep things moving ahead without you. A lot can happen even in a week, so make sure that your employees are ready for whatever they will face. Don't fall into the trap of frantically getting it all done yourself before and/or after your time away.
Prepare your self
Determine what you need to do to shift your thinking from vacation to sabbatical. Without this mindset management, it'll be difficult to achieve the goals that you've set.
That is why our worship services on Sunday start with prayer. It is a time to get our minds and our souls ready. For your sabbatical you should do the same: prepare your mind and your soul to be refreshed.
I will be back in about a week. We are off to the Land of Cheese. I hope that my time off will be, at least in part, a short sabbatical and not just a vacation.
