The Sabbatical Journey Podcast

A great sabbatical does not begin the day you stop working, and it does not end the day you return.

In this episode of the Sabbatical Journey Podcast, Alan Briggs walks through one of the most important parts of the sabbatical process: how to enter it well and how to return well.

September is a natural transition point. Some leaders are just returning from a summer sabbatical, while others...

There isn't one right way to take a sabbatical.

Some people head into one with a list of things they finally have time to accomplish. Others want to travel, explore, and experience a different way of living. Some need to turn inward and reconnect with parts of themselves they've lost along the way.

Knowing what you need matters.

In p...

What happens when you finally have enough time away from work to see your life clearly?

DJ DiDonna has spent nearly a decade trying to understand that question. After his own sabbatical changed the direction of his life, he founded The Sabbatical Project and began researching what actually happens when people step away from work for an extended period of time.

In part one of this conversation, Alan sits down with DJ to compare what...

You come back from sabbatical and almost immediately, things start happening.

People ask what you learned. Your team wants to know when they get a sabbatical. You notice you’re responding to pressure differently. You start thinking more intentionally about vacation, Sabbath, and the rhythms you want to protect moving forward.

And somewhere in the middl...

A sabbatical policy is more than another benefit in an employee handbook.

It says something about what your organization believes.

It tells your people whether they are valued only for what they produce or whether you care about who they are, how they are doing, and whether they can continue leading well for the long haul.

That is why creating a sabbatical policy is not simply an HR decision. It is a decision about culture, steward...

There comes a point in every sabbatical where you can see the finish line.

For some leaders, it's exciting.

For others, it's unsettling.

You've finally slowed down enough to think clearly. You've had conversations you needed to have. You've noticed patterns that were impossible to see while you were moving at full speed. You know there are things you don't want to carry back into work with you.

Then reality starts knocking. Your in...

Most leaders walk into sabbatical with a vague idea and a hope. They imagine they'll figure it out as they go. A few weeks in, they realize each day is bleeding into the next, the time is slipping away, and they're not entirely sure what they're doing with it.

The leaders who walk out of sabbatical t...

When most people picture a sabbatical, they picture the destination. The beach. The trail. The cabin in the woods. The Instagram-worthy moment in front of the Alps.

The leaders who actually come back from sabbatical transformed will tell you something different. The destination doesn't make the sabba...

What if you stepped away from work. Not for a week. Long enough that the constant hum finally goes quiet. Long enough that you stop reaching for your phone. Long enough to remember what you used to love doing before life filled up.

For most leaders, that idea creates two reactions at once: deep longi...

Not all sabbaticals are created equal. If you're trying to figure out how to plan a sabbatical, the type of sabbatical you need depends on your life stage, your context coming in, and what would actually be a gift to you and your family right now.

In this episode, Alan Bri...

Jillian Johnsrud has taken thirteen mini retirements (sabbaticals) over the last twenty years. She's raised five kids (three adopted), built and renovated rental properties that changed her family's financial trajectory, and coached hundreds of leaders through their own sabbaticals. Her new book Retire Often might be the most practical and philosophica...

Most business leaders think sabbatical is something that happens after the exit. Sell the company, cash the check, then maybe rest. Alan Briggs wants to flip that assumption on its head.

In this episode of The Sabbatical Journey, Alan goes directly at the business leader. ...

Pastors carry a weight most people don't fully see. In this episode Alan Briggs speaks directly to the unique challenges pastors face on sabbatical and why this gift matters more than most will admit.

Alan spent 13 years as a full-time pastor before founding Sabbatical Coa...

Leaders resist sabbatical for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest is this: they don't like doing nothing.

Good news. Sabbatical isn't nothing.

In this episode Alan Briggs reframes what wo...

We are in a burnout epidemic. Leaders are overworked, overwhelmed, and running on adrenaline they don't even know is driving them. In this episode Alan Briggs gets honest about the cultural moment we're in and why sabbatical isn't a luxury for exhausted leaders. It's a necessity for all of them.

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