Taking a sebatical

I am calling it a break. In April 2020 I am starting my Sabbatical. I am taking 3 months off work, with the potential to quit and take additional time off if I need to.

Why?

• I want to. The quality of work I have been delivering was not up to my personal standards. I was able to complete tasks with a reasonable degree of quality, but it needed to have a deadline and I wasn’t going above and beyond on any of it.
• I can. We saved enough money leading up to this that I think we are in an okay spot to not work for a bit.
• Travel. We have taken a few vacations over the years, but always with the background idea that our lives exist away from the experience that I was taking. It was always a nagging feeling that in order to appreciate something it needed to be with out the idea that I am going back to work in 2 weeks I need to make the most of this expirience.

Hopes:

• Digital Nomad - I have long desired to travel more and try working from different places around the world. My hope is that I can take some sebatical time to skill up on a few things I want to be doing then pivot side projects to fall inline with that.
• Learn - I have let my career drift into the space of what I am good at, not what I want to be doing. I would like to take a step back and figure out what I want, then strive to become good at that thing.
• Un-burn out - I have felt so burnt out lately, I can focus when it is time sensitive, or for short periods of times… but if it isn’t time sensitive, and it requires long term dedication it wouldn’t happen.

Fears:

• Losing traction in my career - Gap on resume, tech scene will pass by, I will be viewed as flighty
• Returning to a bad economical situation - We haven’t experienced a real depression
• Having to eat into savings - FIRE dream might be dead, but we don’t want to dig into 401k or Trad IRA in order to survive.