 When was the last time you took a personal sabbatical? It's such an important thing to prevent burnout and it's something that most of us are Unaware of or we don't know how to plan forward, etc So that's what we're gonna I'm gonna talk about in this video and actually have a guest expert who knows a lot about this and we're going to dive into this So let me go ahead and share with you his bio and then I'm gonna bring him on His name is Eddie Shea and he has been working with burned out Overachievers who despite doing all the right things their whole lives Find themselves unhappy. They're stuck unfulfilled He helps them heal from burnout and figure out who they are and what they really want to do with their lives Eddie's clients learn to break conditioned patterns become their authentic selves and discover their purpose Which points them to a life or a career that brings them a liveness meaning and fulfillment And Eddie does this through one-on-one coaching group classes and workshops at his company called stance coaching Eddie welcome to this interview. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for inviting me George Yeah, so Burnout is something we've all heard of we know that it's something we don't want to experience It can set us back for weeks or months or even years. So How do we tell when we're Heading there or what's the what's the and by the way, I have to just mention We're wearing something similar and we just you know aligned Psychically just somehow happened that way. So yeah, tell us about burnout and how how do we how can we tell what are the signs? Yeah, totally. So Burnout there there are actually many signs But before I even get to that there's kind of a lot of lead-up that happens before we actually get burned out so Burnout is an experience that you might have had or are experiencing right now, but it's actually The end of a long journey that you've been on since school So many professionals, especially if you're a knowledge worker in the creative class Working in a corporation or 95 kind of one of these 40 hour a week jobs And especially if you were kind of an overachiever growing up, you know Always got straight A's to tons of extracurricular activities You know all of that you probably went straight from high school to college to grad school to working, right? Maybe you took like Summer off sometimes or maybe you took some time off between going to you know grad school or something like that But in general it was pretty much like a straight through 20 to 25 years of just continuous striving to the next milestone and so, you know during school like you got summer breaks and winter break and spring break and things like that and so They're really like structured time off chunks that you got but Once you start working Except for those like two-week, you know paid time off stretches that you might have gotten they're the only chance you really get to take a True break from work is if you take the initiative to plan it for yourself so this 20 to 25 year stretch of just continuous striving Slowly starts to erode away this foundation of maybe health or aliveness that you might have had and If you're if you're lucky enough to land on work that you love doing Maybe the time that it takes for you to get burned out is like a lot longer but most more often you've landed on a path that was designed by other people a Path that you just defaulted on to based on you know your culture your family expectations Society expectations and that's really where burnout begins So The day and I want to just jump in here because I think what you're just saying about this path between from Birth essentially all the way to where a lot of people are now in their careers We don't usually think about this. You're so it's so you're so right that we have structured breaks during school Because well actually not all of us because someone's went to summer school You know yeah, or you know during the winter breaks. We you know, we might have been studying for something else You know some other extracurricular thing or some competition or whatever it might be So it's true that it just goes all the way through and I think about the people that I know in my life And it is just work work work work So it's and but just this idea of taking a sabbatical that's Like wait, but we won't be making money during that time So how do you I'm curious? How do you respond to that? Concern and it's of course if somebody is like well if I don't make money I'm literally gonna be not being able to pay the bills. That's one thing but for a lot of the people who are In the situation of heading towards burnout. It's not true that if they take a sabbatical, but what do you what's your How do you approach that question? Yeah, so that's a great question and it's a really it's a real question right like people who have Who aren't able to afford to take time off like they won't be able to have this luxury of taking a personal sabbatical It's it's not something that everyone has the privilege to to do So I just want to start there and just acknowledge that right like if you're even thinking about a personal sabbatical Chances are you have the privilege the means to actually be thinking about this? so The most common mistake people make is by thinking about their personal sabbatical as a time where they're not going to make any money Where they're not going to do anything Their their lives are going to become completely unstructured They're you know their reality is going to collapse right like they think this about themselves because their current reality is So tightly structured and so full of work and deadlines and compensation become so important because if that's all you're Feeling like you're getting from your job money becomes the utmost most important thing in your life and so When you actually are able to take that personal sabbatical you able to let other values in your life come forward and you start to value things other than materialism and Compensation and all of that and start seeing that you actually need a lot less money to live on and During your personal sabbatical you need a lot less money to live even if you're not making money Because you're not needing to spend all this money on things you don't need during that time so But you know before we even get to that you know and there are so many benefits to taking a personal sabbatical is that People think taking a personal sabbatical is risky But I'm here to tell you that being burned out is risky That's an even bigger risk to your career and your life It's so true and and I'm sorry to interrupt again, but I want to also bring forth this I'm thinking about you know people I know who need a personal sabbatical probably One of the concerns that people might have is well, well that how would that impact my career? Because if I write if I'm like if I have a good job right now good good job meaning it pays well Or I'm on an upward path I don't see people around me taking personal sabbatical, which is part of the problem why we live in a burnout Culture or why we live in a stressed out culture It's like yeah, so so how do you how do you address that part of? Okay, take time off. Can I still come back and have the same kind of well actually this is true for For parents, you know I see usually it's the women who take the time off, but men too It's like okay child, you know time off. Maybe they took care of the child for years It was that's not a sabbatical That's that's like even more work right having a having a young child But but it has that same kind of impact on the career, but what is your what is your? Encouragement or anything inside on that. Yes, here's how I would encourage you to think about this So I just was talking about how burnout is actually the bigger risk to your career Right because when you're burned out technically the definition here is about being energy depletion or exhaustion You have increased mental distance from your work Which leads to a negative frame of mind and a cynicism related to your job and You feel less like you have efficacy in your profession, which means you don't feel like you have agency over your work so If this sounds like you where you know after a regular workday you feel completely drained like after just a regular day You're completely exhausted Or if you have a lot of critical and negative thoughts about your industry about your company or about yourself That you can't seem to shake you can't seem to reconcile like the work you're doing and and you know Maybe you feel like it's creating a negative impact on the world You start to disconnect from your work and say things like oh, I don't care anymore. Whatever. This is pointless, right? and You start isolating yourself or Factioning off with other burned-out people right and you becomes kind of like toxic group of people who just like complain a lot and are really negative and So if that's starting to happen for you where you feel like you can't be yourself at work We're like once you leave those doors You're like a completely different person that like people don't even recognize That's a sign that you're heading towards burnout. Okay, and so let me just just reflect to you Burnout people are not fun to work with Right burned out people are they're negative and pessimistic They don't really believe they have agency over the results. So they don't really take ownership They're not as productive or creative as they could be They are just stressed out and you know parts of their personality start coming forth like negative parts the Neurotic parts of their personality start coming up like perfectionism or being controlling or passive aggression, right? These are all things that kind of start to happen when you become burned out and So you're kind of like a ticking time bomb when you start to be burned out your productivity starts dropping and you you know Basically what happens is like you risk actually damaging your relationships at work damaging your reputation as a professional and you know That's the biggest risk of all is that when you stay at a job for so long that you start to be seen as and sort of like Labeled as the miserable one the burned out one the toxic one Right or the one that's like always exhausted always complaining. That's not going to help your career so You know and not to mention If you can if you even continue past that The chick the choice to take time off Won't be made by you It'll be made by your employer who you know again burn out people not fun to work Not fun to work with not performing at the highest levels. You might you risk getting laid off Also, if your health starts slipping you risk being forced to take time off by a health emergency So again the choice When you're burned out Taking time off Isn't really a choice necessarily. It's it's just a matter of like when you're gonna be forced to take to make that change and so Heading it off early and actually making the choice from a place of intention a place of of self-empowerment Is one of the most transformational things you can do and so when I talk to people about taking a personal sabbatical Everyone just thinks about like the the time off the time off and like, you know The day that they get to walk out of their job and sort of like experience this time off, but really Most of the transformation Happens before the first day of your sabbatical most of the work that you have to do as a person happens before that first day and here's why because When you are thinking about taking a person sabbatical First thing is that happens is you're taking charge over your life Right, you're acknowledging that you have needs that aren't being met by your current life And you're making a choice to commit to something else So having the clarity to decide like I'm doing this and here's why I'm doing this, right? The second thing would just kind of what you mentioned earlier is around money That if you really are serious about taking a person sabbatical You're gonna look I recommend you look at your money situation Take a long hard and honest look and most people don't do that All they you know most people who work these like professional jobs They're like obsessed with their comp and all of that But once they kind of make that money like they just want to see this number grow They don't actually look at their expenses They don't actually look at how much their life is really costing them And so taking thinking about taking a person sabbatical Requires that you do that and think about what can you really afford and how long can you do that, right? So me personally when I wanted to take a person sabbatical. I couldn't afford it at that time So I really need to just start saving and budgeting and that's when I started getting financially healthy for the first time in my life So it was really transformational for me And then thirdly is that when you start thinking about like what you're gonna do during your time off Or when to even give notice to your employer, right? You start because you can no longer make like you're so used to making decisions based on like your career timeline Your career seasonal, you know rhythms and shifts that now you get to make decisions based on a completely different framework Around like your values or what's going on with your family? What's going on in nature? What's going on like in other parts of your life that you really care about and And then the next thing is like actually giving notice to your company now If you're a professional, you're probably used to giving notice to your company by saying something like Hey, I found this other opportunity. That's better than the one I have now And you you're able to explain to your boss why that opportunity is better And you know everyone kind of agrees and makes sense and you're able to then move to the next position Without many people pushing back But when you're doing this for yourself, right a lot of people are going to be asking you a lot of questions about like Why are you doing this? What are you gonna do at any time off? Like, you know and Having answers to that hearing yourself actually explain to people. I'm doing this for me I'm doing this because I've never Taken a break before from work. I'm doing this because I want to See the shape of who I really am without These gravitational forces of like work and authority and money pressure and all of that that you're doing this For something bigger than just the next job. You're doing this for your life That that is so empowering to just be able to say that to your boss I mean, can you imagine saying that to your boss, right? I remember being terrified of telling my boss this but once I did It was like I felt the respect coming from him And I felt myself become even more confident in my decision because I knew deep down that it was right for me So All of that the journey to even get to the first day of your sabbatical is already the beginning of your transformation Yeah, and you have helped people with this before and Can you tell us this kind of a story to ground this example of somebody that you worked with who actually took a Sabbatical and what happened as a result? Yeah, absolutely. So I work with a client who she had been in the tech industry for 11 years and She felt really stuck because even though she was really financially stable She had like two houses at this point like she you know retirement was all full up And she but she was really unhappy because she didn't have a vision for her life She didn't know kind of what was the point of doing all this. What's the point of working so hard and She had a lot of ideas for herself You know, maybe entrepreneurial pursuits or like dreams that she had but she never took action on those things because she Was scared of what would happen, right? She was like afraid of the uncertainty of what she wanted to do and So during our work together, she was actually able to build the courage and confidence up to leave her job and Once she left her job knowing that she could afford to take a significant amount of time off She traveled she started a business with a friend She made new friends that were also kind of in this like new way of living thinking entrepreneurially thinking about like More like lifestyle as opposed to just climbing the ladder She reconnected with old friends and started feeling more like she had a community around her and after a while of of Living this life where she was experimenting with different forms of income Trying a lot of different things. She actually and decided to re-engage with the tech industry, but this time on her terms So she's now in a different role that she's way more excited about and it wasn't what she was doing before because she realized more about her strengths and her talents and The job is fully remote, which was one of her terms and so now she can work from anywhere So one of the one of the greatest things about this client is that not only has she created a better situation for herself But now she's actually helping others with their career and that's one of the biggest signs to me that Someone has really started to feel more alive is that she's actually giving back She's not just working her job and then like going home eating dinner going to bed, right? She's she's actually has excess energy excess aliveness to be able to offer to other people who are struggling with their careers and Like in general, she's now way less less fixated on like how much money she has or how much money She's sort of building and saving and all of that and so But even so even though she's less less fixated on that. She still has plenty of money Right. It's not like she became poor just because she stopped fixating on how much money It's just that now her focus is on so much more than just that Yeah, this is that's encouraging to hear so How long does a personal sabbatical need to be is there a Recommended yeah, I mean this is more there's there's there's the typical two-week vacations that people take Sabbatical is longer than that. So how what do you recommend? Totally. So I want to just draw those distinction because like sabbaticals are Becoming really popular now, right? A lot of people are talking about it A lot of companies actually are starting to offer sabbaticals But I do want to draw distinction between what I think is the difference between like a vacation and a sabbatical, right? So a vacation is Exists as an opposition to like working. So whenever you're vacationing, there's always this Inherent presence of work that you have to return to and that you're escaping from right? And so vacation is about like pleasure and play and relaxing always knowing that like you're gonna return to work again Whereas a sabbatical is also pleasure play and relaxing, but it also includes Purpose to it. There's a purpose to your sabbatical There's a part of your sabbatical. That's about educating yourself re-educating yourself and exploring possibilities in all the uncertainty to try to learn more about who you are and what you really Love about life what what you love about being alive really And also the uncertainty of what you'll return to because that's not always clear, right? so I recommend taking at least six months off now six months because Initially when you first start your sabbatical There's a period of just resting and restoring yourself, right? So that might I mean, I don't know how long it will take for you but for me it was like of three to four months or three to four weeks of just resting enjoying Relaxing doing whatever I wanted not thinking about what I wanted to create or produce and So I gave myself that amount of time to just heal from being burned out After that You know, you really start to Live this new life like you start realizing, okay It's not vacation. I'm not just here to play now I'm here to like really follow my intuition start to think about like what can I explore? What can I learn? What are some situations that I put myself in this is and sorry interrupt you I want to ask one more question and then I want to I want to make sure people know how to how to They can work with you on this, but it's um You know, I think it would be worth taking some money from retirement To do a sabbatical because if we think about it Usually we think retirement is after I do all the work and then I relax and think about Purpose and it's like well wait a second Why are we deferring that to the end of our life? When we could take a little bit of that put it in the middle of our life and change our life so that we're way More vibrant and alive for the next, you know 20 30 40 years of work or however much time we want to work So I don't know. I'm just just seeing that this is you know, this is Makes sense to me makes more sense now that you know, we've had this conversation So eddie, how can how can people work with you? Yeah, tell us about that you have a way to work one-to-one and you have a group coming up that I know about Yeah, so one-on-one coaching is one of the primary ways I help people and to To just explore that option if you're interested in that It's just to sign up for a clarity call with me And all that is it's just a free conversation where you and I get to chat talk about your current situation And just see if something like one-on-one coaching would be beneficial to you Um, even if it's not those conversations turn out being to be really helpful for people Just to like talk with someone who's really able to hear and listen to some of the nuances you're saying about your situation and Even if you don't end up working with me, you'll have a better idea of what to do about your situation I'm also going to be launching a group program later this year focused on People who are either planning like committed to and planning on taking a personal sabbatical And also maybe people who are already on a personal sabbatical I just think when I was on my personal sabbatical I really yearned for this feeling of like connection with other people who were on the same journey And I didn't really have that until I started looking for it. Right. So this group. I'm really seeing as offering support offering coaching to help you gain clarity of like, what's the best next step for you in either planning your personal sabbatical or while you're on your personal sabbatical And the having, you know, the point is to not have so much structure that you're not hearing your intuition and it becomes more like Kind of like too structured So but having some structure will give you that accountability You need to actually start to take action in an intentional way on things that will make your personal sabbatical worthwhile The worst thing that can happen is if you take all this time off and nothing actually changes in your life, right? That would be just the biggest tragedy So working with a group of people with a coach will help ensure That your personal sabbatical is as worthwhile as it can be I think that's a really good idea actually because like you said, you know people who Are heading towards burnout or they're they're just going to do a lot of Yeah, just kind of directionless rest, which is like it's important the first couple weeks But then it's time to renew your life renew your purpose your vision for your life. And that's I'm so glad you're offering that So this is really cool Well, thank you so much for doing the work Eddie and for sharing with us today. I think you changed my perspective on Really what a personal sabbatical is so thank you so much. Thank you so much George. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks