The Fruits of Mini-Sabbaticals

Since 2015, I have been taking intentional breaks away from work to experience the 4 Rs (rest, reflection, rejuvenation, resetting).  As I prepared this year, I was chatting with someone and they said, “Oh you are taking a vacation?” I said, no, this isn’t what I consider a vacation.”

When I take a vacation, I maximize the experience of that particular location, getting out and doing something every day, on the go.

The concept of my mini-sabbatical is “slow down” time. It is deep thinking time, design time and release time.

When I began these trips in 2015, it was to put myself in a different place to tap into my creativity and innovation to work on the design of a new program, Vista Leadership Academy. That process continued annually as the program evolved to the Vista Leadership Institute in 2019. Creating the “white space” to allow my brain to slow down and tap into the emerging vision and translating that to an offering to leaders was deeply meaningful.

This year, I used one of the tools that we used in the Vista Leadership Institute, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U process of letting go to presencing to letting come.  “Who is the Self? What is my Work?”

With that exploration, I decided to “let go” of the Vista Leadership Institute. Over the 8 year journey of this program, close to 100 people have been engaged and impacted. It fostered transformation in leaders across the Americas, including myself. Now, I am sensing a new idea, it started to percolate as I prepared for this year’s mini-sabbatical. I have begun the cycle of the U again, it is emerging and you will likely see it presencing in 2023.

I encourage you to pause, create the space for what is presencing, the emerging future, your best future Self.