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Forbes India: When a vacation isn't enough, a sabbatical can recharge your life—and your career

06 Mar 2023
How taking a prolonged period of time off helped employee reenter their jobs with new vigor and perspective—or inspired them to change the direction of their work entirely.

Originally found at Forbes India

 

A few years ago, DJ DiDonna seemed to have everything going for him. He had started a successful venture called the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, which used psychometric factors to help banks issuing microloans in the developing world avoid risk.

“We created an alternative credit score to give people access to finance, live up to their potential, and help their families,” he says. DiDonna spent years living out of a suitcase while jetting around the world to talk to bankers and meet inspiring entrepreneurs. “It was an incredible journey,” he says. “It was also a draining, unsustainable way to live.”

Even as he was feeling fulfilled by helping people, he felt himself crashing. “I didn’t think you could burn out from your dream job,” he says. In 2017, he realized that he needed to take a break—and not just a one-week vacation. He decided to take time off and explore neglected interests in the outdoors and in spirituality—by spending six weeks walking 900 miles as part of a Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan.

...DiDonna launched The Sabbatical Project, interviewing some 50 people who had similarly taken time off from their work to see what lessons could be learned from their experiences. He recently published the results in a paper in an Academy of Management journal (Academy of Management Discoveries) describing different ways that sabbaticals can transform a person.

Continue reading the original article at Forbes India.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Discoveries

Read the  Academy of Management Insights summary.

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