5 Things to Consider When Taking a Sabbatical

It’s an excellent opportunity to reset everything, figure out what is important in life, and plan your next steps.

More often than not, new opportunities and ideas spring up when using a sabbatical to travel, often in ways you don’t expect.

As soon as you’re out of your comfort zone, out of normality, that’s when the magic of opportunity happens, and travel manages to encourage that like very little else.

During my travels, I often thought about what I wanted to do next and how I could enrich my skills and experiences to help me get there. By experiencing more of the world, you often take more home with you than you realise.

With this in mind, here are tips on taking a sabbatical and making the most of your time away from work.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

It’s a great motto to live life by and helpful when taking a sabbatical, especially if you are planning on travelling.

Taking time to figure out what you want to get from your time away and where you want to go is so important.

At the start of my travels, I wandered aimlessly, not knowing what I wanted. My only goal was to get out of the UK. Beyond that, I had no clue.

Luckily, working at a summer camp in America gave me purpose but heed my warning and have an idea of what you want to get out of travelling and your year out.

Some questions to ask are:

• Where do I want to go?
• What sort of experience(s) do I want to have?
• What skills (soft or hard) do I want to build so I can return to work more enriched?
• How much money will I need?

Of course, there are plenty of other questions, but you get the idea.

Now, it may be mixed messaging, but with this planning, you also need flexibility.

Remember when I said I ‘wandered’ into travelling? That mentality paid off when I went to New Zealand (my second travel destination). There I knew I would work for a bit but also allowed myself two months after work to travel wherever I wanted.

It was freeing, and after working, I gained more knowledge of the country and better understood where I wanted to go in life.

So this section should be ‘prepare, and prepare to be flexible’.

Let’s cut our losses and say 70% prepared and 30% spontaneity.

If you plan to travel for your sabbatical and want to work trying something new, then aim to make a difference.

Whether you plan to work at a summer camp inspiring the next generation, or you’d like to volunteer with those less fortunate, there’s an array of things you can do.

Volunteering abroad was one of my favourite things I’ve done. It is gratifying in ways you wouldn’t expect. Go in with an open mind and leave the saviour complex at home.

I went to South Africa to volunteer and participated in a female empowerment and teaching program. It was amazing getting to know the children and adults I worked with for a month.

The most enriching part of the experience for me was a check of my ego because (I hate to admit it now) I did go in with a hero complex.

There’s a view that you go to developed countries and are some hero to the people there, that they desperately need you. Don’t get me wrong, they appreciated my help, but there was an emphasis on partnership and empowerment.

This brings me to my next point.

Before anything, research the company’s values. Never be afraid to ask about their ethical practices, whether they work with community groups or how animals are treated in wildlife sanctuaries and preserves.

Ethics aside, look at whether companies have qualifications that run alongside their volunteering.

My first travel writing gig was for an international volunteering agency, and I did a program that helped me develop these awesome writing skills today (the British voice in my head is telling me that was too braggy, I need to recheck my ego).

If your company gives you a proper sabbatical and pays you, you may not want to work. I understand that, but it goes back to your plan; what do you want to get out of your sabbatical?

If you didn’t know by now, I worked at a US Summer Camp for much of my travels.

One year I got to camp early and helped set up. The jobs involved were moving mattresses, cleaning cabins, and clearing trails. It was physically demanding work in the humid North Carolina mountains. A whole world away from what I was doing previously in the UK.

Out of all the things I was proud of at camp, this was in my top five. That summer, whenever I spoke to campers from the cabins I cleaned, I would say, “I cleaned that”, beaming with pride.

Every time we took hikes on trails, I explained how we trimmed back the overgrowth. All of that uplifted my spirits and made me realise that I wanted to create things I could be proud of.

The fresh air and just moving around every day shifted my perspective on things and cleared my mind.

I gained a new outlook on what I enjoy, what drives me, and an understanding of how I interact with the world. An eye-opening experience thanks to seizing a new opportunity.

If camp is not for you (though, don’t knock it till you try it), there are so many other similar jobs out there.

I’ve done housekeeping as well, which was fun. There’s fruit picking and farming. Of course, working abroad does mean looking for visas, but in places like Australia and New Zealand, working holiday visas are easy to obtain (something to add to your planning list, of course).

One last thing I will say about working (and I suppose this can apply to volunteering, too) is that it’s a great way to get to know a place and the locals.

I cannot stress enough that you can read all the travel blogs in the world, but nothing beats the local perspective through cultural exchange.

That, in turn, helps promote global citizens, and hopefully, means we do our bit in bringing the world closer together.

It’s important to not have every waking moment focused on work; having fun and being creative are equally as crucial to personal and professional development.

Activate areas of your mind you may not usually use. Go dancing at a party. Explore a new beach. Hike that mountain. All new opportunities are opportunities to grow.

Doing tours are a super fun way to travel if you’re solo travelling or if you want an expert guide to show you around.

Again, they are usually run by locals, so not only are you supporting a local community, but you’ll learn a lot, too.

Typically a guided trek or tour will feature you and a group of strangers touring around parts of the country, guided by a local expert.

It’s a great way to connect with like-minded people and have fun, courtesy of the safe environment created by the company and tour guides.

I do not doubt that whatever you do on your sabbatical, you’ll have the most incredible life-changing experience. But it’s easy to get caught up enjoying the moment (which you should at times, by the way) and not fully appreciate it all.

Journaling or documenting your feelings and experiences will give you something to look back on and consider long after the actual memories get hazy.

I love to write, so I took notepads and filled them with my feelings and experiences of time away.

Writing may not be your thing, but with technology today, it doesn’t have to be. Vlog, podcast, do whatever you want to record your experiences because when you come back, it means that part of you is always there.

More than pictures and videos, try to capture how your travels and time away have changed you. After all, that is the most tangible way to see how you have changed and then can bring that change back to your everyday life.

This allows you to use your sabbatical for what it truly is; an opportunity to learn and grow personally and professionally.

I hope this blog has given you a starting point for taking a sabbatical.

Having goals and an aim of what you want to get out of your time off is so important.

So, pan well, my fellow explorer and get ready for experiences that will help you reset and recharge.

Other self development articles you may like

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• 5 Monthly Goal Ideas to Help You Grow as a Person

• 5 Excuse Busting Reasons to Move Abroad in 2023