I am currently in the third phase of the sabbath year plan I designed for this year. During this phase the goal is ‘looking around’, which I described as: “The focus of this period is taking a broad look at what is possible. There will be a lot of data collection but not much action. The goal is really to make sure we have as comprehensive as possible a picture of what our options are for the next six years and as detailed as possible a view of what those actually look like. To answer the question ‘what is the life we want to create for ourselves?’” I’ve started to set aside time for me to go do this research, and so far have felt a bit overwhelmed. That is what I am going to write about today. The trouble is there are just so many options. Three Main Decisions
Every year I set a focus for what I want to accomplish during the year. I don’t much believe in setting other goals beyond that, as having too many increases the chances of any one of them failing. I’ve noticed lately that I’ve also started to have a ‘secret goal’ of sorts. Something a few notches down on the priority list from my named focus, but that I think about in the back of my head. Sometimes it is something I want to monitor in case I decide to make it a true focus item in a future year. Sometimes it is a past focus item I’m still keeping an eye on. This year I’m writing it down my secret goal so that I don’t forget it and to see if writing about it is a bad idea altogether. The secret goal for 2018 is to create more than I
Now half way through my inaugural sabbath year I’ve gained a lot of understanding about the benefits and difficulties of an undertaking like this. As I transition from six months of not working back into my career I face a few more adjustments and learning opportunities. In some ways it will be difficult to try to continue to sabbath while also working a demanding job, but my suspicion is that will actually be easier for me than parenting full time. Without much else to share in this update I wanted to turn to a topic that usually comes up quickly when I mention I’m taking time off of work – that of money. As we’ve told family, friends and people we just met about our sabbath year situation, some outright ask ‘how can you afford to do that?’, others joke ‘wow, you must be rich’ and some have the question
With the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. I believe that by being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split that energy across many different goals. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017). 2018 Theme: First Principles Lifestyle The idea of first principles thinking is to remove preexisting assumptions and to build towards a conclusion from the ground up, challenging and testing every brick as you build. A first principles lifestyle would be one in which all aspects of that life are chosen intentionally because they are the most effective ways to achieve a person’s goals. A life in which everything has been stripped back to the foundation and rebuilt intentionally.
At the beginning of 2017 I wrote about my focus for the year. I’ve posted a few updates throughout the year (quarter year, half year & three quarters) and now is the time to do a final review. 2017 Theme: Sabbath Year Self Grade: 8/10 After learning in the past that having multiple goals dilutes focus and causes competition for a limited amount of time, I decided starting last year to focus my goals (challenge, habit & exemplar) around a single topic. For 2017, the theme was centered around the idea of a sabbath year – a year of rest. I found that centering around that topic worked really well. My efforts towards each of the three goals contributed in part towards each other and they feel very much as three notes of the same chord rather than three diverging items. I think there is still room to improve how much of my
In 2017 I named Eric Liddell as my exemplar for the year, someone I wanted to learn form. After spending time learning more about Liddell, one item seemed particularly relevant to put into practice – his approach to races. Liddell was one of the most fiercely competitive people I have ever read about – once running so hard to win a race that he had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital afterwards. At the same time he was incredibly compassionate to his competitors. There are numerous accounts of him sharing a friendly word before races, lending his gear to another racer that forgot theirs and praising the other runners after a race. He would mentioning their best aspects and how they very well could win the next time. It seems a dichotomy to be equally caring of a competitor’s heart and unrelenting in his own physical performance. As
Each year I focus my attention on a few named goals as a way to be more intentional about the pursuits I direct my energy towards. The way in which I do this has evolved over time and these release notes serve to document the changes & most current process. Review Of v1.4 v1.3 contained 4 items that in practice went in different directions and resulted in overcommitment. For v1.4 I emphasized focus on a single topic, which the challenge, habit & exemplar would all relate to. The full details of v1.4 are located here. I found that structure to be very successful in 2017. The three items played off of each other well to point in the direction of the overall theme. Rather than feeling that each hour was contributing to only one goal and a whole other hour would be needed to contribute to the next one, there was
One of my favorite parts of camping is the bidirectional appreciation it inspires. On one hand, camping allows me to go deep into the wilderness, to exist amongst vast forests, rocky cliffs or sprawling landscape, and to appreciate the beauty of things untouched by people. At the same time, the primitive living conditions I take on when camping make me appreciate the comforts of home; clean water I don’t have to filter or carry, climate control and food that has not been freeze dried, among others. For nature, my appreciation is enhanced because my mind becomes focused on something I am otherwise so removed from that I do not take time to reflect on. With the comforts of home, my appreciation is enhanced because my mind becomes focused on something I am normally so immersed in that I do not take time to reflect on. After returning from a camping
A vacuum begs to be filled. Given extra time and energy, projects that were once low priority enough to not get started will seem urgent enough to focus on. Around 2015 I changed how I stored my digital pictures from folders by topic to yearly folders with files named with the datetime they were taken. Everything pre-2015 is has stayed the old way, while everything 2015 and onward has been the new way. One evening this week, while looking for a photo of when my first son was born, in 2014, I got the itch to do the housekeeping work to update all of the old photos so everything was organized the same way. It was a few hours in before I stopped to ask myself why. Projects like this are popping up like weeds. All of a sudden it feels of the utmost importance that I go through all
With the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. I believe that by focusing on fewer goals, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than the sum of the results from doing many things. I detailed my 2017 focus here (read that first if you want more context) & did a quarter year update & half year update as well. Here is how I’m progressing since then. 2017 Theme: Sabbath Year 2017 Challenge: Define & Launch A Sabbath Year We launched the year on July 13th and are now three months in. I’ve written some about the progression of my thought process, and I’m sure things will continue to change. There is more detail in the posts I’ll link below, but for now I want to sum up two thoughts I’ve had a lot lately: It is really hard to have ‘sitting-in-a-hammock-reading’ type rest