The real effect of the sabbatical could only be measured after I had returned to work and settled back in. The truth is… the truth is not great and it makes some hard writing and some even harder reading I expect.
In the last 2 weeks of my time off work at the end of January / start of February I discovered a peace, contentment and gratitude, the like of which I have rarely known. As I write this at 3.5 weeks back into the rat race, a considerable amount of benefit I received from that wonderful time has been erased. I have no one else to blame for the ‘falling back’ other than myself. I control my schedule entirely, I make the choices for the things I do completely.
In amongst the workload of launching our business course at the academy I ran from pillar to post to different places in the country to speak to groups of people, always convincing myself that I’m doing the right thing for the right reasons but always questioning that rationale on the journey home. So much so that I reduced my commitment to the ADI Congress from 3 days and 2 nights to 1 day and 0 nights to try and pull back into the world of sanity.
The sad realisation is that work in it’s present form, at least the way I work, is bad for my health. The sabbatical analytics that I took weekly through the time off would not read well today. The weight would have increased, the fitness would have decreased, God knows what would have happened to the blood pressure.
At times like this there are only 2 ways to go, either backwards or forwards, either give up or redouble your efforts. I remain truly convinced that I have the ability to achieve the balance that I seek to be able to strike a happy middle ground between my mental multi-personality psyche and the positive difference that I seek to make, but there is some work to be done yet.
Luckily I hold a privileged position where I am able to begin the planning for next year’s time off work again, this time for a complete digital blackout and some other strategies to make even more positive use of the time.
Blog Post Number - 1213
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