I had enough money in savings to go on a sabbatical away from work, but the idea of spending that money felt terrifying to me. It took a couple of big mental shifts to give myself permission to spend.
I love this image of little Cécile storing her coins away. This look back at your first relationship with money is so interesting and makes me think of my own experience (very similar). It really is hard not to over think the opportunity costs, but you did such a good job here showing that there is something beautiful and meaningful on the other side as well!
The opportunity costs definitely felt high: a whole year of earnings, pension savings and health insurance (European, not US). When I add that to the money I actually spent on my sabbatical, I always get a little dizzy 😵💫
If you look at the non-financial opportunity costs of *not* going on sabbatical, you’ll find loads of things (higher stress, lower health, higher psychological dependence on full-time work).. but they're much harder to value :)
The transformation journey (from going on sabbatical) starts when you start thinking about those non-financial opportunity costs of staying in full-time work and you realise that you’re missing out.. sometimes *hugely*.
This is an awesome article, Cecile! Thanks so much for sharing your experience and perception of money on your sabbatical journey. I also did the Fear Setting exercise prior to my sabbatical and my biggest fear was losing a sense of identity. However, I didn't fully define what exactly "identity" meant before I left. After reading your article I have come to realize that part of my identity has been wrapped up in my ability to make money. Similar to your experience, my lack of income has been causing me to become "activated" and anxious. I have enough money saved to sustain me so I am not fearful that I will run out, but rather I feel like I am losing my identity in that I am no longer someone who makes money. Thanks again for sharing this article. It has helped me reflect on the source of my feelings and fears :)
The fear of losing your identity is very real... From one day to the next, I went from being a productive member of society who earned money to *not* being or doing that.
Two things helped me with that (I'm curious what you think):
1/ I had been a productive member of society for such a long time so I was comfortable taking a break from that. It's like I'd earned a break.
2/ Setting my sabbatical up such that it was time-bound was valuable. It helped me see it as a life experiment rather than a life shift. Anything I did (or didn't do) within those twelve months was therefore part of the experiment. I was experimenting not earning money for a few months
I love these strategies! It is so interesting that we tie so much of our identity into our roles as paid employees and I love your mindset that you (and everyone who decides to take a sabbatical) has earned it and should not feel bad for taking some time away to rest and explore new curiosities.
I also like that you set a finite amount of time for your sabbatical. For me, I knew I didn’t want to return to my previous position so quitting without a specific plan/timeline to return to the workforce was the best option for me. One new strategy I am experimenting with is to chunk my sabbatical into phases which has been helpful for not defaulting to just going back to work because I have no other plan.
Phase 1- Decompress from full-time work: This included 2 months of relaxing, exercising outside with friends, an exploring the gig economy (walking dogs for Rover)
Phase 2 (current phase)- International travel: Traveling around SE Asia as well as Australia for 3 months
Phase 3: Exploring new ways to travel: Experimenting with Trusted House Sitters (https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/) in my local area (Seattle) to see if we can use this as a lower cost way to travel around the world in the future (~2-3 months).
I'd love to read an article that shares how you felt throughout the different trips. I'm prompt to work a lot and spend little. So, to me, it is fun to see my mind go from stressed to delighted to stressed as I (1) spend and (2) enjoy what spending brings me.
I needed to read this today! I appreciate your vulnerability in describing something many of us struggle with. I’m currently battling a couple new fears while I’m on sabbatical so I’m going to use your Tim Ferriss method!! Thank you for sharing this Cécile. ❤️
Ah I'm so glad you found this useful, Heather 💛 I'm curious about those new fears that you are battling now, if you're inclined to share? No pressure of course!
Haha well I will definitely be writing about them but...BUGS! I underestimated how freaked out I’d be by cockroaches and spiders in a tropical setting after living in the city for so many years. Couple that fear with then having to spend more on higher end accommodations...well then you butt into my fear of spending too much money! 😆 but travel like this is all about figuring out your limits right? I’ve learned I can save on not eating as much (and stopped drinking alcohol!), but I can’t do open air bathrooms. 😆
I got progressively used to bugs throughout my sabbatical. Weird things started popping up in Mexico first... I hated the cockroaches and got freaked out a couple of times by scorpions. By the time I reached Bali I was a bit more used to them although I still disliked them. Open-air bathrooms look good on Instagram but are not as cool when you find a big spider staring at you in the middle of it 😅
I found that I slowly got used to dealing with them. It'll get better. The first time you see anything is the worse time, and none of them are dangerous thankfully...
Doing a fear-setting was also the tipping point for me (https://kzhai.substack.com/p/004-name-your-fears, coincidentally one of your tweets is in here!). Excited to read more about your experiences!
One of the mentors I met while I was on sabbatical invited me to think of money as a person: if money were a person, what would your relationship with money feel like?
It became even more obvious then that my relationship with ‘money’ had changed dramatically pre and post sabbatical :)
I love this image of little Cécile storing her coins away. This look back at your first relationship with money is so interesting and makes me think of my own experience (very similar). It really is hard not to over think the opportunity costs, but you did such a good job here showing that there is something beautiful and meaningful on the other side as well!
Thanks for reading, Michelle!
The opportunity costs definitely felt high: a whole year of earnings, pension savings and health insurance (European, not US). When I add that to the money I actually spent on my sabbatical, I always get a little dizzy 😵💫
But that’s the *financial* opportunity costs.
If you look at the non-financial opportunity costs of *not* going on sabbatical, you’ll find loads of things (higher stress, lower health, higher psychological dependence on full-time work).. but they're much harder to value :)
The transformation journey (from going on sabbatical) starts when you start thinking about those non-financial opportunity costs of staying in full-time work and you realise that you’re missing out.. sometimes *hugely*.
This is an awesome article, Cecile! Thanks so much for sharing your experience and perception of money on your sabbatical journey. I also did the Fear Setting exercise prior to my sabbatical and my biggest fear was losing a sense of identity. However, I didn't fully define what exactly "identity" meant before I left. After reading your article I have come to realize that part of my identity has been wrapped up in my ability to make money. Similar to your experience, my lack of income has been causing me to become "activated" and anxious. I have enough money saved to sustain me so I am not fearful that I will run out, but rather I feel like I am losing my identity in that I am no longer someone who makes money. Thanks again for sharing this article. It has helped me reflect on the source of my feelings and fears :)
Thanks so much, Kristy!
The fear of losing your identity is very real... From one day to the next, I went from being a productive member of society who earned money to *not* being or doing that.
Two things helped me with that (I'm curious what you think):
1/ I had been a productive member of society for such a long time so I was comfortable taking a break from that. It's like I'd earned a break.
2/ Setting my sabbatical up such that it was time-bound was valuable. It helped me see it as a life experiment rather than a life shift. Anything I did (or didn't do) within those twelve months was therefore part of the experiment. I was experimenting not earning money for a few months
I love these strategies! It is so interesting that we tie so much of our identity into our roles as paid employees and I love your mindset that you (and everyone who decides to take a sabbatical) has earned it and should not feel bad for taking some time away to rest and explore new curiosities.
I also like that you set a finite amount of time for your sabbatical. For me, I knew I didn’t want to return to my previous position so quitting without a specific plan/timeline to return to the workforce was the best option for me. One new strategy I am experimenting with is to chunk my sabbatical into phases which has been helpful for not defaulting to just going back to work because I have no other plan.
Phase 1- Decompress from full-time work: This included 2 months of relaxing, exercising outside with friends, an exploring the gig economy (walking dogs for Rover)
Phase 2 (current phase)- International travel: Traveling around SE Asia as well as Australia for 3 months
Phase 3: Exploring new ways to travel: Experimenting with Trusted House Sitters (https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/) in my local area (Seattle) to see if we can use this as a lower cost way to travel around the world in the future (~2-3 months).
Phases are a great way to address this problem...
I’m curious about your ‘trusted house sitters’ project, I hope you find great people for your home and that you can keep travelling!!
I'd love to read an article that shares how you felt throughout the different trips. I'm prompt to work a lot and spend little. So, to me, it is fun to see my mind go from stressed to delighted to stressed as I (1) spend and (2) enjoy what spending brings me.
I needed to read this today! I appreciate your vulnerability in describing something many of us struggle with. I’m currently battling a couple new fears while I’m on sabbatical so I’m going to use your Tim Ferriss method!! Thank you for sharing this Cécile. ❤️
Ah I'm so glad you found this useful, Heather 💛 I'm curious about those new fears that you are battling now, if you're inclined to share? No pressure of course!
Haha well I will definitely be writing about them but...BUGS! I underestimated how freaked out I’d be by cockroaches and spiders in a tropical setting after living in the city for so many years. Couple that fear with then having to spend more on higher end accommodations...well then you butt into my fear of spending too much money! 😆 but travel like this is all about figuring out your limits right? I’ve learned I can save on not eating as much (and stopped drinking alcohol!), but I can’t do open air bathrooms. 😆
Aww I feel you! Get the lizards to eat them!
I got progressively used to bugs throughout my sabbatical. Weird things started popping up in Mexico first... I hated the cockroaches and got freaked out a couple of times by scorpions. By the time I reached Bali I was a bit more used to them although I still disliked them. Open-air bathrooms look good on Instagram but are not as cool when you find a big spider staring at you in the middle of it 😅
I found that I slowly got used to dealing with them. It'll get better. The first time you see anything is the worse time, and none of them are dangerous thankfully...
It's eerie seeing how much of your experience echoed what I felt before I quit my job too! (although instead of a dragon, I visualized a dam of money: https://kzhai.substack.com/p/visualizing-money-pt-5)
Doing a fear-setting was also the tipping point for me (https://kzhai.substack.com/p/004-name-your-fears, coincidentally one of your tweets is in here!). Excited to read more about your experiences!
Oh a dam, that feels so relevant!
One of the mentors I met while I was on sabbatical invited me to think of money as a person: if money were a person, what would your relationship with money feel like?
It became even more obvious then that my relationship with ‘money’ had changed dramatically pre and post sabbatical :)