Anonymous Asks: Is a Break from Work Worth the Risk?
Intuition Strategist Leah Goldman helps an anonymous M Dash reader navigate a career crossroads.
Anonymous:
I recently entered my mid-40s and am feeling more burnt out than I ever have. I’ve always wanted to take a couple years off work to focus on travel, hobbies, etc. and am lucky to have finally reached a place financially where I could do so. However, I’m worried that if I take that time off, I’ll have trouble finding a new job, especially because I work in a fast-moving industry that seems to value youth. Is the break worth the risk?
Leah Goldman:
The pressure of burn out from your years of focus and acceleration. The pull to follow curiosity and passion for your personal fulfillment. The fear of stepping off your known path into an uncertain future. The nudge of support from your foundation of financial security.
You, my friend, are at a Personal Crossroads.
A crossroads is a point where two or more roads meet. You are faced with a decision that may change the course of your future.
As an Intuition Strategist, when facing a crossroads, I guide you to:
- Trust Your Gut: use your intuition to determine your move
- Make Decisions: take confident action
- Get Results: achieve your personal success
I use my Career Crossroads framework to put structure and language to these big career decisions. In this framework we have two variables that define crossroads: the Source of Pressure to change and the Urgency of Situation you face.
Your situation—driven by internal factors (personal fulfillment) and urgency (the physical, mental, and emotional toll of burn out)—is an example of a Personal Crossroads. Other Personal Crossroads can be family emergencies, health crises, and unexpected opportunities.
A Personal Crossroads is a reckoning of alignment of your values, priorities and actions. It is a moment that forces you to decide where to place your attention and energy. It pulls you between the personal and the professional.
The challenge in navigating this personal crossroads is that you know in your gut there is a right answer but the urgency to make a decision may give the appearance of outweighed risk.
Swift action is needed, but you don’t want to be reckless. You must identify those new paths and options that may not have previously existed. For your long-term personal fulfillment, you must act in alignment and integrity with your personal values.
When deciding which path to pursue, I use my VIEW Framework:
V – Value(s): The personal values that guide your actions and inform your beliefs. Also, your value to your organization, team, and community.
I – Insight: The structured data and perspectives from others that can help inform which path we choose. Trusted sources of information to add to our own experience and knowledge.
E – Empowerment: The engine to find and grow your power. Your support systems. Self trust, strength, advocacy, and expansion of your community.
W – Wisdom: The lived experience and stories that teach us about courses of action.
Here are some questions to reflect on your VIEW that you might consider when you journal or take a walk:
V – Value(s):
What are the values that are calling you to a new focus now? As I reflect on your question, I sense wellbeing, curiosity, self-fulfillment, connection, and learning.
What value do you offer to your employer? To your colleagues and team members?
How does your employer demonstrate that they value you?
I – Insight:
How much runway do you have to make a decision? To take time off from your job?
What resources will you need for your time away (e.g. time, money)?
What options are available from your employer (e.g. leave of absence, sabbatical, different role)?
Who do you trust to share, advise or create possible paths with you (e.g. mentors, people who have taken breaks, people who make a living from your passions, people you admire in your industry)?
E – Empowerment:
Intrinsic motivation: What do you wish you could do that might lead to an amazing life two years from now?
Strength: What do you need physically, mentally, and emotionally to build strength and resilience? This will both help manage burnout and build confidence to ask for what you want.
Expansion: Who can you share your aspirations with – in your organization, industry, community, and elsewhere in your life? Who might they know that can open a path now or in the future?
Advocacy: Who might benefit from your voice advocating for their success, perhaps by building a succession plan, transition, or bringing awareness to burnout? Who can you sponsor and speak up for? This may pave a smooth path and bring future opportunities your way.
W – Wisdom:
Internal wisdom: What experiences have you had that have prepared you for this moment?
External wisdom: Which of your mentors may have navigated similar crossroads and what did they learn? What stories have you been told about change, transformation, and resilience?
A clear VIEW helps us identify what we want to achieve and provides a roadmap for how to get it. It helps us see the network we have in place and access readily available. It allows us to realize the benefits of community, collaboration and openness.
Choose with confidence. Remember, staying the course is, itself, a choice.
Making a decision amidst pressure and uncertainty can be challenging. Clarity around the decision and conviction that it is the right move (at least for now) is paramount. You need to be all-in and know in your heart that this is the right move.
Taking action in alignment with your values and decisions will position you for success. Small actions create change, movement, and motivation to continue. Each step is an experiment, an opportunity to learn.
Remember that you have the knowledge, ability, and fortitude within yourself to navigate this path. Confidence in your action is the way through the crossroads. Your actionable intuition will lead you to your personal success. Cheers to your next adventure!
