Me and my brother, Nick, in Slovenia

So, I have to admit that I feel lucky in how early an appreciation for international travel hit me. As a senior in high school (over a decade ago now!) I ran with the study abroad crew for a while. With friendly faces from 2 continents, I stayed in touch until college when I went to Spain and Brazil on trips to visit old friends.

I intensified my travels in college with the help of lots of Delta-employed friends. And so the travel bug grew bigger.

By the end of college, travel was my LIFE. I mean, if I had a 5-day weekend coming up, I would grab a friend and fly standby to Ireland for $250. FIRST CLASS. It was amazing.

What I came to realize about myself was that I traveled because it gave me a sense of freedom and joy that nothing matched. It refreshed my soul like nothing else could. And it’s a drug I’ve been on since.

People can be separated into two groups – those that think that traveling for 4 months is a life-must and those that think that traveling for 4 months is irresponsible. As a member of the former, I have chosen to travel during career transitions more than anything. This fine website is dedicated to growing the sabbatical in American business, something I wholeheartedly support. But how I’ve made this happen is key.

Traveling during career transitions can occur before a job, after a job or any other time where you have a major new life step coming along, including starting or leaving college. And the key to traveling during career transitions is successful, long term planning. A year and a half before undergrad graduation, I had started the planning of my 4-month around-the-Pacific trip.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

So, take advantage of transitions in your life and make sure you start preparing EARLY. I’m not saying plan every detail, but the earlier you decide, the more cash you can save up, the cheaper your flights will be, and the easier it is for you to immerse yourself in the travel Twitter space (a must).

Don’t be afraid. Take the step. It’s the first along a life of travel being your most intense passion. Which is a good thing.

(PS – Check out HostelDog.com for shirts that help you remember daily why you’re going on that huge trip!)

Cusco, Peru

From Victoria Mountain, Hong Kong, China

Garrett will be an expert panelist at Meet, Plan, Go! on the evening of September 14th in Atlanta at REI. The event is free but registration is required. Come join us!

The source: Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down, Sylvia Hewlett, Harvard Business School Press, 2009. Know that I’ve put this book at the top of my reading list. Lured in by the dramatic drop in top talent loyalty in the short time of this recession - from 95% to 56% – makes me think drugs are  involved.  That, sloppy research, or the sample size is the number of people walking on the beach today. (Unusually cool on the Gulf Coast right now. Number of people barefoot on the beach. N=30)

Why am I concerned?  Because this is a pretty dramatic dive to be reported during a  time when most everyone is working their butts off.  How were these statistics gathered? Since productivity is up despite the number of people gone, who is taking time to be interviewed for a study? Fill out a survey? (Yeah, right - put that right at the top of my to-do list. ) Oh, strategy sessions? (In a big room or a little room?)

Still, we have to be hopeful that there are valuable, smart, do-able ideas here because the author does have “cred.” An economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, Hewlett directs the “Hidden Brain Drain”—a task force of 35 global companies committed to fully realize female and minority talent over the lifespan.   She is the author of six critically acclaimed nonfiction books and her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the International Herald Tribune. Hewlett has taught at Cambridge, Columbia and Princeton Universities and held fellowships at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London and the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard. A Kennedy Scholar and graduate of Cambridge University, she earned her Ph.D. degree in economics at London University.

(whew) Still, you never should believe book-hype, so I’ll just report that we might have some big findings for companies who are working on today’s challenges caused by the economy and still want to stay smart about the future.

If I hadn’t left my Kindle on an airplane last week, we’d know more.  While another Kindle ships from Amazon, here are two of those eight interventions to appease you:

• Re-create pride:  Give employees reasons to feel good about their company by recommitting to social responsibility and lifiting up success stories.
• Provide meaningful non-monetary rewards:  Use time as money.

(That last one sounds like a sabbatical program to me.)   Stay tuned, and hope I like the Kindle2.  Meanwhile, why do I feel creepy being so judgemental about information touted in a Harvard blog?

I had the opportunity to speak with Renee recently and wanted to share some highlights of that conversation:

YS: What are your tips for planning a personal retreat or sabbatical?

Renee:

• Spend at least eight hours away (a weekend–or as much time as you can carve out–would be ideal).
• You may want to make this a personal retreat and be alone or you may decide to attend a guided group retreat, it depends on your personal needs and life stage.
• Choose a location that is inspiring and conducive to contemplation—a quiet park or natural setting; a friend’s vacant house; a retreat, yoga or spa center or even a quiet coffeehouse are good places to go (but get out of your own house!).
• Focus on what you want to create for the next ninety days of your life.
• Get the time on your calendar NOW! Otherwise it won’t happen.

YS:  How do you recommend your clients spend their time during their sabbatical or retreat?

Renee: Use this time to rest, reflect and nourish yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Or, you may want to spend this time getting clear on your life priorities and thinking about how you want to allocate your energy and resources over the next ninety days (much less overwhelming than looking at an entire year).

You might think about making a list of what activities fuel you (which ones give you energy, nurture you, fill you with passion) and what activities drain you (those things that create a physical tightness or discomfort in your back, belly or neck every time they cross your consciousness). Often these drains are things like a financial issue that must be handled, a tough conversation that has been postponed, a disorganized space at work or at home or a project that has been on the back burner for too long.

I like to approach these items with an aggressive housecleaning mindset, giving myself three options to eliminate these drains:

1. I can do it—set deadlines for completion of the project
2. I can delegate it—ask for help if needed or outsource the task
3. I can dump it—make the decision that I’m ready to walk away from this task and release that it just isn’t going to happen (at least not this year!)

During your personal retreat, you can revisit old goals or dreams, enlist books for inspiration (see my book, “The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal”, and its resource sections at the end of each chapter for recommendations), work on exercises, journal, draw/paint or create a collage that represents your vision for how you want to experience the next three months. Do whatever motivates you and helps you gain clarity.

A primary goal of this mini-retreat is to give your analytical thinking a rest and give your creativity and your inner compass the opportunity to have a voice.

I recommend taking personal retreats two to four times a year, if at all possible. These respites are a wonderful, nurturing way for you to invest in yourself and your future. They may just be one of the best gifts you’ll ever receive! Have fun, and make this your own.

My favorite retreat spots are: Kripalu in the Berkshires, The Omega Institute in upstate NY, Esalen at Big Sur in CA, The Crossings in Austin. I also really like retreats with www.planetsark.com and www.jenniferlouden.com and www.reneetrudeau.com.

YS: You’ve had a sabbatical experience, spending 90 days in intense writing. Tell us about it and how you benefited.

Renee:  I believe when you’re birthing a creative project, it’s ideal to have a dedicated, uninterrupted chunk of time to do so.  The summer of 2006 was dedicated to finishing my book. I actually held my sabbatical at home, but “unplugged,” cancelled all client meetings during this time and created a daily ritual that supported 5 hour/day of focused time to write/create my book. It was a wonderful gift to myself—I don’t think I would have finished my book without this sabbatical dedicated to my creative work.

YS: You’ve said that phones at your company were ringing pretty frequently after 9/11, because people were re-evaluating their lives and looking for career design help. Certainly it was a time for deep reflection. What are the differences or similarities you’re seeing in how people are reacting to the current economic downturn?

Renee:  The current times are very similar. People are asking what do I really want? How can I create work that supports my life goals? What do I want this life stage to be all about? How can I create a schedule that allows me to spend time on those things that are most important to me? How can I move into the driver’s seat and really take control of my life? And, how can I experience enhanced life balance?

Overall, there is a desire to approach life from a more inside-out approach (we just launched a Live Inside Out celebration that champions this). It’s time to re-invent and re-engineer lives that feed us inside and out.