The Sabbatical Journey Podcast

Most leaders walk into sabbatical with a vague idea and a hope. They imagine they'll figure it out as they go. A few weeks in, they realize each day is bleeding into the next, the time is slipping away, and they're not entirely sure what they're doing with it. The leaders who walk out of sabbatical transformed do something different. They build a plan. Not a rigid, hour-by-hour itinerary. A framew...

When most people picture a sabbatical, they picture the destination. The beach. The trail. The cabin in the woods. The Instagram-worthy moment in front of the Alps. The leaders who actually come back from sabbatical transformed will tell you something different. The destination doesn't make the sabbatical. The preparation does. The work you do in the months before stepping away is what separates a...

What if you stepped away from work. Not for a week. Long enough that the constant hum finally goes quiet. Long enough that you stop reaching for your phone. Long enough to remember what you used to love doing before life filled up. For most leaders, that idea creates two reactions at once: deep longing, and total panic. Longing for the rest. Panic at the thought of an open stretch of time and no c...

Not all sabbaticals are created equal. If you're trying to figure out how to plan a sabbatical, the type of sabbatical you need depends on your life stage, your context coming in, and what would actually be a gift to you and your family right now. In this episode, Alan Briggs walks you through four distinct types of sabbatical: adventurous, reflective, connective, and hybrid. He shares honest stor...

Jillian Johnsrud has taken thirteen mini retirements (sabbaticals) over the last twenty years. She's raised five kids (three adopted), built and renovated rental properties that changed her family's financial trajectory, and coached hundreds of leaders through their own sabbaticals. Her new book Retire Often might be the most practical and philosophically rich thing written on the subject. She joi...

Most business leaders think sabbatical is something that happens after the exit. Sell the company, cash the check, then maybe rest. Alan Briggs wants to flip that assumption on its head. In this episode of The Sabbatical Journey, Alan goes directly at the business leader. The CEO. The founder still in the weeds. The owner-operator who looks at the P&L and concludes there's no way to step away....

Pastors carry a weight most people don't fully see. In this episode Alan Briggs speaks directly to the unique challenges pastors face on sabbatical and why this gift matters more than most will admit. Alan spent 13 years as a full-time pastor before founding Sabbatical Coaching Group. He coaches pastors every week. In this episode he draws from that experience to address the things pastors rarely...

Leaders resist sabbatical for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest is this: they don't like doing nothing. Good news. Sabbatical isn't nothing. In this episode Alan Briggs reframes what work actually looks like during sabbatical. You don't stop working. You trade one kind of work for another. You move from financial and transactional work in the marketplace to something deeper, more connective...

We are in a burnout epidemic. Leaders are overworked, overwhelmed, and running on adrenaline they don't even know is driving them. In this episode Alan Briggs gets honest about the cultural moment we're in and why sabbatical isn't a luxury for exhausted leaders. It's a necessity for all of them. Alan walks through three indicators that tell you sabbatical is needed and three powerful impacts it de...

Most leaders have a picture of sabbatical in their head. And most of them are wrong. In this very first episode of The Sabbatical Journey, Alan Briggs does something that changes everything. He tells you exactly what a sabbatical is, what it isn't, and why getting that definition right is the difference between a transformative experience and a missed opportunity. Alan has coached hundreds of lead...