In this episode, Alan Briggs walks you through four distinct types of sabbatical: adventurous, reflective, connective, and hybrid. He shares honest stories from his own sabbatical experiences, breaks down which type of sabbatical fits which season of life, and gives you a key warning for each one so you don't fall into the most common sabbatical planning mistakes leaders make when preparing for extended time away.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The three questions every leader must answer before planning a sabbatical
• The four types of sabbatical and how to know which one fits your life right now
• The biggest sabbatical planning mistake people make with an adventurous sabbatical
• Why a connective sabbatical does not mean relaxing, and how to protect your own time within it
• How to know if a hybrid sabbatical is right for you and how to plan it well

Resources mentioned:

• The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide, the companion resource to this podcast (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble)
• Sabbatical Coaching Group: one-on-one sabbatical coaching, group sabbatical programs, and a self-paced sabbatical coaching journey (sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com)

Reflection questions:

• What type of sabbatical do you need right now?
• What factors in your life stage and context are pointing you there?

If this episode helped you think differently about sabbatical planning, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more pastors and ministry leaders find the rest and renewal they need.

She joins Alan Briggs for a conversation about something most leaders get wrong: the assumption that caring about your work means never stepping away from it.

If you're a leader who runs hard and assumes the operation falls apart without you. If you've watched peers burn out and quietly wondered when it's coming for you. If you're caught between a 60-year-old generation that grinds and a 25-year-old generation that won't, and you're trying to figure out a third way. If your identity is so wrapped up in what you do that you're not sure what's underneath it. This one is for you.

• The halftime analogy that reframes extended rest as competitive strategy, not indulgence, and why the leaders running sprints through their break aren't the ones winning long term
• A clear three-part definition of a mini retirement (one month or longer, away from your primary profession, focused on something meaningful) and how that differs from a vacation
• How to address the four objections that stop almost every leader from doing this: money, work obligations, "what would I even do," and "what if it goes badly"
• Why "my whole identity is my work" isn't a badge of honor, it's a problem to solve before it solves itself
• The "spring cleaning" effect on your business or team when you step away, and why most leaders come back to a tidier, more efficient operation than the one they left
• Why your sabbatical plan is a hypothesis and your sabbatical reality is an experiment, and how that one reframe eliminates the emotional suffering most leaders inflict on themselves
• What Jillian thinks AI is about to change about leadership, and why the companies that figure rest out are going to dominate the next twenty years

"The only options are you figure it out or you die at your desk."

"Machines are getting better at being machines. Humans need to get a lot better at being human."

"No one looks at the basketball players running sprints during halftime and goes, oh, they're the ones who really care. No, they don't. They're being stupid."

"You're always more tired than you think."

"You don't include yourself in the people first."

If your identity is entirely defined by your work, what would it take to start building meaning and purpose outside of it before life forces the issue?

What season are you actually leading from right now (spring, summer, fall, winter), and is your current pace honest about that?

What would have to be true for you to take a real break with purpose? And what's actually stopping you from making that true?

Retire Often by Jillian Johnsrud, available wherever you buy books.

The Sabbatical Journey field guide by Alan Briggs, available from Amazon & Barnes & Noble

Schedule a free sabbatical clarity call: https://www.sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com/sabbatical-services-request-form#sabbaticalstart

This episode is also featured on The H2 Leadership Podcast from our sister organization, H2 Leadership, which helps leaders live and lead both healthy and with high impact. Learn more at www.h2leadership.com

For coaching, frameworks, and tools to help you demystify sabbatical visit  www.sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com

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. Drawing on his own experience leading businesses and three personal sabbaticals, Alan makes the case that sabbatical isn't an escape from the business. It's one of the most strategic moves a leader can make for the business.

What you'll hear:

• Why selling a company creates a "hinge and pinch point" where money is high but meaning is low
• The real financial fear of stepping away, and how to plan two or three years out for a "sunny day"
• Why four weeks is the floor and six to eight is where the real reset happens
• The secret nobody tells business leaders: sabbatical is a leadership development tool for your whole team
• How space creates clarity, and clarity creates courageous action on the team, the vertical, and the next season

A real sabbatical story: You'll also hear from a leader who entered his sabbatical struggling and came out the other side healthier, more at peace, and with the long-game perspective he didn't know he was missing. His words: it helped him loosen his grip and stop letting short-term pressure drive his decisions.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The largest study on sabbaticals ever conducted, published by Harvard Business Review
• The Sabbatical Journey field guide (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble)

If this episode landed for you, the best thing you can do is send it to a leader who needs to hear it. Research shows people are far more likely to pursue sabbatical when they've heard from someone who has gone before them. You could be that someone.

Ready for a next step? Book a free Sabbatical Clarity Session at sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com. And if you have 30 seconds, leave a rating and review wherever you listen. It's one of the simplest ways to help normalize the conversation around sabbatical and get this content in front of more leaders.

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 say out loud.

In this episode:

How long it takes to develop a mature pastor — and how quickly exhaustion can take one out. Why reading the Bible as throughput is one of the hardest habits for pastors to break during sabbatical. The get-to versus have-to framework for navigating congregational relationships while you're away. Why introverts and extroverts both need social rest, even when it looks different. The false pressure to return with a massive epiphany — and why reminders are greater than epiphanies. What it means to not go back to ministry but go forward into it.

You'll also hear from Josh, a pastor of 25 years from Southwest Louisiana who was depleted after COVID and two back-to-back hurricanes. Alan asked him one question that changed the trajectory of his leadership. Josh shares what happened on the other side.

Resources mentioned:

The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble Free Sabbatical Clarity Session — sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com Monthly Demystifying Sabbatical Webinar 

Subscribe, rate, and review. Reviews in the first weeks of a new podcast matter more than most people know. If this episode helped you, take 60 seconds and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other leaders find this content.

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, and honestly more meaningful. Alan calls it sacred work.

He also introduces seven types of rest from physician Sandra Dalton Smith's book Sacred Rest that will stretch how you think about what replenishment actually requires. Most leaders are only thinking about one or two of them. The other five might be exactly what they've been missing.

If you've ever told yourself you're not the kind of person who can just stop and do nothing, this episode was made for you.

In this episode:

• Why sabbatical is not nothingness and what it actually asks of you
• The sacred work waiting for every leader below the surface
• Why work has become an identity issue and what sabbatical does about it
• The vertical and horizontal relational work of sabbatical: God, family, and friends
• Alan's most meaningful moments from his own three sabbaticals
• The seven types of rest most leaders have never considered: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, sensory, and creative
• Why creative rest might be the most surprising gift sabbatical offers

A question to sit with: What relational work do you need to do below the surface during your sabbatical? And what are a few ways you could plan that into your time?

Resources mentioned: Sacred Rest by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith : https://a.co/d/08K7cJdh The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide: https://a.co/d/0eZY6Yj2 Free Sabbatical Clarity Session: sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com

Follow us on social Facebook: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup Instagram: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup

Alan walks through three indicators that tell you sabbatical is needed and three powerful impacts it delivers. He calls them brakes, alignment, and shocks. Drawing from his own sabbatical experiences and years of coaching leaders through the journey, he gives you a clear picture of what sabbatical actually does to a leader who receives it well.

If you've ever wondered whether you really need a sabbatical or whether it's just for people who are burned out, this episode answers that question directly.

In this episode:

• Why the way we work isn't working
• The burnout epidemic and what it's costing leaders
• How adrenaline is running your life without you knowing it
• The auto shop sign that changed how Alan thinks about sabbatical
• Brakes, alignment, and shocks: the three things sabbatical gives every leader
• How to know if the indicators are showing up in your life right now

Resources mentioned: The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide: https://a.co/d/0eZY6Yj2 Free Sabbatical Clarity Session: sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com

Follow us on social Facebook: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup Instagram: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup

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 leaders through every phase of sabbatical. And the single biggest obstacle he sees isn't logistics or timing or organizational resistance. It's a wrong picture of what sabbatical actually is. This episode replaces that picture with the real one.

In this episode:

• Why the academic definition of sabbatical has nothing to do with what we're talking about
• The one posture shift that changes everything: you don't take a sabbatical, you receive one
• Why sabbatical is one month or more and why that timeline actually matters
• The difference between primary work and sacred work and why sabbatical invites you into both
• What sabbatical is: a gift, engagement, a cosmic reset, a creative pause, a development tool, and relational reconnection
• What sabbatical isn't: a reward, an escape, a leadership hack, a vision cast, a blank page, or an isolation chamber
• Why the outdated way leaders think about sabbatical is actually keeping them from something that could change their life

A question to sit with: What picture of sabbatical have you been carrying that might not be accurate? And what would change if you let that picture go?

Resources mentioned: The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide: https://a.co/d/08wIoFnR Free Sabbatical Clarity Session: sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com Follow Us Facebook: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup Instagram: @sabbaticalcoachinggroup