Time Off Won’t Fix You (Here’s Why)

#007: What if the problem isn’t that you’re tired, but that you’ve never stopped long enough to actually question the life you’re building?

In this episode of Life After Enough, I unpack what really happens when you step away from work.

After taking a six-month sabbatical in 2025, I discovered something very unexpected and unsettling: time off doesn’t automatically bring clarity, peace, or purpose. In fact, the early stages can feel uncomfortable, disorienting, and even unsettling. However, that “messy middle” - the withdrawal from busyness - is where the real work begins.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why productivity has become tangled up with self-worth
• The emotional and psychological reality of taking a sabbatical
• The difference between burnout, escape, and intentional pause
• Sabbaticals vs career breaks vs “mini retirements”
• How to ask for time off without blowing up your career
• How to plan and fund a sabbatical realistically
• Why re-entry to work can feel harder than leaving
• How to keep what you discover instead of slipping back into old patterns

This isn’t an episode about quitting your job or running away from responsibility. It’s about using time off as a tool - a rehearsal for the life you actually want to live when work stops being the centre of everything.

If you’re mid-career, chasing financial independence, or just wondering “is this really it?”, this episode will challenge how you think about rest, success, and freedom.

Freedom doesn’t start the day you quit. It starts the day you pause.