"Why is living a life that feels aligned with your values and who you are as an individual courageous? Shouldn’t it be normal?" What you wrote made me think of the quote from J. Krishnamurti: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Enjoy the journey, my friend!
Vimrata, I’ve followed you on LinkedIn because I felt that someone who had 7y in Tech could teach me, who had 20 years more experience, something every day. And with this post, you have. I was struck by “being surrounded by ambitious people who had centered their whole identity on achievement and impact.”
I grew up in Tech at a different time when impact wasn’t as much of a focus as the craft of building something that changed people’s lives. That has sustained me over the years, been fed by self-created startups. Though, in our achievement oriented career, I too have perhaps let the spark of creativity take a back-seat. Your post will help me reevaluate my goals in the next act of my career.
When I went to college, coming from another country, I wanted to study Writing and Literature. Fate sent me to MIT to become a computer engineer. Yet one never forgets one’s first loves.
Thank you for sharing links of people who supported you, as I knew of just one person in that list. Good luck on your rediscovery of you!
Hi Vik! Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback. I'm honored that my words could inspire some reflection for you, that's such a big honor. I'm excited to see what's next for you! Curious if you have a favorite author or type of writing you'd be interested in studying or writing yourself.
The term "career" is a thought trap spoken by corporate victims with Sockholm syndrome. Forget that word. Better to find a paying gig and work community that you enjoy and feeds your soul. It wont last forever. Then learn to remake yourself and do it again. Be kind to yourself. You are not alone. Thank you for validating my same journey of decades ago.
Hey! Really interested to read this. I've just embarked on a journey on here too and have referenced both The Pathless Path and Burnout in my writing so far. Feels like we are on a similar wavelength! Also interested to read about your intention to discover your purpose - that's the topic of my next piece of writing scheduled for Sunday. Good luck with your journey, I'll look forward to hearing how it goes.
Thank you Jo! I read through your first essay and really inspired by your journey as well (genetic counseling is such an interesting pivot!) Subscribed to your newsletter and excited to hear more from you.
Go V! Always so great to see how your career has evolved over the years as someone who was similarity disenchanted by tech/product at one point and ended up taking a career pivot - excited to support you in this next chapter and also walk together in taking my first sabbatical of sorts since graduating in 2016 as we gear up for a new addition to the family
sherman!!! thank you so much for all your support in the tech chapter of my career. i am so excited for you and alexis to take on the next chapter of your own journey/family, and see what comes out of this mini sabbatical for ya :)
I find so many similarities with my journey and the way of telling the story it's actually confusing! Currently exploring writing, coaching, organisational coaching, solopreneuship and so on ... Seems like we're living in a transitional time and values are fighting back :) happy to chat about it or have your thoughts on my long form articles about that journey of mine!
hi alexandre! so cool to hear from someone else exploring similar passions. i'll be posting a link to a calendly in my next post for curiosity convos, so would love to see ya there. if you have any articles you think are relevant, plz link them here- i'd love to read it!
I am in a similar phase and ended up taking 3 yrs of long break after a hi-tech career in tech and I could totally relate to what you are saying about achievement. I have also been highly spiritual and the break has mostly turned out to be focused on spirituality.. though my career was never my identity and I had no issues quitting the job and taking the sabbatical, the best advice from a mentor when I was taking the sabbatical was to relax into it which I was able to do even though I keep coming back to thinking about what to do next in terms of career... I now trust the process of life much more, very very glad that I took the break and it is completely worth it.. I am yet to get back to making money and I am mostly okay with it as I know that I have to go with the flow.. the biggest thing for me is I now feel a career in tech/product and the long working hours and stress in corporate/startups might not be the one I might go for.. But, I am ready to put all the hard work for sth that I am very much called to.. which prolly might be sharing my lessons and experiences with spirituality.. I am going with the flow..
There is this notion in the society that one should never quit job and keep on working.. For me, it was important to carve time for my spiritual goals.. am glad that more folks are addressing burnout, i hope more ppl become aware of it and also solve it in the corporate/startups level as well.. glad that you are taking this break, i am following your journey here..
hi mounica! so great to hear from you, and thank you for sharing parts of your journey. i am a few days into the sabbatical and definitely figuring out the relaxing into the sabbatical part hah. i'm really curious to learn more about the spiritual aspects of your journey (if you're comfortable sharing). i'm definitely spending some time reading more philosophy/stocisim/buddhist books, along with going on meditation retreats to explore that part of myself. but curious if you have other things that you've tried.
I started off by doing meditation and reading knowledge in scriptures and then started following whatever was calling to me. I also started reading lot of Carl Jung's philosophy. Journaling helps me a great deal in getting the clarity of thought and trusting the process, I journal almost every day, I do free style journaling. Meditation and journaling are important part of my routine. I started reading Mahabharat and used internet to find answers for many questions that I have, I then stumble upon new things and read more on them, find new books to read, new philosophies etc. I can say most of them are unique and authentic to my life experience and also have practical use in my life. A great book I would recommend you on this journey is "Women who run with the Wolves". I also took a course by https://learn.ritambhara.org.in/f/reo Ramyana Exploration recently. It was a space for me week after week to connect to few other ppl.
My experience to advance spiritually has been to do meditation, gaining knowledge on the real nature of ourselves and doing selfless service to others (It could also be some non-profit for women in tech etc. I found it is imp to do it selflessly though.)
I would like to know the retreats that you are attending if you are comfortable sharing.. just to know the ones that are available so that one can join
On sabbatical after 13 years into my career as a management consulting then tech. Lots of relatable nuances in here. Thanks for sharing and wishing you peace, energy and lots of growth during this time 🩷
great question. also another potential essay topic. as a response for now, i'd say that for me, the stress was chronic enough (aka the same feelings for two years, on and off) and impacting enough areas of my personal life, day to day well being, and general optimism/functioning that there was a more systemic problem rather than day-to-day stress.
it's only a week in my sabbatical, and i will say- it's not like all my problems have disappeared. i still experience stress over random things. but it somehow seems more manageable and i feel generally more optimistic about my future than i did this time last year. let me know if that helps!
That's an interesting take on chronic stress, where most of us have been conditioned to look at the short term and don't look back far enough to see the patterns or systemic problems like you say contributing to our ill health. The more I delve into the concept of systems thinking, the problems seem so enmeshed in what has become acceptable that most people don't recognize that there is a problem.
Curious to hear your take on what could be trigger point that leads to a big enough ripple effect and eventual change in the accepted systems.
thank you michelle! as always, inspired by your writing and sabbatical journey as well. the manifesting lotion essay is still living in my head rent free lol
thank you sean! i think that statement was where i started with the goal of this newsletter, as that's what i thought a career filled with passion, joy, and curiosity looked like for me. now six months into this, i'm not sure if that's the right way to describe it, thus the sabbatical.
ultimately, for me, it's about figuring out where my energy comes from in my work, and balancing that with my need for financial sustainability. so, it's possible that most of my energy/joy comes from the creative part of that equation, but turning that into the thing that makes me $ ruins that. so, maybe, i lean on my tech skills to figure out my financial needs, while freeing up time to work on the creative stuff. that's the puzzle i'm figuring out right now through this sabbatical! hope that helped clarify some of my thoughts. maybe this needs to be another essay hah
I love that. Would be happy to chat through this with you and share my own experiences if it's helpful... I think you're definitely on the right track though, don't get me wrong! My email is sean.macmannis@gmail.com if you want to get in touch!
i would definitely love to chat! i'm actually going to setup a lil calendly for chats with folks that i'll send out in my next newsletter! i'll send you a ping about it as well when it goes out so we can find a time there :)
"Why is living a life that feels aligned with your values and who you are as an individual courageous? Shouldn’t it be normal?" What you wrote made me think of the quote from J. Krishnamurti: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Enjoy the journey, my friend!
i love that quote as well! thank you andy. it also reminds me of this ee cummings poem:
To be nobody but
yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night to make you like
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
I have a sticker of this on my mirror, read it every morning :)
Love that quote
Vimrata, I’ve followed you on LinkedIn because I felt that someone who had 7y in Tech could teach me, who had 20 years more experience, something every day. And with this post, you have. I was struck by “being surrounded by ambitious people who had centered their whole identity on achievement and impact.”
I grew up in Tech at a different time when impact wasn’t as much of a focus as the craft of building something that changed people’s lives. That has sustained me over the years, been fed by self-created startups. Though, in our achievement oriented career, I too have perhaps let the spark of creativity take a back-seat. Your post will help me reevaluate my goals in the next act of my career.
When I went to college, coming from another country, I wanted to study Writing and Literature. Fate sent me to MIT to become a computer engineer. Yet one never forgets one’s first loves.
Thank you for sharing links of people who supported you, as I knew of just one person in that list. Good luck on your rediscovery of you!
Hi Vik! Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback. I'm honored that my words could inspire some reflection for you, that's such a big honor. I'm excited to see what's next for you! Curious if you have a favorite author or type of writing you'd be interested in studying or writing yourself.
The term "career" is a thought trap spoken by corporate victims with Sockholm syndrome. Forget that word. Better to find a paying gig and work community that you enjoy and feeds your soul. It wont last forever. Then learn to remake yourself and do it again. Be kind to yourself. You are not alone. Thank you for validating my same journey of decades ago.
Agreed - this is the immense pressure of society framing values for us, when we should be framing values for society.
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback Lawrence! I'm glad that the words felt validating for ya.
thanks for sharing this, nice to hear about your journey, I'm just coming out of a sabbatical now
thanks dave! appreciate you reading :)
“Why is living a life that feels aligned with your values and who you are as an individual courageous?”
💯💯💯
Excited to watch you move towards finding a schedule of flow & new sources of meaning :)
Hey! Really interested to read this. I've just embarked on a journey on here too and have referenced both The Pathless Path and Burnout in my writing so far. Feels like we are on a similar wavelength! Also interested to read about your intention to discover your purpose - that's the topic of my next piece of writing scheduled for Sunday. Good luck with your journey, I'll look forward to hearing how it goes.
Thank you Jo! I read through your first essay and really inspired by your journey as well (genetic counseling is such an interesting pivot!) Subscribed to your newsletter and excited to hear more from you.
Wonderful post
It is always good to honestly examine self and not many people have guts for the same
Proud of you
thanks mom. love you always <3
Go V! Always so great to see how your career has evolved over the years as someone who was similarity disenchanted by tech/product at one point and ended up taking a career pivot - excited to support you in this next chapter and also walk together in taking my first sabbatical of sorts since graduating in 2016 as we gear up for a new addition to the family
sherman!!! thank you so much for all your support in the tech chapter of my career. i am so excited for you and alexis to take on the next chapter of your own journey/family, and see what comes out of this mini sabbatical for ya :)
I find so many similarities with my journey and the way of telling the story it's actually confusing! Currently exploring writing, coaching, organisational coaching, solopreneuship and so on ... Seems like we're living in a transitional time and values are fighting back :) happy to chat about it or have your thoughts on my long form articles about that journey of mine!
hi alexandre! so cool to hear from someone else exploring similar passions. i'll be posting a link to a calendly in my next post for curiosity convos, so would love to see ya there. if you have any articles you think are relevant, plz link them here- i'd love to read it!
I sure will book a meeting ;) you can read this: https://alexandrelenoir.substack.com/p/a-journey-to-out-of-the-box the first part of my telling of my own journey :) would love your feedback!
I am in a similar phase and ended up taking 3 yrs of long break after a hi-tech career in tech and I could totally relate to what you are saying about achievement. I have also been highly spiritual and the break has mostly turned out to be focused on spirituality.. though my career was never my identity and I had no issues quitting the job and taking the sabbatical, the best advice from a mentor when I was taking the sabbatical was to relax into it which I was able to do even though I keep coming back to thinking about what to do next in terms of career... I now trust the process of life much more, very very glad that I took the break and it is completely worth it.. I am yet to get back to making money and I am mostly okay with it as I know that I have to go with the flow.. the biggest thing for me is I now feel a career in tech/product and the long working hours and stress in corporate/startups might not be the one I might go for.. But, I am ready to put all the hard work for sth that I am very much called to.. which prolly might be sharing my lessons and experiences with spirituality.. I am going with the flow..
There is this notion in the society that one should never quit job and keep on working.. For me, it was important to carve time for my spiritual goals.. am glad that more folks are addressing burnout, i hope more ppl become aware of it and also solve it in the corporate/startups level as well.. glad that you are taking this break, i am following your journey here..
hi mounica! so great to hear from you, and thank you for sharing parts of your journey. i am a few days into the sabbatical and definitely figuring out the relaxing into the sabbatical part hah. i'm really curious to learn more about the spiritual aspects of your journey (if you're comfortable sharing). i'm definitely spending some time reading more philosophy/stocisim/buddhist books, along with going on meditation retreats to explore that part of myself. but curious if you have other things that you've tried.
I started off by doing meditation and reading knowledge in scriptures and then started following whatever was calling to me. I also started reading lot of Carl Jung's philosophy. Journaling helps me a great deal in getting the clarity of thought and trusting the process, I journal almost every day, I do free style journaling. Meditation and journaling are important part of my routine. I started reading Mahabharat and used internet to find answers for many questions that I have, I then stumble upon new things and read more on them, find new books to read, new philosophies etc. I can say most of them are unique and authentic to my life experience and also have practical use in my life. A great book I would recommend you on this journey is "Women who run with the Wolves". I also took a course by https://learn.ritambhara.org.in/f/reo Ramyana Exploration recently. It was a space for me week after week to connect to few other ppl.
My experience to advance spiritually has been to do meditation, gaining knowledge on the real nature of ourselves and doing selfless service to others (It could also be some non-profit for women in tech etc. I found it is imp to do it selflessly though.)
I would like to know the retreats that you are attending if you are comfortable sharing.. just to know the ones that are available so that one can join
Hey Mounica! I'm doing a zen buddhist retreat in nyc and then a vipasana meditation retreat through this org: https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search
On sabbatical after 13 years into my career as a management consulting then tech. Lots of relatable nuances in here. Thanks for sharing and wishing you peace, energy and lots of growth during this time 🩷
thank you magda! appreciate the support
Nice post. How did you know you are burnt out as opposed to stressed?
great question. also another potential essay topic. as a response for now, i'd say that for me, the stress was chronic enough (aka the same feelings for two years, on and off) and impacting enough areas of my personal life, day to day well being, and general optimism/functioning that there was a more systemic problem rather than day-to-day stress.
it's only a week in my sabbatical, and i will say- it's not like all my problems have disappeared. i still experience stress over random things. but it somehow seems more manageable and i feel generally more optimistic about my future than i did this time last year. let me know if that helps!
That's an interesting take on chronic stress, where most of us have been conditioned to look at the short term and don't look back far enough to see the patterns or systemic problems like you say contributing to our ill health. The more I delve into the concept of systems thinking, the problems seem so enmeshed in what has become acceptable that most people don't recognize that there is a problem.
Curious to hear your take on what could be trigger point that leads to a big enough ripple effect and eventual change in the accepted systems.
I love this reflection and am so happy to hear you are taking a sabbatical! Excited to follow your journey and see where this takes you <3
thank you michelle! as always, inspired by your writing and sabbatical journey as well. the manifesting lotion essay is still living in my head rent free lol
Love this! Would love to read more about your current thoughts on this: "Create a blended career across the creative arts, tech, and business"
thank you sean! i think that statement was where i started with the goal of this newsletter, as that's what i thought a career filled with passion, joy, and curiosity looked like for me. now six months into this, i'm not sure if that's the right way to describe it, thus the sabbatical.
ultimately, for me, it's about figuring out where my energy comes from in my work, and balancing that with my need for financial sustainability. so, it's possible that most of my energy/joy comes from the creative part of that equation, but turning that into the thing that makes me $ ruins that. so, maybe, i lean on my tech skills to figure out my financial needs, while freeing up time to work on the creative stuff. that's the puzzle i'm figuring out right now through this sabbatical! hope that helped clarify some of my thoughts. maybe this needs to be another essay hah
I love that. Would be happy to chat through this with you and share my own experiences if it's helpful... I think you're definitely on the right track though, don't get me wrong! My email is sean.macmannis@gmail.com if you want to get in touch!
i would definitely love to chat! i'm actually going to setup a lil calendly for chats with folks that i'll send out in my next newsletter! i'll send you a ping about it as well when it goes out so we can find a time there :)
That sounds great!
@Sean here's the calendly: https://calendly.com/vinamrata-singal/curiosity-coffee-tea-chats?month=2023-10
Wonderful post. Proud to walk along this with you
back atcha friend
This is beautiful.
thank you joel!