Welcome back to Sabbatical 101! I’m so excited for the new academic year and looking forward to sharing new episodes with you!

As you’re easing out of summer and getting into new school year routines, you may be thinking about your sabbatical. In this episode I share a few prompts for reflection that can help you start to identify what you need from your sabbatical.

If you’re looking for more like this, check out my Sabbatical Clarity Toolkit, which you can find on my homepage, and here: https://bethanywilinski.com/freebies/

This season I’ll be dropping new episodes every other Wednesday, so be sure to subscribe! I’m really excited to share the 7 live coaching sessions I recorded this spring with faculty who are at different stages of sabbatical planning. I hope you enjoy them!

If you like what you hear on the podcast and you’re looking for more support, please reach out to me using the contact form on my website (https://bethanywilinski.com/contact/) or grab a spot on my calendar for a free, no pressure, consultation (https://bethanywilinski.com/discovery-call).

In this final episode before I take a break for summer, I’m reflecting on a year of sabbatical coaching—what I’ve learned, what surprised me, and what I think every academic should know about planning a life-changing l sabbatical. Whether you’re dreaming about your first sabbatical or actively planning one, this episode is full of insights to help you make the most of your time away from the day-to-day grind.

Plus, I’m sharing a sneak peek at what’s coming this fall: a series of live coaching sessions with academics who are facing real-life sabbatical planning challenges. You won’t want to miss it!

Here are the key takeaways from my first year as a sabbatical coach:

There’s No “Right” Way to Sabbatical Forget the one-size-fits-all model. Sabbaticals don’t have to mean moving abroad or doing research in a specific location. Your sabbatical should reflect your goals and circumstances.

Your Sabbatical Application Is Not Your Sabbatical Plan Submitting your application is just the beginning. A truly restorative and productive sabbatical starts with identifying your purpose—and letting that purpose guide your decisions.

Sabbatical is a time to Reconnect with Your Whole Self Sabbaticals are a powerful opportunity to rediscover non-academic interests and parts of your identity that often get sidelined.

A Sabbatical Can Be a Turning Point The boundaries, habits, and insights you develop during sabbatical can shape your work and life long after it’s over—if you let them.

If you’re wondering how to figure out what to prioritize during your sabbatical, click here to download my free Sabbatical Clarity Toolkit!

To learn more about my signature coaching program, Reignite: Your Life-Changing Sabbatical, click here. You can also schedule a Free Consultation with me here. I hope to hear from you soon!

Rebecca Roache is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of London. She’s also a coach who helps academics ditch perfectionism. Rebecca’s coaching business is called The Academic Imperfectionist, and she also hosts a podcast under the same name.

Join us for this conversation about what perfectionism looks like in academia, what causes it, and how it holds us back as academics. We also talk about how to set reasonable expectations for doing a good enough job, how the culture of academia keeps us in pursuit of perfectionism and ways to recognize and interrupt that trap, including helpful mindset tips.

You can learn more about Rebecca’s coaching work and find her podcast at: http://www.academicimperfectionist.com

Just a quick reminder that this is the second to last episode of the podcast before I take a break for the summer. Next week I’ll talk about how to come back from sabbatical, and I hope over the summer you’ll revisit past episodes or read my blog for even more sabbatical ideas and insight.

As always, you can find me at http://www.bethanywilinski.com.