I'm taking off 2020 as a sabbatical year. In this episode, I share what I believe will come out of taking off a year.

Speaking of taking time off, I'm taking off the month of July to write my next book called Sabbatical. I'm starting that month with something crazy: writing 100,000 words in a day. I'm live streaming the event on July 1st. More info on that at http://Write100K.com.

In the mean time, Ben Toalson and Dan Jacobson are taking over the seanwes podcast. They have 7 total episodes planned out. I'm super excited to listen to their conversations. This will be the first time in 430 episodes that I'm not on the show! Ben and I will return to our normal schedule in August. Follow along with my book-writing journey at https://sabbatical.blog.

Okay! On to the sabbatical topic.

As I mentioned in e427 (https://seanwes.com/podcast/427-writing-100000-words-in-a-day/), I'm taking off an entire year as a sabbatical. We'll have no car, no house—just traveling. I mentioned the countries I plan to visit in e427 as well (the list will likely grow).

Starting Seventh Week Sabbaticals in 2014 changed everything for me. It's not only saved me from burnout, but given me incredible clarity.

Your best work is locked up right now. You can't access it. Continuing to push yourself won't produce the greatest results. You have to take a step back to unlock your best work. You have to slow down. You need maintenance. You can't keep going with no end in sight. You can't keep burning the candle at both ends.

The results from Seventh Week Sabbaticals have been so great, I decided in 2016 I would commit to taking Seventh Year Sabbaticals as well. 2020 will be my first sabbatical year.

I'm going into the 2020 sabbatical year with an expectation of transformation. I have seen the results of rest at a small scale, and I am trusting the process in expecting proportionally bigger results at a large scale.

But I'm not just sitting still and expecting (or hoping) for things to happen to me. I'm going out into the world to have experiences. I'm going to travel. I'm going to purposefully mix things up and change the environment. I'm going to change the location and change the cultures and people I'm around. I'm going to change my activities.

Stepping away from the status quo and zooming out to get a big picture look will be beneficial. I can spend time thinking about the work I'm doing as opposed to being caught up in doing the work.

I am fully convinced the six years following 2020 will be a success as a direct result of seeds planted in the sabbatical year. I have great anticipation, eagerness, and excitement.

Conversations will happen where I get ideas that will change my trajectory for the better. I'll meet people, and build new relationships, that will last the rest of my life. I'm going into the sabbatical year with these expectations, and I'm recording this episode now so I can point back to it in 2021 when incredible things happen as a result.

I want to document this as I go to show you how I wrote my future. "I went in with anticipation, and eagerness, and then it happened."

If I try to put a value on the results I know will come from the people I meet, the connections I make, the ideas I get, or the companies I start, it is many, many, many millions of dollars. I already know that. So I would be crazy not to do it. I would be crazy not to take a year off.

Would you commit to taking a year off, two, three, four, five, or six years from now if you knew the things that would happen in that year would result in a return worth millions of dollars to you?

I'm believing that beforehand, and going in with expectation.