I have to get really clear about what I'm doing and why. I'd given early lip service to the idea of a creative sabbatical.

I mean the early days, I just called it my writing retreat, a month long writing retreat, and then I started to realize that I actually wanted it to be something different.

And I need to figure out what I wanted to do with this time knowing that I had no idea if I would ever be able to do something like this again and I didn't want to waste it.

Hey there, so today is a little bit of a different episode for you. And as I sit here recording this, I have just returned from a one month creative sabbatical.

And we'll go into exactly what I mean by that, which is something I never believed would be possible for someone like me until something happened earlier this year that inspired me to really test that assumption.

And eventually prove me wildly wrong. And I'm coming back with some experiences, some awakening, some reality checks and learnings that I wanted to share with you today because if you've ever thought about taking anywhere from a month to a season or even a year off, I thought maybe my lived experience while simultaneously running two companies hosting two podcasts producing three episodes a week building additional product lines and streams.

And I think that the experience is generating a ton of added content across multiple platform working with a team that literally spans the entire globe and pushing to constantly hit deliver both the lines and often being at the center and the main bottleneck of everything that if I could do that after thinking there's just no way that I'd ever be able to not only justify it but on a practical level.

To step away and focus entirely on creative projects that I've sidelined for years, then maybe what I've learned in this experience just might be helpful. And the funny thing is that this entire thing was actually kicked off by a conversation that happened earlier in the year that changed everything and led me into a month away that shook my world in so many ways.

Today we're going to dive into just what happened what I learned and how you might consider creating your own version of an extended deeply generative regenerating renewing and awakening.

So excited to share these experiences and insights with you on Jonathan Fields and this is good life project.

Okay, so I was thinking about how to set this up this creative sabbatical debrief episode and I'm going to walk you through it in different stages and we're going to start with what I call this setup.

So I'll take you back to earlier this year sitting down in conversation with a dear friend of mine Jenny Blake and we're recording this conversation for the good life project podcast at the time.

And Jenny had just come out with a book called Free Time, which is a fantastic book that really helps you understand how to use your time more effectively to focus on what matters and to do all sorts of things.

She goes deep into the weeds on process and tasks and systems and automation all these things to help you actually accomplish this.

And in that conversation Jenny kind of called me out to a certain extent in a loving friend based way.

And she knew that I've been talking about taking time off probably for years and dreaming about it with her.

In my mind at that point, it would be a writing retreat like what would it take to actually take a month long writing retreat because there were some stuff in me that I just wanted to get out.

But I could not imagine I could not even conceive of the possibility of this being possible. Yes, I have the benefit of working for myself, which we all know is a total illusion when you run your own business or businesses.

You're always working for a whole lot of other people and happily so, but I did have a certain amount of control.

But I also had two companies that were running around me both in strong building phases and I had no belief that it was possible.

Jenny challenged me and said, but what if it is?

If you assume for a hot minute that this actually is possible, what would you do to make it happen?

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