On my break today, I bought the dogs this plastic toy shaped like a strawberry. It has a hole where you can put treats inside. The dogs have to roll it around and squeeze it a bit to make the goodness inside come out. Even once the treats have all fallen out and been snapped up, they keep at it. Just in case. They don’t know for sure if there’s one last treat hidden inside. Watching them go at it, I begin to see that the phrase dogged determination makes a lot of sense. They’re quite lost in the task at hand.
We’ve been talking about how to get lost in our work at SmallBox lately. This has all stemmed from our focus on people-centeredness. We want work to be a very human experience, one that is challenging and rewarding with elements of play. It should be a good outlet for our creativity, diverse skill sets and growing appetites to make the world a better place.
I also recently passed the five-year anniversary mark at SmallBox. To mark the occasion, Jeb has suggested I take a sabbatical in 2016. He took one last summer and has sung the praises of the break and focused thinking and creating time it allowed.
A sabbatical seems the perfect place to explore a blend of work and play, and to understand what getting lost with no constraints can really look like for me. Should I use it to travel? Take a crash course in cello? Should I spend the whole time making art or writing?
Right now, I’ve not made a single plan. Not which month to take it in, or what to focus on. This expansiveness of possibility is equally thrilling and daunting. I only know for sure I want to get lost in something… an art project, a collaboration, a meditation practice… something that grips me.
What would you do with a month sabbatical?
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “Thicken the Plot. We’re all writing the story of our lives as we go. How can you make your story interesting in 2016? And if you can’t see around the bend, it’s okay to dream. Let’s make 2016 one of the most riveting parts of our tale, shall we?”