A career break — and a personal resurrection.
What does it mean when you’re a high-performing professional who has hit a brick wall?
When the lines of work and life have become so blurred and challenging you don’t know which way is up or down? When everything just feels downright hard and every hurdle seems impossible to jump over?
Odds are, you’re burnt out.
And even higher odds, you need to take a break. Not just a weekend or even a week or two.
No.
I mean an extended break — months or more.
I know the feeling firsthand. Settle in, because I’ve got a story to share about my own career break and how it led me to create Lyd On Tha Go (more on that in a minute).
After 21 years of working my way up the ranks as a project manager and business operations leader, managing teams as small as five to as large as 65+, reaching VP level and advising the C-suite on a regular basis, I was mentally fried. And waiting until retirement to take an extended break was absolutely out of the question.
It wasn’t an easy decision, however. My manager at the time was truly the best manager I’ve ever had in my career. When I shared that I needed to leave, he didn’t want to accept my resignation. He implored me to rethink the break. Having managed employees, I do not take it lightly when someone wants to leave and they are asked to stay. It means they are respected, wanted and needed. But I knew I had a greater calling: rest and restoration.
And so I submitted my two weeks, and set three goals for myself over a six-month period.
1. To determine my next chapter professionally.
2. To determine my next chapter personally.
3. To become unshakably clear in who I am, independent of anyone else.
My boss asked me what was the first thing I would do with my time off. I told him, “I’m going to work on a farm.”
He laughed and jokingly said, “I’d pay money to see you on a tractor.”
And so when I volunteered at a small hobby farm outside the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, you know the first picture I sent him.
Me, on a tractor.
For two weeks I helped care for two horses, a pony and a donkey. In the morning, I filled feed bags with hay, cleaned stalls, and helped with farm chores. I scooped heaps of manure, weeded gardens and built small water dams. During the afternoon I hiked to my heart’s content and completed a progressive marathon distance.
I became a farmer.
And then I came back home and said, “What next?”
One of my dear friends who I take annual vacations with had planted the seed for us to make the journey to Antarctica. We both had the goal of visiting all seven continents, and the southernmost chilly region was our last one remaining. And so I handed over my last bonus to the leading expedition company and sailed to the final continent with National Geographic. We saw endless whales, penguins, seals, sea lions and birds. And when presented with the possibility of doing the ultimate polar plunge, I pushed past my fears and hopped off the side of the ship into the ocean!
I became an explorer and completed my quest to visit all seven continents.
Again, I came back home and said, “What next?” After physical work and daily expeditions, it was time to rest.
So I went to Barbados to sit on the beach and do absolutely nothing. Every day I would wake up, shower, load up on sunscreen and go on a rotation of sit, eat, drink, float, nap. In the evening I would walk to dinner or catch up with a friend who lives on the island. When I got an itch to do something more, I took lessons and learned how to surf. And let me tell you, surfing is HARD. I fussed, cussed, and kept telling my instructor, “We’re not ending this session until I get up on a f’ing wave!!” I proudly caught three waves on my first day and I felt a beaming pride like no other.
I became a surfer.
At this point I was now four months into my break and had peppered in a few more trips here and there, but I still had an itch for more. And so I decided to feed the monster of a travel bug that had grown inside me this whole time. I decided to go on the longest solo trip of my life and spend nearly 50 days traveling nonstop.
This is when I needed to break out my full-on project management skillset and use the tools I’ve acquired over 20 years to successfully get from point A to B, on time, within budget and delivering on the scope I created for myself:
Understanding the goal: Was the objective to country-hop or have complete immersion in one place? Did I want to approach it with a structured retreat or assemble my own collection of experiences? What does ‘journey complete’ look like for me?
Determining the required resources: What is this going to cost and how the heck am I going to pay for all of it!? How much time would I spend traveling overall and in each location? Would I seek to partner with other travelers along the way?
Sequencing how to approach preparation: When evaluating physical travel, accommodations and activities, where is the best place to start? How would I research the best places to stay that would welcome first-timers? What would resonate with me most to experience the fullness of what a location has to offer?
Execution and delivery: It's go time, I’m ready to do this! How do I keep myself motivated on a long trip? What should I do to ensure I rest when needed? What tools do I use to navigate unfamiliar areas in which I don’t speak the language? How do I track progress to ensure I’m doing what was intended while still enjoying the journey?
Over the span of six weeks I made 14 stops through Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, India and Greece. I fed nodding deer, walked with rescued elephants and spent time with sacred cows. I had lunch with a geisha-in-training (there’s a term for that, a ‘meiko’!), went on the ultimate street food tour and learned how to delicately pleat soup dumplings. I went on underbelly tours exploring housing crises and seeing firsthand how people thrive in one of the largest slums in the world.
I traveled into the rural regions to see women make beautiful rugs literally one knot at a time and went cloud hunting on a motorbike through the mountains. I cried in a sanctuary and prayed endless times in temples.
I became a full-time world traveler and pushed my total visited country count to 40+.
On that trip, a vision I had started to become crystal clear. I became resolved on what mattered to me. I knew how I wanted to return to the workforce. I was wiped from the travel but had a fire lit under me like I had never experienced before.
And now. I’m back!!
I have started a multidisciplinary consulting firm called Lyd On Tha Go. The name is intentionally irreverent and broad. What I offer are two core practices:
1. Project management consulting. It is at the core of who I am as a professional and a default for how I operate personally. I have an exceptional ability to get deliverables of all types over the finish line, in a host of industries, with the track record to back it up. You name it, I can wrangle it: process/operational improvements, system implementations, construction oversight, and performance management to name a few.
2. Transformational travel. This is the passion of who I am. Travel is my insatiable joy. And I want to help other career professionals who are in need of a break and need guidance on how to navigate. This is not trip planning. It is advising individuals who are seeking a shift in their way of thinking, working, doing and want to use travel as the vehicle to make it happen. I work with you to source opportunities that will get you to the next chapter.
And so…
Do you have a project that needs a strong leader to steer the ship?
Or need to rattle some things loose and take a break?
Gimme a shout. I’m here and ready to help.
