Anyone ever sort of take a break from life and just read books etc for awhile?

I started doing this every year. The upside is it feels like you are finally living your life, the downside is you realize how trivial and meaningless your time spent at your job is.

The first couple weeks off feel a bit jittery and anxious because you feel like you should be doing something 'productive' with your time, and by that you probably mean 'productive for someone else.' Then about week 3 you realize sitting by a lake reading a great book, calling you parents for an hour-long chat, or learning to cook something new, or going to the library and reading up on a subject you've been curious about your whole life is time well spent. And then about week 5 or 6 you start making plans to go see people who live far away face-to-face rather than pretending like facebook is actual communication. Around week 8 you spend just about every day thinking. "This is good enough. If I died and found out there was an afterlife and my afterlife was going to be this day, this would be good enough for me."

I feel like i experience more life in those 4-5 months than I do in 5-10 years otherwise. It honestly feels jolting going back to work and being surrounded by people who think that this random task and this random due date is a very serious matter that must be taken very very seriously. The reasons are not quite clear.

I know one thing for sure, I won't be bored in retirement, I'm spending my life practicing for it.

I heartily approve of this thread. It sounds as though you've already got a book list that will see you through. I'm going to suggest that people volunteer five books--desert island books--for your consideration. The limit is five per poster. Then you can think about them and perhaps enrich the reading list you've already got.

Here are my five suggestions, in no particular order. Each is a Big Book in its own way:

Julian Jaynes, "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind."

Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "Women Who Run With the Wolves"

Berndt Heinrich, "Why We Run"

Pema Chodron, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times."

Yes to this!

My wife has been doing this for almost 2 years now.

She left the medical field due to burn out and now she’s doing what you are. Never seen her happier and it allowed us to re evaluate our life purpose . Kudos to you??

If everyone did this who would pay the taxes to support all the illegal aliens crossing the border to get free healthcare and education.

Seriously, stop thinking about your own happiness, and have a little compassion for those who weren't raised with "white privilege" and hunker down and work harder to get into a higher tax bracket so Uncle Sam can take more of your earnings and redistribute it to the less fortunate. It's the socialist way!

T.M.A.D.D.D.H.A.S.F.N.E.

Suck it up

Could’ve sworn you’d be turned off by the “read books” part.

This is how I live my life. Ill add that eventually you can figure out how to make some money off the new skills you now have and in a sense never "work" again. (1-2 years?)

But, yeah, before everything cascaded into fully living I didnt work winters (still mostly dont) and read. It's completely worth it. Ill also add that getting good at doing nothing is excellent too. Just sit and watch/ think. Try it and eventually youll know what I mean.

[/quote]This is how I live my life. Ill add that eventually you can figure out how to make some money off the new skills you now have and in a sense never "work" again. (1-2 years?)

But, yeah, before everything cascaded into fully living I didnt work winters (still mostly dont) and read. It's completely worth it. Ill also add that getting good at doing nothing is excellent too. Just sit and watch/ think. Try it and eventually youll know what I mean.[/quote]

And what, pray tell, are the “new skills” that keep body and soul together for you?

If this thread gains any legs it will be all of the conservatives coming in to yell, shout and scream. Something something liberal snowflake something something.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I heartily approve of this thread. It sounds as though you've already got a book list that will see you through. I'm going to suggest that people volunteer five books--desert island books--for your consideration. The limit is five per poster. Then you can think about them and perhaps enrich the reading list you've already got.

Here are my five suggestions, in no particular order. Each is a Big Book in its own way:

Julian Jaynes, "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind."

Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "Women Who Run With the Wolves"

Berndt Heinrich, "Why We Run"

Pema Chodron, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times."

We need to know more about the OP. I'm not sure if the books in your list will really resonate with someone over the age of 25

You might look into audiobooks. I probably listen to 20 audiobooks each year. You can download them for free from your local library or if you don't want to wait, you can subscribe to audible. Audiobooks allow me to listen to something interesting while doing mindless tasks, like mowing the lawn or minor repairs/errands around the house.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I heartily approve of this thread. It sounds as though you've already got a book list that will see you through. I'm going to suggest that people volunteer five books--desert island books--for your consideration. The limit is five per poster. Then you can think about them and perhaps enrich the reading list you've already got.

Here are my five suggestions, in no particular order. Each is a Big Book in its own way:

Julian Jaynes, "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind."

Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "Women Who Run With the Wolves"

Berndt Heinrich, "Why We Run"

Pema Chodron, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times."

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is top 3 worst books that I actually finished. reminded me of Blue Like Jazz, where the author pretends to be so deeply spiritual that only he can understand the world. everyone else are just sheeple. why can no one see the world they way I see it? Reveals the highest level of narcissism. ?

back to the OP, Nassim Taleb (author of Black Swan) pretty much did this in the late 90s I believe. claims he read 60 hours a week.

If you can swing it, I say go for it. My savings and retirement are in a good spot (for being in my late 30s), but I just don't have the money socked away to step away from everything for a couple months. If you can do it, I'm jealous.

In the meantime, I'm "stuck" working slightly less than full time, running in the mornings, reading in the evenings, and spending time with my wife and our animals. So, the balanced approach, I guess.

Thoreau basically did what you are talking about for his entire life.

https://www.walden.org/thoreau/

every summer - I'm a teacher

Self Study wrote:

I am seriously considering spending a few months this winter not working any job and instead just running, sleeping, meditating, spending quality time with friends and family I haven't been able to see much at all this year, and reading a ton of books.

Anyone do something like this? Did you feel like it was worthwhile?

Yes. It was called college and grad school.

Haha, I listend to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a few years ago and also thought it was very mediocre at best. I do think Persig was clearly a highly intelligent person, and parts of it were good, but overall it was probably a 5 or 6 out of 10 and is highly overrated IMO. I did love "Why We Run" though.

My job is seasonal, so I will be laid off in November, and I a can actually maintain a decent flow of cash through unemployment, so not working for a few months won't actually cost me much. It probably sounds silly to a lot of people, but I feel like I have a lot of ideas right now and some more that are bubbling just beneath the surface. I haven't been able to really develop them or make sense of them though because they're the type that require getting into a certain state of mind and really thinking, the kind of thinking that has perhaps a touch of mysticism about it (think going into the mountains by yourself and having a random epiphany). I haven't been able to get into any kind of flow state or higher consciousness this year because I've been putting in 70-80hr workweeks off and on the last several months. I want to spend some time just reading, writing, running, sleeping, etc because in the past I've sometimes been able to get my mind into somewhat of a special state in which I have revelations which surprise even myself. (Again, I know that sounds silly and even arrogant, but it's true and just the way my mind works).

I want to get back to work and do meaningful work too; I wouldn't want to live this way indefinitely, but a few months sounds good to me.

Well, report back on what you learn! I would be very curious to hear about it.

I’ve definitely taken time away from work — sometimes voluntary and sometimes not — and i believe that it can fall flat if you don’t have some routines in place.

I always laugh at how there’s this strange phenomenon, that if you ask a retired person, or an unemployed person what they did today, they will sometimes reply with one or two five-minute tasks, and cannot seem to account for the rest of their day. Like, “I got the mail” or “I started the laundry” or “I was looking at some meatloaf recipes online.” This can happen to the best of us, where large blocks of unstructured time just seem to evaporate into thin air.

My favorite phrase is “Make ____ a job, and hire yourself!” This really changes the dynamics, from ‘working versus not working’, and changes it to a system of working on projects that YOU picked, versus showing up to play a role at some company for a set number of hours a day.

It can be anything — “Make fitness a job, and hire yourself”; or, “Make housekeeping a job, and hire yourself”. Even if you are hiring yourself as a researcher and meditation practitioner. But you want to almost have a contract with yourself, to show up for your new part time “jobs”, just like you always managed to show up for your paid jobs.

Build some systems — a morning routine, an afternoon routine, an evening routine — so you don’t find yourself overwhelmed by your freedom, and underwhelmed by your progress.

But yes, i think that taking time away from paid work, can work out well.