Written by: Mona AlHebsi, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The concept of “Career Break” is becoming a popular phenomenon increasingly among both men and women, especially with the current large millennial workforce population. According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, 37% of females and 24% of males “highly qualified professionals” left their careers at some stage, most with the intention of returning.
Generally speaking, women may require a career break to take care of children or elderly family members, while men usually step out of their existing careers to switch careers, obtain additional training, or start their own business. This is especially true during and post COVID-19 period when many people across the globe were forced into taking time off work to think about what else they can do with their time.
Around one year back, I’ve decided to step out from my highly rewarding career to take care of my newly born baby and take time to do some self-reflection. In this article, I’d like to share 5 takeaways from my career break experience.
1. I needed some rest!
After 15 years of a fruitful career journey, I realized that I need to take some time off to rejuvenate. The birth of my first baby was a great universal message to me that it’s the right timing for a career break. No matter how much I loved my job and enjoyed my working life, after some time, I felt the need to leave my fears behind and be courageous to step out to think about my life in a broader context.
The long work schedules and professional responsibilities may not permit you to disconnect and reflect, even though such long intervals are quite essential for our overall wellbeing. If you utilize it properly, a career break can give you the ultimate opportunity to replenish your energy, calm your mind, recharge your motivation, and rearrange your priorities. If your weekend or the 1-month long vacation leave is not enough for you anymore, it may be a good sign to think seriously about a career break!
2. It’s good to try new things!
Maintaining the same routine or lifestyle for years can make you feel like a machine and make your life dull. Taking time off to engage in new activities will allow you to view your career or field or even life in a totally new way. Transitioning from a full-time senior director in a reputable luxury brand to a full-time homemaker and mother was a big shift for me. As much as this move has brought a lot of excitement in my life for all the new things that I can do, it equally compelled me to adopt a new mindset and identity to make the best out of this new chapter of my life.
The career break experience allowed me to create a new routine as a mother, play new roles, try new things, let go of old ways and beliefs, and know more about myself away from titles and positions. The experience has been rather expansive with a lot of ups and downs and helped me broaden my horizons about how I view myself in light of my new responsibilities while integrating and building on what I’ve worked hard to build all these years to have a good life.
3. Motherhood is an amazing experience!
Being someone who is intellectually stimulated by continuous learning, my child is introducing me to new ways of constantly learning and adapting to new situations. I must admit that motherhood can be a very demanding and tedious task to undertake, especially when it’s your first time. However, it can end up being one of the most rewarding things in life due to the ongoing learning and molding the mother and the child goes through together during the process.
It’s all about unlearning many of our old patterns and relearning new behaviors, habits and seeing things from new perspectives. Baby Khalid continues to teach me patience, curiosity, sharp observation, being selfless yet determined, having fun, and letting go. He continues to teach me amazing things day by day. I’m grateful for all the great and the not-so-great moments that the baby and I have shared together and that my career break allowed me to spend these precious moments to see my child growing in front of me from day 1.
4. Get to know me better!
Even though I’ve always described myself as being a self-aware individual to a high degree, my interactions with baby Khalid and self-contemplation during my alone time showed me how much I’m yet to learn about myself! I’ve read once that our children are angels who come to our lives to heal us, but we can only benefit from this immense healing power if we understood the messages that our children bring to our lives.
I’ve learned during my time-out experience about my qualities & strengths and how to apply them in my current life context, my triggers & fears, and how they started surfacing in my most vulnerable circumstances requiring me to accept them then learn the right techniques to deal with them. A lot of questions came up to me during this period, including but not limited to: Who is Mona away from her career accomplishments? How else I can add value and benefit others while not working? How to apply what I know in new contexts? Will it work? What new skills that I need to learn to make the most out of this new life experience?
5. I know what I really want!
Now that I’ve taken sufficient time away from work, I know one thing for sure, I love hospitality, and I miss being around people! I believe my career in a service-centric sector, i.e., hospitality gave me deep fulfillment and enabled me to experience and provide a lot of things that I love and constitute core values to me like exclusivity, service, learning, achievements, quality, etc. It also exposed me to new challenges on which I can thrive, innovate, and contribute to something bigger. I learned from different people from various nationalities and backgrounds and had many opportunities to help my colleagues and make them smile. I guess this is what has made my working life rich and rewarding.
My people-oriented career in hospitality has enabled me to give back to my community in the most amazing ways one can think of. Whether it’s utilizing my capabilities and intelligence to make my workplace a better place for stakeholders, coaching, mentoring, and developing young talent in my industry, or striving to set the benchmark for excellence and best practice in my field and industry used to all to make me feel very fulfilled and worthwhile at the end of the day and stimulate me to think of more creative ways to contribute and make a difference.
In a nutshell, taking this much-needed career break allowed me the opportunity to disconnect, contemplate, re-evaluate, and restart stronger and with more clarity and maturity. A well-planned and rightly utilized career break will give you the space to determine your future direction and can end up being an extremely valuable experience. As the popular saying goes: “sometimes you have to get away to come back stronger.”
If you find yourself struggling to overcome toxic work patterns and feel stuck in a mediocre job, know that you are not alone. Career & Success Coaches like myself can help you be aware of your blind spots while guiding you towards career options that will make you achieve personal effectiveness and fulfillment.
You can email me at info@monaalhebsi.com. For more personal effectiveness and career success tips, visit my website. Connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook! You can also subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
Mona AlHebsi, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Mona AlHebsi, is an Award-Winning Hotelier, HR Practitioner, Success Coach, Renowned Author, and Speaker. She has recently been named “Most Influential Woman in Hospitality Human Capital” and "Inspirational Female Leader" due to her eminent contributions to the hospitality industry and Human Resources profession. Through her book “Beat The Odds,” Mona aims to provide a roadmap to all hoteliers and working professionals on making their work a vehicle to delivering excellence and achieving astounding success. She instinctively knows how to ignite the courage in others to stay true to their values and capitalize on their strengths, which will ultimately steer them towards success and fulfillment. Mona's life mantra is, "The more odds you beat, the greater will be your feat!"
