Mini-retirement, Cycling Continents And New Beginnings

Have you heard of mini-retirements? Until a few days ago I certainly hadn’t. And what are mini-retirements anyway? Is it something like mini golf, a small playful version of real retirement? Or is it a thing that has been around forever, but some creative media decided to rebrand it, give it a new name and make it trendy?

Judith on the 2026 Odyssey

There is a rider on the current Odyssey tour in Europe, who happens to be my sister, who graduated from university with a masters degree in economics and received an excellent position in the Canadian Ministry of Finance. Her future looked bright. Except there was a minor problem –  after a few years, she wasn’t happy. She wanted to quit. What she really wanted to do is travel the world.

I suggested that she ask for a leave of absence for a year. She was reluctant, who will give her a leave of absence after only few years of working? She spoke to her colleagues whose reaction was “this will be the end of your career”. She tried anyway. To her surprise the Ministry gave her a leave of absence or call it sabbatical without pay. She spent a year bumming around Asia and came back to work.

A few months later, there was an opening at the office of the Canadian Executive Director at the IMF in Washington DC for an advisor. This was rather a desirable position and a dozen people put their name down including our wanderer. She thought that her chances were slim but it turned out that the Executive Director was looking for someone who had a broad world view, and given her recent travels, she was selected. She never looked back…

On the first Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition we had the pleasure of having a senior detective with Manchester police riding with us. When he heard about a bicycle expedition tour across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town, he went to his boss and said: ‘I am burned out. There are two options, I quit or you give me a year of absence’. The captain knew what to do. There are other similar stories that participants from our expedition tours tell.

A leave of absence can lead to unexpected roads – and unexpected opportunities.

Why am I telling you this?  Well according to Reuters story published on 29^th of May by Hani Richter ‘Why more young people are taking mini retirements’ the individuals above took mini retirements. Who knew! I guess they were trend setters.

The author writes that “a 2025 HSBC Quality of Life report found that Gen Z and millennials are leading a shift among affluent investors … towards treating retirement not as a single moment at the end of working life, but as a series of planned career breaks.”

As I read that I thought of Alex, an engineer who negotiated with his boss for a four-month leave but also managed to negotiate his salary in such a way that his income was reduced by two months in two calendar years and thus saving on taxes he pays. Creativity is the name of the game.

Whatever it is called, a break from work, a mini-retirement, sabbatical, leave of absence, gap year, a necessary strategic reset to supercharge their careers, I am all for it. I may be biased but if you want to supercharge a career, consider taking one of our company’s epic expeditions or start with something shorter. In a recent blog, – It Takes A Village: The TDA Global Cycling Community – I wrote about one of the riders whose life and career took a completely different direction as a result of a tour. And he is not the only one.

There are other reasons why long breaks are a positive idea. On a web site called MONEY UNDER  30 on a subject of mini retirements Chris Muller writes: “According to a study the Society for Human Resource Management, more companies are offering sabbaticals and extended time away from work than ever before. The study also found that employees who take time away from work for a more extended period come back feeling mentally refreshed, psychologically energized, and overall more productive and happier.

Mueller goes on: Many people realize that waiting until you’re in your mid-60s to start a life of peace and relaxation isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. We don’t know where we’ll be financially or physically at that time.”

A change of scenery often leads to a change in perspective.

He then goes on mentioning Tim Ferris book The Four-Hour Workweek and how important it is to enjoy life now. He continues by giving an example of graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister who is known for a TED talk and how he shuts his studio for a full year every seven years to help him become more creative.”

I can only add that though they may not have written books or given TED talks, over the years participants on our epic tours were artists, designers, businessman, high tech workers, physicians and others who took the time off to cycle the world and in the process recharge, redirect, reassess, reboot.

So, if you are one of the people who are contemplating a mini retirement, or just need a longish break, check our offering of adventures. There is much to choose from.

Adventure, friendship, inspiration – and occasionally much more

By the way, you will recall the senior detective mentioned above. On the tour he met another rider a lovely human rights lawyer. Though a policeman and a progressive minded liberal lawyer are not a common match, I am happy to report that they are now happily married and bringing up two youngsters.