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time frame,” says Sam. “I was always a ‘human doer.’ Now I spend time just ‘being.’ It’s like a gift from the heavens to take time off—a gift I thank God for every single morning.” Sam’s “being” time is the existential time she takes for herself to walk along the lake, watch the sunrise, or jog slowly through the park. It’s time that’s governed by inner rhythms and unrestrained by schedules or clocks.

You can probably identify with Sam’s time-management dilemma. On a typical workday, she must juggle a full plate of family and career responsibilities. Although she accepts responsibility for her commitments, they leave her drained and exhausted. She partly blames the advent of computers and other labor-saving devices designed to make us all more efficient. They increase our expectations and push us to do more, rather than use any time saved for leisure and relaxation, she says.

Starting a Whole New Life

Time off can also become the impetus for a dramatic lifestyle change. When Arkansas attorney Frank Mackey took a summer leave of absence from his corporate law firm, it was with the intention of exploring the Chicago job market. Specifically, the 60-something Mackey wanted to know whether he had a chance of cracking the commercial acting market. Within six weeks, he had his answer. He returned to Little Rock just long enough to sell his partnership in the firm and pack his bags.

Like many established professionals, Mackey was longing for more than a job change. He wanted a whole new life—a chance to start over in a completely different place doing something entirely new. It was a decision that came with a very high price tag—but not one that he regrets. Mackey’s wife has a well-launched legal career of her own in Little Rock. For her, Chicago winters aren’t desirable. Neither is the idea of starting over. A short stint with a commuter marriage didn’t prove satisfying, either. So, the Mackeys decided to go their separate ways.

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Other couples fare better. Connie Evans and her husband Craig were long-time employees of Ameritech in Chicago. She was a secretarial supervisor; he was an engineer. Together, they earned a comfortable living, owned an attractive suburban home, and were able to save for the future. The only problem: Connie was totally miserable. Although she did her job competently, she hated the office politics. She longed to work in a more comfortable, creative environment. She desperately wanted out of corporate America, but didn’t know where she wanted her career to go. One weekend, when she and Craig were driving through the Wisconsin countryside, the answer shouted out to her. They’d buy a bed-and-breakfast inn and move to the country.

They began to research the B&B market, talking to owners, scouting locations, and getting a feel for the finances. The idea only grew on them. Then, Connie started spending her Sundays driving to various Wisconsin inns to check them out. Soon, she found and fell in love with the Port Washington Inn, a lovely, affordable B&B just 30 minutes outside Milwaukee.

They realized that they could afford it if Connie cashed in her 401(k). But they knew they couldn’t live entirely on profits from the inn. So Craig approached his boss about a transfer and got the green light for his job to move to Milwaukee.

After their bid on the inn was accepted, the rest of the wheels were set in motion. They fixed up their house, put it on the market, and sold it in about two months. Connie gave notice at her job and, in a remarkably short time, they were gone.

Connie took to her new career like the proverbial duck to water. She’s always been a homebody who loves to entertain, garden, and cook gourmet meals. Even dreaded chores such as laundry and housework don’t particularly bother her.

Personally, I was a little skeptical about this blissfully perfect solution. I wanted to check it out for myself. So one Saturday after giving a workshop in Milwaukee, I took the half-hour trek to spend the evening with Connie and Craig. Port Washington is a small town on

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Lake Michigan, which means there’s some good, steady tourist trade to sustain it. It’s also a true 30 minutes from Milwaukee, making it an attractively short commute.

The house is beautiful: carefully restored and lovingly attended. Connie’s care and handiwork are everywhere. Every room is decorated in its own theme. No detail has been missed—from fancy soaps and creams in the private bathrooms to candies on the nightstand. On weekends, they prepare gourmet breakfasts for their guests; and on weekdays, they set out fresh-baked goods. To do so, Connie spends a fair amount of time with her nose buried in cookbooks, experimenting with new recipes.

As a host and hostess, they’re warm and hospitable. Your wish is their command. Even their dog, Woody, looks totally content. And well he should, since he’s treated like a veritable prince: well-fed, wellexercised, and much loved.

It isn’t perfect. Nothing is. They have to work hard to keep the B&B operating. It has taken effort to ingratiate themselves to the community. And Craig still works at Ameritech, when he might, perhaps, prefer to join Connie at home. It’s a very fair compromise, though. More than ever before, they love the life they’re living.

Less Is More?

A pervasive hunger for a simpler, less stressful life showed up clearly in a Time magazine survey of 500 professional adults. Just consider the following:

■69 percent of the respondents wanted to “slow down and live a more relaxed life.”

■61 percent agreed that it takes so much effort to earn a living that it’s difficult to find time to enjoy life (that’s why you need to find a way to enjoy the way you make a living).

■89 percent felt it was important to spend more time with their families.

■56 percent wanted more time for personal interests and hobbies.

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Many of these would-be slow-trackers hunger for country or smalltown living. However, it’s easy to overidealize that lifestyle. Rural life isn’t typically an easy answer; more often, it’s an adventure that should be reserved for people who come from pioneer stock.

Life on the Slow Track

A new breed of career trendsetters is making life in the slow lane look mighty good. In Downshifting (1991, HarperCollins), business journalist Amy Saltzman identifies five different models you can use to get more control over your work and life:

1.Backtrackers arrange for their own demotions so that they can have more time and less stress.

2.Plateauers intentionally stay in place. They turn down promotions because they don’t want the increased pressures of more responsibility.

3.Career-shifters transfer their skills to less stressful fields.

4.Self-employers go solo to have more control over their work hours and location.

5.Urban escapees opt for more hospitable, relaxing environments in the country, small towns, or the great outdoors.

In the movie Baby Boom, Diane Keaton is a successful marketing consultant in New York City. A star on the rise, her relentless ambition fuels her workaholism. Not the least bit introspective, her only signs of discontent are revealed in her irrational desire to read and clip realestate ads for country homes.

Keaton’s life changes dramatically when she inherits a baby from a distant cousin. Soon, Keaton discovers the perils of combining single motherhood with a fast-track career. Good child care is tough to come by and time is at an absolute premium. When she can’t give her career the single-minded attention she once did, an ambitious young

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executive (in the form of James Spader) moves in on her territory and grabs her prized account. As her partnership opportunities fade into oblivion, Keaton is offered a new role on the “slow track.”

It is a blow to her pride and she can’t agree to it. Suddenly, that country home looks mighty appealing. So the impulsive Keaton quits her job, buys a house from a real-estate agent sight unseen, and moves to the country with her baby.

Picture this: Here’s a woman who’s always lived in a luxurious highrise and whose attention and energy have been focused entirely on climbing the corporate ladder. Within a few days, she’s living in a rundown house, playing mother to a child to whom she’s grown attached, and living an isolated life in a small town where the natives aren’t exactly welcoming her. The winters are cold, and her home needs major repairs at a time when she has no income.

She needs a job. But there isn’t much call for marketing consultants in her community and she doesn’t know how to do more everyday labor. Eventually, she finds a dormant entrepreneurial drive inside her that spawns the start-up of Country Baby, a gourmet baby-food company targeted toward baby-boomer parents like herself.

Because the movie is a Hollywood fairy tale, Country Baby becomes a spectacular success. Keaton’s former employer contacts her with a $3 million buyout offer and, to sweeten the deal, offers to keep her as the CEO of Country Baby. Only then does she realize that she doesn’t need or want “the rat race” anymore. She can make it on her own, even if it means turning down a cool $3 million. Of course, there’s a new lover in the background fueling Keaton’s desire for a comfortable relationship and a life where love does, indeed, conquer all.

Moving Someplace Else Isn’t Always

the Answer

Ignoring the movie’s spectacular finale, Keaton’s small-town experience does actually parallel that of many big-city folk who

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underestimate the difficult challenges that come with the transition to a supposedly simple life. Most of the time, you don’t just waltz into a ready-made lifestyle; you create it with your own vision and skill.

“What people don’t realize is that there’s a difference between a summer vacation and a lifestyle,” says Sharon Schuster, editor of Re Careering Newsletter in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Schuster, who’s been studying these changes since 1986 when she was downsized out of a public-relations job with AT&T, says geographic cures are like comfort foods.

“When people are reeling from the emotional trauma of losing a job, they’re looking for comfort, fun—something to make them feel good,” she says. “But the reality is that these aren’t always easy life choices, either.”

After several ratings guides recently touted Fayetteville, Arkansas, as the darling of relocators, Schuster tracked down several urban refugees who migrated there in search of a better life. One was former Chicagoan Linda Ray, who moved down at age 50. To her dismay, Ray discovered that the town’s economy didn’t greet every transplant with open arms. She found that there wasn’t much of a market for her broad communication skills in such a small community. It also didn’t help that there was considerable competition for lesser positions from university students and faculty spouses. She’d never imagined it would be so hard for her to get a toehold. She was forced to fall back on the proceeds from the sale of her house to support herself.

Ray saved her career by launching her own marketing services business, eventually narrowing her focus to advertising. By joining the local chamber of commerce and volunteering for several community activities, she slowly integrated herself into the town and achieved the less-frenetic pace she had so desired.

Despite her early financial difficulties, she doesn’t regret her decision to leave Chicago and is pleased with the new life she’s created in Fayetteville. But she warns prospective transplants to be realistic about the employment opportunities. “It could take a good solid year

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