Has anyone taken a 'mini retirement' partway through your career?
I'm thinking of people who made the choice to take time off in their 30s or 40s to live dirt cheaply and pursue non-career-related goals – e.g. extended wwoofers, renovating a house in Europe, re-training full-time in a brand new industry, or to meet a crazy fitness goal – etc. Not someone taking extended gap years straight out of college or someone out of the workforce because of prison, babies, winning the lottery and/or being forcibly unemployed for a long time.
How did you find it, do you think it was worth it, and would you do it again? Did you go back into your 'old' career? If so, could you easily go back or did employers look down on the choice? Did it change your perspective on what you wanted to do?