Canada, 2015. Filling in for Lee Cockerell who was ill and needed someone to cover his commitment. There’s also a chance this was one of my own Disney Customer Service Keynote Speeches. Can’t recall exactly.
Hints, to know when to stop blogging prolifically:
When daily blogging feels like work.
That’s it. That’s the only hint that i hear.
Happy present moment.
Bonus and subconscious hint: When i wonder if prolific blogging keeps me from finishing my ‘impossible’ book project.
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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.
Wanted to write a Love letter to my wife and son (then 13) in case something bad ever happened to me & i’m not around. It turned into a 2013 book.
Snapped a bunch of photos of the first book all over Walt Disney World property. Pictured above is one on the final day as a Full-Time Cast Member.
Note: This photo can also be seen as a “Disney Retirement Eve” photo.
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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.
Third to last Disney Institute gig. Retired October 31, 2014.
Center court.
A terrible photograph.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Like all things in life, depends on your focus.
Taken a week before Disney retirement after 30+ years and one year after book release announcement, this photo timestamps a date and place: October 2014 at Orlando’s Amway Center.
Some fascinating stats:
Envisioned it in college
Took 30 years to write first sentence
Took two years to write
Took two additional years for the guts to publish
Never mentioned Disney, not once, intentionally
Written father to son as life-guide in case i died
Never written to make money
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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.
What you are about to read was written years ago. It is part of my Disney Creativity and Innovation Insights book. It is randomly being shared today…
Disney Lodgekeepers (housekeepers at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge) had an idea shortly after Disney’s Wilderness Lodge opened in 1994.
To maximize daily efficiency with the fewest number of linen-room trips for supplies, Lodgekeepers packed as much onto their linen carts as possible.
A heavy linen cart on a carpeted floor is hard to push.
In the mid-1990’s Walt Disney World was unveiling Performance Excellence – an unprecedented management reorganization.
The primary goal was to tap into the knowledge “library” and experience base of the front line Cast Members.
The secret leadership ingredient that went missing from all previous “empowerment” initiatives was leadership involvement and approval.
Performance Excellence was designed to provide the missing link.
When the Cast said they wanted a self-propelled linen cart (like a self-propelled lawn-mower), leadership checked with our linen-cart vendor and you can just imagine their response.
Cool idea, but no.
Such a thing didn’t exist.
Anywhere.
So Disney leadership relayed the message to the Cast and the Cast responded, “But you said this time we promise.”
Long story longer – guess who co-owns the patent for the first ever self-propelled linen cart?
Additional backstory:
Disney’s Central Shops (where we build the Magic) and the linen-cart vendor partnered to invent the cart and receive the patent.
A Disneyland Merchandise Executive was visiting Walt Disney World – specifically, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – and noticed the self-propelled linen cart in her hallway.
She took an existing idea and made it work for the food and beverage carts at Disneyland.
Can you imagine how heavy a beverage cart is that’s full of cases of bottled and canned drinks?
Creativity, for Disneyland Merchandise, didn’t mean invention, it meant adaptation.
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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.
Thousands upon thousands of hours. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Habits are what you think and do without thinking.
Be consistent.
Have prioritized priorities.
Have fun.
Reap what you sow.
Note: Counting down to 2022’s first Glacier trip. T-minus three days.
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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.
