DREAMing like Disney to plan your Disney Day
We are surprising my almost three-year-old with his first trip to Disneyland this week with the help of Castle Bound Travel Company. SO EXCITED!
I grew up going to Disneyland, I have worked at Disneyland, I searched for that Disney magic in a lot of places after my experiences there and, after learning mind management from life coaching, found that it was never out there at all, it was always inside me ;)! I built this life coaching practice to help Disney adults and fantasy fans use their minds to bring that Disney-level magic into their lives whenever they want to as I’ve discovered is possible.
One process I use for bringing Disney-level magic into my life is to DREAM like Disney. One place I use this process is in travel planning. I want to share it with you here and talk about how I am using it to plan our Disney days so you can create even MORE magic during your next Disney day.
DREAMing like Disney to Plan Your Next Disney Day
D: Dare to delight.
Walt Disney was a master architect of delight. When I worked in the Parks we were trained to create moments of surprise and delight by going that extra mile for guests. I read a story about Disney I absolutely love in How to Be Like Walt written by Pat Williams. It goes that in the early years of Disneyland, Walt had decided to put on an extravagant Christmas parade. His accountants approached him and said, “Why spend money on a Christmas parade? It won’t draw people to the park. The people will already be here, so it’s just an expense that we can do without. No one will complain if we dispense with the parade, because nobody’s expecting it.” To this Disney said, “That’s just the point. We should do the parade precisely because no one’s expecting it. Our goal at Disneyland is always to give people more than they expect.”
That’s exactly what delight is all about to me… the thought, “This is more than I could ever expect.” This thought/emotion combination is one of the big reasons I have loved Disney my whole life. Being in a Disney Park has always inspired this thought/emotion for me. It’s part of my unique magic.
The secret I have learned from life coaching is that I don’t need to go to Disney to think this thought and feel this delight.
Yes, news flash if you haven’t read about it on this blog or heard about it in coaching with me yet, all of your feelings come from your thoughts. This is a key to the universe because it means, we create all of our emotions with our thoughts.
As far as planning your next Disney day, this means two things.
First, you can plan in moments to focus your mind on the thought, “This is more than I could expect” and invite the delight just waiting for you at the Disney Parks in. See what your brain starts to notice and revel in. This is possible in your everyday life as well but because it is a Disney Park there are plentiful opportunities to notice all of the details that are around you just to delight you.
** Post-trip update: I was able to focus on this thought throughout our trip and it helped me delight in every small moment. We moved slow because the trip was really about my almost-three-year-old experiencing the magic for the first time and we had an eight-month-old in tow as well. There really is more than you expect waiting for you at every turn whether that’s the characters walking by, interactive park elements, bands playing, or features of the park. When I directed my mind to focus on this thought, I was able to see it all around me and bring that enchantment of delight into my experience. I started pointing out all the little things to my son including that each popcorn stand has a different character turning the popcorn and he really clung on to that one so it was just that extra dose of delight to stop at every stand with him and see what character was turning the popcorn.
Second, daring to delight for your Disney day planning also means that you can determine what experience of the park would inspire that thought, “this is more than I could expect” (or whatever thought it is that creates delight for you) and create a delight to-do list!
For example, for this trip, my daring to delight to-do list is:
- Get a picture of the castle at night.
- Stand under the castle and listen to “When You Wish Upon A Star” at night with all the lights.
- Point out all the different trash can designs to my son. ** Post-trip update: Like I said above, it was delight on top of delight that my son started really getting excited and interested in all the different popcorn turners!
- Hidden Mickey’s!
- Take dedicated time to notice all the sensory input throughout the day, delighting in all the detail of it.
R: Remember your magic.
Walt Disney said, “The more you are like yourself, the more you are unlike anyone else, which makes you unique.”
This coaching practice exists to help you, hero, create your unique magic in your everyday life. Your unique magic is made up of your wellspring thoughts and the magic emotions they create. Because the root of the word magic is magh which means to enable/empower/help I consider any emotion that enables/empowers/helps you to be magic. Because all of our emotions come from our thoughts, your wellspring thoughts are those that create this magic emotion for you. Everyone’s wellsprings will be different, unique.
Your Disney day can be 100% tailored to your unique magic to really amp up the magic!
Some of the wellsprings that are most active in my life right now are:
- Caring for people is a beautiful, amazing, fulfilling endeavor.
- I love details that all come together and tell a story.
- Possibilities are endless.
- Night lights show the world in a completely different way.
I can plan my day around these wellsprings. Because the thought, “caring for people is a beautiful, amazing, fulfilling endeavor” is something that I am feeling so much magic from lately, I can focus the day around caring for those I am with at the Parks. For example, really making the experience about what my three-year-old is into and wants to do. ** Post-trip update: SO MUCH MAGIC! It was so fun to have a loose schedule but then to let him really drive what we did. Part of caring for others also ended up encompassing letting my husband go do all the fast rides he wanted to ha while I did rides with the kids. I got to care for my kids and husband all at the same time!
The Disney Parks are a perfect vacation for anyone who delights in details and the story they create, they are EVERYWHERE! As mentioned above I can make a point to notice all the details and the story they are a part of at the Parks during my Disney day: popcorn turners, trash cans, smell, sound, all the names on the windows down mainstreet, The Halloween Tree, hidden Mickey’s, Walt’s Apartment and so much more! ** Post-trip update: As mentioned above, not only did I make it a point to notice details, in sharing them with my son, he found delight and magic in them as well!
Because I have found so much magic in seeing the world at night in all its differences and beauty, I am planning on taking my time in the Parks at night to try to take in as much as I can about the differences that show up.
E: Embrace the 50/50.
I’ll say it again friends, life is full of 50% pleasant emotion and 50% unpleasant emotion. 50% heroes and 50% villains. This is just part of being human.
Even when in a Disney Park, life is still 50/50. Knowing and planning for this makes it easier not to suffer too much on top of the 50% unpleasant emotion. Not to try to push my 50% unpleasant away or ignore them, just love the, allow them, and work with them.
I used to tell myself I should be happy all the time. This would be especially true of a place like Disneyland where I thought there was no reason to not just be purely joyful and happy 100% of the time. Now that I know that my brain offers me 60,000 thoughts a day and inevitably some of those thoughts will cause unpleasant emotion, no matter what I do, I know it’s SO OK when I get annoyed at how long a line is or at how hot I am or feel tired or mad that my son is having a meltdown. Knowing it’s coming, allowing it, and LOVING all of my emotions lets me move forward with the unpleasant ones. I know that I can be annoyed and excited, feel tired and magic, mad and love.
** Post-trip update: Meltdowns were definitely had and it was WAY hotter than I expected. For some reason in my mind, I thought, “beginning of September.. oh, fall weather”. Not so! It got up to 90. I was annoyed but also able to access being excited and that excited emotion helped me find the activities I knew were great to do while it was so hot: pool, Animation Academy (Oh my gosh my 8-month-old was ecstatic with all of the music, she was clapping and singing it was magical!), Disney Junior Dance Party, the new fountains in Toontown where my son drenched himself to cool down, and of course a Disney sprayer fan.
I was also surprised to notice how uncomfortable I felt when we first arrived. Again, 50/50 it’s all ok! It’s all part of me. When I allow and love all of my emotion, I can learn from it and move on with it. With some mind management, I discovered that the thought that was causing discomfort for me was that I didn’t deserve this amazing vacation. I hadn’t worked hard enough. I was able to thank my brain for offering this thought to me but remind myself that I am enough no matter what and I deserve all the magic no matter what. The discomfort lasted awhile and I just let it be there until it wasn’t anymore, until I no longer believed I didn’t deserve the amazing Disney magic.
A: Ask, “What if?”
Walt Disney is famous for asking, “What if?” Legend has it that cast members would bring their finished product to him and time and again he would ask, “What if ____?” The cast would think that’s impossible but go back and try nonetheless. Inevitably, they would create what Disney had pushed them to imagine was possible.
I love using “What if?” questions to push what I think is possible as well.
For a Disney day, consider the following questions:
- What if there were no limits?
- What if it could be exactly what I want?
- What if I could create the impossible?
Please add any other “What if?” questions you can think of!
In planning our Disney vacation I’ve continued to ask myself these questions. When I asked myself, “What if there were no limits?” I came up with staying in the Disneyland hotel and doing Goofy’s kitchen. That’s exactly what we did because Castleboud Travel was able to find a great deal on the hotel! Because I had dreamt it, we could do it when the timing was right!
By asking myself “What if it could be exactly what I want?” I reconfirmed that exactly what I want is to focus on my son’s experience, whatever it is he wants to do!
M: Maximize your gift.
The final step of the DREAM process is to maximize your gift.
Research points to the idea that when we are focusing on giving, our bodies release dopamine which aids in creativity.
Walt Disney was always focused on giving to his guests.
In planning your Disney day, how can you focus on what you are able to give either to yourself, your family, or your community to push what you think is possible for your day and enchant your trip even further?
I plan on capturing my favorite ambiance throughout my time there to share with you all! Thinking about sharing the details of the ambiance with all you heroes helps me refocus on them and really get excited about them again. I find myself wanting to research and find out what are all the songs, smells, sights in each land. To find out how Disney decided on these exact elements to tell the stories of each place. It switches on my interest and curiosity, I can’t wait to soak it all in when we go! Maybe I’ll even try to pick some favorites and bring them back into my home in special ways to help myself continue to focus on those thoughts inspired by the Parks that I can practice bringing into my everyday life after!
