jungle jeff is absolutely a wellness fanatic. Most don’t realize this. Why would they realize it? Why should they?
I started with one push-up per day for a week and then each new week, add one more push-up per day. After six weeks, that’s six push-ups per day.
Also started running one mailbox per day for a week and then each new week added another mailbox. After six weeks, I was running past six mailboxes. Then walked back.
Through continuous improvement techniques learned at work (fortune 100 company), managed my boredom, injuries, motivation and goals – and after a decade, guess what happened this past Summer?
From one push-up per day ten years ago, to representing the USA at the WMA Master’s Track & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Men’s 400 meters, 50 – 54 age group.
So, excellence can be attained in virtually anything, but you have to be willing to set an impossible goal, work incredibly hard and never give up. Ya with me?
Because I understand completely how Disney operationalizes it’s culture.
“Culture is what people think and do, without thinking”. — jeff noel
One of the easiest ways is to use traditions. Our Country does. All great Countries do. So if it works for Countries and for Companies, why couldn’t it work for individuals?
Here’s a You Tube video describing the power of a simple “family tradition”:
Our son will always remember our Twistee Treat tradition. Always? Guarantee it. How?
Because of the repetition. Why do we celebrate holidays year after year? It gets ingrained into our being. It’s who we are.
When that happens, people do things without even thinking. It was Monday, in Lahti, Finland. I was there representing Team USA at the Masters Track & Field World Championships.
Even with all the distractions, I knew it was Monday and that meant Twistee Treat day. Maybe this is so simple it’s flying right over your head.
Until I understood this phenomenon, I could not break through to greater success. Carpe diem, jungle jeff
Thought representing the USA at World’s and stepping out on The Ledge, were impossible.
Disney has helped me realize the only limitations I have are those I impose upon myself. In passing this on to our son, I am reminded, “To teach is to learn twice”.
“We must love them both – those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it”.
Great quote. Great thought. Great perspective.
To a point, then I must agree to disagree.
Following the status quo, or “That’s the way we’ve always done it”, doesn’t seem to require as much laboring as does challenging the status quo.
Challenging the status quo is a lonely place. A very lonely place.
Take exercise. And to my dismay, we don’t see pictures of or hear stories of Walt Disney making exercise a priority. Sure, he played polo as far as we know.
However, Disney has taught me to eat, drink, sleep and breath excellence. Take Alfred Prokschin. At age 100, he won a Gold medal two weeks ago at the WMA Masters Tarck & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland:
If not you, who? If not today, when? Carpe diem, jungle jeff
“It’s what you learn after you think you know it all that counts”.
That quote belongs to John Wooden, former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach, and ESPN’s recipient of “Coach of the Century”.
Not the basketball coach of the century. THECoach of the century, anysport.
Our son is pretty certain I know just about everything. Maybe that will last another year or two. Maybe not.
I can’t wait to tell him stories and show him pictures and videos of all that is the same and all that is different here in Lahti, Finland.
In fact, it seems everything is the same here. And still, everything is different.
Everything Disney does is the same as every other company. And yet, everything Disney does is different.
If there are young children in your life, and this doesn’t mean only parents, have you ever stopped to contemplate your role in their learning about similarities and differences?
Or are you like me – tempted to think I know it all?
People who know me, know that when I come to the fork in the road, I take it.
Seriously, of the many labels thrown my way – status quo, normal, conservative – these themes are not.
Like many people, healthy living is important and action is required. After a dreadful cholesterol report a decade ago, an exercise routine began:
One push up per day, for one week
Run one mailbox per day for one week
Second week, add one push up per day
Second week, add another mailbox per day
Third week, well, you get the picture
Now here we are, ten years later, by practicing what I preach at Disney Institute, guess where that’s led?
The World Master’s Athletics (WMA) Track & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Seriously.
M50 400 meters
Jack & jungle jeff
Lane 8
Reporting live from Lahti, Finland, August 7, 2009. Make it a GREAT day. It’s up to you. If not today, when? Here’s to our health – carpe diem, jungle jeff
