Tag: Disney

Don’t Get Arrested

Do what you fear, but don’t get arrested.  Sometimes, if not more often, we must do what we fear to overcome it.

This has been challenging, considering  all the places I’ve lived and worked – 35 years in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Idaho, Florida and Washington State.

Bottom line, my thirst for pushing boundaries tends to threaten others. Since turning 50 in June, I have flat out accepted this is who I am – a game changer.  Maybe this will be September’s theme.  Maybe not.

Let’s go back two days to The Ledge, at the western hemisphere’s tallest building:

Went out on The Ledge five times. Would have done it even more, except it was a very busy Friday night in Chicago.

“So what”? Exactly.  So what!  I’ve never been more impatient with the status quo.

Turbulent times call for unprecedented creative efforts.  In order to teach our son patience, I constantly remind myself to relax and be patient.  One day soon, some one will ask, “Will you share your vision with us”?

While I went to The Ledge five times that night, Walt Disney lived his whole life on The Ledge.  Wonder if we’re related. Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

jungle jeff, Risk Taker

jungle jeff, risk taker, on The Ledge.

Friday evening, I walked to the Willis Tower (formerly The Sears Tower). The 1.5 miles took about an hour, with the numerous photo stops.

Going there was a mission.  A mission to stretch myself.

Spent two full days in Chicago, exiting, motivating and inspiring a great organization to reach even greater heights.  To go out on the ledge, so to speak and challenge themselves to do something they think can’t be done – destroy the status quo.

I felt an absolute calling to go to the ledge.  The ledge is a very scary place to be.

How can professional speakers – motivational speakers – inspire others to do impossible things if they themselves aren’t motivated and aren’t capable of doing impossible things?

Walt Disney never asked his associates to do anything he thought was impossible.  Walt always thought things were possible, even if everyone around him didn’t.

Same with me.  I’ll never ask my son, wife, or anyone else in our family to do anything impossible.

But maybe I should.  Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Walt Disney History

Walt Disney – the man and the company – history is preserved and perpetuated through stories.

Our country does the same thing, and maybe you’ve never wondered, “Why”?

People forget.  Important details get lost.  Values, reasons, Morales, lessons.  Roots grow shallower, not deeper, when the story is shallow.

On a trip recently, a friend was writing several postcards to important people in his family.  What a wonderful tradition.  There’s probably a story about how he got started. He said he always writes the same people – a tradition.

Had to wonder, since I send a fair number of postcards, does he put the stamp upside down, like I always do?

People think I’m careless and not paying attention to a simple little detail, which is what Walt Disney made famous – close attention to the smallest of details.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth.  I’m absolutely 100% intentional placing every single stamp, every single time, upside down.

It all started long ago when…..to be continued….

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Walt Disney on Twitter?

jungle jeff readers, please feel free to follow me on Twitter @jeffnoelmidlife

Disney, as in the man Walt Disney, has taught me to experiment with every new and innovative way to strive for perfection.  And it was Vince Lombardi, legendary head coach for the Green Bay Packers, that said, “In chasing perfection, we will catch excellence”.

My son, as much as I try to teach and inspire him, actually teaches and inspires me.  Who would have thought?

How?  Well, for starters, he looks at technology like you and I breathe the air – casually, effortlessly, and fearlessly.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, Websites, GoDaddy, WordPress, Skype, Mobile Me, iPhone,iPhone apps, IM, You Tube, Google analytics, etc.

Our nine year old son is familiar with them all.  I know.  I’m his teacher.

He thinks I make technology look effortless.  if he only knew how hard I worked.

Bet Walt Disney felt the same way.  Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

St Thomas Aquinas Said….

St Thomas Aquinas said….:

“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 🙂