When you find your favorite ride at Disneyland, ride it over and over and over again.
One cool thing about trying something new or doing something that you have contemplated doing for a while, is that you get to find out if it makes you happy or if you enjoy doing it.
I remember when I was 21 in California working for a nonprofit run by Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda called “Campaign California” back in 1990, myself and about a half a dozen other lunatics would drive out from our downtown San Jose office in a van and get dropped in different neighborhoods around the San Jose and San Francisco Bay area to fund raise door-to-door for environmental and social causes.
You never knew what type of neighborhood you were going to whether it was a super hippie friendly neighborhood like Santa Cruz or a super-rich conservative neighborhood like Los Altos hills with minimum 5 acre lots and they would call the sheriff on you if you had long hair like I did.
(Good news is the Sheriff was apologetic and he explained that the uber-Rich folks with minimum 5 acre lots just called the police because I had long hair. He told me he had REAL crime to deal with, and Sheriff John Brown complimented me on my manners saying “you are much more polite than the people that live here in this neighborhood. Have a good evening, Sir” Thanks Sheriff…..that was the conversation).
One of those evenings out doing what we called “Canvassing” I had a conversation with a young woman named Phoebe that was attempting the job for the first time. In general, she was talking about where she wanted to go in her life and how she was dissatisfied with where she was and frustrated.
I don’t remember all the details of the conversation, and I only recall it all because she slipped me a note at the end of the week when she realized she wasn’t going to be working there any longer after that first week.
The note was super impactful because she explained to me that when I took the time to encourage her to embrace where she is now, even if it is frustrating, it would propel her towards where she wants to go faster. Those thoughts about herself would help her get where she wants to go is what I told her.
The note she wrote was so encouraging that had I really read it and meditated on it back then I would’ve started learning about neuroscience and coaching over 30 years ago. However, that was not my path.
But the incredible feeling I got of helping others through something that came naturally and I enjoyed doing was a memory that I will never forget.
It was a memory like the underneath the mattress of the princess I knew it was there. I knew I had the ability, and I knew I loved doing it.
And you’ve had a little taste of doing something that you love that brings joy to others who want to do it again as soon as possible.
Like this dude here in Southern California.
It all started out when he had an extra ticket to Disneyland a few years ago, and he and his family decided that he was going to do a random act of kindness and bring a stranger with them to Disneyland.
The reaction of the former stranger-now-friend was so profound and the amount of joy they experienced so incredible that he immediately realized he was on something.
By the time you read this, dozens of people have been brought to Disneyland this way, most of whom would never have gone on their own, couldn’t afford it, or didn’t have anyone to go with.
The video of this old man at the end…. when he talks about believing that his life was over and that they were going to be no more incredible memories for him to create is something we should all slow down and ponder for many reasons.
We don’t need to have a ticket to Disneyland to have the same kind of impact on an elderly person in our own communities.
Loneliness is an epidemic amongst Americans, and especially the elderly, and even more so for the elderly that are holding onto independent life and living outside of an institution or a facility.
Those folks need our love, kindness, and positive energy more than anybody, and when we do so we have the opportunity to learn and grow from the wisdom of their days on earth and the perspective that can only come from walking 1000s of days on the Big Blue Rock.
The first time is the hardest time to come out of your shell and do something openly kind and loving with strangers because we’re taught to be worried about what other people think that are seeing it or watching you do an unusual act of love.
However, we need you to muster the courage and be more optimistic about what Strangers are thinking, if you must care at all.
Strangers are thinking:
“Wow, that’s beautiful.”
Or
“I feel good watching this.”
Or
“I’m going to do something nice, too.”
I can tell you definitively from my perspective and from the perspective of Mr. Disneyland Dreammaker out in SoCal that it is habit forming, and something you will weave into your everyday life when you get used to focusing on being present and making it about other people in your conversations, interactions, and social doings.
You have to:
Be Present
and
Make it About Others
That’s it.
The rest will come naturally as God and The Universe built you for this. Really.
If anybody is ever in Sarasota and wants to watch what it looks like to roll around town with me, it looks a lot like this guy approaching the old man at Disneyland except I’m doing little things over and over again all day with anyone I encounter and everyone I encounter.
I mean everyone.
And it feels great, so I wanna keep doing it.
That’s it, I don’t have to overthink it.
And I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks except the person that I’m interacting with, making sure that they are comfortable, happy, smiling, and feeling the love coming from my heart.
Everybody else can enjoy the show or kiss our asses, me, and the former stranger person I’m loving.
And that’s how I roll.
Cause it’s a small world after all.
It’s a small, small, beautiful world when you ride the ride with an attitude of gratitude.
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/
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Thank you sincerely.
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: to know that I can say “I love US” and God and The Universe know I am talking about US.
Intention-safety first, most rain in 24 hours I have ever seen here in almost 30 years
First-cancel 8:30 class, not safe to drive
Things-keep feng shuiing ha
IN LIFE AND GOLF, GET BETTER…..NOW!
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Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
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