Category: About Mid Life Celebration

So much thinking

Disney Keynote Speaker Jeff Noel logo
Circa 2008 or 2009. Never used this logo.

So much thinking.

To be well past 25,000 published blog posts requires a daily .thinking .differently habit that defies logic.

The journey of walking around the Earth begins with a single step.

Note: Walking across the Earth will require a boat ride or two as well.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

Disney Retirement anniversary

Bicycling Going-to-the-Sun Road in mid-June. Road is closed to vehicular traffic. Have spent multiple Summers here working on a series of books. Work from anywhere. Write from anywhere.

Disney Retirement anniversary number eight.

It killed me to leave Disney after 30 years instead of 40.

Little did i know, retiring early was a brilliant move. Life is good like that sometimes.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

Disney Retirement eve

Kuwait City skyline
Kuwait City from my hotel room. Kuwait Towers, far right.

Eighth Disney Retirement eve, October 30, 2022.

Retiring from Disney does not mean retired.

Not retired, at all.

Like you’ve heard a dozen times, “Retired from Disney but not retired from working.”

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

66 – 80

Thought Cheryl and i would spend 40 years each at Walt Disney World. Can you imagine one couple serving and leading (and having fun) for 80 years combined?

Turns out our 66 combined years of Disney Service is perfect. Cheryl with 36 years and me retiring 10 years early with 30 years of service.

.think .differently

My decade-early departure (retirement in 2014) was a six-year plan spurred on by two things:

First, a catalytic Disney layoff in 2008-09…the Real Estate and Banking collapse (the Great Recession, akin to the Great Depression).

Second, the realization that i should have a Plan B in case this ever happened again.

Historical note: It did happen again in 2020 when Covid-19 decimated Disney operations world-wide. Roughly 30,000 Cast Members in Florida and California were laid off and eventually terminated. Disney Institute went from approximately 170 Cast Members to about 20.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

The early days of Mid Life Celebration

Mid Life Celebration art 2008
Mid Life Celebration art 2008…the pen is added to reveal the use of 8.5 x 11 printer paper for the canvas.
Mid Life Celebration art 2008
Originally, only four themes were created: mind, body, spirit, work. The colors; grey matter, brown as median skin color, red for blood, and green for USA dollars.
Mid Life Celebration art 2008
Trying to find an image for brain/mind. The post-it note was an easy way to add the edit.

The early days of Mid Life Celebration…yesterday, i stumbled upon these crayon sketches and handmade business card ideas from December 2008 and January 2009.

Today, March 10, 2019, on this “Spring Forward” clock change morning, it’s helpful for this moment of pause to see what the dream seed looked like a decade ago.

PS. i coined the phrase Mid Life Celebration somewhere around 2001, less than a year after becoming a dad. Officially incorporated the LLC January 1, 2009.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

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