Dear Son – Page 83 – Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker

48 hours later

(photo: The sun going down as the two-hour conversation reaches a good place to stop, for now.)

The walk yesterday afternoon was the last thing anyone could have seen coming.

Maybe two miles and two hours later they had finished the most important part.

Getting to, “Where do we go from here?”.

What looked like a simple father and son walk was actually a monumental conversation.

And so it goes.

They decided to give the next conversation a four-day deadline to happen – by New Year’s Eve.

The conversation yesterday had no deadline. But it did rely on a 14-year old’s courage to start an adult conversation. He didn’t initiate it, circumstances did.

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Mid Life Celebration is about making the most of the hand we’re dealt

(photo: Middle Schoolers practicing their Fall International Parade performance, October 22, 2014)

Sometimes our second choice is better than the official choice.

Will miss tonight’s performance, but didn’t miss yesterday’s final practice session.

Mid Life Celebration is about making the most out of the hand we are dealt.

Always.

Insight: Unknowingly, to be the only parent at the final rehearsal was inspiring to the students.

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Attitude is everything, blah, blah, blah…

(photo: Last night during the Cartoon Network premier revealing of the Aunt Grandma character… a big deal to a 14-year old)

Conversations are endless. And everywhere. Short ones. Long ones. Happy ones. Not-so-happy ones.

Dad: Son, it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to what happens to you. Bad things happen to everyone, and for their entire life.

Son: Silent, but obviously his mind is working overtime.

Dad: We are in control of our attitude and we create the habits that either favor us or don’t.

Bottom line, another in a long list of deposits into the mind of a future adult.

Today’s mental thought continues with a physical thought for the day at the Next Blog

The opportunity for unbelievable days is limitless

(photo: Is 7:30am the right time, on a Tuesday?)

When is the time right for an unbelievable day?

The opportunity for unbelievable days is limitless. What if we began the day praying, reading, thinking, writing. What if we ~~acted as if we had~~ actually made time for this?

Sharpening the saw as the saying goes. Could an ordinary day be given new life?

Instead of simply driving directly to the hotel parking lot and making a bee line for the classroom we did this…

We rethink the start of the day.

We drive first to the city shuttle, park there instead of the hotel and ride the shuttle to the north end of town. Then we could walk beneath the city and come up on the south end, down by Main Street. Take a brief stroll down Main Street before traffic gets busy, then cut over to the local Hotel to get to the classroom where we’d be a student for a week learning from one of the world’s most admired companies.

Simple pleasures taken for granted.

Dreams?

No, not really.

This is a common privilege, rarely taken.

But not yesterday.

And so it goes, one day and then another.

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Dear Son, wait until you can instantaneously articulate what inspires you

Can we instantaneously articulate what inspires us? Movies can inspire us, like the one last night, Safe Haven, the catalyst for today’s post.

Starting a business, publishing a book, representing the United States at the Senior Olympics, becoming a Father, celebrating three-plus decades as a husband, revolving everything around Jesus, annually donating and recycling things once thought to be important…

These things have made jungle jeff an exponentially better Cast Member.

And remarkably…

Being a Cast Member has exponentially made jungle jeff better at all those things.

It has been nearly eight months and 1,100 posts since the word me has been used.

Permission to become exceptionally self aware (not perfect, simply aware) is THE most under rated gift you can give yourself.

Live like you mean it. Life is not a dress rehearsal.

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