The Walt Disney World Workout

I was 33 years old the first time I stepped foot into the Magic Kingdom, but inside (and truthfully outside) I was a boy of 7.  It was a city, no a universe, that was bubbled into our world.  It was something completely perfect and magical...

I know you did not tune to hear me recant my childhood dream lived out as an adult, but there is a point here and it relates to your fitness.  While, yes, you will walk nearly 47 miles in a day around the park, you are also going to consume a gazillion calories.  Why, because your internal 7 year old is making all the decisions.  So this blog is not about a step to calorie ratio at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Walt Disney World does something better than any other park in the world, they make you believe in the impossible.  It happens on every ride, with every show, with every "Character" strategically placed.  The entire design of this World unlike any other world is to make you believe.

And believe you do...

If you are like me, and some of you are, it is not the want to change that is your obstacle.  It is the belief that what is impossible is possible.   Most of us don't have physical limitations that hold us back from our own personal Magic Kingdom of success.

I think our greater struggle is we live with a mental belief of the traveling carnival that comes to town.  While yes it is fun, you always walk away questioning the safety of the ride and criminal background of the guy controlling it.  There is no magic in the carnival, just some kid through up on the tilt-a-whirl and teenager kids making out on the Ferris wheel.  And 2 days later it packs up and moves on to another town.

Here are three tips to making your fitness a little more "magical":

1.  Clear all trash.
  Disney works hard to make sure every person who walks through the park has the same experience.  No trash in the park, bathrooms clean, no gum stuck on fence posts. No matter your role from a person checking tickets to the CEO, if you see trash, you pick up. Why?  To make it magical everytime.

When you approach your fitness, clear all the trash.   Take out the mental obstacles that you build up in your mind.  Take out the garbage about how you "can't".  Clean up all the "I'll nevers".

2. Stories
You don't just wait in line for a ride at Disney.  You wait in a moving storybook.  Every line for every ride prepares you by telling you a story about the ride.  The ride is set up by every section of the line, it is all part of the story being told.

Your journey is a story, not a destination.  With every step, every workout you are writing your own story.  While the line to the ride may feel long, there are important pieces to your story being written.  Don't try to skip to the end.

3. Shh...It's not really magic
The magic of Disney is hard work and ingenuity.  Ask anyone who has worked for the company and they will tell you that it was the hardest work they have ever done, yet the most rewarding.

Health and fitness is not magic.  There is no magic pill or shake or sprinkle of Pixie Dust for your food.  It is still hard work.  The results look like magic as you make a part of you disappear, but you and I will both know how you got there -  hard work, sweat, positive attitude and maybe just a little magic!

Walt Disney World makes us all feel like kids and the one thing a kid does better than any adult is dream big dreams and believe for the impossible!

What is your Disney experience and how has it helped you?

I Can Only Imagine

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

Walt Disney

A golfer will visualize there shot before hitting it.  A shooter in his mind has already made the free throw before it ever leaves his hand.  Award winning actors have rehearsed their winning speech hundreds of times before the movie was ever shot.  

That is the power and the fuel that comes with imagination.  The first steps toward success - in health and fitness, in business, in sports, really in any avenue of life - starts with the ability to believe you will be successful.

I have been given the gift of imagination.  I am creative.  I am one of those people that have unfiltered ideas of grandeur. My left handed self thrives in these moments.  I have written #1 songs.  I have penned the screenplay for the next Oscar Award winning movie.  I at one point starred in 13 straight All-Star Games and finally brought the World Series back to the Chicago Cubs.  (I told you I had a big imagination.)

So it leaves you asking, "Jeff, why have you not ..."

That answer is simple.  The power of the imagination gives the dream.  The athlete, artist or person has to believe in it.  They have to sell out to that dream.  It is one thing to see the impossible happening for a brief moment.  It is an entirely another to continue to see that dream as a reality despite set back, despite obstacle, despite failure.  

There is a story of Walt Disney's brother, Roy at the opening of Walt Disney World.  Prior to the opening Walt had passed away.  A guest at that grand opening said to Roy "what a shame Walt was not here to see it."  Roy's response "He already had."  The only way the Happiest Place On Earth ever came into existence was because one man in plane ride over some swamp land in Orlando, FL saw something that did not already exist.  And then pursued that something passion, fervor and tenacity.  

For me, it is not a problem to see swampland as the world's greatest amusement park.  I have the imagination for that.  My struggle is taking what I imagine and believing two things:

1) that I am able to bring the dream to reality

and 

2) that there are others who are willing and wanting to share in the dream.

While Walt gets the majority of the credit, others like Roy stood by him.  

So when I fly over the swampland of my life what do I see?  I see a guy with a successful Team Beachbody business impacting 1000's of lives.  I see a guy with the ability to take his family to the Happiest Place on Earth whenever.  I see a guy on a stage in front of thousands sharing a message of hope and change.  

What do you see for your life?  Maybe you imagine yourself 10 pounds lighter.  Maybe you imagine yourself debt free.  Maybe you imagine yourself wildly successful in your giftedness beyond what others believe.  

It is time for you and I to not only imagine,  but to come alive.  

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive. ~ Roy Disney