Episode 9-Show Notes

Hey pals, fellow dreamers and magic makers, welcome back to the Disney Magical Mindset Podcast, where we bring the magic of Disney into our everyday lives. I’m Ruben, your Disney magic mentor, and if you’re new here, this is the place where we talk about dreams, overcoming obstacles and creating our own version of the happiest place on earth. Now, if you’re anything like me, you love a good dose of Disney nostalgia the old rides, the classic music, the memories of stepping into Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom as a kid. It just hits different, doesn’t it? But today I want to talk about something really important how we can love the past without getting stuck in it. Oh, my goodness, I just said something, because the happiest, most successful people I know they don’t live in their history. They operate out of their dreams and imagination, and that’s going to be you and me. So let’s dive in to some of the magic from the past and see how we can apply it to our lives today.

Do you ever find yourself longing for the Disneyland of the past? Maybe you miss the people mover gliding above Tomorrowland. I sure do, in fact. Let me just say this the people mover is one of the things I miss the most in Disneyland. I really do. Every time I step into Tomorrowland I’m like it just doesn’t feel the same. It’s kind of empty. But anyway, that’s just my opinion. Or how about the Skyway soaring through the Matterhorn oh, my goodness, I miss hearing the howl of the Abominable Snowman, or the Yeti, however you want to call him right. Or stepping into the original Star Tours Do you remember that Open up in the 80s? My goodness, maybe for you it’s something even simpler the smell of fresh popcorn on Main Street, the excitement of getting an old school ticket book I actually have a couple of them in my collection. I love my ticket books from the past or seeing the giant Mickey floral at the entrance before you even step foot inside. There’s something about those memories that just feel magical, right? It’s why we keep coming back to the old commercials, the vintage Disneyland videos, the pictures from the past. They transport us, remind us of a time when life felt easier, simpler, and I see it all the time in the comments and messages I get when I post on my Instagram things from the past, vintage videos of Disneyland right, folks just love it.

We love the past, the trips down memory lane at Disneyland or Walt Disney World that just make you feel like a kid again. In fact, I believe that’s one of the reasons why we love Disneyland, or we love the Magic Kingdom, because it reminds us of our childhood. And isn’t it so interesting? Like, when you’re a kid, you want to get older, right? It’s so funny to me how I remember when I was small I just wanted to get older, I wanted to drive, I wanted to go to college right, I wanted to live my life. And now you get older and you kind of want to revert back right to your childhood, which is why we value, we love, we appreciate the magic of Disney, because it makes us feel like a kid all over again. And maybe you don’t want to go back to your childhood Because for some of you it was a real difficult experience growing up.

But I know we all want to pause time, right. Like we get older and we just like, can we slow it down? Because we realize that time doesn’t stop for anyone and as much as we would want it to, it just doesn’t and life just continues. And so these times that we get to be in the parks, like the moments that we get to enjoy those memories from our Disney experiences of the past, it just fills us with so much happiness and joy. But here’s something I’ve been thinking about.

While nostalgia is a beautiful thing and we’ve seen it, you know, we live it and that’s why we love it so much but what happens when we get stuck in it? What happens when we stop looking forward because we’re so busy looking back? My goodness and I’m a prime example of that it is so easy to stay stuck in the past, or stay stuck where you currently are and not look ahead to what’s coming, maybe because you’re afraid, maybe because you’re worried, maybe because you’re so used to the pain of the past that your time in it has actually eroded what’s coming or the beauty of what’s ahead. Right, you just get so comfortable and so used to where you are that you haven’t even dreamed or imagined of what life can look like outside of where you currently are right now. And I know, for me it is so easy to stay stuck in the past with things that I wish I would have done or the guilt that I carry right. Have you had those moments where you start telling yourself well, if I would have done it like this? You beat yourself up for where you are in life currently instead of giving yourself credit for where you’re going or for where you want to be right, those good intentions that you desire over your life, over your family, over your health. Like all of that, when you beat yourself up for the past, you can’t see ahead to your beautiful future. You’re not being fair to the person that matters most and that’s you. So I get it.

Nostalgia is comforting and it makes sense why we hold on to it. We replay old memories because they feel safe. The past is known, the future is unknown, and our brains you know how they work. We love certainty. So if you’ve ever felt guilty about the past, if you feel stuck right now because you’re holding on to the past, if you feel like your future is a little blurry or a little scary and you just don’t know what to do, I want to let you know right now you are not alone. I’ve been there and I’ll be honest Sometimes I still struggle with it.

I still struggle with certain things that I’ve done in the past. I struggle with where I’m at sometimes in life and I’m like man. You thought you’d be in a different place now, like in your 40s. Right then you were. You know, 20 years ago or 10 years ago, you had these vision, these dreams, these goals and and you just were like man. And it’s so easy to keep playing that record that keeps going and going and going, like a broken record of your past. But you have to remember this the happiest people in life operate out of their imaginations and dreams, not their past histories. And this is where we’re going.

When you look at Walt’s life and you study his life, you know, you know this man wasn’t living out of his past histories. The reason why he was able to do what he did was because he was always thinking about his future. He wasn’t going to stay stuck in the past of his bankruptcy. He wasn’t going to stay stuck in the past when they walked out on him bankruptcy. He wasn’t going to stay stuck in the past when they walked out on him when he premiered or he showed Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs to a smaller audience to get their thoughts right, and the people walked out on him. Do you hear me? He wasn’t going to stay stuck in the past when all those that he came to to talk about his Disneyland, when they told him it couldn’t be done, those closest to him were trying to deter him from his dream. And when Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, it was referred to as Black Sunday because it was a disaster. I mean from the crowds to all the things that went wrong.

And it’s so easy to stay stuck in the past failures and in our past mistakes. And that’s why I’m telling you I’m so encouraged by Walt, because he didn’t live there. He lived in his imagination and dreams that propelled him forward, to keep chasing after a future. That was his, and that’s what we have to do. Otherwise we can’t get to where we’re going if we still stay in the past.

And for some of you, your past is so painful and I cannot even begin to understand what you’ve gone through. But I want you to know that you have the power to move forward. You have the power to write a brand new chapter. Your story doesn’t end at chapter one or chapter two or chapter three or whatever chapters are in your past that have been painful. You get to write a brand new story today and I’m telling you, the best story is yet to come, but you have to move beyond those pages of your life from the past. Yes, we grow from them. Yes, some of them are painful, but they build us into who we are today and we now have the power to look back on our story and now help someone else because of what we’ve been through. Don’t allow your past to steal you away from your future. The past is gone forever, but until you let go of it, the past is a thief and steals your ability to dream and imagine. You need to spend time thinking about your future, because that’s where you’re headed. That’s where we’re headed. Do you hear me? Just like Walt Disney? Think about it.

He didn’t just rebuild Marceline you know the town where he grew up as a theme park. He didn’t get caught up in the past and say, well, I’ll just keep making Mickey cartoons for the rest of my life because that’s what’s worked before. No, he was always looking ahead. He moved from animation to theme parks, from Disneyland to Walt Disney World, always chasing the next dream. And one of the most powerful things Walt ever said about this oh, this, just it moves me. Right now. I’m getting like excited and even emotional because there’s so much power here.

He said Disneyland will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world. Did you hear what he just said? Did you hear what I said, quoting from Walt. He talked about imagination. He’s a prime example. He wasn’t living in his past, because how could he ever continue to build his magic kingdom, his Disneyland, if he was stuck in the past? He said it himself Disneyland will never be completed. Why? Because if there’s imagination left, we’re going to continue to create. But you can’t create if you’re stuck thinking about your past mistakes or your past histories. You have to continue to live and operate out of those imaginations and dreams, and that’s the power. This is the shift that you and me are going to make. This is the pivot we have to stop living in the past and start living out of our imaginations and dreams. And here’s how we’re going to do it. We’re going to take a page from Walt’s book. All right, number one here you go Ready, honor your past, but don’t live there. Kind of like a swing. I want you to just imagine a swing. You’re getting on the swings, right, you’re pushing your kids on the swing, right, you push them back, but then you propel them forward. Right, that’s the key, right, yeah, you touch back, but then you got to go forward. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing, but it’s not meant to be a permanent home, instead of saying I wish things were like they used to be, start asking what can I create next? How can I live in the moment today? How can I get excited for what’s happening right now, right, being present in this experience? There’s another powerful quote I want to share with you from Walt. This is so powerful man, it just like it hit me like a ton of bricks. He said this you hate to repeat yourself. I don’t like to make sequels to my pictures. This is Walt. I like to take a new thing and develop something, a new concept. My goodness, this is so powerful, walt, thank you so much. Now I don’t know about you if you like sequels. I’m not the biggest fan of sequels. I’ll watch them because they’re Disney or you have a sequel that you enjoy. But I love Walt’s mindset. He’s like, hey, I want to just do new things, I’m not going to stay stuck back there. That was for a time, but now I’m moving ahead and creating something brand new. And I know some people may not agree with me for this, and that’s okay, but don’t you think that if Walt were still with us right now, some of those classic attractions that we all love so much that many people get upset when things change. But don’t you think, based on who Walt is and his personality and his imagination and his creativity, that he would have constantly been updating his attractions? Now, maybe they don’t look like you want them to, and we might not be happy with the way things may seem with some of these attractions that we love right now, but don’t you think that Walt would continue to create new things and develop new concepts, because this is who he is. He was not going to stay stuck in the past. Honor your past, but don’t live there. Okay, I’m going to let that one go right now. You can agree with me, disagree with me, and we could talk about it another time. All right, I still love you. Hope you still love me. All right, let’s go Remember what Walt said Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Speaking of imagination number two, here’s the second thing Reignite your imagination. Your dreams didn’t end in the past. What’s something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t taken action on? Maybe you’ve put off a project, a goal or a passion because you convinced yourself it’s too late. Spoiler alert you ready for it. You already know what I’m going to say. It’s’s too late. Spoiler alert you’re ready for it. You already know what I’m going to say. It’s not too late. Pick one thing, write it down and take a step toward it today.

And here’s the third and final thing I want to share with you, adopt the Disneyland mindset. I love Disneyland. It’s my favorite place. I love that. It’s the only Disney park that Walt walked in. Think of yourself as Disneyland. All right, always growing, always evolving. Remember what Walt said about Disneyland.

What’s one way you can grow this week? What’s one thing you can learn from the past and grow from it today? Maybe it’s reading something inspiring, trying something new or stepping outside your comfort zone. Keep moving forward. That’s the key right? That’s the key to building your Disneyland. One of the keys is to continue to remember that if you’re going to create something new, you can’t stay stuck in the past, because that’s where your imagination dies. You have to keep moving forward, where your imagination lives.

I want to challenge you today, this week. Don’t just replay old memories. Create new ones. Your happiest days don’t have to be behind you. Please hear me. I believe in you. I believe that you have a beautiful future. I believe that the pages that have yet to be written in your book are going to be some of the best pages and chapters of your life. I’m so excited for you. Here’s what I want you to do Think of one thing you’ve been holding onto from the past.

Maybe it’s a regret, a missed opportunity, or even just the longing for the way things used to be. And today I want you to take one step towards something new. One step towards something new that believes in you. That’s what happens, too. When you take that step forward, you are actually believing in yourself, you’re being good to yourself. You’re reminding yourself that you are special and you have so much to offer. Remember, the happiest people in life operate out of their imaginations and dreams, not their past histories. It’s time to step into your great, big, beautiful tomorrow. If this episode spoke to you, I’d love for you to share it with a fellow Disney fan. I’d love for you to give a positive review so we can continue to get this magic everywhere and share it with others. And if you haven’t already, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep believing and remember always you are the magic, because the magic is in you.