If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be someone who indulges in a Disneyland lifestyle, I would have thought you didn’t know me very well.  A kajillion people in matching t-shirts who just want to have fun? No, thank you.  Chaos?  Nope.  People leaving their strollers unattended?  What?!  And $7 for a teeny tiny square of (albeit magical) toffee? No. Just no. 

There’s a ride at Disneyland called Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  It simulates racing through an 1850s gold-rush town on a runaway mining car and yes, I know what you’re thinking, I can’t believe I like it either.  

But here’s the thing about Big Thunder:

The lines are long, but not too long.  The drops are thrilling, but not “make you sick” thrilling. The scenery is just cheesy enough.  The rickety track is firmly on solid ground.  The line is outside and you can see the whole line – in other words, you know where you stand with it.  Literally.  

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad knows exactly what it is. 

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad embraces all of it. 

There are many reasons that Disneyland is now very much one of my happiest places (#1 being that I’m there with Darren) but Big Thunder Mountain is one of them.  

There’s something so attractive about something that knows exactly what it is.  (Like Cobra Kai knowing it’s totally a low budget 80s soap opera.)  

It’s taken me a really, really long time to know exactly what I am – and to embrace all of it.  

Lately I’ve been working with a lot of clients on reaffirming their values, figuring out who they are.

I love to help them come up with their top 6 values so that they can use those values as a filter for the decisions they make, for the way they spend their time, and for what they want in their future.  These personal values clarify how they want to show up in their own lives. Such valuable stuff!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad embodies its values:  transparency and irony and fun and nostalgia and adventure and generosity.  

Recently I decided to re-assess my own values.  My top 6 at this stage in my life are: 

• Contribution – to contribute, help, assist, or make a positive difference to myself or others
• Trust – to be trustworthy, to be loyal, faithful, sincere, and reliable
• Spirituality – to connect with things bigger than myself
• Self-development – to keep growing, advancing, improving in knowledge, skills, character and life experience 
• Humor – to see and appreciate the humorous side of life
• Love – to act lovingly or affectionately towards myself or others

Russ Harris says “values are your heart’s deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being. They [define] how you want to … act on an ongoing basis.”

Knowing your heart’s deepest desires and learning to act on them?  Such good work. 

I can’t wait to hear about your values!  If you need guidance on figuring them out, I’d love to help.  Until then, you can probably safely assume I’m at Disneyland  – eating some deliciously overpriced toffee.