30 Days of Disneyland – Day 4

Yesterday was a long and tiring fourth day at Disneyland. It was very crowded the whole day, and we spent about 12-1/2 hours there. We still had a fun time, especially since we’re pros with the Fastpass system (which lets us bypass many lines), but at the end of the day, I’d had my fill of the crowds and the noise. Navigating through hordes of people all day long made my brain want to shut down afterwards.

We did our second day of intermittent fasting yesterday too, eating only between 12:30 and 8:30pm. I’m not sure if we’ll eat this way every day, but I like it so far.

I slept well last night, albeit with various Disney tunes looping in my dreams, but I still feel tired this morning. We’ll probably take a lighter day today, so we don’t wear ourselves out too soon.

I’ve been noting the high number of wheeled vehicles people use to get around Disneyland. You can’t help but notice them because they’re everywhere. There are strollers for small kids and babies of course, and there are hordes of motorized wheelchairs now too. I didn’t see nearly so many wheelchairs at Disneyland when I was younger. Now there are so many of them that navigating around them has become an integral part of the Disneyland experience, although I don’t think Disney shows these fleets of wheelchairs in their ads. Since these vehicles take up significantly more space than a standing or walking person, their popularity constricts walkways all over the park, making it harder to get around.

For years I’ve been getting emails from people who tell me they can’t decide what to do with their lives. That’s like going to Disneyland and not going on any rides because you can’t decide which one to go on next. Sure you might make a bad choice now and then, but that’s the nature of the game. Some choices will be great; some won’t. Either way you’ll learn and grow. My lifestyle progression went from Catholicism to shoplifting to game development to writing and speaking about conscious growth, so I made better choices over time. But what if I’d never shoplifted that first time?

The worst thing you can do is not go on any rides and watch everyone else having fun without you. Then you’re guaranteed to have a lousy experience. The next worst thing you can do is to get clingy with a mistake. If you made a bad decision, fess up to it, pick a different ride to try next, and move on. The people who love the ride you disliked will probably complain, but that isn’t a big deal.

Analysis paralysis is like trying to plan your whole day at Disneyland in advance and needing it to be exactly that way. Then you get to the first ride, and the wait is longer than you estimated, throwing off your whole plan for the day. Then you go back and replan until the day is over, and you still haven’t gone on any rides yet. We should spend a lot more time making fun of people who do this, so they can get a better sense of how ridiculous this strategy is.

It’s better to choose anything and just go. Lots of action (with rest breaks when needed) will give you days of fun, exploration, and growth. There is a place for planning, but if you’re using non-planning, over-planning, or perfectionism to procrastinate, then just pick anything and get moving. Your planning skills will improve when you learn to plan while in motion. You’ll also rack up valuable life experience, which will help you make better decisions.