02 Jul Are You Using Your Mouseketools Properly?
I spent last weekend at Disneyland with my family, and I’m here to confirm that it really is the Happiest Place on Earth. You get to be that carefree version of yourself that eats churros without counting calories and smiles at random strangers. There are no strangers at D-Land, only friends from the mid-west that you haven’t met yet.
So it seemed fitting that today’s “Ah-Ha” moment came from the OG Mouseketeer himself- Mickey Mouse. My kids are avid “MickeyMouse Clubhouse” watchers. And although I hate to admit it, I rather enjoy a feel-good clubhouse adventure with my morning coffee. So on one of today’s 37 back-to-back episodes, Pete stole all of Mickey‘s coins and wouldn’t let him up the mountain until he could come up with more coins (something to that extent). Not a huge injustice, but worth a conversation, right? Mickey was calm, level-headed, and handled the whole situation like a real nice guy. He was assertive, but never lost his cool. I instinctively found myself starting to get pissed. Is Mickey just going to leave it at that?! What the F Pete?
Fast forward to Donald Duck losing a shoe (or something equally trivial). The guy completely came undone. He was yelling in his angry little duck voice while Daisy tried to calm him down from the sidelines. I could see his blood pressure rising as he struggled to get himself under control.
I know Mickey can seem like a push over, but Donald is sure to have a heart attack before age 55. Is there any happy medium? More importantly, am I a Donald or am I a Mickey?
For the longest time, I thought I was a Mickey. I let things roll off my back and tried to keep the peace. I was being a “nice guy”, right? Wrong. It turns out I was confusing being “assertive” with being “pushy” and avoiding what I thought would be “uncomfortable situations” by biting my tongue. I would hesitate to speak my mind, pretend not to be bothered, and then randomly lose my cookies in a Donald-like fashion. It wasn’t until I read “Getting Real” by Dr. Susan Campbell that I fully understood the importance of speaking your mind, and the power that comes with asserting yourself. When you say it like it is, that’s that. People can chose to agree, or disagree, with your assertion but you my friend have just done something very few people are capable of doing…you have kept it REAL! You’ve been authentic and you have thereby taken back hours of wasted mind chatter (“I should have said this”, “I wish I hadn’t committed to that”…etc). You want tomatoes and dressing on the side, you get your tomatoes and dressing on the side! You don’t want to go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate a 2 year old’s birthday on a Saturday night, you say no (politely). You are being true to yourself, and “yourself” will be forever grateful. And the best part is…you can be nice at the same time!
So the moral of the story is this: Mickey has his shit together. Donald is cray-cray.
Keep it real- like Mickey.
Peace, Love, Properties
– “Create Luck”
