That’s me holding it down in Disney Prison, circa 2016.
If you’ve ever visited Disneyland as an adult, you know this: It’s impossible to frown on the Matterhorn.
You might also notice that it’s difficult to see little kids running around Disneyland and not feel a bit jealous. They gallop towards their favorite characters at full speed, waving autograph books. They twirl in teacups with smiles all the botox in the world couldn’t replicate.
They still have it: Imagination without limitations.
Walt Disney is quoted as saying, “Too many people grow up. That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”
It might seem like, as we age, we lose our sense of wonder. But the truth is, most of us just bury it. We bury it beneath the pile of realities and expectations—work, school, and, “why didn’t they call me back?”
As we get older, we don’t dream—we make goals. Goals that must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. (Our inner child looks at this like a plate of vegetables)
What adults call naivete, children call imagination. And it’s that mental shift that them to approach things without the baggage of past failures and outside voices saying, “You can’t do that.”
Picasso once wrote, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
As creatives seeking the good life, we’d do well to dust off our sense of wonder and see things with the playfulness of a child at Disneyland.
