Sunday, September 4, 2011

Planning the Perfect WDW Vacation...Pt 2...

The Mission Statement.

I am on part 2 of my series titled Planning the Perfect WDW Vacation.  Maybe that is not the best name for a series because let's be honest, planning a perfect anything is difficult.  Planning a perfect vacation, any vacation, is pretty close to impossible and to plan THE perfect Walt Disney World Vacation has to be, well, impossible.  So, why did I use the word Perfect?  It just sounded so much better than, Planning the... Semi-Perfect, Not that Bad or I've Had Worse, WDW Vacations.  Thus I ask for a little leeway or slack as I try to navigate the planning process for our Disney vacation.  

Over the next several post in this series I want to address how to schedule our days so you know which parks to do on each day.  I also want to look at creating our own touring plans for each park and lastly, how to make sure we make time to relax.  However, in this post I first want to address our mentality or attitude on our vacation.  

Sad Moments



Let's face it, vacations are like sitting our family on a powder keg and just waiting for it to explode.  Is it possible to avoid meltdowns, fights and friction on a family vacation?  I'm not a hundred percent sure but I do think if we act more proactively we can at least minimize the damage.   

Mad Moments
Andy Stanley has a great line about marriage.  He says that our goal should not be to make points and win arguments.  Our goal is to stay in love.  Deep isn't it?  Although the quote is dealing with marriage I think it applies to family time and vacations.  So many times we get focused on the tiny details, that don't really matter and forget the overall reason why we took the vacation in the first place.  Imagine if we could loosen our grip a little and lower our expectations and see then let's see what happens.  I think it is important to constantly remind ourselves why we took the vacation in the first place.

Mission statements are not a new idea, but how about trying to write one for the next family vacation?  From Wikipedia, "The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making."  On my family's last vacation I didn't actually write a statement out but I did think about what it would and wouldn't look like.  I'm convinced a good mission statement for a WDW vacation would center around this:

Spending quality time with the family and building memories that would lead to more intimate relationships within the family.  

I kind of like that.

I don't think a mission statement would discuss how many attractions we saw, what great time we made from home to property, or how fast we made it to Splash Mountain only to turn around and realize that the rest of our party is still somewhere on Main Street.  And yet those are the moments that create the friction that derails a vacation.  I think a Mission Statement can help to keep us focused on the prize.

Pretty deep blog, huh?  I promise not to do it again.  Thanks for reading.


Joyful Moments.
More Joy.
It's all about family!



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