Saying something is Mickey Mouse has not always been a complement. It has been thought of as cheap, or shoddy, or small in importance. When I think of Mickey Mouse I think optimistic, dream catcher, and go-getter. As Walt Disney said, “…it was all started with a mouse.” Could my goal planning start with a mouse, too?

I was reading a great book on self-motivation called 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler. Sometimes a book with 100 ideas only has 2 or 3 really useful ones, but this book has almost 100 great ideas that are easy to use. Number 67 introduces the circle game, a way to plan a goal in 4 minutes. I have modified it into the Mickey Mouse goal game. Here is how it works.

Draw a simple Mickey Mouse face. We all know how to do this. Draw one large circle for his face and two smaller (not too small) circles for his ears. They don’t have to be perfect. Just make sure you have three circles.

Above the left ear write, “This year.” Above the right ear write, “This month.” Below the face write, “Today.” Okay, now you have your Mickey Mouse goal planner. You may want a calculator also. Let’s have some fun.

Pick a goal you are working on. It could be weight loss, or saving money, or paying a debt. Just pick one thing. My goal is to go to Disneyland this year. I need to save $1200 to do that. So my goal is “Save $1200 for Disneyland trip.” I write that in the left ear labeled “This year.”

Wow, that sounds hard to do. How am I ever going to save $1200? Well, if I want to go to Disneyland in December then I have six months (May through November) to save $1200. So I divide $1200 by 6 and I get $200. That sounds better. I write that number in the right ear labeled “This month.”

$200 is still a chunk of change. Let’s divide it again. When I divide $200 by 30 days I get $6.66 a day. I write that number in the face circle above “Today.” Wow. All I have to do is save $6.66 each day and I will be able to go to Disneyland in December? I can do that. That is a Mickey Mouse goal. Plus, it is fool proof. If I meet my daily Mickey Mouse goal I am guaranteed to meet my monthly goal and if I meet my monthly goal I am guaranteed to meet my yearly goal. Disneyland here I come!

Try this out yourself. Below I provide a few more examples. Some goals may be multi-year goals, like paying off a mortgage or student loan. Decide what you want to do in 2013 and worry about the rest later. The beauty of this goal planner is it focuses on what you can do today and usually it is very doable. You don’t have to wonder about next month or next year. Just reach your daily Mickey Mouse goal, mark it off your list, and get on with your day. Happiness squared.

5 Mickey Mouse Goals

1) Read the unread books on my shelf. 30 books  a year, 4.2 books a month, 1/6 a book each day

2) Pay off a $600 debt to a friend. $600 a year, $86 a month, save $3 a day

3) Lose 30 pounds. 30 pounds a year, 4.2 pounds a month, 1/6 pound a day or a deficit of 600 calories a day

4) Write a 300 page book. 300 pages a year, 43 pages a month, 1.5 pages a day

5) Complete 5 scrapbooks (each scrapbook has 40 pages.) 200 pages a year, 28 pages a month, 1 page a day

Goofy Quote: (I love this quote. I think it goes great with Mickey Mouse goal planning. Perhaps you could write it below your face to remind yourself to focus on the “Today” circle, and not worry about the month or the year.)

“Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.” Walt Disney

“Just keep swimmin…”

Well, we’re a week into 2013. How are your projects (my happy term for resolutions) coming? Have you dropped the ball on any of them yet? It is a common enough problem. We are ultra-motivated the first few days, but as life gets back to normal, and normal issues crop up, we slip back into our old ways, and any new intentions quietly disappear. How can we prevent this from happening? The answer can be found in one of my favorite Walt Disney quotes.

“Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy, and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all over, implicitly and unquestioningly.” Walt Disney

Walt believed that confidence was most important. It is important, but I have found that all the confedince in the world means nothing if you aren’t constant, or consistent. You may be confident that you can run a half-marathon, but if you are not consistent in your training you will not succeed. You may be confident you can become debt-free, but if you are not consistent in paying off your debt, and not creating more, than you will not succeed.

So take a look at your projects. Have you been consistently working on them or have days gone by when you have not given them a thought? Reaffirm your goals and make a plan to tackle them every day. I know we can all be successful if we all focus on being constantly consistant. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: One of my favorite ways to measure consistency is with a calendar and a sheet of star stickers. Every day that you work on your project put a star on that date on the calendar. Aim to have seven stars in a row. Once you can do something for a week work on getting 30 stars in a row. If you miss a day, don’t give up, just start over on the next day. As you get more and more stars you’ll want to work on your goal just so you won’t have any blank spots on your calendar. I think we are hard-wired from elementary school to love earning stars for good work. Try giving yourself some stars in 2013.

Ever since doing my first Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World in 2009 I dreamed of running the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. To finish the Goofy you have to run both the half marathon and the marathon during the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. The half marathon is run on Saturday and the full is run on Sunday. I knew I could do the half, but I had only done one full in my life and it was really hard. Still, I knew I wanted the Goofy medal and so I started planning. In June 2011, I signed up for the Goofy. I trained hard, and had setbacks, but when it was time to go I found out that I had the determination and endurance to finish. I earned my Goofy medal on January 8, 2012, and my dream came true.

So I say to you, don’t let your dreams escape. If they are big dreams, then start with small steps. I have read that goals are dreams with deadlines. So give yourself a deadline. Make sure it can’t be changed and that other people know about it. Make it a “DEAD” line and you will find the determination to succeed. My next big Disney dream is to run in the Disneyland Half Marathon in September, 2012. By doing both events in one year I will earn the Coast to Coast medal. This is my big dream.

So start again. Today. Pick a dream. Set a deadline. Achieve your goal. One step at a time.

Goofy Tip: If you think running in the parks might be fun, but a long race is too much then check out Run Disney. There are races from 5K to marathons throughout the year and even races for the whole family. Disney is a place where dreams come true.

Blasting off into 2012!

1) Get 100 subscribers. This will be a good measure of how well I am increasing my visibility and will let me know that my content is interesting to people.

2) Be a guest on 3 Disney podcasts. I listen to lots of podcasts and learn about new books and websites from them. I’d like people to learn about my site and one way to do this is to be a guest on popular Disney podcasts.

3) Finish my downloadables for Walt Disney World. I have been creating brochures that you can download for free and carry in the parks. They have games and trivia that will keep you occupied when you have to stand in line. I’ll be testing them out in January and then I want to put them on A Goofy Idea for everyone to enjoy.

4) Find four guest bloggers. I would love to have guest bloggers give their own tips for having a happy trip at the Dinsey parks. Their posts would go out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As I get more subscribers I might get more interest in this and I also plan to approach other Disney bloggers for submissions.

5) Update the look of the website. The basic look of the website is fine, but I’d love to improve the fonts and side bar. To do this I need an expert or I need to learn html. Perhaps I’ll do both.

Well, it’s going to be a busy year here at A Goofy Idea. Thanks for following me these past months. With any luck this site will grow into something prominent and profitable. I can’t do it without you.

A Goofy Joke: (How can anyone who tells such bad jokes be successful? Watch and see.)

Q: When does Mickey Mouse put up his new calendar?

A: On New Ear’s Day!