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You Should Probably Dream More

May 30, 2016 By ssherayko Leave a Comment

Over the past few weeks, as Home & Family took the show on the road, I visited Dollywood, the theme park that Dolly Parton developed.  Surprisingly, the treasure that I took away from the trip is that we should all dream more.

Approximately 30 years ago, Dolly Parton made an announcement on TV that she was going to give back to her community by building a theme park.  Everyone took it as a joke.  The reality was that Dolly was serious.  Her entire career was a combination of incredible talent, inspired by her roots – family, faith and the Great Smoky Mountains.   Her songs like Tennessee Mountain Home captured the heart and soul of its people and contributed to her success – so she began to dream her theme park into existence.

She found an old, existing theme park near her home town of Sevierville, Tennessee, went into partnership with him and began to build.  She found joint venture partners and sponsors who helped her.  I think Dolly would call this “putting wings and feet and legs on your dreams.”  Thirty years later, Dollywood is a prominent theme park, boasting some of the best roller coasters in the country according to roller coaster enthusiasts.  By holding onto her vision as a way to give back to the community, she now employs approximately 4000 people and the entire region has benefited financially as outside attractions pop up in the surrounding areas.

There is a great deal of visual dreaming apparent when you see Dollywood.  It’s as if Dolly sings from her soul and imbues it upon all that she touches.  First, she didn’t build a theme park on a parking lot.   Instead, she preserved the natural topography, including a brook that runs through the park.   Ducks are part of the ecosystem – and in the evening as the park is closing, they emerge from their watery nooks to sleep on the walkways throughout the park.  The mountains are an exquisite backdrop to the amusement space.

She must have thought fondly of the people who lived in poverty stricken Appalachia as she grew up.  Dolly’s songs and music emerged from this humble background.  She uses what she appreciated to build her businesses.  She plays the mountain instruments, like guitar, dulcimer, and autoharp.  She sings their stories.  She brings their history to the public eye with theatrical presentations, displays and museums throughout the park.  The blacksmiths, potters, candle makers and glass blowers that populate Craftsman’s Valley in the park now are reminiscent of those times and she has kept the artisans at work for the past 30 years.

Of course, food plays a big role at the park where traditional Southern cooking dominates – from taffy to cinnamon bread, turkey legs to fried chicken sandwiches and, of course, the story of stone soup.  The classic “Stone Soup” is retold as an example of how Dolly’s mom provided special attention to her children through their contributions to the stone soup in hard times.

Even faith gets its due within the park with the presence of an old chapel, moved onto the property.  This chapel has a real chaplain, a member of a resort chaplains association, and provides regular Sunday services to all who wish to attend.  Peter and I spent a few moments taking in the classic old church as we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary at the park.

As Ms. Parton said on our TV show, “one dream leads to another.”  Her dream of a theme park led to one of a resort hotel where people could stay when they came to visit Dollywood.  She must have dreamed of its grand entry and magnificent picture window that opens upon all the outdoor pool facilities.

Dolly calls it their “watering hole,” just like the ones she knew as a child.   From the staircase leading down to it, you are high above it all and view the mountains rolling away into the distance.  Rocking chairs are an ever present reminder of times spent out on porches at night.  In her desire to make the hotel family friendly, she even provides bunk beds in the rooms next to the main beds, as well as refrigerators and microwaves (on request).   There is a camp for kids near the indoor pool.   Even the lounge echoes its Appalachian origins in the moonshine mason jars collage behind the bar.

Ms. Parton believes in the power of dreams and actively educates people to dream more.  Obviously, the name Dreammore Resort echoes her feelings, as well as her favorite inspirational sayings hung in all the corridors of the hotel, the dream box on display in the lower lobby, and the multitude of butterflies woven into the carpeting and other places.   When she speaks, you hear the message loud and clear.  “Love one another more.  Dream more, care more, do more and be more.”

On yet a deeper level, Dolly Parton carries her history and her vision into the contributions she makes to the community.  Her father could not read or write,  inspiring her to create a literacy project called Imagination Library, in which every child in the area receives a book when they are born and every month thereafter until they go to school.  The program has grown to include the entire State of Tennessee and beyond.  Dreaming comes from imagining and books can help us imagine.

Dolly has also worked with the American Eagle Foundation for 27 years.  To her, saving our national symbol from extinction was a way to honor and appreciate the wildlife in her roots.  Today, visitors to the park can see injured bald eagles recuperating on the slopes above them, contribute to the breeding and preservation of the species, and get to see the beauty of an eagle in flight as we did when the eagle Challenger flew overhead during our stage show.  It is an incredibly moving experience.

Dolly Parton has mastered the ability to manifest her dreams as she incorporates her roots and her values into her music, businesses and philanthropy.  She might say it more simply.  Standing on stage, she seems so genuine – raised in faith, building upon her roots and making a difference in the lives of others.   She is truly an inspiration and a reminder that we should all dream more.  As Dolly puts it, a dream is a wish plus work – and you can make that happen.

All of this came about because Dolly Parton had a dream. The best thing I can ask for you today is that you dream more and learn to do the tasks that lead you to their expression.

To Your Success,

Susan

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: American Eagle Foundation, Dolly Parton, Dollywood, dream more, dreams, Home and Family, Imaginaton Library, power of dreams, success

NOW ABOUT THOSE RESOLUTIONS

January 2, 2015 By ssherayko Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the year and my email inbox is filled with messages from folks in the self-improvement field telling me how to keep to my resolutions or choose another word like “commit” or a word other than resolutions. They are hitting a nerve. We want to do whatever we can to avoid what we believe is the inevitable sense of failure when we do not keep our resolutions.

If you’ve been following my posts throughout December, I think you’ll agree that I’ve been suggesting something similar all month: Pre-pave the New Year by determining your goals before the holiday rush.

With the holiday weekend here, now is a great time to settle down in front of the TV with movies or sports on the tube as background noise. No, that’s not my recommendation because it’s distracting, however, what I’m about to describe could take a while and I want you to enjoy it.

I want you to take those notes you made about your dreams and goals for 2015, put them in front of you and start to make a plan for how you are going to achieve them. Most of us are really good at making the first list of resolutions. We may even add extra language – I intend to lose 40 pounds; I intend to work out every day. However, we fail to provide some really critical information.

Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to work out? Do you have a result like a promotion you want to receive? Do you have a targeted event to attend? Goals are easier to achieve when you have a date in mind to achieve your goal – such as losing weight before your high school reunion or your big family wedding. It is also easier to evaluate if your goals are realistic when you attach a date to it. If you feel overwhelmed when you add a target time frame to your resolution, chances are that you need to break your resolution into smaller steps.

Are you being specific enough? Can I measure signs of my success? I may say that I want to make 2015 the best year ever, but what would have to happen for me to recognize that I have reached that goal by December 31st?

Are you overwhelmed just looking at your list? Which of your goals/resolutions are really important? There may be a few on your master list of goals that would be nice, but you don’t have a great deal of passion about them. So go ahead, take your list and reorder it according to your priorities.

Are you ready? Go make, edit and prioritize your list now before you get distracted.

Clue to potential failure number 1: If you find your head filling with negative self-talk, write down what you are telling yourself on a separate piece of paper. Mark Waldman calls it your C.R.A.P. sheet. You are acknowledging the negative while honoring your brain’s concern for your well-being. That seems to satisfy the sense of self-preservation, allowing you to explore possibilities instead of stopping you.

When we continue, we’ll identify the next steps to take your goals to the next level.

To Your Success,

Susan

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: achieve your goal, deadline, dreams, goals, negative self-talk, overwhelmed, plan, possibilities, pre-pave, priorities, resolutions, results, time frame, why

The Joy of a 3 Day Weekend

July 6, 2014 By ssherayko Leave a Comment

I really needed this fabulous weekend. The past couple weeks have been stressful as we strive to create great shows, while facing the challenge to bring the season in “on time and on budget.” So, it has felt great to kick back, curled up to finish a novel I’ve been slowly reading. I had planned to do things around the house and to promote Rainbows Over Ruins.

If you haven’t read my book yet, the story focuses on my growing awareness that there is a creative thought process that makes it possible to identify what you truly desire, choose actions that support it and get the results you want. Since my entire career has centered on producing, facilitating, and supporting the unfettered creative spirit, coaching this process in order to achieve our creative potential is a natural outgrowth. The book has been a first step in that direction.

Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to making progress on my To-Do list. One of those items was to focus on the needs and desires of my target audience. Because the book is about our recovery after a landslide destroyed our home, I was looking for people who have to change for any number of reasons or survive difficult situations as I have done. They will have to prepare to transition to new opportunities, develop their outer game by setting goals and taking positive actions as they rethink, redefine and reignite their purpose. If they are developing businesses (and a significant number are), they will engage in strategic planning, team building, and deal with conflict resolution. It will be easier if they ask for help.

As I meandered through the Internet doing a Google search, the keyword I liked most was the word “creativity.” When you are in recovery mode, you benefit from the ability to access your creative potential. This involves the inner game, connected to limitless possibilities. As new creative techniques are learned and applied to common life and workplace challenges, an entirely different energy emerges. It yields a positive outlook and forward looking capacity, even in the face of adversity. It energizes the creative spirit and makes all things possible. If you learn how to flip your thinking, pop paradigms, ask better questions and use power habits, you find your creative self and reap the full benefit of the creative process for personal development and business projects.

With thoughts about creativity tumbling around my mind, I felt a call to look over the draft of my business plan. If you’ve read the book, you know that I have a dream to create a center where people can learn these skills, as well as writing an additional book about the creative workplace. Turning again to the draft proposal, I was reminded of one of my Dad’s stories. It was a bit of a horror story, really, about the tragic ends to doctoral students who could not answer one key question when they went before the panel for their doctoral review: What is the benefit of this work for individuals and businesses? What is the value? In the case of the business plan, the questions would be: Why do we need a Center? Why do we need to improve our creativity?

So my last day off is being spent answering those questions. It has been very helpful to turn to the work of Bruce Nussbaum, author of Creative Intelligence. (I had picked up a copy of his book several months ago in one of those serendipitous moments – a Godwink – when an entire table at Barnes and Noble was dedicated to books on creativity.)

It feels good to hear my own words validated on his pages. We are all creative, even when we are just doing our jobs, even if we don’t think of ourselves that way. But Nussbaum also makes two points that address the question if this work has value to others. Of course, he believes it does.

From a needs perspective, everyone feels the effects of a rapidly changing world. We live in what the military calls VUCA, a time that is “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Nussbaum observes his students coping with this by an awareness that they need to create their own opportunities “in order to survive, and they [want] to learn how.” (Creative Intelligence, p. 16). Of course, it isn’t just the students who face this. All of us do. “We need to prepare ourselves for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems that we haven’t recognized” (CI, p. 33).

This affects anyone in transition or any form of life crisis. Just as the rug is pulled out from under them, they face the need to redefine and recreate themselves in a new world they barely understand. They need a way to raise their awareness that there are creative skills they can learn so that they have the means to face these issues in a proactive way.

But the joy of this work – and I’m all about joy and well-being – does not center on the needs aspect. Bruce Nussbaum also mentions Sonia Manchanda, of IDIOM (India), who asks: “Why not focus on aspirations – dreams that we may not believe are even possible?” (CI, p. 29)

Remember, within each crisis is opportunity. Each of us has the chance to learn to focus our ideas into creations that have value and bring us joy, a sense of accomplishment, and the chance to help others. Great potential comes from strong aspirations coupled with the willingness to flip one’s counterproductive thoughts, develop power habits and direct them toward successful results.

I may not have a center yet, however, thanks to a strange meandering 3 day weekend, I am centered on its value. May you find similar times to discover your aspirations and begin to see them unfold.

To Your Success,

Susan

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: actions, ask better questions, aspirations, benefit, Bruce Nussbaum, business plan, centered, conflict resolution, Creative Intelligence, creative process, creative thought process, creativity, crisis, dreams, flip your thinking, Godwink, inner game, opportunity, outer game, paradigms, personal development, pop paradigms, positive actions, power habits, purpose, questions, Rainbows Over Ruins, recovery, setting goals, Sonia Manchanda, strategic planning, target audience, team building, transition, use power habits, value, VUCA

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