Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

From Procrastination to Productivity: Unleashing the Power of Discipline in Daily Life

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 5 • Episode 32

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"Excuses make today easy & tomorrow hard.  Discipline creates habits today to make tomorrow easy." 

In the latest "Living Lucky" episode, hosts Jason and Jana Shelfer delve deep into the intricate dance between discipline and excuses. Through vivid personal stories, they highlight discipline's pivotal role in crafting a desired life. Their rich experiences as athletes, musicians, and dancers serve as a backdrop, emphasizing the transformative influence of coaches who instilled discipline, highlighted vulnerabilities, and championed resilience.

Jana's revelation about her "little critic," an internal voice of doubt, strikes a chord. Jason, too, shares his battles with self-criticism, making their journey relatable. A candid moment unfolds as they discuss a recent day spent in the comfort of "Netflix and chill" rather than pursuing enriching activities. This segues into a broader conversation on the pitfalls of escapism and its potential to sidetrack our ambitions.

As the episode concludes, the Shelfers present a nuanced view of discipline. It's not about rigidity but about nurturing habits that pave the way for brighter tomorrows. Discipline is the bridge connecting dreams to reality. By embracing mindful choices, from self-care to growth opportunities, we inch closer to our goals.

"From Procrastination to Productivity: Unleashing the Power of Discipline in Daily Life" is a compelling reminder. Discipline isn't about self-denial but empowerment, setting the stage for an extraordinary life. Dive into Living Lucky for an immersive exploration of discipline's transformative power and the journey to self-awareness.


create a life you crave, doom loop of negativity, upward success cycle, living lucky, excuses, discipline, habits, tomorrow, coaches, parents, teachers, accountability, tests, measuring sticks, progress, blind spots, critic, failure, feedback, perfectionist, Netflix and chill, guilt, shame, laziness, dreams, rationalization, fight, gratitude walk, nap, meditation, rest, self-care, self-discipline

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
Believe in the people around you
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Believe that God is working through you, for you, and always conspiring in your favor.

*Previously Recorded

Speaker 1:

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start living lucky. Good morning.

Speaker 2:

Good morning.

Speaker 1:

I'm Jammal, I'm Jason and we are living lucky. No more excuses.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Excuses make today easy, but they make tomorrow hard. Say that again Excuses make today easy and they make tomorrow hard.

Speaker 1:

I think I need to write this down Excuses make today, the now, easy, but they make tomorrow hard.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because we're putting off what needs to be done.

Speaker 1:

We're talking about discipline today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and discipline creates habits that will make tomorrow easier.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. Okay, now are we all confused. It seems so much easier when we were younger and we were told what to do, when to do it, how to do it. We had coaches, we had parents, we had teachers Did you say, we had coaches. I always had a coach Isn't it funny, though I always had a basketball coach, a music coach, a band coach a gymnastics coach, a dance coach. I always had a coach for every area of my life.

Speaker 2:

And they instilled little habits and discipline to get you great at what you were doing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, seriously they did. And then they always pointed out the areas where I needed to be better or more disciplined, and they kept me accountable, because there's two things and they had tests and they had measuring sticks, so it was very, very easy.

Speaker 1:

There were report cards and we had competitions and we had things to look forward to and things to prepare for, and challenges and races and all sorts of things to keep me excited and also things to measure my progress, so that I could either look back and say look how far I've come. Oh my gosh, I just ran that race two seconds faster than I ran it four weeks ago.

Speaker 2:

Personal best. Well, without the coach, without the discipline, without an accountability type partner, you're going to typically pull up short, you're going to give excuses and you'll never see your blind spots.

Speaker 1:

That is so true, although, yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

Speaker 2:

Or you won't see all your, you can't see all your blind spots.

Speaker 1:

Or it could go with the other end of the spectrum, where we see all of our flaws.

Speaker 2:

And then you make excuses for yourself.

Speaker 1:

We might need a coach that says no, you're doing great, Like a coach that encourages us.

Speaker 2:

It shows you where you're making progress, keeps us confident when you're winning.

Speaker 1:

It says no, no, no, get back up on that horse, You've got this.

Speaker 2:

You got this, you're making progress. You're just not recognizing it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, point points out our positive. Thank you, jason. Yes, I just had an aha moment. I don't know about anyone else. Maybe you might need to rewind this, because, if you're like me, I sometimes need a coach to point out my when you're winning. Positive aspects and the positive characteristics. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, because I've got a little bitch that lives inside me.

Speaker 2:

Did you say I've got a little bitch that lives beside me, inside me?

Speaker 1:

Okay, that was me Sorry.

Speaker 2:

Just kidding, I love you.

Speaker 1:

And I mean I can if there's one person that can really tear me down, it is me.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of people have that issue, and I did.

Speaker 1:

I had that issue for a long time and I beat myself up about a lot of things and sometimes I'm, you know if I experience a what I consider a failure, even though I know I know now there is no failure, it's only feedback, and I embrace your failures. I mean, I, I've had all the tools and the training and the Psychology and I've had all the education around it. However, if I am to be real, there still is that little hesitancy inside me that is like Because it makes me better.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. If it weren't for this little critic that lives inside me, I wouldn't be the perfectionist that I am today, and I mean, in some ways, she makes everyone around me much better. Now I know I'm getting off topic, because we are talking about discipline, and this little critic inside me has been very, very good about being disciplined. I will say that, but something happened yesterday and I'll just share it with all of you. Yesterday was a Saturday, jason and I work a lot, and and we came home from our dance lesson, which we did very, very well, don't you think?

Speaker 1:

we did very very well, our teacher was so proud of us because it's to be in a competition. Yeah, we're doing a little dance demonstration next, next Saturday actually.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh it's less than a week away. Yeah, oh my gosh. Anyway, that little critic just jumped up in my head, thinking of all the the work that we have to do. Okay, but I'm gonna silence it for now. Thank you for bringing that up, at any rate. So yesterday I Was like you know, I just really want to Netflix and chill. And Then the whole time I was Netflixing and chilling, if that's the verb that we use nowadays I felt guilty and I felt Ashamed and I felt like a sloth and I felt lazy and there was something inside me that couldn't even enjoy it, because I felt like, oh my gosh, I've got so much to do and I just feel it's because we know like I am putting my dreams on the back burner by laying here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we know the difference between, like, proactive rest or productive rest and resting. And I Mean I was complicit in this as well, because I wanted to zone out and I wanted to be a sloth. All right, yes, I made up the excuse of hey, you know what? We're just gonna lay here on the couch. We're gonna let our brains rest.

Speaker 1:

Jason was rationalizing it. Yes, and that's an excuse rationalization we almost we almost got into like a little bit of a you know it's such a weird little fight to get into, but it was almost a fight as to whether or not we could enjoy ourselves In being lazy, right, because it sounds absurd because we could rest our, we could rest ourselves by Doing the discipline things that we've done in the past, like going for a gratitude walk, taking a nap, listening to a meditation, right all these things that really feed into our brains, right.

Speaker 2:

But I wanted to like zone out, like Like college style like a zombie like Jason was.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it was almost like Getting high and picking out on on potato chips, that's right.

Speaker 2:

Give me the whole bag and I'll sit here and beat myself up about. I don't want to take the bag back to the cabinet, so I'm just gonna eat the whole thing.

Speaker 1:

I'm not saying that we got high and picked out on potato chips, but I am saying I am using that as an analogy because once we watched, you know, to two hours of Netflix, it was like, well, we've laid here for two hours.

Speaker 2:

So we might as well.

Speaker 1:

Just watch the whole damn series double down right. Then it was self sabotage, then it was like well, pfft. There goes the whole day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, now I am lethargic.

Speaker 1:

Why even get dressed for the day?

Speaker 2:

Plus, it's hard to work when I'm sweaty from dancing earlier this morning.

Speaker 1:

So back to discipline. How do we keep ourselves disciplined? Because so, from my experience, there's there's like three different kinds of discipline. There's the kind of discipline that we do in the moment, which is really okay in the moment. Am I making the right decisions when it comes to eating the right foods? Am I making the right decisions when it comes to exercise or brushing my teeth? Self grooming, self love, self care?

Speaker 2:

self discipline taking an action towards your dream or goal.

Speaker 1:

Right there, I mean, you know, I could study.

Speaker 2:

So that's kind of almost like when we talk about one of my art. When we had that discussion about who are we, what kind of life are we building, and we said we're extraordinary people, we're building an extraordinary life and we're going to make the extra, make a decision towards extraordinary in the micro moments of life. And yesterday I was like we're just going to pull this day out of the calendar yeah, you did and we're not going to make you, you were about it.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to say no decisions.

Speaker 2:

today. It's going to be one decision. It's going to be a horrible one and I'm going to live in it and I'm going to roll around in it like a pig in the mud.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And that's what I did, and it was contagious, it's okay. It's okay, but it's in the past.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's in the past, so now I can just forget about it.

Speaker 2:

We got up this morning and we've been very productive.

Speaker 1:

We have.

Speaker 2:

We've been moving the needle, moving the chains.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So then the other kind of discipline is reactive discipline, and that, I think, is when circumstances happen, when stuff goes sideways, right, and that's when people are rude to you and you really have to almost discipline your emotions, discipline your.

Speaker 2:

So on that, on the whole thing, I said when things go sideways. But this can be a windfall or this can be when things go bad. So when things go really well or when things go really bad, because a lot of times things will go really well for people and they're not disciplined enough to stay in their routine or stay on track, because, like in sales, you get this huge, massive sale and you've hit your number for the week or the quarter and then you take your foot off the gas and you quit doing the things that made you successful to get there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know what I call that. I call that the pressure cooker effect. Yeah, because you lose your motivation. It's like when you're hungry, you know, when you're hungry, then you have the motivation to go out and hunt for food. But when you finally catch the deer, then you're like oh, you know what?

Speaker 2:

Forage is full. I've got food for the winter, yeah, but if it's a habit, like if it's a, if these are things that you know that you do and they create seeds Every day. Otherwise the deer aren't around, Like you're not going out and cultivating your crop.

Speaker 1:

Right, right.

Speaker 2:

And that's discipline.

Speaker 1:

You make it a habit, then it becomes discipline.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I like this. I like where we're going with this.

Speaker 2:

So that's reactive discipline, so that's reactive discipline.

Speaker 1:

Then there's a third kind of discipline and it is called proactive discipline. And this is the discipline where we almost plan ahead, which I don't think you and I are that Not?

Speaker 2:

great at it.

Speaker 1:

I know that I'm not that great at it, and it literally is. You know what I might rain today, so why don't I take an umbrella?

Speaker 2:

So we say that we're not great at it. We're not great at it in certain areas. So I would say meal prep, we're great at it.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'm pretty good at meal prep I am. I mean I plan a week in advance.

Speaker 2:

I do Because I know that if I don't, then If we eat like crap, we feel like crap, we act like crap, I feel bad. And I learned that the hard way which is gonna affect finances, and then also no it affects my weight, and then it, then I.

Speaker 1:

Then I don't like the way I look, and then I get grumpy and my clothes don't fit. And then I yeah, then I lay around in yoga pants. Then I end up Netflixing and chilling try some you with Jason and I end up as a big old sloth.

Speaker 2:

last thing I need is to try some yoga pants, because what if I loved him?

Speaker 1:

You would love that. No, I was. I was on the phone with my dad yesterday and he says oh my gosh, these new baseball pants that they're wearing these days.

Speaker 2:

They just look like really great lounge pants you don't have to shift yourself around in a month.

Speaker 1:

And I was like right, they kind of do look like nice little lounge pants. So if I go home and my dad's wearing baseball pants, I'm just gonna laugh.

Speaker 2:

this episode sponsored by Spalding and under armor.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, I hope this helped discipline I really. You know James Cleary. We talk about his book a lot, the atomic yeah, great book habit stacking and just doing a little bit, is that? Incremental improvement and the Kaizen method. I know that we've talked about that many times in other episodes and that's just doing a little bit every single day. Every single time there is a compound effect and you know, we we brought up weight and food. If you eat just an extra 100 calories every single day, in six months Massive difference.

Speaker 1:

Your bag massive difference if you eat just 100 calories less every single day. All of a sudden you start changing that, that spiral and instead of going downward, you start going upward, because now, all of a sudden, you have more energy and you start feeling better and you have more motivation, more vitality to get up and have more.

Speaker 1:

Vigor so much like a continuation effect yes, and because you have that, then you want to exercise more and it goes in the upward spiral. So are you in a downward spiral or an upward spiral? And it's the same thing with discipline. When you start doing well, you start having those little habits and you start feeling proud of yourself. All of a sudden, you just want to continue in that direction and if you can get into that vortex, then all of a sudden you start getting some emotions behind it, some momentum behind it, and you start getting into that success cycle and that is when you truly start seeing improvement.

Speaker 2:

That is the compounding effect, which leads to exponential growth and transformation.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Start living lucky. We'll talk to you next time. Thanks for joining us. Bye, guys. If the idea of living lucky appeals to you, visit us at startlivingluckycom.