Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

Dancing Through Life: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Personal Growth

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 5 • Episode 55

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From Spray Tan Mishaps to Self-Discovery: Lessons on Life's Stage.
Ever had the feeling of stepping onto the stage in autopilot mode, engulfed in self-doubt and comparison? Join me, your host Jana, as I share my nerve-wracking yet exhilarating journey through the National Dance Competition. I'll walk you through the culture shocks, beauty preparations, and the panic moments, like that spontaneous spray tan removal! Amidst all these, I’ll reveal how I overcame my fears and insecurities and learned to see other dancers as inspiration, not competition. This journey was not just about the dance, but also about self-discovery and personal growth.

But don't worry, our co-host Jason has not been forgotten. Despite being on the road, traveling to Dallas, Austin, and back, Jason will be dialing in to keep our conversations about life and self-improvement alive. We will give you an insider's view of long-distance podcasting, the highs and lows, and the lessons we've learned along the way. Together, we'll continue to navigate life's challenges, share behind-the-scenes stories, and inspire each other to create the lives we desire. So, tune in as we dance our way through life's stage!

In our next episode, Co-host Jason, despite being on the road, dials in to keep the conversation about life and self-improvement vibrant. Together, they navigate the highs and lows of long-distance podcasting and life's challenges. Tune in to explore how transforming comparison into inspiration and facing fears can lead to an extraordinary life. Whether you're a dance enthusiast or seeking motivation, this episode is a testament to embracing authenticity and pursuing personal growth. Dive into "Living Lucky" for a humanistic and inspiring narrative that resonates with everyone striving to create a life they crave. 🌟💃

The Dance: https://www.youtube.com/live/9jPBOGkKuT4?si=c_mjY2ji6PEhn9oN&t=3038

🎙️#LivingLucky #DanceCompetition #SelfImprovement  #Podcast #SelfDiscovery #PersonalGrowth #SelfImprovement #Inspiration #Authenticity #LifeChallenges #Motivation #OvercomingFears #NationalDance #LivingLuckyPodcast #EmotionalResilience #LifeLessons #MindsetShift #ConfidenceBuilding #SelfDoubt #Comparison #InspirationalStories #PodcastingExperience #JanaShelfer #JasonShelfer

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
Believe in the people around you
Believe in your circumstances and
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 I'm Jana and I'm solo today. I still feel like I am living lucky, as always. I hope you are too. I don't know what to do with myself. Jason left for Dallas this morning and I literally I've been talking to the air. I'm like what do you want to talk about? Oh yeah, I'm all by myself. I guess I get to decide.

Speaker 1:

I thought I might give you a recap of our dance, because we did it. We performed at the National Dance Competition, which, if you've been following us, you know that we have been. We have been frantically preparing for this dance competition. This is so outside our comfort zone and on Thursday evening we actually got out on that dance floor and we rocked it. We rocked it. Now, if you look back and you really like, pay attention. In fact, there's a link on YouTube. I think it's Dynamic Sports is the YouTube link and it's right at 51 minutes. That's when they announced Jana and Jason Schaeffler. They totally butchered our name, but that's okay, as long as they're saying our name, we don't care how they say it. They can call me Jana, they can call me Benina, I don't care Whatever they say, as long as they're saying our name. And as we come out at 51 minutes, you want to replay it several times so that they know that we're bringing in all sorts of attention. They want to have us back. You can tell, if you watch it slowly, that Jason literally has this glaze over his eyeballs and he literally has this moment when we step onto the stage of I have no idea where I am, I have no idea what I'm doing, and he literally went into that autopilot mode. Have you ever been driving on the freeway and all of a sudden, you're like I have no idea where? The last 30 minutes just went. I'm just kind of driving. That was Jason. However, we got through it. We got through it and, if you followed us on Instagram all throughout the day, we got spray tans in the morning and we thought it was such a great idea. We're like, oh my gosh, I feel so great, like these spray tans are giving me such confidence and I feel fabulous.

Speaker 1:

Well, right before we left the house, I took one last look in the mirror and I noticed that my neck started to look dirty, and then I went to the restroom one last time and I looked down at my feet and my feet looked dirty. So I started scrubbing my feet. I'm like I can't wear open-toed shoes. My toes look absolutely dirty. So I started scrubbing my toes and the next thing you know, you start scrubbing and then you get white patches and so then one scrub ends up scrubbing. You start luffying your whole body and before I knew it, I was taking off my entire wardrobe and hopping in the shower at the very last minute and totally scrubbing down my entire body, scrubbing off this entire spray tan that we got, having this total meltdown moment saying we got to get this off of me. It makes me look like I'm the scummy girl and I know it was probably just nerves kicking in, but anyway, woo.

Speaker 1:

And then we got there and I, of course, had an appointment to get my hair and makeup done and they have two Makeup people that you can choose from. So there's two different companies and the one that I chose. I get in there and they're not like. None of the people in there are speaking English. Okay, so I go in there and I've never done this before, so I'm not. I'm not used to having my hair and makeup done on a Daily basis, right like this, is all brand new to me.

Speaker 1:

So I go in there and and I I mean I had kind of gone through Pinterest and I had kind of grabbed a couple ideas of Things that I could sit like pictures that I could point out and say, hey, you know, maybe something like this or something like this, but they weren't like ballroom styles. And Next thing I know the woman is grabbing my hair and she's greasing it down and she's doing these twists that like Pulling my hair. I mean, it took me back to my childhood when my mom was learning to French braid and we would go to the, the basketball games, and she would try to teach the other women how to French braid and of course they would all practice on my hair and my head and none of them knew what they were doing and we never had a comb or brush, and so they all would, you know, try to finger comb with their long, shabby fingernails and it always just felt like they were pulling and pushing and Probing and you know what I'm saying, like I, I just kind of felt like my head was getting all I Don't know. I felt like my eye, my eyelids, lids were being pulled back. It was almost like a facelift, without even really needing one. But that's the culture, that's what they do like, that's just the styles that they pick and then, okay.

Speaker 1:

So here's one thing that I want to tell you guys about ballroom dancing. The bodies of ballroom dancers are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, and so I Really had to stop and really had to Get into that mental space where I had to say, okay, jana, I Love myself just the way I am, and, at the same time, I am totally inspired by, by all of these dancers around me because I Want to Look like them. So there's a difference between comparing myself to them and using what they have for inspiration. Do you know what I'm saying? And it's all about how we frame it in our mind and it's all about how that inner voice shows up. And so I had to really, really be careful, because it's so easy To say, oh, my god, I'm not good enough, I'm not skinny enough, I'm not Blah, blah, blah enough to get on that dance floor, and it's very, very easy to get into comparison Idis, when I know that I'm at the beginning of my dance journey and they, many of them have been dancing for 30 and 40 years, whoo. And so to remind myself, okay, we're using them as inspiration.

Speaker 1:

As inspiration, I inspire, I Aspire to be like them, and the fact that they can do it and the fact that they are doing it and the fact that they have done it is Is just motivation that I can do it too. And that is the difference. Instead of beating myself up, it's giving myself hope and putting a little wind in my sail and say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you so much for watching Bye. That's the direction I want to go in. Follow them, be like them. So lift them up and follow in their lead. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, there's a, there's a slight difference in the way our, our brains talk to ourselves. Anyway, I just thought I'd bring that up.

Speaker 1:

And if anyone, if anyone does have that little voice inside that says oh, you know, that critical voice that's like I'm not good enough, I'm not good, I'm not skinny enough, here's a little hack for you. And I learned this. I don't even know who taught me this, but it has saved me so many times. You take that voice that's saying you're not skinny enough, you're not pretty enough, you and the voice that starts comparing you to everyone around you, like, look at your body and then look at theirs. You've got this and you've got that. You take that voice and you start making it into either a comical voice or the most sexy voice that you can possibly imagine and all of a sudden it will take you out of the moment and it just makes it into almost a movie scene where you become the viewer. You become the viewer in your own movie and it takes you out of the, the loop of listening to it and the, the neuroplasticity of creating the groove. All of a sudden you become a watcher of the movie and it almost becomes silly. So if, if the voice is saying you're not skinny enough to be on that dance floor, you're not skinny enough to wear that costume, then you say it in the most sexy voice possible. You're not skinny enough and it and I know like that wasn't really the most sexy voice If Jason was here, he was like come on, jana, you can be better than that. But anyway, you get my drift. Like you say it, or maybe you say it on a cartoon voice, like you're not skinny enough to be in that costume. You know you like, say it in a comical voice or succ helium before you say it, or you know what I'm saying. Like, get into a character voice when you say it and then all of a sudden it becomes a scene in a movie and you go oh, wait a minute.

Speaker 1:

And I wanted to bring this up while I was in this room with all these women who are absolutely gorgeous and we're all getting our hair and makeup done, and they're not speaking English. I think they were speaking Russian, to be honest with you, so they were speaking Russian. And then, all of a sudden, in the one that was doing my hair, she did ask me in English so what do you do for a living? And I said, well, I'm a speaker, I'm an inspirational speaker. And then one of the other girls that was getting her makeup done said can you give me a pep talk, because I feel like I need some confidence right now. And I looked over at her and I thought, wow. And I said, well, how long have you been doing this? And she said 28 years.

Speaker 1:

She had been competing in dance for 28 years and from the outside she looked absolutely perfect. In fact, she was one that made the last heat of the competition. So she was in the top five of the competition, and so you know that she was good, you know that she was good and you know that she knew that she was good, and yet she still had an insecurity. She still had the insecurity to where she needed a pep talk. She needed a little bit of confidence. So I just I feel like that can be of comfort to all of us, right? Because sometimes we look at others and we think, oh, they've got it all together, when really we we are all the same, we are all having the same thoughts and we are all having the same battles. It's just in how we react to them.

Speaker 1:

At any rate, jason and I, we got on stage and it wasn't. It wasn't, it wasn't horrible. I'll tell you that we got through it. We gave it our best, we put a lot of emotion into it. The crown gave us a standing.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'll tell you one thing when it came to the point where I whipped out my baton, I all of a sudden got this cramp in my arm. And next thing, you know, I did this one trick where I do this I take the baton and I put it around my neck and all of a sudden it didn't roll around my neck and I was like, oh boy, what do I do now? But I recovered and, to be honest with you, my sister was like I didn't even notice and I've watched you twirl your baton many, many years. So, yeah, and here I'm telling you all my flaws, I meant to do that. Duh, I was really, really proud of us. That's my point. I was so proud of us and the very last line of our dance, the song says this is me.

Speaker 1:

I just felt like that summed up our whole dance journey and maybe even my whole self-development journey. This is me, this is my authentic self and this is who I am showing up at 48 years old, baton twirling, learning to ballroom dance with my husband and performing at the national dance competition in between the pros on the final night and you know what? We're just going for it and having fun, showing joy Jason's facing his stage fright. It was such a great time. It was us getting outside our comfort zone, facing our fears and just saying you know what? Whatever happens, we can handle it. We can handle it. This is me. This is me.

Speaker 1:

So I just wanted to share that with all of you, even if it means my spray town turned dirty and my hair was all slicked back, which actually in the video, I'm like wow, it actually looks pretty good. It doesn't look too shabby and I have a lot to learn. I look at our performance and think we can be better. We can be better. So I feel inspired to continue lessons and to grow and to climb that mountain even further. So overall, it's been a fabulous, fabulous experience.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to share it with all of you and I promise I'll stop talking about it for a while, for a while until our next big national championship. All right, thanks for bearing with me, thanks for listening to me as I show up solo. Jason is in Dallas for the next few weeks. He's going to be in Dallas, then Austin, then back in Dallas. However, I will have him call in and so I won't be solo for the next three weeks. Have a great day and thanks for joining me. Bye-bye. If the idea of living lucky appeals to you, visit us at startlivingluckycom.