The Amazing Race 2024

Buckle Up for Unexpected Life Lessons on The Amazing Race... with Zero-Turn Lawn Mowers?!

Ever feel like you're in a chaotic race against time, careening wildly through life's obstacles? You're not alone! But what if the key to navigating those twists and turns wasn't about speeding ahead, but finding your own steady pace?

In this hilarious and insightful episode of Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason & Jana Banana, we take you on a wild ride you won't see coming. We ditched the self-improvement treadmill and volunteered at The Amazing Race, only to find ourselves face-to-face with... zero-turn lawnmowers?!

Here's what you'll learn (and laugh about) in this episode:

• The surprising wisdom of lawnmower races: Witness the comedy (and chaos!) unfold as racers, both seasoned and brand new, tackle a zero-turn mower obstacle course. You'll see firsthand how a calm approach leads to success, while frantic energy creates more problems than it solves.
• Find your "Sacred Pace": Learn why rushing through life with frenetic energy can backfire. Discover the power of slowing down, taking a breath, and approaching challenges with intention instead of anxiety.
• The unexpected benefits of waiting: Sometimes, getting stuck in a line isn't a bad thing. See how forced pauses at the race allowed participants to observe, learn, and refine their strategies, ultimately leading to better performance.
• Life is unpredictable, but you control your reaction: We share a personal story (including a childhood lawnmower mishap!) that reminds us: life throws curveballs, but how you react determines your success.

This episode is a breath of fresh air, a reminder to embrace the journey, and a treasure trove of actionable tips to help you:

• Stay calm under pressure
• Maintain focus amidst chaos
• Learn from others' experiences
• Approach challenges with a clear mind

Plus, you'll get a healthy dose of laughter along the way!

Ready to ditch the frenetic energy and find your own "Sacred Pace?"  Press play and get ready to be inspired!

P.S.  What are YOUR tips for staying calm and collected in the face of life's challenges? Share them in the comments in the

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*Previously Recorded

Transcript

Jana Shelfer 0:00

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start . Good morning. I'm Jana and this is my husband, Jason, and we are . You are too.

Jana Shelfer 0:22

We had the opportunity to volunteer at the amazing race yesterday.

Jason Shelfer 0:28

It was a race that was amazing it was.

Jana Shelfer 0:33

It was so fun we happened to.

Jason Shelfer 0:39

We worked at the zero turn lawnmower section.

Jana Shelfer 0:43

Why do they call it zero turn? Because they have a zero turn, because they have a zero degree turn radius. Oh, they can turn on a dime okay, in other words, it was lawnmower racing.

Jason Shelfer 0:52

Pretty much yeah, and it was sit on it, steer it. It was the kind of levers.

Jana Shelfer 0:58

Yeah, it was the kind that have the two different levers and when you push one and pull one, you turn one way, and if you push and pull the other, you turn one way, and if you push and pull the other, you go the other way. If you push both of them, you go forward, you pull back. If you pull them both apart, then you stop and there's like a an emergency cut off and it was very dangerous at times. And then at the same time, there were times when I thought, okay, this could speed along a little bit like this little slow paced. It was very bizarre.

Jason Shelfer 1:31

It was, and a lot of people. Most people had not had the experience of being on one.

Jana Shelfer 1:37

In fact. I would say probably 90% of the people. As they were coming through, I'd be like have you ever been on a lawnmower before I was on the microphone? And of course most of them would say no, never.

Jason Shelfer 1:56

Which is a change in the times, right, it's very different from the 80s, where you mowed your own yard. Most people, I think yes, like I would say 70% to 80% or 90% of the people in the 80s mowed their own yard or had the neighborhood kid do it, boy or girl, don't want to discriminate, yeah, I was going to say, because I remember sitting on that lawnmower when I was little.

Jason Shelfer 2:17

I didn't sit on one, but I pushed one. You did, oh no we had a riding lawnmower. Well, you're from an area that had more land and acreage to mow, where I had just smaller yards to grow.

Jana Shelfer 2:28

However, it was more of my sister's job that one summer my parents discouraged it from me.

Jana Shelfer 2:37

You don't want to be the yard girl.

Jana Shelfer 2:39

Because my mom and I were out walking and we actually saw my neighbor. He was mowing his lawn, he had a push mower and he had a seizure and his false teeth went through the lawnmower and they got chopped up and went through the lawnmower and his arm almost got cut off, oh my, and my mom had to move the mower and call 911. I remember that I was a little girl.

Jason Shelfer 3:01

Well, that'll keep you away from lawnmowers, I know, and so there was like a danger factor.

Jana Shelfer 3:05

At any rate, the point of our podcast today is that we noticed something as we were volunteering at this lawnmower race.

Jason Shelfer 3:16

Over and over and over again.

Jana Shelfer 3:18

Because, as the racers were coming in now, this was a race, it was the amazing race, and they would go from one obstacle challenge to the next.

Jason Shelfer 3:28

Yeah, there were 19 challenges.

Jana Shelfer 3:31

So, when they were getting the directions of how to use the lawnmower and when they were getting directions of how the obstacle course worked, the ones that were in that frenetic energy of oh my gosh, we got to hurry, hurry, hurry, we're racing, we're racing. We're racing, the ones who had frenetic energy. The directions went in one ear and out the other.

Jason Shelfer 4:01

And, as soon as they, with their motor skills.

Jana Shelfer 4:04

And as soon as they got on that lawnmower, guess what would happen.

Jason Shelfer 4:07

Chaos.

Jason Shelfer 4:09

It was chaos and it was like they didn't hear anything that was being told to them, and they would almost create more chaos by running over the cones and then causing an extra delay, there was complete lack of control, because what would happen is the mower would start turning, then they would overcorrect and then start spinning and I saw so many people literally just throw their hands up in the air and almost quit. But the lawnmower doesn't quit. When you let go you have to pull the levers apart and open it up to do the emergency stop.

Jana Shelfer 4:49

It was almost like they were manifesting exactly what they didn't want. Yes, because they were in the wrong energy. They were bringing panic and worry, anxiety. They were more focused on what their opponents were doing.

Jason Shelfer 5:07

Yeah, they were racing against their opponents.

Jana Shelfer 5:09

Than what they were doing. They were more focused on time than what they were doing. They were more focused on their external worlds than their internal worlds.

Jason Shelfer 5:23

That's so good, because if they had just kept that internal pace, like the pace within, like it's on, there's a book called Sacred Pace and that kind of talks about don't worry about where everybody else is, because if you keep your sacred pace you're going to be able to outlast and just keep going. You don't ever have that burnout, you don't ever have that frenetic oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

Jana Shelfer 5:50

Now here's what I witnessed and I observed Because, like I said, I was over by the speaker and I was in charge of the music, or Jason and I was in charge of the muse, or Jason and I were in charge of the music and and I was adding my own little colorful commentary, as people would would run by, which was quite flavorful, I must say. What I witnessed is that, as the racers would come in, there was a point where the majority of the racers, the mid pack, let's just call them the mid pack where this is.

Jason Shelfer 6:29

The majority of people have now gathered in there waiting their turns.

Jana Shelfer 6:33

Yes, when there actually was a line of waiting for the mowers Okay. So the racers had to kind of slow down a little bit. They couldn't, they couldn't. There was nothing more they could do except for wait.

Jason Shelfer 6:48

Yeah, so there's 400 racers, three lawn mowers.

Jana Shelfer 6:52

So there was a point where all like 80% of the racers were in that middle section.

Jason Shelfer 6:58

Yeah, and we're at obstacle or challenge 19. So the racers have had time to spread out. However, now we've kind of condensed the pack again, because we're getting to the end and there's a big cookout at the end. Yes, because it's a fundraiser.

Jana Shelfer 7:14

So there's that mid pack where the majority of the racers are, and so the line started to accumulate where people had to wait for the actual mowers. Now, what I noticed is that when they had no choice but to get in line and wait, they had the chance to slow down, be still and kind of calm down a little bit, kind of observe and watch other people, and it actually benefited them by slowing down because they it's almost like they- took a deep breath.

Jason Shelfer 7:55

It gave them a moment of learning, a little bit of a learning curve. It's that whole going back to success leaves breadcrumbs. And there's a little twist on that because sometimes success leaves breadcrumbs where we're watching someone else do but we haven't actually had the action or the doing to experience it. So once we get into that experience, then sometimes we can build that frenetic energy up because it didn't like it was, like this is different than I thought it was going to be, and now we're not following the directions because we didn't. We're like oh, I've got this. I understand it intellectually. I don't understand it completely physically and all the other realms of it. So it was beautiful watching that where it was like they've slowed down a little bit.

Jason Shelfer 8:45

Now they've got it, Now they're going to jump on the mower. And then some people held on to it and went at their pace and some people said I've got to race against the other guy and the other person looks like they're going faster. So now I'm going to panic a little.

Jana Shelfer 9:00

It was a life lesson in itself and I just feel so blessed because these mowers were provided by Cobb Mower and Nan Cobb, who is running for commissioner. She was such a hoot to just hang out with and I felt so, so lucky. I felt so lucky to just spend the day outside meeting all of these people and watching the entertainment of this. So it's the amazing race in downtown Eustis and our friend Tim Totten, who also puts on the TEDx event over there. He has been doing this for the last 10 years. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is his last year of putting this together, but it's been such a successful event.

Jason Shelfer 9:54

It's his last year. There hasn't been a determination whether it's the last year of the Amazing Grace.

Jana Shelfer 9:59

No, it will continue. Next year the city is going to take. It's the last year of the.

Jason Shelfer 10:01

Amazing Race no, it will continue Okay.

Jana Shelfer 10:01

Next year, the city is going to take it over. It's been such a success, and I also wanted to convey that other cities around America have actually taken Tim's template of how he does this, because it incorporates different businesses in the community, it gets people out, it gets people having fun.

Jason Shelfer 10:24

It's innovation, it's teamwork, it is it's community, it's collaboration, it's all the beautiful things for coming together and celebrating the city.

Jana Shelfer 10:35

It's exercise, but mostly it's fun.

Jason Shelfer 10:38

It's just fun. It was so fun, it's fun in fellowship. I mean when you can get to the obstacle or challenge number 19,. And there are so many smiles left.

Jana Shelfer 10:47

Yeah, every single person that walked through I said are you having fun? And every single person said I'm having a blast.

Jason Shelfer 10:54

I am having so much fun, best day of the year. This is great. This is awesome.

Jana Shelfer 10:59

And every person I would say well, what's been your favorite challenge? Yet Every single person said something different, which I found so interesting. Nobody said the same thing. So that was awesome, Awesome, but the lesson, the lesson from observing the lawnmower races.

Jason Shelfer 11:18

And the whole race in general.

Jana Shelfer 11:21

Is to set your own pace, set your own life pace, and when you bring frenetic energy to something, guess what you're going to create.

Jason Shelfer 11:33

Chaos. So when you have that feeling of chaos, or frenetic, when you bring panic, anxiety, worry, stress.

Jana Shelfer 11:42

You're only going to create more of it, because it's your spiritual curriculum. The universe says oh, they are feeling that they must love it, they must want more. Let's give them more so that they have more challenges to overcome.

Jason Shelfer 11:59

So just slow down a little bit, go back, get back on your own pace and just grow through it.

Jana Shelfer 12:06

Oh, I love it.

Jana Shelfer 12:08

I love it. The amazing race was so amazing. Have a great day, guys, and keep , bye-bye. If the idea of appeals to you, visit us at www. livinglucky. com.