Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

Dream Like a Graduate

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 8 • Episode 50

Share episode

Recapture Your Spark: Dream Like a Graduate at Any Age (Living Lucky® Podcast)

Remember the electric optimism of graduation day, that feeling like anything is possible? Join Jason and Jana Banana as they explore why that vibrant energy often fades with time and, more importantly, how you can reclaim it – no matter your age or past challenges.

Discover the surprising reasons why our "graduate-level" dreams can dim as life throws its punches. Learn how societal expectations and past disappointments can lead us to play smaller and safer. But it doesn't have to be this way!

This powerful episode reveals the secret to maintaining that youthful optimism: it's about the journey, not just the destination. It's about carrying forward the empowerment from overcoming challenges, not the disempowerment from the setbacks. Learn practical strategies to reignite your inner spark, stop qualifying your achievements, and approach each day with the hopeful energy of a new graduate ready to conquer the world. When you choose to dream big again, you unlock a "Living Lucky®" mindset where anything truly becomes possible. Tune in and rediscover your boundless potential!

Here’s what you’ll discover:

  • The Power of Graduate Optimism: That Unstoppable Belief.
  • Why Dreams Diminish: The Impact of Life's Challenges.
  • Reclaiming Your Inner Rookie: Maintaining a Fresh Perspective.
  • The Journey Matters Most: Finding Joy in the Process.
  • Empowerment Over Disappointment: Learning from Challenges.
  • Breaking Free from Qualifiers: Owning Your Awesomeness.
  • Contagious Energy: Radiating and Absorbing Positive Belief.
  • Thought-Feeling-Action-Result: The Cycle of Transformation.

Key Nuggets: Recapture youthful optimism. Learn from challenges, don't be defined by them. Enjoy the journey. Believe anything is possible. Dream big, live lucky!

How to regain your youthful optimism. How to dream big again after setbacks. How to maintain a positive mindset through challenges. Why do we lose our dreams as we get older? How to cultivate self-belief and confidence at any age. How to shift from a negative to a positive mindset. How to find joy in the journey of achieving your goals. How can I dream bigger again? How to stay optimistic when facing challenges? Why do I feel like my dreams are fading? How to believe in myself and my potential

TEXT US DIRECTLY

For mind-blowing inspirational content that we implement ourselves, join us by subscribing and connecting to our private community.

Thanks for joining us.
CONNECT with us in our PRIVATE COMMUNITY

*** The Living Lucky Community is experiencing what it feels like to create a life of inspiration where dreams come true. Check it out HERE *** or at https://www.startlivinglucky.com/sendusyourdreams

!!! SEND US A MESSAGE: Are you ready to unlock your path to a more inspired life where you're Living Lucky®? Email me directly and let's chart your course toward realizing your dreams and creating a life that fills you with daily inspiration.
Email Jason Shelfer HERE

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

Jana Shelfer:

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, I'm Jason and we are Living Lucky®. You are too. This morning on our morning coffee group, we were talking about dreaming like a graduate.

Jason Shelfer:

How fun is that.

Jana Shelfer:

We're attending a graduation ceremony today and I always think that the graduates that are walking across the stage, they have such stars in their eyes.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes, they are on top of the mountain.

Jana Shelfer:

They are ready to go conquer the world and it always feels like the minute that the speaker says something about now you, when you face adversity, which you will graduates not me it feels like all the graduates kind of roll their eyes and tune out.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, they're like, not me. I've got the I've, I've got my plan. It's gonna happen, I'm gonna. The world is at my fingers.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, it's like who's this speaker talking to Talk to my neighbor, but you're not talking about my life.

Jason Shelfer:

They must be talking about Tina, yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

Right, because I'm graduating here and Wall Street's going to hire me. I'm making my first million in that first year.

Jason Shelfer:

I'm going to be a billionaire.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, and in five years I'm going to have my house on the beach.

Jason Shelfer:

And my house in Colorado.

Jana Shelfer:

Oh yeah, and I'm going to have my jet that's going to take me to places. I'm going to see the world.

Jason Shelfer:

I love private transportation.

Jana Shelfer:

Women are going to be following me. Do you know what I'm saying?

Jason Shelfer:

Like.

Jana Shelfer:

I just feel, I feel like I just I just became a college kid Boy, didn't I? You did Women are going to be following me. Hey, whatever moistens your cookie, whatever floats your boat, At any rate, it just feels like we have these expectations of what's going to happen, and I don't want to say expectations. We have these dreams. Yeah, they're dreams.

Jason Shelfer:

It's a dream and that dream. Sometimes we get shaken out of that dream when we get slapped with resistance and wake up.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, it's like what Muhammad Ali says we all go in the fight. We all have a plan until we get punched in the face and then we get punched in the face. Yeah, and a lot of us go in with that dream until we get those first few rejections.

Jason Shelfer:

They're hard knocks, hard knocks.

Jana Shelfer:

And we start realizing oh crap, we have rent to pay. Yeah. And we have to eat.

Jason Shelfer:

And the world has to recognize how badly you want something and what you're willing. Are you willing to go through the journey it takes to get that, because we get who we are Like. What we do today is creating what we do tomorrow. And when we go through college we're just setting a foundation of yeah, I can show up every day.

Jason Shelfer:

I can, I can excel or at least I guess quote unquote pass the job at hand, which is that four years or two years or six years, whatever your length of education is, and then it's setting that new stepping stone in life, and so and some people don't even go to college, but I guess, if we're talking about the dream of the graduate, Well, it doesn't even matter about graduates.

Jana Shelfer:

I guess what we're really talking about is when you're younger, you do have these dreams, because you're not carrying a bunch of baggage with you. And then it feels like we kind of start making our way on the journey and we start hitting the potholes and the rain and the storms, and the road closed.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes, this road is closed.

Jana Shelfer:

Find another way I mean all of the challenges, and then for some reason we kind of start playing a little smaller and and safer. And safer, because we don't want to have to face those same challenges again, because we realize, wow, that really took a lot out of us.

Jason Shelfer:

And it looks so easy for somebody else, like, why does it look so easy for them, but not me?

Jana Shelfer:

And then we get to a point in our journey where we say you know what? I'm willing to let go of that dream.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh no.

Jana Shelfer:

Because I would rather.

Jason Shelfer:

I would rather feel successful or feel safe. I think it's a feel safe.

Jana Shelfer:

Then face that.

Jason Shelfer:

Disappointment, disappointment, yeah. And it's saying how do I hold on to that dream? How do I keep thinking like a rookie, keep thinking like a graduate and keep stepping forward in that belief and that faith that it's going to happen, like if we can hold on to the belief in ourselves and our dream long enough to see that dream come true so what is your, what is your tidbit?

Jason Shelfer:

So I feel like in life we are all growing towards what we want. When we clearly identify what we want and it is a journey, and I picture it in my mind like somebody walking towards a horizon If your goal is to reach the horizon, that's never going to happen because the horizon keeps growing. So just say, okay, I'm okay with the walk, I'm okay with the journey. I can run, sometimes I can skip, sometimes I can walk, I can crawl sometimes, sometimes I can take a rest and just allow the healing or the waiting or whatever it is in that moment.

Jason Shelfer:

But enjoy that journey and that space and recognize I'm always in between, I'm always on my way. And then I look back and I say, look, how far I've come, because I can always look back to me and see the horizon, the past horizon. And then do I want to carry the heartache, the disappointment, the detours and throw them out in front of me and make that hard? Or do I want to keep that faith, that dreaming like a graduate or thinking like a rookie, and say you know what? I'm on the journey, I'm always going to be in the middle, I'm always going to be pushing myself a little bit further and I really just enjoy this time of life.

Jana Shelfer:

So it's learning to have fun and to enjoy.

Jason Shelfer:

I'm so glad you said fun.

Jana Shelfer:

And just be okay with what's happening.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, decide that the journey is fun. Yeah, like Kurt always talks about the power of now, now is where the creation lies, like that's the only time anything is created is in the present moment. And are we pulling forward the disempowerment from the things that we've been through or the empowerment of the overcoming all the things that we've been through? And that's a game changer, because that's so.

Jason Shelfer:

When people are standing at a graduation, when these 19, 20, 21 year olds are standing at a graduation, I almost guarantee that all of them are thinking of all the empowerment they have. And then do they just lose track of that because they got punched in the face a couple more times. They don't remember the times that they they didn't score the highest on the exam, or they woke up and it was a snow day and they didn't want to go to work or to school, but they powered through. So we have this opportunity to say what have I learned from? What experience do I have? And just carry that empowerment forward. And that's a powerful move, like that's how you're going to allow your dream to kind of meet you where you are.

Jana Shelfer:

It's really the secret, don't you think I?

Jason Shelfer:

think so, yeah, and fun is the key, like how do we make it more fun, how do we make, how do we accept more fun and recognize more fun in the journey that we're on?

Jana Shelfer:

So it's learning to let go of those times that.

Jason Shelfer:

We're hard Like and just take the growth from it, not the hurt from it. Like I could definitely take the scars and the pussy wound.

Jana Shelfer:

But we don't need to live in that Right. Let it heal, let it heal and let it be the stronger part of you going forward, like.

Jason Shelfer:

It's a feeling of like if I walked out the door every morning and I just said, wow, I'm so lucky to be on this journey, I'm going to show up differently, which is going to create these more empowered and more fun, exciting results, which is why we I think we continue to live in this Living Lucky® atmosphere.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, I just I feel like. I feel like people in their early twenties they do. They have these dreams and it is so exciting and fun to see. And then I slowly see their shine start to dim over. It seems like over by the end of their twenties they've dimmed a little and then it seems in their thirties it really kind of starts to fade a little bit. And then by the time they're in their forties they're at the lowest light that they can possibly shine.

Jason Shelfer:

Right and I wonder if, when we talk about energy is contagious, I wonder if it's because they're walking into this world of 40 year olds and 50 year olds and they kept, they keep getting told that's not possible, you can't do that. So there, and they started adopting these new beliefs from people who have been down the road and didn't keep that shine. So when energy is contagious like that's why I love going to these graduations because it's it's, it's a renewal of this feeling of I anything is possible, let's go do it and we get back out of that. Oh, I've been slapped in the face too many times, or I've been punched in the face too many times trying this.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, that's a lesson for us. Is that we can? We can take energy from them and we can actually take their mindset and adopt that yes.

Jason Shelfer:

And how many of our friends talk about oh it's hard, oh it's, I don't have fun, like it's all work, oh.

Jana Shelfer:

I know no, real quickly. I just want to say, you know, we went to this big party on Saturday night and I caught myself when people were asking about my skiing. I caught myself saying, yeah, not too bad for a 50 year old. And I'm like why? Why did I just add for a 50 year old?

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

Why did I add that? Like, I don't need to add that.

Jason Shelfer:

I was awesome.

Jana Shelfer:

It's almost like I was negating.

Jason Shelfer:

You put a qualifier on.

Jana Shelfer:

I put a qualifier on it.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, and so many, so many people. And that party was a good example, because people showed up with an energy and there was a vibrancy about that party. Yes, and that's the energy that if we can just keep that going throughout the week, because so many people claim lack of energy, lack of passion, and they're stuck in that hypnotic rhythm of habituation that we talk about a lot.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, so we need to get that dreamers energy again.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, when we change our thoughts and we change our feelings, we change our results because we change our actions based on those thoughts and feelings.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, oh I love it. Okay, so dream like a graduate, that's our little tidbit for this week. That's the intention I'm going to step into.

Jason Shelfer:

If you keep dreaming like a graduate and hold onto that energy, you will find yourself Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer:

Have a great day. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at www. LivingLucky. com.