Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

The Advantage of Objectivity

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 8 • Episode 57

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The Advantage of Objectivity: Why Your "Perfectly Imperfect" is Exactly What the World Needs (Living Lucky® Podcast)

Ever feel like you're your own harshest critic? Join Jason and Jana Banana for an inspiring, laugh-out-loud episode that proves the magic happens when you let go of perfection and embrace the "perfectly imperfect."

We share the wild, unscripted story of our impromptu Miami dance competition: a last-minute decision, backup costumes, choreography learned in the car, and Jana's actual fall in her wheelchair mid-routine! Discover how, despite feeling "lost" and "imperfect" internally, we transformed mishaps into mesmerizing moments, ultimately winning first place with a near-perfect score.

This episode reveals a profound truth: your internal reality often differs dramatically from how others perceive you. While we dwelled on perceived mistakes, the audience saw incredible energy, joy, and authenticity. Learn how stepping outside your self-judgment, like watching a "video playback" of your life, can unlock immense self-love and appreciation.

What opportunity are you hesitating to pursue because you don't feel "ready" or "perfect"? We challenge you to drop the excuses and simply enter the game. Your presence, energy, and willingness to show up – authentically, flaws and all – are far more magnetic than any polished facade. Tune in and discover the surprising power of your "perfectly imperfect" self. It's time to choose to start Living Lucky® today!

Here’s what you’ll discover:

  • The Power of Imperfection: Why "Good Enough" is Often Amazing.
  • Perception vs. Reality: How Others Truly See Your Efforts.
  • Turning Mistakes into Moments: Embracing Spontaneity and Resilience.
  • The "Video Playback" Hack: Gaining Objectivity on Your Own Life.
  • Overcoming Self-Doubt: Showing Up Even When Not "Ready."
  • The Magnetism of Authenticity & Energy.
  • Winning by Simply Entering the Game.

Key Nuggets: Embrace imperfection. Your perception isn't always reality. Mistakes can be magic. Objectivity boosts self-love. Just show up. Authenticity wins.

How to embrace imperfection and gain confidence? Why do I judge myself so harshly?  How to recover from mistakes gracefully? What does 'perfectly imperfect' mean? How to accept my flaws? Why is self-compassion important? How to overcome fear of failure? What is the ad

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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

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®.

Jason Shelfer:

You are, too, we are the champions my friends, boom, boom, boom and we'll keep on dancing till the end, I think.

Jana Shelfer:

I lost my keys. It's all good. It's all good. I was actually into that.

Jana Shelfer:

We won our dance competition.

Jason Shelfer:

I was shocked.

Jana Shelfer:

We went to Miami yesterday.

Jason Shelfer:

Day trip.

Jana Shelfer:

Literally woke up in the morning, said we're going to Miami for a dance competition.

Jason Shelfer:

Pack the car, kids, we're going on a trip.

Jana Shelfer:

Mind you, I've been sick for the last week Four days.

Jason Shelfer:

yeah Like violently sick for four days.

Jana Shelfer:

And our costumes. We just got out of the closet that I had created for months ago.

Jason Shelfer:

Do they fit almost a year?

Jana Shelfer:

ago and for a different competition, if you've listened to our podcast for a long time.

Jason Shelfer:

You'll remember our trip to michigan, and that's you'd created the costumes prior to the trip to michigan as a backup costume.

Jana Shelfer:

In case something happened to our real costume, we could slip into these.

Jason Shelfer:

Always have a fallback plan.

Jana Shelfer:

And anyway. So I just grabbed the costumes out of the closet.

Jason Shelfer:

We'll know when we get there we literally got on the road.

Jana Shelfer:

We practiced the choreography from video on the way down and we got there, and we got there. We were so uncertain, so unsure. Somewhere in our souls there was definitely doubt. However, we just kept living into let's have fun. We got this.

Jason Shelfer:

And we'd had this. We'd been learning this dance for about a month. We had about five lessons of learning it and we had a lot of fun in those lessons. And when you combine the fun, the open mindset of I, can do it.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes.

Jason Shelfer:

And we pretty much almost had it every time. We never really nailed it every time. We never nailed this dance. We walked through it slowly, had the video and were able to watch the video over and over again. Intellectually I had it nailed, like I had it nailed, locked in. Intellectually I was like I can do this.

Jana Shelfer:

You lit up during this dance. I will say that.

Jason Shelfer:

It felt like this dance was living in my body my whole life and was waiting to come out Right, like, like. That's how my soul felt.

Jana Shelfer:

And that's how you appear on the floor and the audience can feel that, and what I'm talking about right now are those. It's that.

Jason Shelfer:

It's the energy.

Jana Shelfer:

It's that you know people talk about. I can't describe it, but it's like an it factor or something I got it. I don't want to go there, let me take my hat off.

Jason Shelfer:

My head's swelling.

Jana Shelfer:

What I'm saying is we were living in our vision when we took that dance floor, and I mean seriously.

Jason Shelfer:

I'm laughing because like 30 seconds in I was so lost.

Jana Shelfer:

Jason looked like a deer in headlights, I started yelling the moves to him on the floor.

Jana Shelfer:

I didn't. I was like where am I Finger guns?

Jana Shelfer:

shoulder sweeps and over the head, spin Back to the stool upside down.

Jason Shelfer:

I was so lost. It was so funny Thinking back on it now. I was like, oh my God, what am I doing?

Jana Shelfer:

And we're in front of hundreds of people and there's only one dance floor, so all eyes are on us and tons of professional dancers that do this for a living. In the middle of it. Now this is between anyone listening. Okay, I fell. I actually fell on my back, totally fell over, and we made it look like Part of the dance.

Jana Shelfer:

Part of the dance and we got up so fast. As soon as I fell over I looked at Jason. I was like, get me up now. And you grabbed the front of my chair and one hand and we popped up like it was a dance move we had totally planned.

Jason Shelfer:

And if this is your first podcast, jana is in a wheelchair. She's a paraplegic and a wheelchair. Going over on her when she's on her back is like a tortoise on its back, on its shell. It's not the most beautiful like it's not graceful. It's not easy to get right side up and but we did it and it was it. When I watched the video back I was like we pulled that off. It looks like that's what was supposed to happen.

Jana Shelfer:

Because it was our facial expressions and it was the feeling that we were emoting, like we were laughing and just saying, okay, this just happened.

Jason Shelfer:

And another part of that is it's not like we haven't been in that situation before, so it was like we had the knowing of we've been here before. We can do it again. It's nothing we can't get out of.

Jana Shelfer:

What I'm getting at is that at the end of it we left that dance floor. We go over to the corner and I was like what did you think? And what did you think when we came off that dance?

Jason Shelfer:

floor. This was probably the first time I felt like, oh no, like I didn't. I thought it was like, intellectually I had it so nailed, so perfect, and it was this song that had been living in me my whole life ready to come out and I was like I wanted it to be so perfect and I was like it wasn't.

Jason Shelfer:

It wasn't everything I hoped it would be, and I'm the guy that always comes off the dance floor and goes Super positive. I nailed it. I was awesome. And I was like, oh I'm sorry, baby, thanks for being such a strong partner. You saved us. But then I watched the video and it looked amazing.

Jana Shelfer:

I came off that dance floor and I was so in the moment on during the dance that when I came off I was almost in. It was like I couldn't process. I was like I don't even know what just happened.

Jason Shelfer:

I do not even know what just happened. That's because there was so much that was different. There was so much different than what we had perfectly choreographed throughout those five dance lessons, the four weeks, and watched in the video over and over and over again.

Jana Shelfer:

But for some reason it was like we were at a wedding on the dance floor just doing our thing, we did our thing and it was fun.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, so let me get to a point, to the podcast, so that people are thinking why am I listening to this? Here's the thing In our heads. Sometimes we can doubt ourselves, we can fall back into the insecurities, almost carry this energy like I don't know if it's shame or embarrassment or did I make a fool of myself. However, we went and watched the video immediately and we it's like we chose a different feeling and we just chose to keep our head up and to smile and to laugh and to say, oh my gosh, that was so fun, we were awesome, we killed it, we crushed it.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, you can want things to go perfectly or you can decide they did go perfectly.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, I mean it was perfectly imperfect. I'll tell you that.

Jason Shelfer:

That's the nugget right there Perfectly imperfect because the audience the nugget right there Perfectly imperfect because the audience almost everyone in the crowd got out of their seats, came over to us and said, wow, that was crazy impressive. I loved it, the energy, the musicality, all the feedback we got and we got first place, got a score of 98 out of a hundred, okay. You're, I'm sorry, energy here, I'm burying the lead so we wait for the results 25 more dances, yeah we saw through the entire dance recital.

Jana Shelfer:

So we could, you know, watch everyone and cheer for everyone. And we were networking, having fun, we were eating, having a little cocktail, and then it was time for the winners.

Jason Shelfer:

The awards ceremony.

Jana Shelfer:

And we literally had like a little pep talk between the two of us and we were like you know what. We're just here to have fun, we're just recreational.

Jason Shelfer:

It was an experience.

Jana Shelfer:

We're amateurs. Let's just go out there and smile and be grateful for whatever, whatever the results are.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, because if you remember Michigan, if you were our longtime listener, I like to say that we placed, but we placed last. We placed last Anyway.

Jana Shelfer:

so I said, even if they place us last, we're just going to smile and go out there and just be appreciative of the experience. We enjoyed the journey. Lo and behold, they start announcing and they get up to first place.

Jason Shelfer:

First place, couple number seven with the hand jive, jana and Jason Shelper and I my mouth dropped.

Jana Shelfer:

My mouth dropped. Jason started tearing up. It was like we had won the Nobel Prize.

Jason Shelfer:

I started tearing up, immediately grabbed Jana. I was like don't you do it, don't be a professional out here, but I'm an emotional guy.

Jana Shelfer:

I just think that says a lot about you that we were so proud.

Jason Shelfer:

It's one of those things where, when you accomplish something and you go through all those feels, you experience all the feels like I can't do it, it's going to be hard. I mean, I remember telling myself I would never dance in public. And here we are doing it over and over and over and over again the wanting to not let you down, wanting to not let myself down or embarrass myself, right, and then figuring it out and doing it and just being in the moment and also having so much fun and connection in there.

Jana Shelfer:

It's almost like letting go of your ego. Yeah, and just saying you know what. Let's not put expectations or prejudge results on this experience. Let's just go out and experience it and whatever happens, hey, I was sick last week. I mean not that I have excuses, but it is what it is.

Jason Shelfer:

We did our best to prepare. If you're loving what you're doing, do it, that's it, and then you will just continue to get better at it. And I'm not saying that we're great.

Jana Shelfer:

And there's a magnetism there. People can feel that. People can feel that and they want to be around that.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, I want to be around. I love being in it. We have this like. It makes me feel like we're dancing through daily life, even when we're not on the dance floor. Yeah, and I have this dance with clients. You dance on the water when you ski. It's a weird thing that just kind of keeps going through and there's a theme there the beauty of just knowing that it will be perfectly imperfect.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah.

Jason Shelfer:

And enjoying the experience.

Jana Shelfer:

That's true.

Jason Shelfer:

And that's all. And people looking at it will probably think it's perfect. And even if they don't, if you're enjoying it, just keep doing it.

Jana Shelfer:

My last little nugget that I want to throw in here is that sometimes in our lives what's happening with our reality or the results that we're getting is not what others are perceiving Right. So you know, just in the difference, the hack there is the energy that you carry, it's the thoughts that you have around, the experiences that you're having.

Jason Shelfer:

Like where I was thinking I screwed it all up but everybody outside was thinking, oh wow, that was crazy incredible. But you let go of that thought, I let go of it and I said you know what Very quickly, and part of that was because I was able to be objective by seeing the video and oftentimes in life we don't get to see the video.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, oh my gosh, you just nailed it. It took us to the end of the podcast to get to the damn point, but you just nailed it.

Jason Shelfer:

Sometimes it takes almost like a video to step outside of our cell and look at it objectively because I know in my myself how I thought it was supposed to be. Yes, that's supposed to, but it was fine, it was perfect, it was wonderful, it was perfectly imperfect. And the world outside, even me, objectively viewing it, I was like, oh my gosh, look at us, look how wonderful we are, look how, look at that energy, look at the love between us. And that, when I was able to just view it from that angle and not be so deep in it and out there lost, yes, then I was like, oh my gosh, I fell in love with us again.

Jana Shelfer:

That is. That is the shift. And I'm telling you I could not stop watching the video all the way home. I just kept watching it on repeat and repeat. Not that I'm a narcissist, it's that I just kept looking at my husband going. I love us. I love that we went out and did this. I love the fact that I fell in the middle and you pulled me up. I love that we just kept going.

Jason Shelfer:

I love knowing that you've got me.

Jana Shelfer:

I love the fact that we won.

Jason Shelfer:

But I love the fact that we entered.

Jana Shelfer:

That's it.

Jason Shelfer:

I love the fact that we entered and enter life we both came home and said I'm so glad we did that. Yes.

Jana Shelfer:

And let me just tell you the whole way up, I'm like oh, this is going to cost us money, the costumes Again. I was sick. Sleep, jason didn't know the choreography, or we both didn't.

Jason Shelfer:

We didn't have time to really perfect it, but that's okay, yeah we were telling ourselves this story, that we weren't fully prepared to start. So what is it that you're not fully prepared to start and just enter, just get in the game.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, yes, I mean, there's so many, so many lessons that this has taken us.

Jason Shelfer:

Choose to start Living Lucky® today.

Jana Shelfer:

But I'm gonna wrap this up by saying it's all in the thoughts, the feelings and the energy that we carry with the experience. That is what becomes your reality. That's what other people are seeing and that's what other people want, and it doesn't matter if you're not the skinniest or if you're not the youngest or the best looking or the most in shape. I mean, we were none of those things right.

Jason Shelfer:

It's the fact that you actually just show up, it's the energy in which you show up.

Jana Shelfer:

We were present, we were extremely present.

Jason Shelfer:

The opportunity to amaze yourself.

Jana Shelfer:

Thanks for joining us. Keep Living Lucky® Bye-bye.

Jason Shelfer:

Thanks for joining us. Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer:

Bye-bye. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at www. LivingLucky. com.