Reframing Adversity

Reframing Adversity: The Toolkit for Turning Crisis into Catalyst (Living Lucky® Podcast)

Critical equipment broke days before a major event? That was our week! This self-help episode is a masterclass in reframing adversity. Learn the mindset shifts to stop catastrophic self-talk and launch an upward success cycle.

We share the exact process: sourcing a welder, navigating micro-setbacks, and transforming crisis into momentum and synchronicity.

Discover the difference between resources and resourcefulness, why your tone matters, and how to tell if a setback is a warning or a workout for your resolve and grit.

Actionable Nuggets & Takeaways:

• Adversity is a Gift: Unexpected adversity tests your commitment. The question: "How badly do I want this?" (It's hard to beat someone who doesn't quit).
• Mindset Shift: Catch self-talk. Choose a frame that turns pressure into purpose and fuels belief.
• Resourcefulness > Resources: Breakthroughs come from asking better questions and deploying resourcefulness, not just more stuff.
• The Hero Ask: Use clear tone, not defeatism. Frame your request to allow allies to be the hero, attracting synchronicity.
• Warning vs. Workout: Is the setback a gentle warning (redirection) or a workout for your resolve? Don't quit at the "three feet from gold" stage.
• Strategic Recovery: Adversity can force a protective pause. Strategic rest preserves the bigger goal and builds self-trust.

Steal these strategies to turn your next challenge into a setup!

• How to stop catastrophizing self-talk.
• Resourcefulness vs. resources in problem-solving.
• Is my setback a warning or a workout?
• How to ask for help the right way.
• Strategic recovery for high performers.
• Turning adversity into momentum.
• The role of belief in overcoming obstacles.
• "How does reframing adversity change your outcome?"
• "What is the difference between having resources and being resourceful?"
• "How do you use strategic rest to maintain momentum?"
• "What question should I ask myself when facing a big chall

Transcript

From Negativity To Success Cycle

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 Living Lucky®. Good morning. I'm Jana. I'm Jason. And we are Living Lucky®. You are too. Even though we've been facing all sorts of challenges this week. That's the challenge tune.

Jason Shelfer 0:26

That's the challenge tune. What's up next? What's gonna pop out of the jack in the box?

Jana Shelfer 0:31

You know, I sometimes say, I love a good challenge, and then I think I am manifesting in the wrong direction.

Jason Shelfer 0:38

Let's uh let's get away from the just the easy street.

Jana Shelfer 0:41

Uh, let's get back onto easy streets.

Upcoming Competitions And Broken Gear

Jason Shelfer 0:44

Let's eat some grits and get some grits.

Jana Shelfer 0:46

All right, just to fill you all in, we have the ski competition. We're leaving for Australia in about three weeks, but we have training camps, USA training camps for the next two weekends.

Jason Shelfer 0:59

Yes. And next one starts in two days.

Jana Shelfer 1:02

Yesterday, my ski broke. My cage snapped. Snapped like this is an aluminum cage, and it literally broke completely in half.

Jason Shelfer 1:16

Yeah. Weird.

Jana Shelfer 1:17

It was very weird. And you just ski too hard. No, I don't. I don't know a monster out there.

Jason Shelfer 1:24

It was just rocking and rolling.

Jana Shelfer 1:25

I was just trick skiing, which is literally spinning on top of the water. It's like a dance out there.

Choosing Your Frame On Challenges

Jason Shelfer 1:31

Like a little ballerina, a little rough ballerina.

Jana Shelfer 1:34

I guess what we want to talk about today is when challenges arise in your life, how are you perceiving them? What is the self-talk behind it? Yeah.

Jason Shelfer 1:47

This reminds me.

Jana Shelfer 1:48

Because it will make all the difference in how you react.

Jason Shelfer 1:52

Yeah, it's it's I think it's that framing around it. It reminds me of when we were going to do the jump, the try jumping for the first time. Because when we were leaving the house, we ran into a dead squirrel or dead rabbit.

Jana Shelfer 2:06

Like we love the car wouldn't start. We ran into a dead rabbit.

Jason Shelfer 2:10

Rabbits are like our like one of our little spirit animals that we run into all the time.

Jana Shelfer 2:14

It is my spirit animal.

Jason Shelfer 2:15

I carry like that's good luck for us.

Jana Shelfer 2:17

I carry in my purse a rabbit's foot. I have for 40 years.

Jason Shelfer 2:21

Yeah, no offense, rabbits.

Jana Shelfer 2:23

Well, I love rabbits.

Jason Shelfer 2:25

And so the car wouldn't start, they'll find their dead rabbit literally at the foot of our driveway.

Jana Shelfer 2:30

Uh-huh.

Signs, Spirit Guides, And Redirection

Jason Shelfer 2:31

And then we start going, hey, maybe this isn't the day for jump. And we've been warned for like three days that this is very dangerous. Like, if you don't do this right, you could get injured. All these things are coming up. So we've got the outside influence telling us, hey, that this might not be right.

Jana Shelfer 2:48

Well, I do believe the universe speaks to us in those ways. I do believe that the challenges we face, even if it is just delaying us from the experience we're to have, I do feel, I do personally believe that there are spirit guides that are helping us out and getting us in the right mind frame. And those challenges are little gifts.

Grit, Resourcefulness, And Commitment

Jason Shelfer 3:14

Correct. And there's a there's a choice between is it rejection in a spirit of redirection, or is it rejection saying, hey, you need to man up or muscle up and say, no, this is exactly what I want. This is exactly what I'm called to. And I will figure it out and I'll figure out what it is that I need to learn, what it is I need to, who I need to be to have it.

Jana Shelfer 3:36

It's almost like the universe is testing your grit or your resolve.

Jason Shelfer 3:43

Yes. Determination, all that, all those things, your commitment, perseverance, resilience. Because it's hard to beat someone who doesn't quit. I mean, that's just that's just a fact. Like if you're not going to give up, you will you will learn, you'll get the resources. Uh there's a saying out there that says it's not a lack of resources, it's a lack of resourcefulness.

Jana Shelfer 4:02

Yeah.

Jason Shelfer 4:02

Because like when we think about, and I say this all the time, and I know people get tired of hearing it, everything that we have today has always been here on the planet.

Jana Shelfer 4:11

Yes.

Jason Shelfer 4:11

We just learned a different way to manage the resources that we have on the planet to create the things that we have.

Jana Shelfer 4:17

Yes.

Jason Shelfer 4:18

So it's not a lack of resources, it's it's a new way of being resourceful and a new way of thinking that's created everything new that we have.

Problem Solving: Finding The Welder

Jana Shelfer 4:27

Yes. And that's that's incredible to think of. So back to the cage breaking. I mean, again, it there was several moments when I thought I could really go in, go into a defeat, yes, a defeatism mentality right now.

Jason Shelfer 4:45

Catastrophizing. They don't make the cages anymore. It's not like we can just go to the store, go to the sporting equipment store and buy a new cage. Right. Like that's the easy fix. We're in a throwaway society that where typically something breaks, you you just say, okay.

Jana Shelfer 4:59

Let's get it delivered tomorrow.

Jason Shelfer 5:02

Next day, air it.

Jana Shelfer 5:03

And if they they could even do it today for an extra two dollars.

Jason Shelfer 5:07

That's two dollars and ninety-nine cents. We know how to work that system.

Jana Shelfer 5:11

But this is a little bit different situation.

Jason Shelfer 5:14

So that's not an option. So you're on the phone at 6 30 at night. I was finding a welder.

Jana Shelfer 5:21

I was.

Jason Shelfer 5:22

And luckily you got the welder. They're like, I could do this tomorrow morning for you if you can get it here. And you got it to them.

Jana Shelfer 5:28

I did. And even though you had all sorts of appointments, I was like, no, I'm gonna figure this out and I'm gonna get this to them as soon as possible because I want to go to this camp on Friday. Yep.

Jason Shelfer 5:41

So we'll be picking up the ski today.

Jana Shelfer 5:43

I know. He was willing to work in the evening. Yes. Which I mean, it just almost felt like a synchronicity. Everybody was so when you align what you really want in life, it feels like the right people, the right teachers, the right opportunities just start falling into place. And it feels like you are lucky. It feels like you are lucky.

Jason Shelfer 6:10

And I think you also have to have the the belief that it will work out.

Jana Shelfer 6:15

It will.

Energy, Expectation, And Synchronicity

Jason Shelfer 6:16

So you could have gone into defeatism, had this attitude in your in your voice and in your inflection that you when you got him on the phone that he wasn't gonna have the time, that he wasn't gonna, that he was gonna be too busy and all this. But when you got him on the phone, you said, This is what I need. I need it quickly, and it's like I need to be fit into your schedule. And it wasn't like demanding, it was I need your help. And you're the you're gonna be my hero because I know that you're the man for it. And he's like, I want to be your hero, and I am the man for it. And I'll step up to the opportunity. I I almost felt him rise up in his persona to be what the world needed him to be and what you needed him to be in that moment. You know, it's really weird. So it was that like you transferred your energy to him because you believed what was possible.

Jana Shelfer 7:10

Now, on my way over there, I literally missed my exit. It took me an hour and a half to drive there.

Jason Shelfer 7:17

That's what happens when your husband calls and you're using navigation systems. I know.

Jana Shelfer 7:20

Jason was like, So, is there anything I can do for you? I'm like, Oh, I just missed it.

Jason Shelfer 7:24

Like, you did not call in the middle of my turn.

Jana Shelfer 7:27

Alexa telling me which way to go. Oh, and Tater was in the car. She got thirsty, needed to go potty, so I had to stop for that. Like, there were just so many little things. I started getting really thirsty. I was like, I need water. I don't know why I feel so parched right now. Why didn't I pack a water to go? This 30-minute drive is killing me. In the meantime, we have our my ski and the cage in the car, and uh, Tater didn't have any room to where she normally sits. So she was scrunched.

Jason Shelfer 7:57

All this fit into a little mini cooper.

Jana Shelfer 7:59

Yes. And my wheelchair was in there. Oh my gosh.

Jason Shelfer 8:01

Oh gosh, I forgot about the wheelchair.

How Badly Do You Want It

Jana Shelfer 8:03

Yeah, it was like such a packing for a vacation and fitting a dog in there. I feel like I could have easily said, I'm done. This is, you know what? It's just not meant to be. However, I feel like it all comes down to the questions we ask ourselves. And in that moment, it felt to me like it was almost the universe, God, mother nature, whatever you want to call it, whatever you believe in, was challenging me to dig a little deeper.

Jason Shelfer 8:32

Oh, that's big.

Jana Shelfer 8:34

And to ask myself, how badly do I want this?

Jason Shelfer 8:36

Yeah. Three feet from gold.

Jana Shelfer 8:38

Right?

Jason Shelfer 8:39

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer 8:40

How badly do I want this? And am I willing to even take it to the next level? It's almost a little gift in, hey, let's stay focused here. And what's really weird is that I was actually experiencing some inflammation on my elbow.

Jason Shelfer 8:55

You got a little tennis elbow.

Rest Signals And Forced Pauses

Jana Shelfer 8:57

Yeah. So in some, in some weird way, I am thinking, maybe this happened to force me to take a break. To take a couple days off.

Jason Shelfer 9:05

You know, it's funny. I think sometimes life does that. Like it will, it will, your body will hit this point and something will come up that says, Hey, you need a break. You're going, I'm we're gonna, I'm gonna make you take a break. I remember I would get sick sometimes. Like, my I was like, I don't get sick, but when I would overdo it, my body would say, Hey, you know what? Break time, buddy. Like you're down for two days.

Jana Shelfer 9:29

I truly.

Jason Shelfer 9:29

And then I would just pop out of it.

Jana Shelfer 9:33

My whole point today is that a challenge or adversity, unexpected adversity in your life, it is a gift. It's a gift.

Jason Shelfer 9:46

Adversity is a gift.

Jana Shelfer 9:47

It is a gift.

Jason Shelfer 9:48

And it's how are you framing your adversity? And also, where is it in your life that you're giving into adversity and it's getting in the way of the things that you really want?

Jana Shelfer 9:58

It's asking yourself, like my my coach Robin Banks always says, what do you have to? What do you have to, Jana? What do you have to? What do you have to?

Jason Shelfer 10:06

It cracks me up when he says.

Jana Shelfer 10:07

What do you want? What do you really want? Then go for it.

Jason Shelfer 10:10

Jana, what do you have to?

Jana Shelfer 10:13

Be unstoppable. Oh. Thanks for listening.

Jason Shelfer 10:17

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer 10:18

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