Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

Mountain Roads, Life Lessons

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 9 • Episode 44

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The Scenic Route to Success: Why Winding Roads Build Stronger Winners 🏔️

The Scenic Route to Success: Why Winding Roads Build Grit 🏔️

Tired of shortcuts leading to burnout? Live from the Blue Ridge Mountains, we explore why the straightest path isn't always the smartest. Discover the "Physics of Progress" and why life’s switchbacks are strategically designed to protect your "engine" and turn frustration into momentum.

In this episode, you will learn to:

  • Respect the Gradient: Prevent "mental bends" by embracing gradual, sustainable growth.
  • Master Perspective: See your goals from angles a straight line simply misses.
  • Prioritize Character: Forge the grit required to actually hold success once you reach the summit.

Mindset Nuggets for High-Altitude Growth:

  • The Switchback Strategy: Slowness isn't a delay; it’s a safety mechanism building sustainable capacity. (Believe in your circumstances).
  • Nugget Hunting: Replace complaints with: "What skill is this curve sharpening?" Shift from victim to student instantly.
  • Becoming vs. Reaching: You don’t just "get" a great life; you become the person who can sustain one. (Believe in yourself).
  • Incremental Durability: Rapid spikes break systems. Whether in scuba diving or business, gradual gains are the ones that endure.
  • The Meaningful Summit: A shortcut makes the peak hollow. The "frayed rope" of your journey is what gives the destination value.

Stop white-knuckling the steering wheel of your life. Hit play to turn your frustration into Living Lucky® fuel today!

Self-help, personal development, mindset shift, positive thinking, life coaching, overcoming frustration, resilience.

  • Why slow progress is better, building grit and tenacity, how to reframe setbacks, mountain road metaphors for life, sustainable success habits.
  • "Why is gradual progress better for success?" Gradual progress (like mountain switchbacks) allows your internal systems to adapt, preventing burnout and building the grit necessary to sustain your goals.
  • "How do I stop complaining about my circumstances?" Use the "Living Lucky® Nugget Hunt." Ask: "What is this moment teaching me?" to shift your brain from threat detection to opportunity scanning.

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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.

Jana Shelfer:

We are live from Morganton, Georgia.

Jason Shelfer:

North Georgia in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Jana Shelfer:

We are in the mountain.

Jason Shelfer:

We're on top of the mountain.

Jana Shelfer:

In fact, we are so on top of the mountain that yesterday we went out and we shot baskets. We lost three basketballs over the mountain.

Jason Shelfer:

It is so crazy watching a basketball go forever downhill.

Jana Shelfer:

Slowly, slowly, it rebounds off of the rim, and then you see it just go down that first little driveway. And then next thing you know, you see it curve and it is going down the mountain.

Jason Shelfer:

The voice in my subconscious is going, no. It was really terrifying and funny at the same time.

Jana Shelfer:

And what's so crazy is you look out the window and you think, this is so majestic, this view, it's so gorgeous. How could I possibly complain about the mountain? But I have to tell you, on the way here, I mean, we had been driving for 13 hours. I was in the backseat with Tater. And when you start coming around those windy roads, I felt like I was being jostled like a baby in a stroller.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, as soon as we got into the quote unquote mountains in that terrain, I was like, God, why can't they just build the road through the mountain, straight up the mountain? Why we we can't just get there. We're going everything is a turn. Like I was getting myself.

Jana Shelfer:

I was getting see I no, me too.

Jason Shelfer:

And you know what though? If I had to slowed down, but I was, I was, I wanted to be here. Like we were in the car for 13 and a half hours.

Jana Shelfer:

So I guess our our point of today's podcast is when you find yourself complaining, how do you spin that? How do you ask the question, wait a minute, how lucky am I? How is this serving me? What is this teaching me? What's the lesson? What can I learn right now? Yeah. What is the universe providing? Because there's always a little nugget.

Jason Shelfer:

And so so often we just drive right past the nuggets in life.

Jana Shelfer:

Uh-huh.

Jason Shelfer:

And it's a and it's beautiful because even in our goals in life, we want the quickest route possible. And so often we'll see that little meme about the the thread, the thread between start and finish.

Jana Shelfer:

Uh-huh.

Jason Shelfer:

And we're like, we want it to be that straight, seamless thread.

Jana Shelfer:

Uh-huh.

Jason Shelfer:

And it's not. It's a frayed rope that just goes all over in a tangled mess. And then if you stick to it long enough, you will get to the end. And there's a beautiful tenacity and grit and determination that says, hey, yeah, I did the work. I got through this. I went all the way. I got all the way to it.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, so what is your little nugget? What it what is the lesson that you have extracted from all this?

Jason Shelfer:

So I think one of the biggest things is as we move down the road, it allows me to see the mountain from multiple perspectives and multiple angles. So if we had gone straight to the top of the mountain, a lot of the a lot of it would have been missed.

Jana Shelfer:

True.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah. So it's it gave me a more appreciation for being at the top of the mountain.

Jana Shelfer:

So you get to enjoy the the scenery. Yeah. You get to see the little nature. You take these little winding pathways, and all of a sudden you're seeing things that maybe you wouldn't have seen just going in a straight line, right?

Jason Shelfer:

It's crazy. It's uh and it's just it's one of those things that sometimes we get so caught up in the chase that we we we don't want to pull the lessons from the life.

Jana Shelfer:

I also think that when you do take these little side-winding roads, it makes the now help me out with my math, but it helps the steepness not be so steep. Smaller increments. You're you're climbing and you don't even realize it.

Jason Shelfer:

Except for your ears start popping, right?

Jana Shelfer:

Right?

Jason Shelfer:

But you're building So you're getting your elevation gradually. And that's huge.

Jana Shelfer:

And when it's gradual, you don't notice it as much.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes. Which a lot of people are like, I want to be at the top of the mountain now. This is like also with the scuba diving, right? So you're like, you don't want to just sink like a rock to the bottom of the ocean because you would implode. You don't want to come up from the bottom of the ocean all the way to the top because then you get the bends. Just like climbing a mountain or reaching your highest goals, you if you can take your time doing it, like if you were driving to the top of a mountain straight up it, you're gonna burn your engine out.

Jana Shelfer:

True.

Jason Shelfer:

If you're going down the mountain without with without any gradient or without any of those switchbacks and turns, your brakes are gonna be gone. Very dangerous. So this is like one of those natural life lessons that sometimes we need those physics, it's spiritual, it's emotional.

Jana Shelfer:

Because we're learning little lessons that elevate us or give us the breakthroughs so that we can climb higher on the mountain.

Jason Shelfer:

It's giving us the ability to become the person who gets the top of the mountain.

Jana Shelfer:

I love it. Right?

Jason Shelfer:

Yes. So there's there's a there's a saying that you don't get to just have a great life. You become the person who creates the great life for yourself. And the way you become that is by experiencing experiencing the turns, the bends in the roads, though that's that centrifugal, it's not centrifugal force, but there's another word for it. But it's it's that force that's put on you that creates the character and the the grit, the determination, all those things that keep you going towards what you want in life, and also let you recognize what is your purpose that is driving you and pulling you towards it.

Jana Shelfer:

I'm telling you, every now and then you just gotta take a trip to the mountains.

Jason Shelfer:

That's right. That's and find the golden line.

Jana Shelfer:

Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer:

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer:

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

Head Shot

Jana Shelfer

Host
Head Shot

Jason Shelfer

Host