Articulating Your Goals: Climbing Together

Stop Guessing, Start Articulating: Why Precision is the Secret to Success 🎯

Ever reached a milestone only to feel... nothing? Vague goals lead to "sterile" results. In this episode, we bridge the articulation gap—the space between what you say you want and how it actually feels. We reveal how Jana transformed from last place to World Champion in 13 months by shifting her identity first and her schedule second.

In this episode, you will learn to:

• Close the Articulation Gap: Move from vague labels to sensory clarity. What does success look like, smell like, and feel like in your body?
• Identity-Driven Behavior: Stop chasing motivation. Ask, "How does a champion act?" and let that answer dictate your habits.
• The Daily Huddle: A 10-minute, 3-question framework to align with the people around you and kill confusion.

Nuggets

• Date Your Goals, Don't Marry Them: Overwhelm is just a list of un-prioritized dreams. Pick one path, build proof, and pivot if it doesn't align. (Believe in your circumstances).
• Sensory Success: If you can’t describe the "room temperature" of your dream life, you aren't ready to live it. Articulation is the bridge to manifestation.
• The Internal GPS: Learn to distinguish "electric fear" (growth) from "draining noise" (misalignment). (Believe in yourself).
• Stand on Shoulders: Partnership is a relay race. Sometimes you climb; sometimes you hold the rope. Shared clarity makes the weight feel light.
• Commanding the Universe: Speak outcomes as "already unfolding" to move from wishing to winning. (Believe in a higher power).

Stop wishing for "better" and start defining "exact." Hit play to sharpen your vision and start Living Lucky® today!

• How to define success, identity-based habits, overcoming goal overwhelm, communication for couples, world champion mindset.
• "How do I articulate my life goals?" Define goals through sensory details: what you see, feel, and the daily routines required. Use the "Daily Huddle" method to answer: What does it look like? What does it feel like? What would it mean if it never happened?
• "How can I stop feeling overwhelmed by my goals?" Narrow your focus to one catalytic goal. Treat it as a "trial period" to build momentum and clarity before add

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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

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Theme: Articulation
• 0:45 The “Modern” House Mistake
• 2:00 Why Words Fail: Define Feel And Look
• 4:19 World Champion Clarity And Calendars
• 7:00 Trading Evenings For Early Mornings
• 8:30 Aligning Values And Mutual Wins
• 10:30 Picking One Goal Without Overwhelm
• 12:20 When Goals Shift: Listen And Pivot
• 13:45 Communication, GPS Metaphor, And Close

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 Living Lucky®. Good morning! I'm Jana. I'm Jason. And we are Living Lucky®! You are too. On day one, we talked about setting goals, chunking them down. On day two, we talked about aligning our goals and supporting people either in your family or your friends or your co-workers.

Jason Shelfer: 0:35

Any accountability partners?

Jana Shelfer: 0:37

Today we're gonna talk about articulating those goals.

Jason Shelfer: 0:42

Articulation.

Jana Shelfer: 0:44

Articulation.

Jason Shelfer: 0:46

I don't know why that took me to Greece too.

Jana Shelfer: 0:48

I think that was more fornication.

Jason Shelfer: 0:50

That's right.

Jana Shelfer: 0:52

Anyway, so we happened to catch this, I don't know, it was kind of a crazy little show, but we had it on while we were traveling, and it was about real estate in the Caribbean.

Jason Shelfer: 1:07

Now I'm gonna use this as an example because people moving to the Caribbean from like their metropolitan lifestyle.

Jana Shelfer: 1:15

And these were around the US who had been together their entire lives. So they literally had been married for 50 years and they're now experiencing retirement and they want something new in their life. This guy literally says, you know what, we grew up in a hist or we have been living the last 50 years in a historic home back in Panthers.

Jason Shelfer: 1:36

Old Victorian. Yeah.

Jana Shelfer: 1:39

And now that we're making the leap to move to the Caribbean, we want something new, something different.

Jason Shelfer: 1:46

Something modern.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Something modern.

Jana Shelfer: 1:49

Now, as soon as the realtor hears modern, she starts showing them these Uber modern houses in the Caribbean. And as soon as they walk in, the wife goes, This may be a little two-stark.

Jason Shelfer: 2:03

Culture shock.

Jana Shelfer: 2:04

This feels cold. This feels black and white.

Jason Shelfer: 2:07

Yes.

Jana Shelfer: 2:08

This feel there's appliances here we've never seen before.

Jason Shelfer: 2:12

It's a very sterile place.

Jana Shelfer: 2:14

Yes. And so all of a sudden, and then the husband says the exact same thing. Like, oh my gosh, this this is not what I thought modern looked like. Even though, in the in the scope of most people in the world, it's exactly what modern looked like. So my point is he wasn't able to articulate what he wanted. Well, this is and the wife just went along with it because she's like, oh yeah, well, she probably luck wants modern, so let's go there.

Jason Shelfer: 2:45

Right. And the wife probably had a a closer understanding to what modern was than the realtor did. Because the realtor obviously knew like she's like, okay, I know what modern is to me.

Jana Shelfer: 2:56

Well, the realtor was spot on, if you ask me. However, to these this couple, I mean, to the wife, the wife just wanted maybe a dishwasher.

Jason Shelfer: 3:06

Right. She she's like, I would like upgraded appliances. I want, I see all my friends having these modern appliances, modern little upgrade chains. She's not on a wood-burning potbelly stove.

Jana Shelfer: 3:18

No, she literally walks in and she sees this wine fridge and she's like, What is this? Oh my god. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:26

We've made it.

Jana Shelfer: 3:26

Anyway, my point is sometimes we have these goals. Sometimes we put them on the wall. We start supporting our accountability partner in those goals. And then we start going in a direction and we think to ourselves, this isn't anything of what I wanted.

Jason Shelfer: 3:46

What I pictured, what I was going to feel like. And that's so one of the biggest things to articulate, or actually, not even so on the articulation part, uh-huh, there's an understanding element. So between when you're coming back to that huddle that we talked about in the last podcast, it's not only your job to hear and to see your accountabilities partners' goals, the best question you can ask is what does that look like for you? Or how does what does that feel like for you? Like when you get this goal, what does it look like? What does it feel like? What would it mean if you never achieved it?

Jana Shelfer: 4:19

So when I put on the wall last year, I want to be a water ski world champion. Jason immediately, because we've been doing this for a while now, he immediately says, Well, what does that look like for you? What does that feel like? And what does a world champion act like?

Jason Shelfer: 4:40

Yes, that's and that's a very critical point is what is a world champion act like? And that involves, okay, what are you willing to do to achieve it?

Jana Shelfer: 4:49

And sometimes that is what are you willing to? And I don't want to use the word sacrifice because for me it it's all going in the right direction, but there are some things, for example, uh well it's gotta fit in this calendar. It's gotta fit yes, it's all gotta fit. We all have 24 hours a day, we all have 365 days a year.

Jason Shelfer: 5:10

Are you maximizing it? And are you are you giving your calendar your time or are you giving your calendar someone else's time?

Jana Shelfer: 5:16

So, for example, I know Jason goes to a group every Tuesday, and sometimes he doesn't get home till 10:30, 11 o'clock. And I went once this is at night. I went once, and I literally at 8 o'clock, I was like, I have to go to bed. Well, if you so like this is a fun group and all, but I cannot be doing this.

Jason Shelfer: 5:35

Yeah, if this is your first podcast, then this might be a shock to you. But those of you that have listened from day one or have been in here for a while, you'll know that our bedtime is 7:30.

Jana Shelfer: 5:45

I go to bed early, I get up early because I ski as the sun comes up. Good morning, Sunday.

Jason Shelfer: 5:52

Welcome to the party.

Jana Shelfer: 5:53

And that's part of my goals. Yes. So when Jason said, Well, what does that look like for you? It's understanding, okay, this is where I want to go with life. This is what I want to do. So let's work together on this.

Jason Shelfer: 6:07

Yeah. It's one of the so in the vision in my mind, because you mentioned I would like to know, I would like to have that feeling of being on the podium, having the confetti, the gold confetti all around me. Like, and that so none of that happened. Like you were on the podium, but no gold confetti. But I understood more about what this feeling was, and then also understood, okay, she's willing to go ski twice a day, sometimes three times a day, if if she's gonna make be making progress, or if she's has has has to work towards this world championness of her.

Jana Shelfer: 6:40

And Jason started putting that to his values, which is hey, if I can help her, then now I have become a life coach to the world champion. Yes. Which only benefits him in Hello, right?

Jason Shelfer: 6:55

Who can so if you can take someone from worst to first in 13 months on the world stage, that's to me, that's that's impressive. That so everything about this whole program that we set up in the beginning at the end of 2024 and through 2025 was so aligned with both of our goals. Like when we talk about setting a goal and then meeting up, it it aligned like it was amazing.

Jana Shelfer: 7:21

So now, because you know, he was very good at asking me, well, what does that look like? What does that feel like? I feel like the roles have reversed a little bit because this year, as we start as we have been talking about our goals and as Jason has been putting them on the wall, I need to ask exactly what you asked me last year, is okay, what does that look like for you? What does that feel like? Because in our last podcast, we talked about the symbiotic relationship and how we climb together. Yes. And so I've been standing on his shoulders, and now it's time for me to give him the to put a clip in the rock and give him the rope and now let him climb to get up higher. Does that make sense? Yeah, and it feels so now the same, the same process goes back to him. You know, what does this look like with the coaching and the clients and and how can I help you achieve that?

Jason Shelfer: 8:22

And I think there's probably a lot of people out there that go in, I don't know what my goals are, you know? Like we're so right now we're already a week into January, or we were not a week, maybe, but we're getting right now. We're talking about articulating articulating what your goals are. So maybe you need to go out and walk for a while to be able to articulate well so that you're clear about what your goal is. And if you did the exercise that we talked about in the setting the goals two at two podcasts ago, you have a sheet of like a just a sheet of things to pick from. And then you get to get crystal clear on on what one or two of those things is for this year.

Jana Shelfer: 8:58

And it doesn't matter which one you pick.

Jason Shelfer: 9:00

No. I that that has been a just something that excites you maybe maybe it scares you.

Jana Shelfer: 9:06

I I think I told you the first year I said, I want to start a YouTube channel, and I want to start a podcast, and I want to start uh writing a book, and I want to start speaking all over the world, and I want to become an artist and a piano player. And like I had all these goals. It doesn't matter which one you choose, the one you choose is just the path for now.

Jason Shelfer: 9:26

So big. Oh, my my head just blew off. Because so often we get overwhelmed in all the things we want to do, and then we put all our energy into all of it, and none of it happens. Then we get so depressed and and underwhelmed with what our progress.

Jana Shelfer: 9:42

And the other thing that I have learned is that six years ago, when we it was it's actually been a few more years than that, but when we started this whole um personal development, yeah, and goal writing process, life change. Sometimes we don't know what our soul wants. Like sometimes we really don't know. I literally thought I wanted to be speaking in front of people. That may still happen, but when I went out and started doing that, it there was something that didn't quite feel like maybe it wasn't my time yet.

Jason Shelfer: 10:17

And it just didn't feel like your lighthouse, like that energy amplified.

Jana Shelfer: 10:23

Now that I've had this world waterskiing year behind me, speaking might have a totally different energy for me.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer: 10:32

So sometimes we don't really know what our goal is, and that's okay because if we just start moving in that direction, we can kind of start eliminating what doesn't work.

Jason Shelfer: 10:44

Yes. And if we're articulating, and this is you're gonna have to, you're gonna get better at articulating the more times you huddle up. Like we were huddling up every day. Like, and that was a that was a blessing from COVID.

Jana Shelfer: 10:58

And part of that has been this podcast. We huddle, we huddle and and we air it out so you can follow us along on this podcast.

Jason Shelfer: 11:05

Huddling with the world.

Jana Shelfer: 11:06

It's so true.

Jason Shelfer: 11:07

But also, I I would say that the world is our accountability partner. So all of our listen listeners are our accountability partners because as we work through this and as as we grow, we get calls from you, emails with you, you hit that text button that's in the notes, and you text us what your successes are. And so you're in our rubber band, you know, but you get you're gonna get better at the articulation the more you do it. Anything you do repeatedly, you will get better at.

Jana Shelfer: 11:35

Now, okay, let's just take this a little further, or maybe we save this for the next podcast. But when it comes to articulating what you want, and if something's not going in the direction that you want, how to pivot, there is an art into understanding the distinction between maybe fear and maybe hey, this this really isn't what I want. There is a little voice deep, deep, deep down, that will help guide you. The trick is learning to hear it.

Jason Shelfer: 12:18

Yeah. So it's it's that voice of that internal articulation saying, I I'm scared of this or I don't want to do it because it's uncomfortable. Or because it just doesn't align anymore. And that's where when you're articulating, we can ask, okay, are we still on the same page? Are we still on the same quote unquote road trip together? Because if you're on the, if you, if you, if your partner just decided I'm going on a different road trip and you're sitting in the passenger seat, you're gonna feel confused.

Jana Shelfer: 12:49

Oh my God. Sometimes, Jason, so we'll have the GPS of where we're going. Okay, we're going to this restaurant. And I'll ignore that GPS because I'll be like, and then all of a sudden, Jason goes by the Indian food restaurant and is like, oh wait, you know what? I want to go there. And then all of a sudden the GPS is like, stop, turn around, turn around, recalculating, recalculating. I'm in the in the car. What the hell's going on? I don't understand.

Jason Shelfer: 13:15

And then you get there, and your gut is like, this is not what I've been mentally preparing myself for.

Jana Shelfer: 13:20

Yes.

Jason Shelfer: 13:21

This is not what I didn't signed up for.

Jana Shelfer: 13:23

I didn't agree to this. I don't even like Indian food.

Jason Shelfer: 13:27

But even if you did, even if you loved Indian food, but you had your mind set and your stomach set on sushi for the night. Yes. It's a game changer because now you're going, this is like I was so getting prepared for another type of meal that I love.

Jana Shelfer: 13:41

And now you're you're throwing me off. That all comes down to communication. Yes. Learning to articulate this is what I want. Not only to your spouse, not only to yourself, but to God and the universe. That's a bigger one. This is what I want. Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer: 14:02

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer: 14:02

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