Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

"Dreamers" and "Realists"

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 8 • Episode 39

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Dream Big, Start Small: Finding Your Balance Between Audacity and Grounded Action

Ever wonder if your dreams are too big? Or are you playing it too safe? In this insightful episode of the Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason & Jana Banana, we tackle the age-old question: how do you balance audacious dreams with the practical steps needed to achieve them?

We share our personal journey of navigating this tension, revealing how our contrasting approaches—Jason's sky-high visions and Jana's grounded realism—actually complement each other, driving our podcast from crickets to over 200,000 downloads.

Here’s what you’ll discover:

  • The Dreamer/Realist Dynamic: Finding Your Sweet Spot: Learn how to leverage both big-picture thinking and practical action.
  • Building Momentum: The Power of Small Steps: Discover how consistent, grounded effort creates the foundation for soaring success.
  • Reframing "Failure": Turning Rejection into Learning: Understand how to see setbacks as opportunities for growth, like Thomas Edison's 10,000 experiments.
  • Thresholds of Perseverance: Knowing When to Push and When to Pivot: Learn to recognize your personal limits and adapt your approach accordingly.
  • The Airplane Metaphor: Grounded Beginnings, Sky-High Dreams: See how starting with practical steps allows you to eventually reach your most ambitious goals.
  • Comfort Zone Expansion: Gently Pushing Your Boundaries: Discover how to grow by gradually stepping outside your comfort zone.
  • Defining Your Reality: Aligning Your Dreams with Practical Action: Learn to create a reality that supports your biggest dreams.

This episode is a masterclass in balancing vision with action.

Nuggets:

  • How to balance dreaming big with practical steps.
  • The power of small, consistent actions.
  • How to reframe setbacks as learning opportunities.
  • Knowing when to push and when to pivot.
  • Expanding your comfort zone for growth.

Ready to dream big and take grounded action? Tune in to the Living Lucky® Podcast and start building the life you truly want!

How to balance dreams and reality, How to achieve big goals with small steps, How to turn failure into success, How to know when to push or pivot, How to expand your comfort zone, How to align dreams with practical action, How to stay grounded while dreaming big,

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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®. You are too. All right, Jason. What is it that you wanna talk about today?

Jason Shelfer:

So I had a client today that was curious about how they balance reality with dreaming big.

Jana Shelfer:

Which we struggle with all the time we talk about it all the time.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes, I dream way out beyond the clouds, and you do too, but you also like to be very pragmatic.

Jana Shelfer:

We both are dreamers. I would say I am more of a realist when it comes to the two of us. In fact, sometimes, especially when we first started our business, we would start talking about possible sponsors and I would say, okay, maybe we can go to my hairstylist, maybe we can go to my wheelchair mechanic.

Jason Shelfer:

The local mechanic.

Jana Shelfer:

And next, thing, I know Jason would be like, oh yeah, and Disney and.

Jason Shelfer:

Nike, nike.

Jana Shelfer:

And Netflix would want to sponsor us.

Jason Shelfer:

Delta or Southwest Airlines?

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, Jason starts going big time. Yeah, and next. Thing you know, we're like flying to Mars.

Jason Shelfer:

That's right. That's right. We're Elon musking it.

Jana Shelfer:

So what is your advice in trying to balance dreaming big and yet being grounded, because that's really what we're talking about.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, and so being grounded. I think that's a really good way to visualize it. So a plane taking off doesn't take off in the sky, so being grounded, and it starts slow and then ramps up. So I totally understand your points because we have to build that traction, build that momentum to get the plane off the ground Right. But then once it's off the ground, theoretically it could go as high as it wants to go, take the atmosphere and all that out of it.

Jana Shelfer:

But we do have and now we're turning into a scientist, right, and I am not a damn scientist by any means, like I, will make stuff up in a heartbeat.

Jason Shelfer:

But we have rockets that leave the atmosphere and things like that. So getting things off the ground is the goal. So we can dream as big as we want. We're pushing from landing on the moon to going to Mars. All this because people are dreaming big and they've got the momentum, the research and the track record that shows them that they can keep making progress.

Jana Shelfer:

I am all about dreaming big. Don't get me wrong. It just feels sometimes like there is a gap.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes.

Jana Shelfer:

There's a gap that people try to jump. Yeah, and then they miss the confidence that they build along the way. And sometimes we need to make those baby steps because even if we take a misstep or we think that we are failing or being rejected, in those little missteps we're building the perseverance and the resilience to either keep going or or say it's not worth it.

Jason Shelfer:

Say it's not worth it For me. I think about our podcast in this instance. When we started, I had these dreams of millions of downloads right, and for the first two years it was such slow running it was. You could define it as crickets because it was like a chirp here, chirp there, not even our moms, our parents.

Jana Shelfer:

They were like we don't know how to find it we don't know how to find it. We would even grab their phones and like download it for them, and they would still be like I don't know how to listen. And now we would even grab their phones and like download it for them, and they would still be like I don't know how to listen.

Jason Shelfer:

And now it's. I don't understand what you're saying, but now we're at 200,000 plus downloads, and so that's so much closer to the million, and it just keeps growing. So I'm like so now that dream is becoming a reality and really we were just having fun. I know Like it's not even a like. This isn't the serious nuts and bolts broadcast here. It's us hashing things out and saying how we've grown through certain situations.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, here's the thing. I think there's a couple things here. So when you dream too big, I mean you want your dreams to be big, because that's what fuels the motivation and the excitement within right. So you want it a little bit of out of reach, because that's what gets the blood flowing. However, when it's too far out of reach, then it feels like you start losing control momentum.

Jason Shelfer:

You start losing motivation because you don't see results yeah, and we tell ourselves it's out of reach.

Jana Shelfer:

And there's also the probability of experiencing some sort of disappointment along the way, because expectations start to flare up, even though we talk about let go of expectations. Let go of expectations, no expectations. Go in with an open mind. It's human to you build a dream, build some sort of vision. It is only human to start envisioning what that will look like, what that will smell like, taste like, and when it is something that is entirely different, it can sometimes feel like, ah, this isn't really what I wanted and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be yeah.

Jason Shelfer:

So one of the people I think about is Thomas Edison. Like he had this dream of lighting up a light bulb and having electricity all over the place and 10,000 tries, like 10,000 experiments that failed Right, and that, to me, is the story of disappointment. Like he's getting the materials, he's plugging it in or whatever he did back then, and the light bulb's blowing or it's just not working, filaments are crashing and we can tell ourselves the story that I'm not making progress, or we can tell the story that we tell often. What did I learn here? How did I get closer? Like I know now that that's one more way that doesn't work. That's what he was telling himself.

Jason Shelfer:

I know now that that's one more way that doesn't work. That's what he was telling himself was. Oh, there's one more way that doesn't work. So I've got to be getting closer to the way that works. Now that's a little different because it's a specific item that he's trying to do. When we're trying to create our own reality and the reality is far from what we might currently see Then we just start finding those little places where we notice it. To me, like when you had me do a gratitude journal because, honestly, my reality was not close to what I had hoped for when we started this personal development journey. But I started doing that gratitude journal and I started realizing where things were going well and how just lucky I was like, how beautiful my life was.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, I feel like you're derailing a little bit, because when I when I think people are saying I don't know how to balance reality with the dreaming, I feel like you know, when people say, let's get, let's get real here, let's, let's bring this down to reality, I don't think they're trying to deflate your dreams. I don't think they're trying to not be supportive. I think what they're, what they're really trying to do, is actually the opposite. They're trying to be more supportive by saying, hey, let's chunk this down so that you start seeing success immediately.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah. So what if we redefine reality as what's the next step I can take right now?

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, I still don't.

Jason Shelfer:

I still think how is that? I mean, that's real, that's realistic.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, but okay.

Jason Shelfer:

Well, tell me.

Jana Shelfer:

Well, I mean, as we started this, jason and I often have this argument, because you often dream so big that and you're a workhorse and you will work toward a goal and not see results for 20 years, I, on the other hand, I, I fizzle out. I mean, if I don't start seeing results, it starts thinking. I start feeling I lose interest, I lose um motivation time money. I mean there's, there's intangible resources that I I start thinking, okay, this just isn't what God wants for me.

Jason Shelfer:

Right.

Jana Shelfer:

This is not my destiny and sometimes I feel like you don't understand that perspective because you literally will be broke and literally have calluses on your hands, feet, Completely I mean seriously. We've been in situations where Jason is inebriated or completely. His feet are completely sunburned and, like you, literally cannot go on and you're like I got one more.

Jason Shelfer:

I got one more. I don't have a wallet.

Jana Shelfer:

I don't have a phone, but I can walk 10 miles. Yeah, I got it One more mile.

Jason Shelfer:

And.

Jana Shelfer:

I, I'm the one that steps in and says no, like no no more yeah and I know that there's times in our, in our life, whether it be our relationship or our, our career, or our finances, or our fun or our friends I mean almost in every sector like you're the one that's like, and we need each other because we balance each other out, because you're the one that's like, jana, you can go a little more, you can go a little more, and I'm the one that's like, I'm done.

Jason Shelfer:

It's time to go home, relax a minute, get our breather, do some meditation. Yeah, right, yeah, and it's the same argument when it comes to dreaming and being real.

Jana Shelfer:

I mean, it's the same argument that I'm talking about. It's like there's a delusion there where.

Jason Shelfer:

So I don't think it's a delusion. So to me, when I was doing the Camino de Santiago and I literally got myself lost six miles out of the way, which is a 12-mile round trip, and I'm walking and I'm up and down these mountains and I'm going, it can't be done. That was the thought. I was crying by myself on this trail and I started thinking it can't be done. But then I was also thinking I've scheduled to check into this hotel or this hostel, whatever it was, and I need to be there by this certain time.

Jason Shelfer:

But, I was like I can't go anymore. But because I had that, this goal, literally I looked at my feet and I begged them to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. So I don't think it's delusional. I hear you, though. Sometimes I sacrifice my self-care, my personal care. I don't take into account all aspects of a holistic life, in that it's kind of like I go into survival mode and say-.

Jana Shelfer:

You have a boundary that is at a different level than I do and, at the same time, I have a boundary that I feel is at a different level than you do, because on the Camino I literally could have said, screw it, I'm going to stay at the next place I find, which would have been honestly healthier.

Jason Shelfer:

It would have gave me time to check and see what, like talk to somebody and say where am I? Also, how far off track am I? And I could have really gained more information. But I did know where I was quote unquote supposed to be or where I had planned on being, and I wasn't willing to deviate. And so I had to beg myself, beg my feet. Can you just keep putting one foot in front of the other? And that was literally the only thing in my head at that point.

Jana Shelfer:

Instead of saying I can't, I started saying one more step, one more step until about dreaming big, and I mean, I've had some dreams inside me that are pretty, pretty ginormous.

Jason Shelfer:

Audacious.

Jana Shelfer:

They are. They're pretty audacious and there is a voice inside me that is almost sometimes grandiose. Don't get me wrong. I get that. I also have a. I want to say it's a little more of a quick trip maybe.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, Like a. Who do you think you are? Is that the voice? No?

Jana Shelfer:

it's a quick trip that says, if I don't think this is working.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh, okay, yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

If I think, okay, this doesn't feel right.

Jason Shelfer:

If I invest X amount of time, money, resources, whatever.

Jana Shelfer:

And I'm not getting any kind of and I'm not getting the responses that I want, then I'm out. Well then, maybe it's time to pivot, Pivot yeah, I pivot a little quicker than you do. Whereas you I mean you would spend the next 50 years and I'm like okay, wait, I don't have 50 years, I do not have 50 years, I maybe have five it's hard because one of the things for me is it's very hard for me to recognize rejection outside of um like the immediate people that I care about.

Jason Shelfer:

So like if I get a look or something like that and then honestly, a lot of times those looks um say um, prove them. Like if it's, if it's worth it to me, prove it, prove that you can do it.

Jana Shelfer:

So, like I know we're talking about your client, but when your client says you know they want to balance dreaming big and reality, most people for reality. They need to pay the bills.

Jason Shelfer:

Yep.

Jana Shelfer:

Or they have a limited amount of energy, or they have a limited amount of time. Or they have a limited amount of time or they have a limited amount of resources.

Jason Shelfer:

Everybody has this right, and so that's where it's like help find the support group.

Jason Shelfer:

It's knowing what is important for you Know what the most important things are and sticking in that value trend and also knowing what your definitions are, define what reality is for you and then get proficient in the reality zone and then keep stepping further. To me it's like a comfort zone Where's your comfort zone? And then just push the edges every now and then, I guess, as much as you can, because that's where the growth happens, like dream. I love that you dream big and I dream big because it I think it does take us to the next level, it does take us out there, and I love the fact that you bring us kind of home and you're saying, hey, let's, let's be grounded in this and and let's let's not go chasing windmills.

Jana Shelfer:

I sometimes don't think and I feel like that's what your client was needing, and and again. The only reason I see that is because and I don't want to, I don't want to be the the, I don't want to be known as the anchor, you know that pulls us down. However, I do feel it's important to be grounded, otherwise you're just. You're just the electric the wire. That's crazy or the hose that's flailing in the air.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes, you're just the hose, that's flailing if you're not grounded in what you're trying to accomplish. I think that's's the. I think that's where we've really come together and excelled, because our balance between each other, with the what is it we truly want, what is on the path to where we're going, and then- I think we can be better. Yes, we always can be better. I really think we can be better.

Jana Shelfer:

And you know what? I feel like we need to listen to this conversation again, because I feel like just listening to ourselves talk will probably give us an aha moment. I'm sure it will.

Jason Shelfer:

It always does, and that's why we do this.

Jana Shelfer:

Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer:

Keep Living Lucky®, bye-bye.

Jana Shelfer:

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