The Fun-First Edge: Why Play is the Primer for Performance

What if the fastest way to level up your performance is to protect the part most people cut first—fun? In this episode of the Living Lucky® Podcast, Jason and Jana Banana share a behind-the-scenes look at their recent adaptive ski camp. Discover how a detour into downtown Winter Garden—complete with pizza, a "clown car" van full of wheelchairs, and a 25-minute jazz solo—unlocked technical breakthroughs on the water the very next day.

Learn why play isn't a perk; it’s the primer coat that makes discipline stick. We dismantle the "all work, no play" limiting beliefs that stall team growth and explore how to use humor to widen your attention and lower social anxiety.

Key Takeaways to Help You Start Living Lucky®:

• Fun is a Performance Catalyst: Shared laughter lowers the "threat response" in the brain, allowing for faster learning and better communication. (Believe in the people around you).
• The "Bond First" Rule: High-stakes results require high-trust foundations. Memories are the glue that holds a team together when the pressure is on. (Believe in your circumstances).
• Stop Cutting Play: When you're exhausted or behind schedule, your instinct is to cut the "fluff." That’s exactly when you need it most to prevent burnout. (Believe in yourself).
• The Power of Shared Narrative: Inside jokes and "remember when" moments turn a group of strangers into a high-functioning unit. (Believe in a higher power).
  
  Self-help, personal development, team building, mindset, positive thinking, life coaching, How fun improves performance, psychological benefits of play, building trust in teams, adaptive sports mindset, overcoming social anxiety through fun.
• "How does fun improve team performance?" Fun acts as a social lubricant that builds trust and lowers the brain's defense mechanisms. This "psychological safety" allows team members to take creative risks, accept feedback more readily, and collaborate without the friction of ego or fear.
• "Why is play important for personal development?" Play encourages curiosity and "Spiral Intelligence," helping you see old problems from new, lighter perspectives. It prevents rigid thinking and helps integrate new habits by making the learning process rewarding rather than taxing.

Stop grinding and star

Transcript

Setting The Stage For Ski Camp

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®.

Jason Shelfer 0:14

Good morning.

Jana Shelfer 0:15

I'm Jana. I'm Jason. And we are Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer 0:19

You are too.

Jana Shelfer 0:20

We've been having ski camp this past week. First camp of the season.

Jason Shelfer 0:25

And it's been chilly.

Jana Shelfer 0:26

Spring training. That's right. Cold spring training.

Jason Shelfer 0:30

It's a cool spring. It's a cool, cool summer.

Jana Shelfer 0:34

Oh dear.

Jason Shelfer 0:35

Oh, it's cruel, isn't it?

Jana Shelfer 0:36

Yes.

Jason Shelfer 0:38

That water felt cruel when I got in it.

Jana Shelfer 0:40

And there's so many life lessons with these ski camps. I just, I love and I'm so grateful that this has come into our path. But the one thing that I really want to focus in on today's podcast is how fun is a team builder.

Jason Shelfer 0:55

Yeah. It's an amplifier, it's a team builder, it's a it's a it's one of the fabrics of relationship.

Why Fun Builds Strong Teams

Jana Shelfer 1:02

We had strangers in our house this week. Never met. We had never met. In fact, we went to the airport to pick them up and we were like, we don't even know what we're looking for, we're looking for a wheelchair.

Jason Shelfer 1:10

I know. I passed them once, at least once going around the circle at Orlando Airport. Oh, you did? Yeah.

Jana Shelfer 1:16

So I was like, I didn't know that.

Jason Shelfer 1:18

Well, he texted me off the chain thread and texted me it specifically. I guess, and that makes sense. Like, I'm the guy that's like, Can you take can we take this off the group thread?

Jana Shelfer 1:27

Yes.

Jason Shelfer 1:28

But I didn't think to look on the group thro thread. So he like it was 15 minutes of them sitting there going, Whenever you're ready, we're ready.

Jana Shelfer 1:37

We're here, we're waiting.

Jason Shelfer 1:38

That I'd been there for like 45 minutes.

Meeting Strangers And First Impressions

Jana Shelfer 1:40

They didn't know what we look like. We didn't know what they look like. In fact, I was so surprised when they came into walked into the house because Jason went to pick them up from the airport. Then they walked into the house or rolled into the house. And I actually stayed in the kitchen for a minute because I was like, I need to listen to listen to the voices so I can make judgments.

Jason Shelfer 2:02

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer 2:03

Stop. That's so terrible. Anyway, okay, so we have strangers here and they're learning to ski for the first time, which was so great to see the progression. It just makes you warm and fuzzy when you get someone up on the water for the first time. The third night they were here, we decided, even though we were exhausted, we were tired, and literally we could have sat in the hot tub and then gone to bed.

Jason Shelfer 2:29

And and like there's been like this cold to the bone going on. Like the water, and the water wasn't horrible, it was like 65 degrees, which is a that sitting in that for long periods of time brings your body temperature down.

Jana Shelfer 2:44

So we easily could have gone to bed. However, I was like, no, we're gonna go out and make a memory.

Jason Shelfer 2:50

Yes, let's go paint the town.

Jana Shelfer 2:53

We are going to downtown Winter Garden. So we all we like a clown, we all get into this big van. So one wheelchair at a time, we're going up the lift and and we're cramping into this van, right? In fact, I don't think we could have fit another wheelchair person. We were at the max, and it it was quite funny when we parked, and you know, you see all these.

Jason Shelfer 3:16

How many people in wheelchairs are coming out of that van?

Jana Shelfer 3:18

People are like, oh, they let them out of the institution.

Jason Shelfer 3:22

Oh, that's funny.

Jana Shelfer 3:23

Anyway, we go downtown and we went to Crooked Can, which is a brewery.

Jason Shelfer 3:28

We went the whole the whole Plant Street market, it is an incredible place.

Choosing Memories Over Bedtime

Jana Shelfer 3:33

Yeah, so we had a few beers and we had some pizza. Very non-training like. We just decided to have You gotta carve up.

Jason Shelfer 3:41

You gotta carve up for the competition.

Jana Shelfer 3:43

And then afterwards, we thought, let's go walk downtown and just see what's happening in Winter Garden.

Jason Shelfer 3:51

Somebody called it a fart walk.

Jana Shelfer 3:53

Okay, that might be what it is.

Jason Shelfer 3:55

You know, after you eat, you're like, let's get the digestion going, let's go walk a couple miles and just let it set.

Jana Shelfer 4:04

And then our significant others all with us going down the bike trail of Winter Garden, and all of a sudden I hear Janaa. And I look over and it's my neighbor Thomas. My neighbor Thomas works at Pilar's, which is a nightclub in downtown Winter Garden, one that I've never actually been to.

Jason Shelfer 4:25

I had never been either, because I I just I don't do the club scene.

Jana Shelfer 4:29

Yes.

Jason Shelfer 4:29

And it's very it's very much catered to, I think, like our group.

Jana Shelfer 4:35

So you know what? I uh he as he's yelling, hey Janaa, I'm working tonight. I said, Hey, we're on our way. We're gonna come see you. So we all ended up in this nightclub, and then when we enter the nightclub, someone says, You know what? Upstairs, they've got jazz band playing.

Jason Shelfer 4:55

Yeah, live music.

Downtown Adventure And Laughter

Jana Shelfer 4:57

So we found this elevator. We all cramp into the elevator, all of these wheelchairs, and we go up to see the jazz band player. And that's when we all have a couple cocktails, people are like, let us buy you some drinks.

Jason Shelfer 5:12

That's right. Well, you gotta have a couple cocktails just to sit back, lounge, and what and listen to the jazz. And I could smell like a some type of incense. There was something, there was an incense in there.

Jana Shelfer 5:24

I'm like, is this what vaping smells like? I feel like there's a vapor near us.

Jason Shelfer 5:29

I was like, things are I smell patchouli. And my and I was like, things are about to get groovy up in here.

Jana Shelfer 5:36

The jazz band starts playing, and that in itself was an experience because their opening song was literally 25 minutes.

Jason Shelfer 5:45

Well, the other part of that is we got to talk to them. Like it's very cool to sit and talk to the band, and then you get invested.

Jana Shelfer 5:53

Yeah, right? Once you talk to the band, because they were setting up, you're like, hey, my name's Jason.

Jason Shelfer 5:58

This is so and so like everybody has made the introductions. Yes. And then you're like, now we're invested because if we if we sneak out, yeah, they're gonna know our names.

Jana Shelfer 6:08

Yeah, now we're invested. We have to stay for at least the first song. Well, the first song was 25 minutes, I kid you not. Which, as I'm sitting there, I'm going, okay, it might be time to go. Now we're all skiing in the morning.

Jason Shelfer 6:22

This is longer than the dark side of the moon whole album.

Jazz Club, Cocktails, And Long Solos

Jana Shelfer 6:27

However, that became part of the story.

Jason Shelfer 6:31

And the memory, yeah. I mean, it was like we woke up talking about it the next morning because it was good jazz.

Jana Shelfer 6:37

It was just, it was like you expect it's it was like the saxophone player needed their little five-minute introduction, and then all of a sudden and then there's three three or four minutes between going to each person. And then they pull they trombone the trombone with the big lips and the bass guitar. And then all of a sudden, we're oh that trombone has had to be exhausted. We gotta give the drummer a turn, right? Which I'm sorry, but you know, listening to a drum so.

Jason Shelfer 7:05

Well, also, you're a music person, so you can um hear the different pieces of the band. Yeah, I'm not the music person, so I I it's nice for them to say, okay, this is the sound you're hearing from me.

Jana Shelfer 7:19

Like this is my contribution here, which is kind of like the in the meantime, you know, we're all talking at the table, and uh I just want to say, like, strangers came over to us, they wanted to know what we were doing, they were singing songs with us. We just had a great time. Now, the reason I bring this up, because that's really all that happened the entire night. Throughout the camp, what did we talk about?

Jason Shelfer 7:47

We talked about well, it's all it's always about the stories.

Jana Shelfer 7:51

The weirdo that came over and talked to us. You know what I'm saying?

Jason Shelfer 7:54

You're probably listening because we get like hundreds of thousands of downloads from Winter Garden.

Turning Night Out Into Shared Stories

Jana Shelfer 7:59

We talked about how people were laughing as we all kept coming out of the van.

Jason Shelfer 8:05

Out of the van out of the elevator. They're like, How many people did y'all fit in that elevator?

Jana Shelfer 8:08

We talked about the oysters that we tried. You know, some people were trying oysters for the first time.

Jason Shelfer 8:14

Oh, so funny. Emily's like, you know, I don't know if I'm allergic to these or not. I'll try one. Like, if you've got a shellfish allergy, let's not try it while we're out out and about. Let's have an epipin and all this other stuff. So funny.

Jana Shelfer 8:27

I will say though, the next day on the water, we all just gelled. We all just gelled. It was interesting.

Jason Shelfer 8:34

The biggest, the biggest breakthroughs happened the next day on the water after the bond, the fun, the bonding, the we created continuity.

Jana Shelfer 8:43

Yeah, we created a little family, and it almost it just was the piece of the recipe. Yeah, the ingredient that we needed.

Next-Day Breakthroughs On The Water

Jason Shelfer 8:54

The ingredient or the thread, you know, the the those things that are bonding, those things that bring things together. So ingredients bring things together, that through the thread that ties things together. Yes. It's that bringing everyone together around commonalities and fun. Like fun is such a crucial factor in anything.

Jana Shelfer 9:14

Uh you kind of let your inhibitions down.

Jason Shelfer 9:18

Well, you skew the learning curve. That's a fact. That is true. You know, when you're having fun, you will discover things that you didn't know that you could discover.

Jana Shelfer 9:26

And and part of that, what I'm trying to say is building those friendships and relationships helped us translate on the water.

Jason Shelfer 9:36

On the water, yes.

Jana Shelfer 9:37

It helped us in our finding our common goals and just just allowing us to be our authentic selves without trying to filter, okay. I don't want to uh I want to say what I'm doing, but I don't want to hurt anybody. Right.

Jason Shelfer 9:51

Well, you learn a lot about people when you're having fun with them. You do, and you learn, okay, and we can always bring it back to fun because you've been there together.

Jana Shelfer 9:59

You have memories together, which creates this bonding point. Would you agree?

Jason Shelfer 10:05

100%. 100%. But oftentimes we we leave the fun out.

Jana Shelfer 10:09

Why is that?

Jason Shelfer 10:10

Because we get serious, we have an agenda. Like agenda is great. If you don't include fun in the agenda, you're missing a crucial ingredient or a crucial thread.

Jana Shelfer 10:20

You know what? This is a lesson I not only need to learn again, I feel like I'm having deja vu that I've learned this over and over and over in my life.

Jason Shelfer 10:30

Well, think about it.

Jana Shelfer 10:32

It seems to be the first thing we cut out.

Jason Shelfer 10:35

Yes. Whenever the pressure starts building, it's per you get in performance mode. You get in, I have to, I should, I need to. You get into all these.

Jana Shelfer 10:45

I get a little too disciplined, a little too strict, a little too disappointed.

Jason Shelfer 10:48

Pressure makes good diamonds, whatever. You know, you get that's that true. Yes, and yes, and but if you like a diamond in the wrong hand is just a rock, so you need to make sure that you are cultivating that diamond with love, care, and fun.

Jana Shelfer 11:05

Fun. It is the ingredient that just will bring the magic.

Jason Shelfer 11:11

It's an amplifier.

Jana Shelfer 11:12

I love it. Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer 11:14

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer 11:14

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