The Bucket Test: Would You Actually Trade Your Problems for Anyone Else's?

Are you in love with your problems? Most high achievers treat their struggles like a badge of honor, using "reasons" as a ready-made excuse to stay the same. In this episode of the Living Lucky® Podcast, Jason and Jana Banana challenge you to audit your obstacles. Are you identifying with your growth or your friction?

Inside this high-impact conversation, you’ll discover:

• The Bucket Test: A perspective-shifting experiment that reveals why you’d never trade your "crisis" for someone else's.
• The Excuse Armor: Why we cling to "not enough" to hide from the responsibility of our own potential.
• Do, Delegate, or Delete: A mechanical framework to turn emotional spirals into massive momentum.
• Recurring Gifts: Why the same drama keeps returning—and the one decision that stops it for good.
• Success Cycling: How to kill "complaint bonding" and start attracting wins.

If you’re tired of spinning in negativity, this is your roadmap. Stop being a dumping zone for problems and start being a magnet for results. Hit play and recalculate your reality.

🎯 KEY NUGGETS

• Identity vs. Potential: If you lost your excuses, who would you have to become? Problems often mask the fear of success.
• The Gift of Friction: Recurring issues are lessons waiting to be "unwrapped." They won't stop until you change your decision.
• Perspective is Luxury: Realizing most people wouldn't trade their problems into a global bucket creates instant gratitude.
• Energy Management: High-level energy spent on "refrigerator-sized" problems drains the fuel meant for your "stadium-sized" dreams.
• Mechanical Action: "Do, Delegate, or Delete" is the fastest cure for anxiety-driven paralysis.
  
  mindset coaching, personal growth, limiting beliefs, emotional resilience, self-improvement, life coaching, conflict resolution, how to stop complaining and start living, how to overcome the fear of not being enough, why do I keep having the same problems, personal development tools for success, how to delegate effectively, mindset shifts for entrepreneurship, breaking the doom loop of negativity.
  Why do people get attached to their problems?
  What is the "Do, Delegate, or Delete" framework?
  How can I reframe my

Transcript

Create A Life You Crave

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.

Why We Get Attached To Problems

Speaker 2 0:15

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

Jana Shelfer 0:21

Nothing more than problems. Would you trade your problems for anyone else's problems?

Jason Shelfer 0:30

That's a good one. We like to complain about our problems, don't we? Everybody likes to bring up their problems.

Jana Shelfer 0:36

They love their problems. They're so attached to their problems. Look at my problems. I feel like people treat their problems like a badge of honor.

Jason Shelfer 0:46

Right. Look at my problems. Look at this is why I can't do things. This is what's happened to me.

Jana Shelfer 0:53

You know, I feel like they almost treasure them more than they treasure their dreams. You know, sometimes goals, aspirations.

Jason Shelfer 1:00

I'll I'm gonna be, I just want to be honest because when I started thinking about this, I was like, where in my life do I grab hold of my problems and hang on to them like they're my lifeline?

Jana Shelfer 1:11

Oh, I could tell you.

Jason Shelfer 1:12

I know you can.

Jana Shelfer 1:13

If you want to know what problems you have, ask your family.

Jason Shelfer 1:16

Ask your family, ask your house.

Jana Shelfer 1:17

We'll be able to tell you like that.

Jason Shelfer 1:19

Ask the people you hang around with the most.

Jana Shelfer 1:20

Uh-huh.

Jason Shelfer 1:21

Because they're gonna tell you. Because what you don't realize is you talk about your problem. People talk about their problems a lot.

Jana Shelfer 1:27

Uh-huh. Constantly.

Jason Shelfer 1:29

And in fact, that's uh how a lot of people bond.

The Bucket Test For Perspective

Jana Shelfer 1:31

No, it's how they identify.

Jason Shelfer 1:33

Oh, oh, you nailed it.

Jana Shelfer 1:36

People identify with their problems.

Jason Shelfer 1:38

So that's how a lot of my clients, and and that's one of the biggest points of awareness is when we're identifying, hey, what are the the seven to ten points in your life that make you who you are? Like what are those identifying moments in life that created the person you are today? And a lot of them, like 70% of them are the pain points, are the problems, or the are the hardest times that they they they experienced, and they're like, these things happened to me. And they don't identify what what they grew through. But the point of this podcast is would you take the problems that you're currently going through today? Yes, write them on a three by five note card, put them in a big bucket if everybody in the world was right doing the same thing, and now you're all gonna draw from a hat until all the problems are back out.

Jana Shelfer 2:33

I have I want no part of that experience. No, I look around and I think, oh my gosh, I'm so like, you know, when the hot tub is out of propane. I'm like, you know.

The Refrigerator Filter Complaint Spiral

Jason Shelfer 2:47

My hot tub's only getting to a 98 degrees.

Jana Shelfer 2:51

Right. I'm like, this isn't hot enough. My hot tub isn't hot enough.

Jason Shelfer 2:57

I am not gonna put up with this anymore.

Jana Shelfer 2:59

No, right now, Jason is it's really funny. It's really funny, and I'm just gonna share with anyone listening. So right now, Jason has been almost battling with our refrigerator.

Jason Shelfer 3:16

Just over a $50 filter.

Jana Shelfer 3:19

Over a $50 filter and changing this filter.

Jason Shelfer 3:22

Well, what I'm it's not it's not even the $50 filter, it's the 10 cent O-rings that go in the filter.

Jana Shelfer 3:30

Do you hear your speech?

Jason Shelfer 3:32

I do. And I don't I don't have the capacity to learn how to do the O-rings. I or I don't have the the time to fool with it, but I'll I'll spend all day bitching about it.

Jana Shelfer 3:46

Because we love our problems. Without our problems, we wouldn't have anything to talk about.

Jason Shelfer 3:53

So and I and that was not one of the things on my list, but now with this awareness here, yes, I can hear myself for the past three days because it's we're here on actually longer, because we're here on Wednesday, and I've been dealing with this since Saturday.

Jana Shelfer 4:08

Yeah, I know, I know.

Jason Shelfer 4:09

Gosh, I'm gonna go spank myself after.

Jana Shelfer 4:12

And yet, yet, so I've heard so much about the refrigerator filter, and yet when something else came up about our business, and something else came, I said, you know, maybe we should communicate about this. And you kind of looked at me dumbfounded, like, what I don't talk to you about this. I I talk to you all the time. I talk to you 24. We've been discussing the filter on the refrigerator.

Jason Shelfer 4:44

I've been discussing it in my mind. I've been verbalizing about that damn filter.

Excuses And The Fear Of Not Enough

Jana Shelfer 4:52

It's incredible, isn't it? It is just crazy how we we tend to love our problems. We treat, we are so intimate with our problems. We don't want to let go of our problems. That's another thing.

Jason Shelfer 5:05

The other thing is part of our problems create this comfort zone around us. And we don't sometimes we won't admit that.

Jana Shelfer 5:12

Well, because it they give us excuses.

Jason Shelfer 5:15

Oh, look at that, would you? Would you look at that? That's for you, Elliot.

Jana Shelfer 5:21

Would you look, Elliot?

Jason Shelfer 5:22

Well, would you look at that?

Jana Shelfer 5:24

Because the real fear is the fear of not being good enough, not succeeding. This is wanting to admit that that we are responsible for our own reality.

Jason Shelfer 5:39

Yeah, and if we didn't have an excuse, what would we tell people for not being the person that we could be? Yes.

Jana Shelfer 5:48

Isn't that interesting? What would we if you're not having an aha moment right now? You need to rewind and listen to this until you do.

Jason Shelfer 6:00

If we didn't have an excuse, what would we tell people for the reason we're not becoming or being the person that we have potential of being?

Speaker 2 6:08

And that's why we love our problems. We love them. Oh, tramp, it was horrible. I don't have enough money to do that.

Jason Shelfer 6:21

I don't have time.

Jana Shelfer 6:25

I'm not skinny enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not sure if you're enough. Business is my problem. I'm just smart enough. It's all the I'm not enough, which our problems tend to mask those I'm not enough.

Jason Shelfer 6:43

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer 6:43

Right?

Reframe Problems As Opportunities

Do Delegate Or Delete

Jason Shelfer 6:44

So big. I am ne I would never put my problems in a bucket. And trade them. And also what I need to do is just look at my problems and say, is this a problem? And and also what are you making it a problem? Am I deciding it's a problem when it's really an opportunity? And and also what can I just let go of? And this might open up a door for the do, delegate, or delete.

Jana Shelfer 7:13

Oh, that's you know, just that's a whole that's a whole other podcast. Another podcast we should probably.

Jason Shelfer 7:22

Do, delegate, or delete.

Jana Shelfer 7:24

We just went through that this morning. I I finally just got to the point where I said, you know what? I am so done with this whole website stuff.

Jason Shelfer 7:36

Yeah, delegate it.

Jana Shelfer 7:37

And I have literally called like five people to delegate it to, and everyone else is feeling the resistance that I have. They're like, oh my God, if you don't want, I don't want to either. Hot potato. Oh, I feel your energy when you call.

Jason Shelfer 7:51

We found an old team that we worked with, though, and now we're delegating it, and we're gonna have a meeting with them on Monday.

Jana Shelfer 7:56

I'm like, you know what? I will sell the camper to delegate this problem.

Jason Shelfer 8:03

That's right.

Jana Shelfer 8:04

It is no longer a problem for me.

Jason Shelfer 8:06

It's it's our $50 filter. It's out the window.

Jana Shelfer 8:08

This has been a maybe a life lesson in we don't need to do everything ourselves. And as we, if we can create a team, then you're just gonna go even further, right?

Jason Shelfer 8:25

Well, we've we've proven that.

Problems As Gifts That Return

Jana Shelfer 8:27

Oh my gosh. Our problems. See, our problems are actually guides, they're gifts. Our problems are gifts. Whatever your problems are in your life, let's reframe them. And instead of thinking of them as problems, let's start asking better questions. Let's start asking, how is this serving me right now? How is this helping me? And also, why am I so in love with this problem? Because if you really analyze your life, you'll realize there's a pattern there, and this problem that you have will continue to resurface in your life until you make a dis a different decision on how to handle it. And that is the universe doing you a favor because it is encouraging you to expand, grow, learn, and evolve.

Jason Shelfer 9:23

Yeah. So what Jana just said there is your problem is a gift, and until you unwrap it, it will keep coming back and giving itself to you.

Jana Shelfer 9:33

Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer 9:34

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer 9:35

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