Ability Over Disability: Family Café Expo Orlando Florida

Ability Over Disability: Unleash Your Potential at The Family Café Expo 

What if your focus on limitations is actually limiting you? Join Jason and Jana Banana as we dive into the transformative power of focusing on ability over disability, inspired by our upcoming adventure at the 27th Annual Family Café Ability Expo in Orlando! This massive gathering of 13,000+ people celebrates what's truly possible when we shift our perspective.

Discover why society's unconscious bias often highlights what people cannot do, while this expo showcases a world of innovation, adaptation, and boundless potential. From accessible zip lines at Gatorland to adaptive sports and specialized travel planning, learn how simple tweaks can unlock extraordinary life experiences. This episode embodies the core of Living Lucky®: making your own rules and refusing to let perceived limitations stop you from living life to the fullest.

We share personal stories of pushing boundaries – from ballroom dancing to climbing Jamaican waterfalls – and how we navigate challenges by expanding imagination and trusting our inner guidance. Hear how the Living Lucky® philosophy helps you transform life's inevitable setbacks into powerful stepping stones, making you "better, stronger, and more powerful" for your next chapter.

Inside:

• Shifting Your Focus: Moving from limitations to celebrating abilities.
• The Power of Adaptation: How creative solutions unlock new experiences.
• Making Your Own Rules:  External limitations don't define your potential.
• Expanding Imagination: Uncovering possibilities you never knew existed.
• Challenges as Growth: Reframing obstacles into spiritual curriculum.
• Inclusion & Celebration: Embracing diversity and human ingenuity.
• Living Lucky® Mindset: Cultivating a mindset of boundless possibility.

Nuggets: Focus ability, not disability. Adapt, create, thrive. Make your rules. Imagination unlocks. Challenges build strength. Inclusion empowers. Live fully. 

What is the Family Café Ability Expo? How to focus on abilities instead of disabilities? Accessible travel planning for people with disabilities. Inspirational stories of adaptation and perseverance. Finding resources for adaptive recreation in Florida. Transforming challenges into growth opportunities. How to reframe challenges as opportunities? Are th

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
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Believe that God is working through you, for you, and always conspiring in your favor.

Episode Transcript

Jana Shelfer (00:00):
Are you ready to create a life you crave?
Let's spin that doom loop ofnegativity into an upward
success cycle and start LivingLucky®.
Good morning.
I'm Jana, I'm Jason and we areLiving Lucky®.
You are too.
Because this week we are goingto an expo.

Jason Shelfer (00:22):
A sports ability expo.
What?
Yes, it's going to be big.
How come I'm?

Jana Shelfer (00:26):
just learning about this now.

Jason Shelfer (00:28):
What's interesting to me is we've been
to several trade shows, exposand things like that Conferences
and we've been to bigconferences but we've had booths
at some.
We've been invited to tradeshows and we show up and there
may be 50 to 200 or 300 peoplethat show up yes.
I got an email yesterday thatwe're expecting 13 to 15,000

(00:52):
people.
Holy shnikes so the marketingmaterial that I had planned is
changing a little bit yeah wehave marketing material for A
couple hundred people we'replanning on 30 people stopping
by our booth.

Jana Shelfer (01:04):
Yeah, saying hey download our podcast.

Jason Shelfer (01:06):
I'm super excited because we're going to be just
we're promoting the podcast,we're not promoting the coaching
, we're not promoting anythingelse, but it's super exciting to
be in front of 13,000 to 15,000people.

Jana Shelfer (01:17):
Now, this is the 27th Annual Family Cafe.
Yes, Now when you hear thattitle.
I had no idea what we wereattending.
I'm going to be real.
I had no idea.

Jason Shelfer (01:28):
It's one of those when you know, you know, and so
I wanted to have a conversationaround.
What is the Family Cafe and howdo we get more people talking
about it?
Because it's free for peoplewith disabilities or people with
family members that havedisabilities.

Jana Shelfer (01:44):
Okay, now here's the thing.
This is why I love thisconference is because their
whole theme is ability.
It's an ability expo.
Whereas sometimes I think,society has this- what's the
disability expo?
Unconscious bias that is deepin their subconscious and when

(02:05):
they see any kind of difference,they sometimes jump to what
they can, can do.
Focus on what we can do, focuson what we do have Focus on the
solution.
Do you know what I'm saying?

(02:29):
It's just turning your focusslightly, shifting your focus to
the positive.

Jason Shelfer (02:38):
To the possibility instead of the
limitation.
Yes, thank you.

Jana Shelfer (02:43):
It is turning-.

Jason Shelfer (02:44):
And that's the big difference maker.
Yes, thank you.
It is turning, and that's thebig difference maker.
Yes, that changes the outcome,because you can create from what
you have.
You can't create from what youdon't.

Jana Shelfer (02:54):
Now, as I'm reading through all of these
vendors that are going to bethere, I am so excited because I
want to interview all of thesepeople.
I mean, there's Go ahead.

Jason Shelfer (03:09):
Well, there's a lot of people.
There's the dog training peopleand there's friends that are
going to be there, likeGatorland.

Jana Shelfer (03:16):
So we've been longtime friends with Gatorland
and Gatorland has been so greatbecause they made their zip line
one of the only zip lines inAmerica that is actually
accessible for people withdisabilities.

Jason Shelfer (03:31):
Yeah, and the United States Tennis Association
.
It's a United States TennisAssociation.
Yeah, that's the name of it.

Jana Shelfer (03:36):
Which I probably have a lot of friends that maybe
even still run that.
So, I'm excited to see that.

Jason Shelfer (03:43):
So exciting.
So there's a lot of.
I mean there's over 200.
I think 250 vendors orexhibitors not vendors,
exhibitors that'll be thereincluding.
Living Lucky® Pickleball.
I want Pickleball.
I haven't gone through thewhole list so I can only imagine
Pickleball will probably be oneof the exhibitors there.

Jana Shelfer (04:05):
This whole family cafe is about inclusion.
It's about including everyoneinto and adapting.
It's about inclusion.
It's about including everyoneinto and adapting.
It's about inclusion adaptionand possibilities.

Jason Shelfer (04:19):
What are the possibilities?
If you just look at it a littledifferently, if you just tweak
it a little bit and find a toolthat will make it work?

Jana Shelfer (04:28):
I saw this one group that's telling jokes on
wheels.
Oh, what is the name?
Of it, and I'm like oh my gosh,I did this whole sit down
comedy thing.

Jason Shelfer (04:37):
Lights camera jokes Is that what it's called.
That's what it's called, yeah.

Jana Shelfer (04:41):
I can't wait to meet them.
That's going to be so much fun.

Jason Shelfer (04:45):
It's going to be a weekend of imagination and
celebration.
Weekend of imagination andcelebration.

Jana Shelfer (04:52):
Now here's what I'm a little bit unclear about
is are we showing up to telleveryone about our podcast, or
are we there to interview peopleand to promote what?

Jason Shelfer (05:07):
everyone else is doing, so I thought about this
and I think this time this willbe our first time going to the
Family Cafe.

Jana Shelfer (05:16):
Ability Expo.

Jason Shelfer (05:17):
And I think we will just show up, we will be us
and we will be there and wewill have our signs, the Living
Lucky® signs, and we will justexperience what it's like to be
at the conference.

Jana Shelfer (05:32):
They have us in the sports ability section, so
we're a little confusing.
When you come to our booth,you're going to see ballroom
dancing and you're going to seewater skiing and you're going to
see Jana and Jason just tryingoutrageous things like skydiving
.

Jason Shelfer (05:49):
That's right, right.
Skydiving, snow skiing, waterskiing, all the things that we
do Hand cycling.

Jana Shelfer (05:55):
It's what I like to call experiencing the fullest
life possible Golfing.
Yes, and not letting thelimitations stop us.

Jason Shelfer (06:03):
Imagining a way to do whatever it is you want to
do, which I think embodies notonly life, but what this event
is really all about, and also alot of the things that we talk
about, because the whole podcastis about doing whatever it is
in life that you want to do andnot allowing your reason or

(06:24):
excuse to get in the way.

Jana Shelfer (06:25):
It's about the inner dialogue in our heads when
we face challenges andadversity.
How do you navigate that?
How do you overcome?
How do you go around?
How do you go underneath?
How do you sometimes facesocietal beliefs when you know
inside that they're just notgiving you a chance?

Jason Shelfer (06:47):
Yeah, and also, where do you put limits on your
own imagination?
Because I didn't even realizewhere I limited my own
imagination until I got curiousabout it and I didn't realize,
wow, if I can expand the limitsof my own imagination, there's

(07:07):
even more possibility out there.

Jana Shelfer (07:09):
I'm telling you, I not only want to make this my
YouTube channel, which I'mrelaunching in the fall.
I want to contact some of theTV stations and I want to tell
them my ideas and I want to gofull throttle with this.

Jason Shelfer (07:23):
I think it'll be fun ideas and I want to go full
throttle with this.
I think it'll be fun.
I would definitely want to beinvolved in this with you
because it fits right in withhow we live life.
I mean, it's a curious littleadventure and I love adventures.

Jana Shelfer (07:41):
So we often talk about recognize what brings you
energy, what lights up your soul.
My soul is going ding ding,ding, ding ding.
It's like, uh, yeah, it's likeone of those um pin pinball
machines right now.

Jason Shelfer (07:56):
So you're scoring , you're.
The points are racking up rightnow.
I am scoring.

Jana Shelfer (08:00):
Right now it's like if you're in the casino and
you just went as like ding ding, ding, ding, cash out, cash out
.
So I'm feeling.
I guess what's so exciting tome is that when we started
Living Lucky®, we both knew thatwe were onto something right.
And we've had a hard timesometimes articulating it to

(08:23):
people.
We have spoken all over theworld, we've gone into
businesses, we've givenworkshops.

Jason Shelfer (08:30):
We've worked with , everyone knows what it feels
like to be lucky.

Jana Shelfer (08:32):
Yes.

Jason Shelfer (08:33):
A lot of people have a hard time accepting the
fact that you can cultivate andchoose to be lucky.

Jana Shelfer (08:42):
And when you feel lucky, you attract more luck.
The problem that we all face isthat life happens and sometimes
, when life happens, it canderail us or it can drift us
into a feeling of yeah well, Iwas doing this and then this
happened.
You get a case of the yabbitsyou do.

Jason Shelfer (09:02):
It's like when you get, if you walk out the
door and you get slapped in theface, you feel the slap and it's
not like and the slap ismetaphorical.
So don't think you're going towalk out the door and get
someone's going to slap you inthe face, but it's that
metaphorical.
Something happened to me andthe more you live in through the
Living Lucky® philosophy thenthe more you get a chance to say

(09:24):
what did I actually experiencehere and what did I learn from
it and what were those feelingsthat came up, so how did I?
grow from that and really whatwas behind it, Because it was
really just part of thespiritual curriculum that made
me better, stronger and morepowerful to move into my next
step.

Jana Shelfer (09:43):
You are right on.
You are right on.

Jason Shelfer (09:46):
It's hard in the moment, right, I mean it's still
hard in the moment.
It's so hard in the moment, butit's so much easier now, like
if I tried to be where I amtoday five, 10 years ago.
It does sound a little foreignLike if I was telling myself my
10-year-back self the same thingI would be going.
That doesn't quite make sense.

(10:07):
You'd be like but you have totrust the process.

Jana Shelfer (10:08):
You'd be like Jason what have you been smoking
?

Jason Shelfer (10:10):
That's right.
You kind of have to trust theprocess that it becomes part of
the norm.
Yes, the more you experiencethe feeling and explore it with
curiosity and realize it's partof this curriculum, that makes
you better, makes you stronger,makes you more of the champion
you are each day.
What doesn't kill you makes youstronger, live a little longer.

(10:33):
Oh, is that the words?

Jana Shelfer (10:34):
I don't know, I made them up.
Okay, well, they rhyme.
Kelly Clarkson should adoptthose.

Jason Shelfer (10:38):
Okay, I thought it was Beyonce or somebody, but
okay, thank you, kelly, forthose wonderful lyrics, and
whoever your actual songwriterwas, oh okay, so again, where
are we going this weekend?

Jana Shelfer (10:50):
it's the 27th Annual.
Family Cafe Ability Expo it isan Ability Expo, so we are
focusing on abilities, we arefocusing on what we can do, and
they have all sorts ofexhibitors that are going to be
there, different groups,different activities that you

(11:11):
can experience.

Jason Shelfer (11:12):
And it's right here in Orlando.
It's on I-Drive and I thinkit's at the Hyatt Regency.
I know it's on InternationalDrive.
Well, we need to figure thatout.

Jana Shelfer (11:19):
We do need to figure that out, and do need to
figure that out Because we'regoing to be there.

Jason Shelfer (11:21):
And I will try to put it in the podcast notes.

Jana Shelfer (11:24):
You know, one person that I really want to
talk to is the vacation planners.

Jason Shelfer (11:29):
Oh, Because I feel Excellent vacations, I
think Exceptional vacations.

Jana Shelfer (11:33):
We have been on so many vacations and even though
we've had great travel plannersin our lives, I feel-.

Jason Shelfer (11:42):
Having someone that specializes in accessible
travel Is priceless Would beamazing.

Jana Shelfer (11:47):
We go on cruises all the time and I actually just
mark that I can climb, becauseif they see me in my chair, then
automatically they put us inthese excursions that literally
include you've got to be on abus getting in a bus got to be
on a van with a lift with a liftand just riding around and

(12:08):
experiencing things through awindow don't let her off that
bus yes, so jason and Ilike we want to climb that
waterfall we have to fudge and II don't want to call it lie or
fraud or misrepresent, butthat's exactly what we do.

Jason Shelfer (12:24):
No, we don't.

Jana Shelfer (12:26):
We put on there.

Jason Shelfer (12:27):
We say we are mildly or moderate.
We can do moderate tasks.

Jana Shelfer (12:30):
That we are moderate climbers.
Yes, and sometimes we get inthese situations where I do have
to get on Jason's back, andthen I'll go back down and get
your chair.
And then he overheats and heends up passing out, and then
I'm stuck, then we're both stuckand I have to look around and
go hey, hey, can somebody rollhim down the mountain?

(12:51):
That was Jamaica, so I can'tsay that we have been maybe the
role models in this.

Jason Shelfer (12:59):
Oh, I see what you did there, wheelchair joke.
Ah, boom, boom, boom.

Jana Shelfer (13:03):
But I'm telling you, if we want to see and
experience the world, sometimeswe have to make our own rules.

Jason Shelfer (13:11):
And make our own path.

Jana Shelfer (13:13):
And I think that advice can be in everyone's life
.

Jason Shelfer (13:20):
Yes, that carries over to everyone, regardless of
ability.

Jana Shelfer (13:25):
Yes, I mean, sometimes we just have to make
our own rules and we have to saystop limiting me because I know
what I can do.
I believe in myself.

Jason Shelfer (13:36):
And when you focus on your ability, you grow.

Jana Shelfer (13:38):
that, oh my gosh we're going to end right there.
Thank you so much.
You grow that.
Oh my gosh.
We're going to end right there.
Thank you so much for joiningus.

Jason Shelfer (13:44):
Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer (13:45):
Send this to someone that you think it will
change their life.
Bye-bye.
If the idea of Living Lucky®appeals to you, visit us at www.
LivingLucky.
com.