Quantum Goals 2: The Spark of Now – From Last Place to World Stage in 13 Months
From Worst to FIRST
By Jason Shelfer: Living Lucky Podcast
In our last post, we explored the incredible thirty-year journey to the Great Barrier Reef—a testament to how a goal can quietly gestate and manifest when the "you" who set the goal finally aligns with the "you" who is ready to receive it. Some dreams take a generation to bloom.
But what about the goals that defy timelines? The kind that feel less like a gentle evolution and more like a quantum explosion of possibility?
If the Great Barrier Reef was the subtle pull of destiny, the next part of our story is the immediate, non-negotiable command of pure will. This is the lesson on how to compress decades of potential achievement into a single, focused year.
The Competitive Spirit Awakens
In February of last year (2024), Jana turned fifty (not the important part, so don’t talk to her about me posting her age 😳). By September, her formidable competitive spirit—the same drive that earned her a Paralympic Gold Medal—began to stir restlessly. After years of retirement, the fire needed a new fuel source.
Living on a lake in Florida, her search was simple and immediate: adaptive waterski competitions.
The result she found was astonishingly specific: The Adaptive National Championships, set to take place in Auburndale, Florida—just a short drive away—in less than a week..
This is a classic "Living Lucky®" moment. The resources, the place, and the time all aligned, but they required immediate action on Jana's part to activate.
The Audacious Declaration
Jana signed up. She didn't know the rules. She had never run a slalom course. She had never even been on a trick ski.
She showed up, qualified in the familiarization round, and, as expected, came in dead last. But in that moment, something shifted. She wasn't discouraged; she was ignited. She loved the community, the challenge, and the feeling of fighting toward her ability, not her disability. Coming in last place wasn’t a failure, it was a “figuring out”.
On September 21, 2024, standing at the edge of the competition dock, she made a declaration that sounded utterly impossible:
"I'm going to make the USA Adaptive Waterski Team, I'm going to compete in the World Championships in Australia next November, AND I’m going to be the World Champion."
Think about that timeline: Last place at the National Competition to World Champion in 13 months. Most people spend a lifetime chasing that title. This was not a wish or a hope—it was a mission statement, a non-negotiable future reality.
The Difference Between a Wish and a Quantum Goal
In our work on mindset and goal achievement, we often guide people to understand the difference between a goal set by the "You-of-Today" and one set by the "You-of-Tomorrow."
The "You-of-Today" often wishes, "I hope I can achieve X someday." This puts the goal far off in the future and relies on luck.
The "You-of-Tomorrow," the powerful self who has already achieved the goal, commands the outcome and begins acting from that identity now.
Jana didn't say, "I'll try to get better." She declared, "I am going to be the World Champion." This quantum leap in identity immediately bent reality around her.
Activating the Mission
Once the declaration was made, there was no hesitation, no doubt—only a commitment to Engineering the Impossible:
Immediate Resource Mobilization: We are professional podcasters and entrepreneurs, and our most valuable resource is time. We immediately dedicated it.
Expert Solicitation: We didn't waste time trying to figure it out alone. We sought out and hired the best coaches. We trained with world champions.
The Unconditional Commitment: I told Jana I would pause my own life coach business once she broke a world record or officially made the USA Team. This wasn't a condition for success; it was a recognition of the commitment that was already required. I was putting skin in the game.
The result of this radical commitment was fast and furious. In June 2025, Jana broke a World Record in Women's MP2 Trick. The following month, she and her 2004 Basketball Team were inducted into the Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame—a beautiful synchronicity affirming the path she was on. In August, the USA Adaptive Waterski Coach called. Mission accomplished: she was on the team. We were fully IN the Living Lucky® success vortex.
This rapid transformation proves that while some dreams require decades of quiet incubation, others demand an immediate, decisive activation of your highest potential.
In our next post, we will dissect The Becoming: exactly how you bridge the gap between last place and World Champion. We will explore the deliberate process of investing in the person you must become to achieve the impossible goal you just set.
Until then, consider:
What goal have you been treating like a "wish" that truly deserves to be a non-negotiable, quantum "command"?
What is the immediate, decisive action you need to take today to activate that goal?
If you acted from the identity of the person who has already achieved that goal, how would you behave differently in the next 24 hours?
Websites to include:
Tournament Results - https://www.iwwfed-ea.org/disabled/26IWWF03/
Living Lucky Podcast - https://livinglucky.buzzsprout.com
(Make sure to check out the Episodes from December 31, January 2, and January 5 focused specifically on Goals)
Want more actionable insights and real-world examples of Living Lucky® principles in action? Download and subscribe to the Living Lucky Podcast, where Jana and I share 15-minute, powerful conversations three times a week to help you engineer your own success.
https://livinglucky.buzzsprout.com
