PDM 011: Imposter Syndrome

Narrator: Welcome to the home of Project Dream Mastery. Here at PDM, we are challenging the status quo of what it means to follow your dreams and how to unlock the power those dreams will bring to your life. The show experience will be unscripted, authentic, and transparent. So now sit back, relax, and get inspired with your hosts Lucas Johnson and Patryk Labuzek.

Patryk Labuzek: Hey, hey, hey! Another week brings another new episode of Project Dream Mastery. It is an amazing day here in Dublin, Ireland and I am filled with so much positive energy, ready to share it with all of you guys! So, myself and Lucas are so pumped to have you here. And with that said, I feel that this is an episode you do not want to miss out on.

Lucas P. Johnson: Welcome to the 11th episode of the Project Dream Mastery show where we help inspire you to follow your dreams, defy expectations, dream big, and love deeply. My name is Lucas Johnson from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Patryk Labuzek: And I'm Patryk Labuzek from Dublin, Ireland.

Lucas P. Johnson: Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast to be the first to receive new episode releases and if you have any questions that you would like answered on the show, please tag us on Twitter or Facebook at Project Dream Mastery. Just in case you are interested in the full experience, this episode is available with video. So check out our website at ProjectDreamMastery.com/listen to watch now.

Patryk Labuzek: So the topic for today's episode is imposter syndrome. Now don't freak out. As scary as this sounds, Lucas is going to outline it to us now what it actually means. So I'll pass it over to Lucas.

Lucas P. Johnson: Thanks, Paddy. So according to the good old web and a site called Wikipedia, imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Let me repeat that. Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. So relevant. Did you know that an estimated 70%, an estimated 70% of people experience these imposter feelings at some point in their lives according to a review article published in The International Journal of Behavioral Science?

Patryk Labuzek: So if you are listening right now, have you ever felt this way? If so, did you feel alone? Lucas?

Lucas P. Johnson: You know, the truth is you're not. Sometimes I forget my own accomplishments. And then I realize that I actually have a pretty impressive background. Really. I'm going to repeat that. Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever truly felt this way? Imposter syndrome is a real thing. Look it up. Wikipedia says it all. But in between those thoughts, myself, I face imposter syndrome between those thoughts. I face imposter syndrome and this comes in many different facets of life. Paddy and I are entrepreneurs. We are dream seeking go getters, adventurers, travelers, lovers. Oh, man, we love to defy expectations and we also dream super duper big. Paddy, man, imposter symptom's real. So some of the topics we'll be addressing today is entrepreneurship, social media, family, friends, personal life. And as we talked about in our last week's episode with Brandon Walker, man, what an incredible episode, right, Paddy?

Patryk Labuzek: An amazing episode. Crazy. So much positive content, so much, you know, relevant things and wow, mind blowing.

Lucas P. Johnson: You know, we're going to talk about the tribe aspect and how Brandon outlined your tribe, your circle and your true objections that fall within that tier of your circle. That was so interesting to me because I just haven't ever thought about that way. So when we think about imposter syndrome in our life, we have to also think about our circle and how it relates to our tribe. Are you the outcast? Are you the one that really in everything you do seems to be the one no one trusts or you feel that you can't trust yourself? Or do you feel your experiences don't level up? You need a level set, my friend. You need to really think about the things you've accomplished. So thinking about my personal journey, my personal story, I have faced imposter syndrome so many times I can't even count. But it's not until recently since Paddy and I have started this podcast Project Dream Mastery and we've went on our own journey, our dream seeking, defying expectation, loving, deeply journey that I found out my story can crush all of those feelings of that I'm a fraud. Why, Paddy? Why do I feel that way? Well, I started off very young in my entrepreneurship journey. I was 12 years old when I started my first business man, 12 years old. And before that, I think we've all had a lemonade stand or two. Let's be real. But I was 12 when I started my first web development company and I learned HTML, PHP, JavaScript, all these coding languages, C++. And it goes on and on. I mean there's so many out there. I try to get myself up to speed. Twelve years old, who wants to work with someone that's 12 years old? So I managed to fall out of that company, quote unquote company, it fell to be. First off, that's where the feelings of fraud came. Then I started in another quote unquote company. It was decently successful. My buddy and I, we focused on web development but we had so many more years of experience. And then I had to figure out what my purpose was. All right. Another failure. 99.9% of companies fail. When I was 16 years old, I was approached to help co-found a student-run credit union branch and I had the chance and opportunity to work with the senior executives as part of this, as part of this credit union to build and establish this with many other folks. It was just really an incredible story. And this is where the imposter syndrome started to feel like okay, yes, this is actually a thing. This is actual, okay, I'm 16 years old and I'm doing this. Like oh my gosh. Paddy, have you felt that before I continue with my story? Do you know what I'm talking about? That feeling where you're just like shit, why should people trust me?

Patryk Labuzek: I can absolutely relate to this going back to the entrepreneurial journey. Me too. Well, okay, I wasn't 12 when I started my first company but I was 15, maybe early 16 years old and I started my kind of tech company. So it started off with, you know, web design like you were saying but I had a really clientele in the actual hardware. So I started fixing phones, minor to major issues, computers, PCs, and the software followed after that. I mean at 15, at 16 without actually any solid technical background, technical information that, you know, a university degree would provide. I definitely felt that. Like why would the clients, why would customers come over to me, to a 15, 16 year old guy. You know, compared to my mates, I definitely knew what I was talking about. But in my head, who was I compared to people like, I don't know, the top of, you know, top people back in that time, Steve Jobs, for example. You know what I mean? And where am I to, you know, to provide services no matter how big or small they would be? I was questioning myself and I think that's fairly natural for any one of us to question ourselves. And so the imposter syndrome definitely, definitely kicked in at that point,

Lucas P. Johnson: You doubt your accomplishments. And that's where I was, man. I was in the same boat, dude. I had this amazing thing going on where I was helping build this new thing, this new experience that, you know, I wasn't the one that came up with the idea but apparently I was accredited the co-founder of this thing. And that like that first off is scary. I'm a cofounder? Like I'm 16 years old. I know I've started my own businesses on the side. Like okay, yeah, I founded those but like this, I was there from the beginning. I helped get this started. Okay. This is where this first feelings came in. I was doubting my accomplishments at 16 years old, man. And if you start doubting yourself that young, man, you know, failure is, that's the only thing, you know, that's the only thing that sparks. That's the only thing that's like ahh. So from that, I had these six incredible years with that company. I worked with the CEO, the COO, the chief strategic officer, I worked with executive leadership and senior leadership. And if you're listening, I just want to say first off, you guys are, you're my rock. You've helped me get where I am now. You've continued to support me in everything I do. I've worked with everyone in the organization. I just want to say thank you. You've helped me get past this imposter syndrome feeling. At 18 years old, I started Coachington, 17, 18, I started Coachington. And as you know, Paddy, as the chief technical officer and also host, coach and all these things with Project Dream Mastery, you know we're doing amazing things here on our journey with that. But all of these accomplishments, I doubted. And the reason why I doubted is because again, going back to what you said, Paddy, what makes me so special? Why were people going to say okay, 16 years old or he's 18 or now that I'm 23, why are people going to believe me over someone that's been doing it for 30 years? You want to know the answer that I've found so far, the lesson that I've learned?

Patryk Labuzek: Of course.

Lucas P. Johnson: Because just because you have 30 years experience doesn't mean you have the experience of today. You don't have that experience of what people want nowadays. I mean let's be real here. That giant box that was around when I was five years old, so that's 2002, that box, we called like a giant computer 2002 has evolved to what's on my wrist right now, to what's in our eyes and some people say these contacts. You know, like there's all these things that they're creating to these little tiny chips that they put in your ears for listening. Because just because you have 30 years of experience doesn't mean you're understanding what today's people of today are really going about. And this sense of that imposter syndrome on your journey, take the time to really reflect on the things you've accomplished. Paddy, you've accomplished some incredible things along your life, man. You've been a travel adventurer. You've been a, you have always somewhere, you have Project Dream Mastery and Coachington and PL Studios and Project Job Interview. Like all these things going on for us as well as your amazing passions. What has been, let me see how I want to phrase this, what has been the most important lesson that you've learned about imposter syndrome, feeling like a fraud over the last just few years, maybe for a few months?

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. Now that's deep because it goes back to what I was saying earlier on when I developed my first company Patronixs, had the company for three years, definitely felt imposter syndrome definitely didn't feel I was successful, failed, wouldn't go to the extent of feeling like a fraud but there was a real concern of the self-doubt on every step of my way every single day. Every single thing that I did there was always this self-doubt. Am I doing it right? How should I do it better? In turn, this turned into more I would definitely say a positive thing because it kept pushing me. It was pushing me every single day. It's like Paddy, do it. You know, you need to learn this new thing. You need to go out of your comfort zone. Talk to this person. What Brandon was saying. Talk to the mentors, people who have experience, wide experience that they could help you along the way so you don't have to face all of those difficulties alone. I did that. So eventually I figured out that, you know, my passion was for technology. It definitely was. So I pursued it. I got a computer science degree. I got it. But that doesn't mean the imposter syndrome stopped there. I actually feel that it escalated from that point onwards even more. And just because, man, that was university. That was like you're put in a class of 300, 500 people and you feel, other side, if you're alone, yeah, until you start making friends. But then you're overwhelmed because there are so many smart people surrounding you. Everybody has certain achievements. Everybody achieved something in their life. They're doing something incredible. You hear this person started this company. This person is doing that. All those grades. Grades grades are the main thing. You know, people who are getting higher grades than you and this cycle turn into a cycle of self-doubt again. I was definitely stuck in it for four years. No, no, no, no. Not four years. Let me rephrase. For three years of my student life, I was talking to a cycle of self-doubt. I finished. I closed off my company. I didn't have time for it. But there was this self-doubt of am I good enough to be in the position that I am now. Am I good enough to be in a prestigious school in this course that I was doing? And you know, there are better people than me, a hundred percent. I was never the brightest. I was never the smartest. I was never the most creative in what I was doing. But, you know, I've put the work in to accomplish something. And it was not until I went to Australia that I've started looking back at my life and actually thinking, you know, I've done some great things and this whole imposter syndrome which I found to be a negative thing at the start turned out to be a very powerful to push me forward and to develop my skills and to become a better version of myself. And that's why right now I feel quote unquote accomplished. In a sense right now, in this very minute, I feel accomplished what I have done and what I'm doing right at this very minute, doing this podcast with you, Lucas. I'm feeling accomplished. Am I going to feel accomplished tomorrow? No, because there's a lot other things that I want to do but for this very minute, this very second, I am. And it was through this cycle of self-doubt, I was able to escape it. But I was only able to do it once I went completely out of my comfort zone, once I escaped, like quite literally escaped from Ireland and flew to the other side of the world where I could be a new person. I'm not saying that I would completely change myself but I'm saying that I could be whoever I want to become. I could defy expectations. I could learn what it means to love deeply. And I could enjoy myself to the fullest. And that's the moment that I was like man, I'm doing this.

Lucas P. Johnson: Wow. That's so powerful, man. So powerful. Okay. All right. I'm pumped. I don't know if you're listening and you really, really just listened to what he said but I'm pumped. There's so many great things you just said. I mean self-doubt. Close out. Am I good enough? You know? Am I able to escape it? How do you escape that self-doubt? How do you escape your own thoughts? And you saying what I talked about, what was it last episode or two or three episodes ago about traveling to a new country and oh, I can be whoever I want to be today. Why is it that just because I traveled to new country that I feel that way? Why can't I be who I want to be today? Why the hell do I care what other people have to think about me? And we talked about this with Brandon. As I was saying, you know, people don't give a shit. They don't give a shit about you really. I mean your family, your friends, your loved ones, yes, they probably give a shit about you. At least I hope so. Going back to your circle, your refined circle, your tribe, your circle, your proximity to those people, then your social circles and then your true objections as the real talk. You know? The people that actually care about you, they're going to tell you and be honest and say yeah, okay. But why do I give a shit what other people have to think about me? Because tomorrow they're going to give someone else shit. Their objections are their own for today and everyone's entitled to their own opinion and perspective. But once you realize this, you will conquer imposter syndrome. You know, 70% of people experience these imposter feelings at some point in their lives. Who wouldn't? Have you looked at our fucking society? Have you looked at our daily life? You go on Twitter, you go on Facebook, you go to Snapchat, Instagram. Dude, I can't even post a photo nowadays with someone like all right, let me scroll past that shit, it sucks. Like, you know, Paddy, the imposter syndrome is there because people are so fucking judgemental. They are. And I really wish that we just got out of our head and let ourselves be who we want to be. Our accomplishments, hell, man, they are so impressive. Paddy, Patronixs, you know, you were essentially a kid when you started that company. Now you are an adult working in a top tier company in Ireland. I mean like that's, you are accomplished. And if you're listening to this right now, have you really analyzed your background? Have you looked at your resume? I know I'm holding up a pack of sticky notes. But have you looked at your resume and saw the shit that's on it? Mind blown. The shit that's on your resume makes you who you are. Don't let anyone deter you from speaking what you have done. Do not let someone deter you from speaking the truth, speaking facts. But the moment you start to disregard facts for fiction, that's where the fraud comes into play. Those lies, they will catch up with you. They will, my friend. They really will. So do not start to feel like an impostor by speaking truth. Because when you start to speak truth instead of lies, that imposter feeling will suddenly just dissipate, just blow up. It will no longer be a feeling. Get up every morning. And Patryk, I think this is something we talked about previously too and this is kind of your topic here is atomic habits. Make one atomic habit, one little tiny micro goal. Get up every morning. If you're facing this giant concept of imposter feeling, of fraud, get up in the morning, look in that mirror. And to be transparent, I actually have done this because I face this occasionally. Look yourself in the mirror. Today I will be the best version of myself. Today I will honor my accomplishments. Today I will share who I am. I will be honest, transparent. I will encompass all of the qualities, the motivations I have for my daily life. I will chase my aspirations. I will chase my goals. I will chase my dreams. I will follow the ones I love. I will make sure that I encompass all of the qualities that I am as a person that make me who I am. At the end of the day, I will go to bed with no regrets. I will go to bed thinking about all the things that I've accomplished and knowing that tomorrow I'm grateful for another day. Paddy, what do you get up and think about I guess first thing you get up in the morning and think about for work? What's the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning?

Patryk Labuzek: Coffee. But once I do get my cuppa, I think of what I always think every single morning, something that pushes me forward. I think of my version of success and about fulfilling my dreams. And these two things are I'd say two out of the three things that helped me get past the imposter syndrome in college. And so mainly those three things are I'd say probably break the silence. And let me explain on this. Break the silence is, you know, the imposter syndrome. It's the shame that keeps you from, you know, from overcoming the feeling of being a fraud. It's shame. It's self-doubt. And you break the silence by talking to other people. Like in Australia, I met you, Lucas and the same as me, you were a young entrepreneur. And if you remember because I quite vividly, I mean view that night in my view, you know, in my house and when it was like a summer evening or night and we were just there, you know, we were drinking beer, yes. But we were talking about important things. We were talking about Coachington. We were talking about my entrepreneurial way. And that made me realize that imposter syndrome is something that people put on us and it's something that we can overcome. So break the silence. I broke the silence with you speaking about my things. And I realized that I'm not the only one feeling this way which is like tremendously freeing if you think about it. So that was number one, breaking the silence. And number two, I think is visualizing success and that's what I do every single morning. I visualize what success is to me and we touched on this. I'm not going to repeat myself, you know, those micro successes and then the bigger success in back of my head. It's like, you know, I'm close with the seeking, you know, constantly seeking that success, what it is for me and I'm learning how to become successful. So it's this cycle of learning, learning, learning all the time that pushes us away from imposter syndrome. Because if you think about it, imposter syndrome is you're feeling fraudulent. Right? That's what it is, the feeling of being a fraud. But if you step up your game, if you learn, that feeling diminishes I feel. It gets smaller and smaller by day. So that's the second thing, like visualizing success. And then third thing on top of my head, it's probably rewarding yourself for the work that you're putting in. So, you know, after you do something that's very valuable, something that adds to your, you know, professional skills or personal skills, something that has a positive impact on your life, that skill towards whatever makes you feel the imposter syndrome. In my case, that was the companies, you know, that I've created. They caused imposter syndrome because I felt I wasn't good enough. I don't have enough of knowledge of technical skills. So learning those technical skills helped me overcome the feeling and rewarding myself afterwards, you know, giving yourself a little pat on the back is very important. And that goes back to the book that I was talking about, Atomic Habits. One of the principles of creating a healthy habit that's going to work for you and, you know, it's going to help you develop as a person is rewarding yourself. As simple as that. Everybody loves a reward no matter what it is whether it's, you know, getting a cheat meal when you're on a diet or, you know, getting yourself a cup of coffee every morning or whatever it may be, booking a trip abroad. It's those rewards push you to learn new skills. In turn, they push you to be a better version of yourself to achieve success and hence, overcoming the imposter syndrome. So hopefully, that made sense. But in my head, that's how I moved from it. You know?

Lucas P. Johnson: Escaping your thoughts, breaking the silence, freeing, freeing, freeing, talking, visualize success, rewarding yourself, learning and pat yourself on the back. Lot of great takeaways right there. And that reminds me, Paddy, When I go up to my mountain house or my camp, it's in the middle of nowhere, no internet, no phone service, no WiFi, nothing, just a complete retreat from life. You know, it's a couple of families that are members of this camp. We don't own it. I mean I think we, I don't know exactly how it works. But really there's like 12 families or 13 members and there's a lot of older guys. My dad's a member and I'm the kid, you know? So I'm automatically like a member of the camp. So when we go up there, it's a, they like to joke around about how when you're sitting out on the front porch in the morning at 6:00 AM, you know, these guys, they like to get up early which I don't think they do on a normal day. So it's like why are we up at camp getting up at 6:00 AM and going to bed at 3:00 AM? That's a different story for a different day. But they like to say how are you enjoying watching the movie? How are you enjoying watching the movie? There's no internet, there's no phone service, there's no TV. There's only you, your thoughts, the little tiny stream that goes in front of the house coming down from the mountain. Oh my gosh, It's so refreshing. And people. Some incredible business talks have occurred on that porch because there's not one thing distracting you from having a conversation with someone. A lot of business has been done and that place has been around since 1860s. So there has been a lot of members and we have a historian. That's how much history has occurred at this camp. Grateful for the experience, grateful to be a part of it. But my favorite takeaway from going up there and I do this now with my friends, like I get to go up there with my dad and you know, my fellow friends and my brother's friends and we go up there, we have a weekend, a long weekend of nothing but us time. Sometimes we'll go fishing or drink a lot of beer, sit on the hammock, smoke cigars, all the things that, you know, we're not supposed to do on a normal day we do up there. And the reason for that is like one of my buddies said and I won't say his name for obviously purposes but man, I don't have internet, I don't have phone service. What am I supposed to do? He felt so confused. He's like you downplayed it. You told us that you might not have internet. You might not have phones. Truth is I told him straight up, you're not going to have shit. And by the end of the weekend when Sunday came around and, you know, we were up there for three days without phone service, we go once a day and check in with our families, make sure hey, we're alive still clearly. But at the end of the day, you have no one judging you. No problems, nothing. Time to just think. And Paddy, when you said that fact about me and you sitting down, it was really down in your basement, down in Australia. What do they call that? The den. And then we started, we brought out some Guinness and yeah, some other things from that and we started talking about Coachington and we were just enjoying it. That's the conversations that will allow you to overcome imposter syndrome. That's really because man, I don't tell many people about my goals and my aspirations. I don't tell many people about Coachington besides right now, it's out there. Project Dream Mastery is out there and that wasn't until we started this. Coachington's been around for five years, 2015. At least that's what the business papers say. You know, but Project Dream Mastery's been around since, you know, the concept of it's been around since 2017. But we became, it turned into fruition after we had those tough conversations. 2020, we really, I mean we talked about it last year. We wanted to start a podcast with no intentions of making money. The whole goal of this was to help people, to help ourselves learn and improve. And man, how about now? We have people reaching out to us from all over the world wanting to come on our show. And how humbling is that? Paddy, that fact that you just said about applying that to your life, taking that moment to free yourself, escape your thoughts, if you're listening, man, you need to, you need to take that time to just think whether that's turn off your phone. I mean for God's sake, we live in a society that is technology driven. I have a camera here, like a webcam. Then I have a DSLR right there, three monitors, a TV, another TV, a TV, like camera, like shit everywhere. How can I get distracted? Like even the lights back there are controlled by Bluetooth. Alexa, power off the lights. Alexa, power on the lights. That's how easy it is nowadays. We can't escape. So we need to embrace.

Patryk Labuzek: That's very well said.

Lucas P. Johnson: Paddy, in your social media presence and your following is growing. First off, congratulations to Paddy on reaching milestones in his own personal journey with AlwaysSomewhere.net. Check it out. It is available everywhere. His blog is incredible. Check that shit out.

Patryk Labuzek: Thank you.

Lucas P. Johnson: But he had some really crazy milestones. He was showing me just before this episode that his site has pretty much all over the world. It has seen presence throughout the entire world globally. How has that changed your mindset?

Patryk Labuzek: Changed my mindset in a very positive way. It's tough to put it into words because it's so fresh and so new. I don't think I can even grasp it at the moment because I started the blog itself as a little souvenir for myself from all my travels, from all the crazy adventures, all the people I've met along the way. It was never supposed to be anything. Man, it was never supposed to be anything so worldwide spread. It was supposed to be my thing and I just decided to put it out there because we live in a world, you know, like you said of technology. It's so easy. It's so cheap to put things out there on the internet. But I felt like I could inspire people. Then what I have to say is applicable to the lives of a lot of people because like the whole idea of AlwaysSomewhere came from a lot of people ask, a lot of students asking me how is it that you're managing traveling, studying, working, pursuing your like entrepreneurial stuff all at the same time. And I was like well, how don't you do this? You know, like I couldn't grasp why people won't follow their passion, why they won't follow their dreams, why won't they, why would they just live, you know, the life that they want without any, I mean without having to give up on things that they love. I didn't get that because that was my dream all along. That was what success meant for me. I was pushing for it all the time. So I decided well, I'm going to create this blog because I have something to say. And it's crazy that it's out there. I mean like you've seen the map. The presence of AlwaysSomewhere is everywhere. I mean from USA and Canada all the way down to New Zealand, all the way across, through South America, Central America, Europe, Russia, you know, the Eastern countries, Asia. I mean like some of those countries that I can pick out, like I have multiple connections worldwide. I have a lot of friends that I met along the way. But I have no friends in Lebanon or Afghanistan or, you know, in all those destinations like I've never even been to. But my blog has reached out and clearly, it has a positive impact on someone and that's just mind blowing and I'm just very thankful for the opportunity. I'm thankful, I'm not getting anything out of it. I'm not getting paid to do this. I'm doing this on my own free time because I have something to say and I just want people to do if it is what they want to do something that aligns with the things I want to do. Just do it.

Lucas P. Johnson: Sorry, Paddy. I'm gonna jump in right there. The things that we learned from Brandon last week, I just want to say, things don't come to you. You have to chase that opportunity. And you've done that. You are doing that. You are passionate and chasing and going after that to conquer it. Now with AlwaysSomewhere, how have you overcome the imposter syndrome that comes with that? I mean you are now putting yourself out there, as Brandon said, putting yourself out there in the public. How do you overcome the haters? How do you, you know, that's something that really is relevant because man, again, like I said, in the previous episode and this episode, people think their shit don't stink and they're trying to change you. So how do you deal with people that are like man, you've got a blog, all right?

Patryk Labuzek: If you've listened to the last episode in our podcast, I a hundred percent relate to what Brandon was saying. A hundred percent. What you're saying is definitely true. It works. It's out there. It worked for me. It worked for him. It's like you cannot give a single fuck about what people that don't know you say about you. If they have criticism, take it on your chest. It's like maybe you, well, I mean maybe. You definitely have something to improve on always. Your thing is not perfect. It never will be. And if I was trying to make something perfect, it would take me a year to put it out there if not more. I mean like what's the sense of putting it out there then after a year? Like your thing is never going to be perfect. There's always room to improve on. But like listen to the people closest to you. Listen to your family. If they are saying to you, look, Patryk, this doesn't really work or, you know, this is not the person that you are, why do you pretend to be something or your closest friends like you, Lucas, if you said, you know, man, Paddy like this, you know, I don't see this working out, try this, that's what I listen to. That's what I take on board and it's very important. Those opinions are very, very important to me. The opinions are people who live, who I don't know even existed and they're saying all those bad things about you, I don't care. Like if you want to contribute, contribute in a positive way because there's always something positive or there's always room for improvement. So if you're trying to criticize someone on whatever is they're doing or on following their passions, give them constructive criticism, not hating what they're doing. That's how I see it.

Lucas P. Johnson: You're reshaping your brain and reshaping the way you think. And one thing that we talk about a lot but we never actually bring up is a concept known as neuroplasticity. According to our dear friend at Wikipedia, our dear go to Wikipedia, neuroplasticity also known as brain plasticity or neural plasticity is the ability of the brain to undergo biological changes ranging from the cellular level, individual neurons all the way to large scale changes involving cortical remapping. Examples of neuroplasticity include brain changes resulting from learning and new ability, changes resulting from socio-cultural conditioning influences as well as changes that can happen as a result of experiencing psychological stress. Neuroplasticity was once thought by neuroscientists to infest or manifest only during childhood but research in the later half of the 20th century showed that many aspects of the brain can be altered (or are "plastic") even through adulthood. The brain is constantly evolving. If you learn these concepts, especially the shit we are preaching here, you are going to change your mindset. From the time that I was a kid to the time I'm an adult now, a young at the finest, at the moment, I've changed in cycles, countless cycles, you know, from the time I hit puberty. I mean I'm sure you guys all have those thoughts as you're going through your head as you're a kid and as you're, you know, hit that 13, all right, 13 to 16 to 18, you were just oh, girls, girls, girls or boys, boys, boys or any of that. You know? Now I'm 23 and my mentality has changed from all right, maybe I'm not so interested in dating or in relationships. I do believe in defying expectations and loving deeply and all these things that we encompass here at Project Dream Mastery and Coachington. But Paddy, you reshape your brain. You go through the process again to reimagine where you want to be.

Patryk Labuzek: I would put it as reprogram.

Lucas P. Johnson: Well said. Well executed. Got to shoot your shot. You know, and as imposter syndrome is that psychological pattern in which one doubts accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud, train your brain, reprogram your brain to not be that fraud. And I say that because it goes back to what Paddy was saying about self-doubt. Fraud doesn't mean that you're, you know, actually considering yourself as a fraud, like in the modern sense of what that means. It's you're having that doubt of what you actually accomplished. So Paddy, when you were talking about AlwaysSomewhere.net, another plug right there, and having people kind of change that process flow that goes through your mind about your circle, your tribe, you know, all the stuff we talked again in the last episode, what has been the one influence that has kind of stayed there for you, that has allowed you to keep your mindset and overcome that barrier that we call imposter syndrome? Has there been an influence?

Patryk Labuzek: Oh, yeah. So many. I mean there's so many people contributed to my personality, first of all because as we said, you know, your personality to some extent is defined by the people that surround you, your closest circle, your family, your best friends. So there has been a lot of people who influenced me in the main thing, dreaming big and pushing forward to achieving those dreams. And that really is the main, the main idea, the main concept that, you know, keeps pushing me forward day after day and, you know, all those negative comments, all those haters, all those negative effects, the imposter syndrome, they fade in the background. If it's something that you really want to do, it's something that you really deep down desire, you want to make a change, you want to put it out there, you have something to say and you know that you've accomplished things in life. You know? And there's no shame in showing that that you've done something. There's no shame in them talking to people about it, sharing experiences. That keeps pushing you forward. And simple as that. Simple as that.

Lucas P. Johnson: In episode 9, we talked about relationships and, you know, make me love again, COVID. The one aspect of imposter syndrome that relates with that episode is how do you love someone if you don't know yourself? Paddy, we have a lot of things we've accomplished and now that we are overcoming that imposter syndrome feeling, it's becoming more realistic that we can actually relate. We can actually share a story. But whenever you're trying to go on dates and open up about the things you've accomplished, you know, you can feel like an imposter. Those conversations, I have a tough time telling people what I do outside of just my entrepreneur endeavors because whenever you come to my apartment, you're going to see this and you're gonna be like oh, what do you do? Okay, well, I have to have that conversation now. What's Coachington? There's like three signs back there. Now I have to tell you. So in that sense like, you know, if I'm cooking up dinner at my place and someone's like oh, what's in your office? Now I've got to tell you. But my daily, my daily job that I do, we don't talk about obviously in this because it's not related to our business and, you know, we've got to keep it private for obviously other reasons. But the point of it is when I have those conversations with people that I want to have a relationship more than friends, I kind of underplay what my job is. I don't, you know? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's not really a big deal. You know? Yeah, I deal with this kind of stuff.

Patryk Labuzek: You feel that you don't want to brag about it. I think that's exactly what it is. And I get it as well.

Lucas P. Johnson: I don't know if it's necessarily brag about it. It's just I care about my job but I don't want my relationship to be built on my job because I think nowadays Paddy, and especially with COVID like, you know, we have these conversations. I mean even us it's work, work, work, work. Before when I would call you and I'd be laughing my ass off about this happening during the day, that was the conversations we have. And nowadays we have conversations about this which is not necessarily work. It is work but it's not because we love it. We're passionate about it. And when that passion fades and obviously we need to go somewhere else but that passion hasn't faded because we love what we're doing. But when you relate that back to our conversations in daily life right now in COVID and COVID lifestyle. I had a, I had a friend that came over. We were kinda, we kind of off and on, kind of dated, kind of not, had a few dates. And she came over last week. We broke it off a few months ago. She came over and the conversation we had was all about work. Everything. What's going on in my life? How do I feel, my emotions? How does she feel? Is she excited about her new job? All these things. And I think the hardest part for me was realizing that I don't want to share that part of my life yet because how do you build a relationship without understanding your true personal self. You know, man? Like I love the travel. I mean I want to talk about that shit. Like look at my travel map. You know? It's look at, hey, you know, I have best friends all over the country and all over the world. I got you in Ireland. I got a, I almost said someone's name. I got someone in Portugal. I got someone in Dubai. I got a really great friend in Singapore and we have countless friends in Australia. And you know, thinking about that, man, it's like why can't I talk about that? You know? That imposter syndrome comes into play when you really, you are excited about sharing but when people have questions, do you freeze up? Our friends, our family, our personal life, man, they're really special parts of who make us us, who make you you. Paddy, what are three lessons, just things on your mind that really relate to today, relate to our previous episodes? What is important in your life that will impact them today?

Patryk Labuzek: Well, well, well. Three important things. Do what you want to do to be happy even if it means you have to be sad for some times because at the end of the day, you've got to love yourself first before you can love somebody else. So be you, love you, do what you want to do, do what you love. Number two is never stop learning, always keep developing. Read a book, read two books. Watch. I mean, if you don't like reading books, watch a documentary, watch something relevant to whatever it is you're doing, to whatever your passions are. So never stop learning. Develop. You know, people say sky's the limit but there is no limit, not even sky. Just push yourself forward. Third thing, defy those expectations. Do not take on board everything that people say. You did not know their motive I mean whether it's jealousy, whether it's spite, hatred. I mean those were just the negative things but there's also like from your family, defy expectations. And I think that covers the three most important lessons.

Lucas P. Johnson: For me, I'll say these, these three because yours were deep. That's made me think. First off, you don't owe anyone an explanation. No one deserves an explanation. Oh, I mean they might deserve but you don't owe anyone an explanation. You got something going on in your life that you don't want people to know, you don't have to share. In my case, I share everything with the world, well, mostly. Like My boss, if he asked me okay, hey, why are you taking off today? Yeah, man, I'm going to PTA. I'm going to see my brother. Or hey, why are you taking a few hours off this afternoon? Oh, I've got to go to physical therapy or I need to go get an MRI or I need to go to a doctor. Like that's me. But you don't owe anyone an explanation, number one. Number two, if you feel like an imposter, pause, reflect, think, execute. Because when you go through that thought process, you pause, you're giving your brain a chance to really think about what's going on, the environment, the surroundings, the person that's questioning you or maybe you're questioning yourself and allow you to retrain your brain right there in that moment. Okay, next. We can do this. This is why I'm accomplished. This is why I'm not a fraud. This is why I don't, I shouldn't have self-doubt. We I believe have a guest who's gonna be joining us here in the coming weeks, one of the facts that he talks about is the power of pause. The power of silence might be the proper terminology. The power of silence. See? Made you think. Made you think right there in that moment that you can figure shit out. No one's going to question, if you take a break to talk and then pause, it gives someone a chance to really understand what's going on, to think about that. So if I ask you a question right now, when in your life, when in the last hour did you just stop, reflect, pause or stop, pause, reflect and execute, a whole process? See? You get that time to think about it. And last but not least, you are your own hero. When it relates to imposter syndrome and when it relates to your life, think about yourself in ten years. And I actually heard this from Gary Vaynerchuk. I would love to have him on the show one of these days to talk about this. Who's your hero? My hero is me in ten years. My hero's me in 20 years. And every time that ten years or five years comes around, you are talking about where you want to be in ten years. You know? It's like that really, like you're not relating to anyone else. You're not comparing because as we talked about previously, one of our episodes is comparison. Comparison is so evil. It's so harmful. It's so, it's so powerful. So those are my three takeaways, Paddy. That's my three lessons that I'm going to, I'm going to share today. Is there any other things that you really feel would be powerful here for today? Maybe a story about how it comes into play in your social media presence?

Patryk Labuzek: I think I kind of discussed that with the the overall blog because same thing, man. Social media presence. You've got the haters and the imposter syndrome can definitely kick in even more so now in the social media presence than ever before because, you know, people don't think what they say a lot of the time which is quite sad. So things are being thrown out there, things are being thrown at you and there's no filter. And you have to live with it. You either take it all on board, you know, you feed it down or you take the positive criticism or, you know, you try to make a change. But you don't allow all those negative, comments, thoughts and energy impact who you really are because deep down, you know you're a positive soul, deep down you know you want to make a difference in this world and that's what matters.

Lucas P. Johnson: Fantastic way to end this today, man. Is there any other comments, anything else you want to add? Questions, feedback, before we continue, we wrap up?

Patryk Labuzek: As for me, I think it's a wrap up.

Lucas P. Johnson: Oh, cool. With that said, let me give you a quick recap of what we discussed in this episode. And a lot of this comes directly from Paddy. I feel like Paddy, you had a lot of great value to add today. There was just so much content over the last two episodes and three episodes that really have allowed us to blossom to where we see our future. Project Dream Mastery is expanding. Our presence is becoming known and it's just so incredibly and so inspiring just for us because we had this dream. We had this belief. We had these expectations that are set on us that we went and defied. So here's the recap. Narrow in. Narrow in on who you are as a person, you know, narrow in on what you have done, your accomplishments. Focus and understand everything that you've done. Then understand that there are so many smart people out there. You know, we have greats, we have legends, we have people like Steve jobs that have done amazing things in circumstances like this COVID-19. They have done crazy things just starting out in a garage or so forth. You know? You are not determined, you do not determine your own path by others. You determine it and go and chase your own destiny. That's just life. You have to understand that things don't come to you. You have to chase those opportunities. Optimize your life, optimize your path and share your journey. When it comes to defying expectations, make sure that you don't have self-doubt because if you are doubting your own expectations, you're never going to be able to defy what others have on you. Close out and and say you're good enough. You know, reward yourself, learn, pat yourself on the back. Escape your own thoughts. Take the time to reflect, pause, execute. Break the silence, open up, free yourself from all those things that are going on in your life, those doubts, those flaws, all those feelings of imposter, being an imposter or fraud or self-doubt. And last but not least, visualize success. Visualize what success looks like. With that said, I'm going to pass it to Paddy to give you your homework for this week.

Patryk Labuzek: So guys, homework for this week, as you know, it's very, very important. It's going to be the same as last week. So, you know, go follow Project Dream Mastery on all our socials and on Thanksgiving Day 2020, we'll be giving away some pretty sweet merch to some of our followers. So make sure you check that out. Read Find Your Why by Simon Sinek, a great book. It will open your eyes to a lot of things. It will help you discover your real purpose. You know, and I wish nothing less than that to every single one of you. And another great opportunity for reading is Lessons From the Mouse by Dennis Snow. So check those out.

Lucas P. Johnson: That's a lot of great homework. Again, going back to neuroplasticity, make sure you go and you help yourself learn. And what Paddy said, learn, learn, learn, pat yourself on the back when it's all said and done because you will change your environment, change your landscape, change the way you think. We just launched our Patreon Membership Community where you can become one of our elite supporters and gain exclusive access to early releases, live streams and Q&A. We have a few different tiers available with some pretty sweet perks. So make sure to check them out and consider supporting the show. Go to ProjectDreamMastery.com and click the red button that says Become a Patreon to learn more. As we reach our monthly goals, we will have some pretty sweet giveaways. If you have not already, please make sure to review the show, subscribe, like and share so that we can reach more amazing listeners like you. All of our shows are available in both audio, video and written form. We take pride in that. So make sure to check out our website to access the full experience at ProjectDreamMastery.com. Again thank you so much for joining us today! We look forward to seeing you on the next episode to come. Thank you.