PDM 028: Unlock 5 Explosive Tips To Help You Define Yourself & Push Past Your Comfort Zones

Patryk Labuzek: As we speak, I'm sitting in my cozy room. I feel at peace. I feel confident in what I'm doing, and I'm excited about what lies ahead. But it didn't start like this. When I look back to the time we recorded episode one of the Project Dream Mastery show, I remember how anxious I was, how I wasn't sure if people will enjoy it, hell, even if there's going to be a single listener. But I pushed past my comfort zones then to be where I am now. And truth be told, from my own experience, I feel like to truly define yourself, you must push past your comfort zone. So take a moment to embrace this while we roll the intro.

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.

Lucas P. Johnson: Welcome to another episode of Project Dream Mastery. My name is Lucas Johnson.

Patryk Labuzek: And I'm Patryk Labuzek. Let's start this episode with the following notion. The only thing that stops us from reaching our own potential is our head. See, I like to think, Lucas, that our brain is this massive house. And within it, we create many, many rooms. Right? So these rooms being our comfort zones. And unfortunately, the truth is, to go from one room to another, we must cross through a door, some kind of boundary. We must push past these comfort zones to reach our desired location within this house. Right? And within this house, that is our brain. So we kind of really define ourselves, become happy, learn what it truly means to love deeply and reach our dreams without pushing through our various comfort zones. And so, Lucas, going back to what I said right before the intro, how did you feel before and during recording of the very first episode of Project Dream Mastery? And how has this changed to what you feel now? Like did you have to cross any of your comfort zones to get where you are at this very minute?

Lucas P. Johnson: Oh my goodness, man. That is a phenomenal question. First off, I want to start with this. We don't want to ask yourselves that question enough. We get to the point where we are and then we're like, oh, all right, what did I actually have to do to get there? It's just, I don't know. It just amazes me though. That's the question you're asking to start to show off. It just got me pumped up. Yes. Simply yes. I had to overcome think one of our biggest, biggest struggles in life. And that is not only imposter syndrome, not confidence necessarily. But what people think of me, my reputation and who I am as a person. Once I was able to unlock all three of those and define who I am as a person, my purpose, well, the reputation part just kind of subsided. When we started the show, man, oh my goodness, I am just as excited now as I was when I first started that with you. And I cannot wait to see where we continue to go. I mean we're top 50% of all podcasts in the world right now. And it's just mind-blowing to see just in the last six months that that status has happened even with the four week break. Everyone needs a little holiday hiatus. So to answer your question, yeah. And I am grateful for every single second and every single day I've spent with you, the countless hours that have went into this moment right here, and our guests. Oh my goodness. The guest appearances we've had so far, they have shared so much wisdom in my life. How about you? Like what what's going through your head right now? I mean it's crazy. Right?

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. Like this is our topic. Just I'm super pumped about it. And we mentioned it, you know, in the last episode. Comfort zones, they stop us. It's only our head that limits us and it's those comfort zones that we must get past to achieve our full potential. I mean I feel like we don't really know who we truly are until we exceed our boundaries. Like for example, how do you know that you don't like pineapple until you taste it?

Lucas P. Johnson: That's an interesting point. But I also like to say, I like pineapple on my pizza. So judge me if you want.

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. But you know what I mean here? Like how do we know that we don't like something until we've actually tried it?

Lucas P. Johnson: Putting pineapple on your pizza is a perfect example. I never liked pineapple on my pizza until I tried it. And I was really, really uncomfortable with pineapple on my pizza. Come on. I grew up on kind of an Italian kind of feel. I ate pizza at least once a week. Hell, I was a doughboy when I was, in football days. I ate so much. I ate so many dumplings. I had so much pizza. And when I put pineapple on that pizza was when I was like, oh man. And I bit into it and I put a little bit of garlic seasoning on top. Goodness gracious.

Patryk Labuzek: I remember the garlic aioli we had in New Zealand and Australia, man. That was some incredible stuff.

Lucas P. Johnson: That was unlocking a comfort zone for me as well is holy cow, dipping sauce for pizza? Like ranch and spices and stuff like that. Pizza's supposed to be good on its own. No, I guess I was wrong because holy cow, all right. This isn't a foodie show. Let's get into the meat of what it means to unlock your comfort zone.

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. It's definitely safe to say that as something as little as trying pineapple on pizza is a comfort zone that we pass through and that we learn that okay, yeah, okay, fine. I like pineapple on pizza. And this goes back to everything in our lives. I mean how can we say that this is me, Patryk, without me having to go through and pass my comfort zones. Like how did I learn that I love traveling so much if I didn't take the first step out of my house, if I didn't take that first flight without my parents or my family into another country and then pushed it to another continent, to a country that doesn't speak my language, to a country with a completely different culture and beliefs than my own?

Lucas P. Johnson: One thing that amazes me is people invest thousands of dollars into coaching just to get that question to answer. And I am all for that as we talked about in a previous episode about upgrading you, instead of everything else. Investing in someone else to coach you to get to that point where you're comfortable is insanely valuable. But taking that first step and that first leap, that first bound, the step on that tarmac, the step on that airplane. And when you finally arrive, oh my goodness, that is a significant milestone in your life. And it's become such an important concept here at Project Dream Mastery because one, it's applicable to us, but it's also relevant to everyone staying at home right now due to COVID. People are now developing more of a reliance on technology. They're relying on more of their people and their surroundings virtually, that they might not necessarily be able to grasp that concept of what it feels like to step on another place or go to another island or to go to another country. So we get uncomfortable being comfortable or comfortable being uncomfortable. I don't know where I am right now. How about you? Are you feeling a little uncomfortable?

Patryk Labuzek: What a question.

Lucas P. Johnson: Can I make you feel a little uncomfortable right now?

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah.

Lucas P. Johnson: Fair enough. Paddy, when we met, I checked out your Facebook, and I'm sure you did the same.

Patryk Labuzek: Right.

Lucas P. Johnson: I made sure to make all my photos private before I went into the first job interview process which we talked about in project job interview. But I also made sure that people could only see what I wanted them to see. Not that I was scared of people judging me or anything. It was just because we all have things that we don't want everyone in the world to see anymore. We want to keep some of our life private. And even though it's not bad, it's just things that you want to have that are your memories, and you don't want other people to be a part of that. You want them to have a little bit of mystery. I checked on Paddy's Facebook when we first met. And one thing I saw is all of these photos of him on a sidebar. He's got him karate and he's got some of the places he's been. And I was like, all right, well, I don't really know this guy. I go, well, based off the photos again, maybe he could hurt me or maybe, you know, this guy, I'm not sure. Maybe he's weird. And you'll learn that we love weird people. We love being weird because we're weird ourselves on the show. But I was like, all right. At that point in my life, I was still trying to figure out what that weird concept was. What do we have now, Paddy? Best friend? Brothers from another mother? It's crazy. Right? I was a bit uncomfortable getting to first go meet you. And then there was this thing called beer, and it just changed our lives

Patryk Labuzek: Completely. I mean thinking back to it, I've taken the biggest leap in my life when I came to Australia, the biggest possible leap in my life. Nothing, I don't think ever. I mean never say never. Right? But I really truly think that I'm not going to make such a leap again. Like that was groundbreaking. I mean many of our friends came to Sydney knowing exactly where they're going to stay on day one. They might have knew people in Australia beforehand. Maybe they had relatives or, you know, a friend from college that went. Yeah. No, I arrived in Sydney, Australia after a 24-hour flight to Abu Dhabi from Dublin. I have landed. And I was like, okay, where do I go? I didn't have an accommodation booked. I knew no one. Didn't have an Australian phone number. Didn't have internet. The only thing I could rely on was the wifi at the airport. Where did I go? I've never been here before. You know, at least people spoke English and I could understand. So that was a big help. That's for sure. And so I completely stepped out of my comfort zone. Completely. I mean unbelievable. Right? And--

Lucas P. Johnson: On day one, didn't you also come to the beach on your first day there and met us? You didn't even go, you're like I arrived, guys. Let's go.

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. I arrived. I rented out a locker at the airport. Put my luggage there. Went straight to the beach. I mean I knew Sydney has great beaches. I mean who hasn't heard of about that? And I was like, look, I may be jet lagged. I have spent 24 hours in a plane. I'm stressed out to some extent. But what, I asked myself, what did I come here to do? I came here to enjoy my life, to enjoy my 20s, to meet new people, to explore the other side of the world. And what do I do? Take a taxi to the beach.

Lucas P. Johnson: Life's scary though. Life is so scary. You did that though.

Patryk Labuzek: I mean as crazy as it sounds, I did it. I mean that's a story I'm going to tell my kids, my grandkids. It impacted in my life in this gigantic way. I became a different person. And it's not a cliche to say that. I actually did. Like not everyone goes to the other side of the world completely by themselves, not knowing anyone or what's going on or where they going. I just like land there. You know? I've seen this in movies. I would never believe in myself until I actually did it. I experienced it. But what I did was went to the beach, had a great time, went for a swim, because my second name is Aquaman. Went out, loved the weather in Sydney. And I thought, well, what can I do? I mean what can I do? Like how do I find accomodation here?

Patryk Labuzek: I called my cousin. Right? Called my cousin because I knew that she has a big network of friends, a big network of just people she knows. And she was like, hold on a second. I actually have a friend from college that lives in Sydney. I was like, okay, sounds interesting. She hit me up with him, called him. He's like, man, no problem. Come over and sleep on my couch. Not a bother. You know, you can find the key underneath the plant, whatever outside the door. Just go in. Feel at home. And that's what I did. So, you know, comfort zones. I mean one, I crossed the entire globe together. That was one out of comfort thing for me. Two, I've literally connected with a person I had no idea existed in this world. And he was so kind to provide accommodation for the two, three days I was in Sydney. But the comfort zone was to actually reach out to a person. You know what I mean? And to reach out to a stranger and ask for help. I've always been taught don't ask for help.

Lucas P. Johnson: Stranger danger.

Patryk Labuzek: You know? Stranger danger, one thing. But to don't ask for help. I mean you can do whatever by yourself. Just learn. But I mean at this point in time, I always was pushing for that. You know? I never asked for help in college as hard as it was. I just spent the time trying to get things done, another project completed. And I never asked for help before until that point. So that was a boundary that I had to cross. I mean it might seem as an easy thing for you to hear. But if you think about, you know, going to my shoes and think what it meant and the gigantic leap out of my comfort zone I had to take. But the moral of the story is going outside those multiple comfort zones and every other comfort zone as I was in Australia, I developed. I'm not afraid to travel to let's say Japan tomorrow and live there in Kyoto. No problem. I mean I did it once. I'm going to do it again. The question is when, when it happens. And I mean I'm talking about myself a lot. How about yourself, Lucas? I mean like it was a giant leap for you as well. Like I'm pretty sure you had to get outside of your comfort zone. I mean you did.

Lucas P. Johnson: Yeah. Well, I mean it was, but it wasn't to that extent in that fashion. I mean, you know, going back to the topic for today is to truly define yourself you must push past your comfort zones. And you clearly did that. Incredible, man. It was an incredible journey for us. I mean you spent a lot of time at my place in Darling Harbor there which was amazing. But we learned a lot from each other, and you taught me about pushing past my comfort zones. And I knew from day one that we would be best friends. And then we met Eric and then that came to fruition. And like our group, our tribe, I can name every single person that has made an impact in my life there. But you, on the other hand, made an incredible impact of me. That's one of the reasons why we started Project Dream Mastery is we continue to push those boundaries and those expectations but also unlock our own comfort zones and go past them.

Lucas P. Johnson: Defy them. For me, it wasn't the fact that I was traveling to a different country. I mean yes, it was great. And the plane I think was kind of scary too. But for me, going by myself on my own without my parents was kind of the first time ever--I've done it before with groups and stuff, but I've never been to another country by myself without them. And that was scary. But for me, I've always been a people person. I've always knew how to build relationships and build networks. Hell, we made friends, an entire group of friends in a matter of two weeks, and those became, you know, we had a hundred or something when we first started and went down to 45 and then 30. And those people for the duration of our extent there were able to become those people that we didn't know we were all like-minded. So we really clicked. And I think that that's where we sometimes struggle is unlocking that comfort zone to relate with people and build relationships and unlock different aspects of our lives that can contribute to our overall happiness. We get stuck thinking that we are one mind. We are a one minded way. We can do this, and we don't want anyone else to help us, like you said. And I think that that was an important lesson for you, for me, just hearing that now is we get stuck thinking that we don't want to ask for help. We think that we can do everything ourselves. And let me be the first to tell you, if you are listening right now and you are thinking that you can do it all, whether it be in business, whether it be in the personal life, your social life, your dating, you cannot do it all. You cannot do it all. Can I emphasize that? You cannot do it all. Take a step back. Really big, deep breaths. Exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And hear me when I say this to you. You cannot simply do it all. One of the reasons why Paddy and I brought in Eric as a co-founder of Coachington and Project Dream Mastery was because we realized we can't do it all. That was something that I had to get past when I started Coachington in 2015. Can't do it all and never had enough time. And that was, and I say this to Eric, all the time, bear with me, man, bear with me. I'm still getting past that comfort zone of allowing someone into my baby and allowing someone into something I've put so much work and effort into as my hobby that it's hard to let someone into my business, to let someone in and be what I want them to be and take it to the next level with me. It was hard. And I'm so grateful now that I realize that I can do things that I once didn't have the opportunity to do because I have someone else to help, someone else to partner with, someone else to collaborate with. And Paddy, that is simply one of the greatest things I just took away from this episode as of current moment. You cannot keep on doing things by yourselves.

Patryk Labuzek: I completely agree. Up to a certain point I thought that's what you should do. To be successful in business, in your life, you have to rely on yourself. I mean you have to have a tough skin and it's up to you to do it. Nobody's going to do it for you. Right? But there came a time when I think I was 16 or so and my cousin, he is an entrepreneur and he's a well-known figure in Poland. He works with some of the biggest clients there. And he was running an incubator for startup companies. And he told me, look, if you want to get some good experience, come over, work with me for two weeks. And so I went for it. Right? Went over and lived with him, worked with them. And during that time, we were invited to a conference in Warsaw that we attended. One of the main guest speakers was a co-founder of Skype. So you can imagine how successful that person is. I mean a multi-billion dollar company, tremendous impact, especially then. I mean, you know, Messenger didn't have video calls. Skype was the first one to do it. And so it was a gigantic person. Right? That did a lot of the stuff. And the one thing that I took away from him most of all, he said that you can't do things by yourself. To be successful in life or in business, you have to ask for help and you have to take on people that are smarter than you in other areas of expertise that you're not. I mean we can't all be good at everything that we do. It's impossible. Life is too short to do that. We have to employ people with different expertise, experts at our own field to help us. And that's the only way we can get, we can become successful. How does that apply in comfort zones? Ask for help. It might not always be easy. For me, it wasn't. And only when I crossed that boundary, I crossed that comfort zone, I've unlocked another piece of myself. And that achievement, like in a game, level up. And from then, things changed as well in my business life.

Lucas P. Johnson: It's really just level up. Yeah. Level up your life. I get what you just said. That's great. Yeah. Level up your life. Unlock your comfort zones. And oh my goodness, this is great. That is just, phew. I am just so happy that, you know, when you sit down and you think about what you really want in your life, when you start to find those moments that are worth unlocking your comfort zone for. And I actually want to jump to a different topic. I know that's you're leading this today, but it's along the lines is dating life. A lot of us, especially now, I'm talking as if I'm above it, I've went on Tinder and Hinge and Bumble, all those dating apps, because one, it's not like it used to be where you could go to the bar, you could go out with an event or extracurricular and hobby and meet people or your friends, new friends that, you know, allow you to meet people in their circle. Now it's really become a time where you go on these dating apps. I think Facebook even has a dating app now which is--I mean it's one of the largest social media networks in the world. It makes sense. I mean Zuck is in the top 10 for multi-billionaires. So it all makes sense. But these dating apps, I think sometimes, not even sometimes, they miss the mark. They miss the mark because a lot of these people, it's not the dating apps fault. They're trying to make an environment that is truly for dating. I don't know about Tinder. But Bumble and Hinge are. They're trying to take it offline, meet people and truly get to know them. But we have to unlock our comfort zones, one, to go on dating apps and two, to accept the fact we met someone from dating apps and three, accept that you might just like that person more. For me, buddy, I had to do all three of those. And I'm still really struggling because I think when you meet someone through a dating app or application, it's not authentic, it's not real. And it's really kind of hard to feel kind of normalized to that. It's hard to feel like I'm building that authentic relationship where, you know, we laughed about something or we had that coffee or, you know, someone, how do we tell people we met? Met on Tinder. Met on Bumble. Everyone just kind of like, even online dating. Got these online dating sites. Just like, okay. You got eHarmony. I don't even know them off the top of my head, but I've seen countless commercials during COVID. Check out your dating sites because it's obviously prime time because everyone's home. Paddy, for me, and I'll be very, I'll come out of my comfort zone right now and just bear with me. You know, for the longest time, I didn't date. I did. I dated, but I didn't really truly date to find love or to find someone to marry. Because for the longest time I was still I think just thinking about someone else that I previously had feelings for, was involved with. And trying to break down that comfort zone of finding someone that's not familiar, finding someone I don't have all these memories with was tough. But when you unlock and you truly kind of get the point where you're just like, well, hey, they're not coming back, one, and two, you say to yourself, you need to move on. Even though it hurts, it takes your heart out and rips it out. You gotta go and break down that barrier to unlock your new comfort zone of finding someone that truly wants to get to know you and allow them to tear down those walls. So for me, it's been tough. But the best part is, is when you finally tear down that zone that is right here, right on your heart. You allow someone else to take a little piece out of it to get to know. It's a really, I think an applicable topic for this current period in our life, 2021 and 2020. People are struggling to find love and they're doing anything to try to make it work. Maybe that's the one thing that we don't want to always admit. Sleeping with people before we find who we really want to be with. You sleep with someone in the first date, it's not typically going to last. It's not a real relationship. But as part of loving deeply, you got to figure out what you truly want and unlock that comfort zone for yourself. So I'll leave that with you to figure that out. But Paddy, I'll pass it back to you to figure out what--

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah, of course. I definitely want to talk about how it's great seeing how you develop by overcoming your own comfort zone. But I feel it's even better to see that your friend came out of his comfort zone. And I'm going to say to you now, I feel like I've seen you go past your certain comfort zones. And so if you remember, we took a trip to New Zealand. We came up with this brilliant idea to rent a camperban. It wasn't what you might think. American RV with shower and two bedrooms and the kitchen and, you know, all that jazz. It was let's just say a normal seven seater van that was converted with a bed, a stove, and a fridge. That was a campervan for two weeks. Right? And that was a place we slept, we ate. I mean we talked. We came up with Project Dream Mastery, Coachington. And we talked about it. It was like kind of like creative incubator as I would like to call it, looking back at it. But what I'm getting at is I remember you were you were saying, Lucas, back in Sydney, man, I don't know if I'll be able to survive with another person for two weeks straight without any kind of privacy. I remember this so vividly. I mean like you were saying that, man, I don't know how I'm going to survive with you for two weeks straight. I mean like even though we were best of friends at that time already, like that was your comfort zone. And then fast forward to last year and we've spent countless hours in a car driving from, I don't know, Washington D.C. to Nashville, Tennessee or, you know, sleeping in tents or spending the same time at the same hotel room. We're doing everything to get basically for a month. And I just felt it was amazing to see that transition in your life and how going above and beyond your comfort zone then has changed the other person to who you are now.

Lucas P. Johnson: You got to make the sacrifices for the people you love. And Paddy, I do love you like a brother, my man. So you gotta make the sacrifices for the people you love to have and seek the reward. The reward for us was an unbelievable trip. 23 states, 18 to 20 days. I can't remember how long it was. But 20 or 21 states plus the District of Columbia. It was incredible. And we did that in New Zealand, too. We were stuck in that van, seven people. Yeah, that was tough for me because we were sleeping right next to each other. There was a, like a pullout kind of bed we put over top. It was really, I mean I played football my entire youthhood and childhood. It was something I grew to be able to be close with my buddies, be able to be close in the circle because we're all sweating and everything together. You know? It's just how it is. You grow up with that. Becomes normalized. So I was okay with that. But sleeping next to someone with their feet up in your face and the other way around for 11 days was tough. So when I said, hey, why don't we get, why don't we do this whole trip and we get tents? I was trying to break down that comfort zone because I knew if I went and did this for three weeks, sleeping right next to two guys that stink and haven't showered because we're trying to do the whole nature thing, I would probably be in a completely different spot right now. Maybe jail. Because it was really an unbelievably smelly trip because, Paddy, we did some epic stuff. But I think you just have to be comfortable being uncomfortable and allowing yourself to break down those comfort zones for the people that you love and even for the people that you want in your life. So I think that, yeah, that's, yeah, man, it's crazy. It's really crazy. I didn't think about that. But no, I appreciate you bringing that up. And I've seen you--

Patryk Labuzek: I mean that, I felt like that was a huge change from seeing Lucas back in New Zealand to seeing Lucas then in United States. And it was a clear difference. You know, I'm pretty sure that small trip and you going out of that comfort zone has impacted your life on multiple levels. Maybe some that you don't even know yet. And in a few years time, we're going to look back and you'll be like, you know what? That all started like back in that campervan in New Zealand. And it's just so rewarding, going outside your comfort zones. You learn so much more about yourself to your point that you can actually define yourself. And this is what this whole episode is about. Like to truly define yourself, you have to go outside your comfort zones.

Lucas P. Johnson: Yeah. And it is amazing when you finally do. You find things, you seek out what you do not find or you find what you do not seek out. That's the way it goes. You find what you do not seek out. And it really does come in full loop, full circle. Whenever you're going on and you're trying to defy, as we call it here, Coachington, is defy expectations, you end up finding something so much more outside of those expectations. And I think for us, man is we were never trying to start a business. I mean we were always trying to do something that we were passionate about and loved. And I think for many of our listeners and fans is they are stuck in the hobby mindset and they are comfortable with that hobby that it's actually become uncomfortable and almost a comfort zone going outside of that to start the business aspect. So for us, man, we were, I think we were stuck in that mindset. We had this Project Dream Mastery and Coachington as a hobby for almost a year before we truly said, hey, I mean, hell, I had it for five because I never wanted money from it. I wanted to do it because one, I was passionate and two, because I love helping other people. If you can bring that stuff and make a living out of it and help people and still also give out as much free advice and free wisdom and free knowledge as you can, as Travis Bell said in one of our episodes, if you give out a hundred percent of your content, that's just something you should as a human. You should unlock and defy that comfort zone and give away everything. And as he put it very nicely, people are dying at 40 and being buried at 80. You can put all your content out in the world, and I bet you any money that there's people that are still not going to use it. So you might as well do it. And if they use it, great. If they don't, you gave it to them for free and that's their loss. So upgrading yourself is a big topic there and unlocking yourself through that is also a comfort zone.

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. But there are countless comfort zones that we had to cross through across our lives. I mean from taking the first step as a little baby. You know? That was a comfort zone where you just stayed on a little bum, rolled here and there, left and right. And that was it. Taking that first step was going outside of your comfort zone. It have tremendous impact on your life afterwards. Right? And same as everything that followed. I mean going to play school, going to primary school and secondary school, high school and so on, going to college, university. That has been for me a big step out of a comfort zome. I mean all of a sudden, out of a class of 25 students that I knew very well for six years of my life, I'm being injected into this pool of thousands and thousands and thousands of people, thousands of different personalities, thousands of different opinions and views and cultures and all that jazz. It was a step outside of the comfort zone. And I learned that, I learned to network people. I learned to network to talk with people that I don't know, to make connections, to express myself to someone that I don't know. And I feel like, you know, , I feel everybody can agree, all the listeners on myself including, that you are a great public speaker, Lucas. But I feel like, of course, but I feel like you had to cross a certain boundary to become that. So I'm just wondering if you can recall the moment that it happened.

Lucas P. Johnson: I've been told that numerous times. And obviously, I don't let it get to my head. But it is something that I have grown to have a strength in. I've learned from the way I communicate, eliminating uhs and umms and yeah, do you know or, you know, those things, like. Like now I'm doing it now I've called them out. So I've learned from it. And I think the most important aspect is pausing, thinking through your thoughts and leveling up. So for me, I was involved quite a bit through my K through 12 days, now I'm thinking about, yeah, it's umms and all that now. So I'm just going to speak normally. For K through 12, I was really involved with everything. I loved, dog hair. I was really involved with everything from the point of taking the moments that I really should be spending on homework or homework and spending it on other things. I still managed to get good grades, graduated in the top 10% or something of my class or top 30% of my class. But I always wanted to do more. My mom and dad and all of our family, friends always said that I'd be kissing babies' foreheads and shaking hands. That's what I was bound to do. And I wanted to be, I want it to run for president one day when I was a kid. And I was like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. And then I had all this planned about how I was going to come a senator by 28. And then I was going to be the youngest president to ever run. As I got older, I realized that that wasn't something I necessarily wanted to do. But impact people's lives by doing something like this. And to answer to your question, I spent a lot of time doing the wrong things before I did the right. I--

Lucas P. Johnson: We learn from our mistakes. Right?

Lucas P. Johnson: Yeah. I was involved with student union. I was a student union representative. So I would go to the school board and present for all of my high school. I was involved with student body in our middle school or junior high, as I say here in the States. I did countless engagements, speaking engagements for other events, just one-offs. I was recently asked to do an event for, not even work, but someone reached out to me on LinkedIn to speak at a professional engagement for a, I don't know what it was, it was just a few months ago. Virtually, of course. I've been asked to do speaking engagements for universities on cyber related stuff. And it's not necessarily something I really want to do. I would do something like this. I love speaking engagements like this. But I think for me, man, becoming who I wanted to become and setting and pushing through those comfort zones was whenever I was told I needed to present in front of 600, 700 people when I was a junior in high school. And it became one time, two times, three times, speaking in front of 40 or 50 students in a classroom, speaking in front of thousands of students and different events and speaking at financial literacy places for for credit union I helped co-found back in high school. That's when it became real for me. But like you said, man, you gotta go through a lot of ups and downs to find where you want to be. And once you do, something like this begins. It's just the beginning.

Patryk Labuzek: Yeah. A hundred percent. And this goes back to how we started this episode saying, how different do we do this PDM show right now than what it was in episode one? I mean again, we had to step out of our comfort zones. There was no way around it. We're doing it differently. Now me saying that I feel now at peace talking to people, you know, we have hundreds of listeners at this stage from what, 60 plus countries around the world. You know, it's absolutely mind blowing. So I'm just going to take this opportunity thank every single one of our listeners because I mean we do it for you. And without you, we wouldn't be doing it in first place. So thank you. And going back to comfort zones, we had to cross milestones to get where we are now. And that was comfort zones in whatever we feel like, I mean essentially we built PDM from zero and like your strong sides are different to my strong sides. But we had to go above what we feel comfortable with and do extra things to the best of our ability. That is learn new things, read new things to learn new things to create PDM. And it is what it is now. And I feel like it's great. And I feel like our content is applicable. And I feel like even though we are speaking to potentially hundreds of listeners at this very minute, we are speaking to them as we are speaking just one-on-one. It's personal. It's between us and the speaker or the listener. And that took certain comfort zones to be crossed.

Lucas P. Johnson: Still is. Can I ask you about the mirror effect? Are you familiar with the mirror effect?

Patryk Labuzek: I am not. But if you want to explain that, that'd be great.

Lucas P. Johnson: I think it's a great way to simmer, simmer down our conversation. But also thank you. The mirror effect is when you look in the mirror and you see someone that you want to be or you see yourself in a negative way. How many times do you look in the mirror and say, I need to do better, I need to be better, I don't like the way I look, I don't like the way I think, I am not good enough, I have so many defects, I'm an awful person? I'm just terrible basically is what you're saying yourself. How many times do you just get stuck in that mirror effect? That mirror, that thought process, it's wrong. It is wrong. So I want, out of today, if you could do me one thing, just do one favor for me. Stop getting stuck in the mirror effect. Stop looking in the mirror and trying to be someone that you aren't. You're perfect. You're one of a kind. You are amazing. And if you ever need anyone to talk to, hit us up. Project Dream Mastery, Coachington, we're here for you. At least as best as we can be. There's a lot of folks that are, that we've had a chance to impact, and we want you to be one of those that we impact. For the longest time, and Paddy, you know, that mirror effect applied to me and not in all those ways, but at least one. I looked in the mirror and saw this giant, giant guy, this big. I would say I'm a fatty. I was fat ass, I'd sometimes call myself. And I just kept eating, kept living my life day to day. Didn't let anyone affect that. I knew what I looked like and I just accepted it. I didn't want to upgrade my life. How many times do you just get stuck not upgrading your life? It wasn't until March 2020, I looked in that mirror and said, I'm done. I know we talked about this already, but I was done. You just got to take a step back and say, you're done having that mirror effect. Push past that comfort zone. It's not easy. It is not easy. But once you do, you're going to unlock so much light at the other end of the, other end of the tunnel. That light is going to be so bright and so shiny and so spectacular.

Patryk Labuzek: I think that's a great way to wrap up this episode because it is truly rewarding going out of your comfort zone. It's a difficult journey. I mean they're called comfort zones for a reason. Right? We're comfy within them. It's uncomfortable to go even a step outside of it. And we must be okay with that. I mean we have to be okay with that if we take on this mindset of being a lifestyle engineer, a lifestyle consultant. And I think with that, we can wrap this show. So let me give you some homework.

Lucas P. Johnson: Oh boy, this is exciting. This is a good week.

Patryk Labuzek: First and foremost, do something, even a little to go outside your comfort zone this week. You know, it's different for everybody. So I can't specifically tell you what to do. But let me give you an example. Maybe ask that friend out on a date. Maybe it's a virtual date because you can't meet up right now during lock downs. And that is okay too. It takes courage to ask that person out. You know, create content. If you feel like you would be a good content creator, you feel like you have something to say and people need this in their life, do it. Just do it. You know, the Nike motto. Just do it. It's so applicable here right now. Put it out there. Meet new people. Network, make the connection, ask people for help. You won't be able to do stuff by yourself. You're not going to be successful by doing things by yourself. Whatever it may be, just step outside of the comfort line, step outside of your comfort zone, push the boundaries.

Lucas P. Johnson: Incredible. And some of us that might look like just the fear that we need to overcome, Paddy, before we wrap up here, when we jumped out of a plane on my 21st birthday in Australia, my biggest fear to date at that period of time was heights. Let's just say now I don't have fear of heights. 15,000 feet. It was one of the highest that they had. There were others that were 12,000 or 13,000. This was 15,000. So do something that takes you beyond your fears and enables you to become a better version of yourself. Upgrade your life as we've seen in episode 27. So with that, if you've not already, please make sure to review the show, subscribe, like, and share so that we can reach out more amazing listeners like you. All of our shows are available in both audio, video, and written form. So make sure to check out our website at ProjectDreamMastery.com to access the full experience. Well, thank you so much for joining us here at Project Dream Mastery. We are super-duper grateful for you, and we're grateful for every moment we get to spend with you. Whether it's in the future or whether it's a day, we hope that we have made an impact on your life, and we hope that you take at least one thing from the day and apply it to your life. We know that we're not always perfect, and we don't expect to be. We want to in your tribe. We want to be in your circle. So take the steps, follow us, and make things a reality. Defy, dream, love. And we'll see you on the next episode of Project Dream Mastery. Thanks. Talk to you soon.