Jakub Bączek – Vacation with personal development

It was a grassroots initiative rather than my own idea. People constantly asked me for advice or help, and they often said that I could help them better than  a psychologist… So I decided to give it a try commercially; one of the first projects I took the entire responsibility for was the mental preparation of volleyball players for the 2014 World Cup. After that, when we won the gold medal, my career took off as though I was in a movie.

In a sense, I was inspired by the employees  of STAGEMAN, one of my companies. Although what  we do is the organisation of leisure, given our international success and how leaders grew up around me, I felt that I could also help athletes and managers from outside my company.

I have big dreams, I want to inspire millions of Poles  to take action, I want to give them confidence that dreams do not come true, but instead you MAKE them come true. And each one of us is their own best motivator and mental trainer, as long as we pull ourselves together, and instead of complaining, we start planning the achievement of our passions step-by-step. And then simply get on with it.

I believe that people should do what they love and also learn to make money on it. A passionate life also means surrounding yourself with people who make you grow and who respect you. I also know from my own experience that setting yourself goals and challenges generates an internal motivation, and this kind of motivation is the most durable.

For me, motivation is not a “technique”, but an attitude, which everyone has, but not everyone uses. I seek real dreams in each person and help people to understand them, write them down and then plan their achievement. I don’t impose any “techniques” and I don’t use any “tricks”. This way, I can be certain that when my client is alone, his or her motivation is not weakened, since it is based on his or her true needs.

Stress consists of two factors: external triggers, such as a traffic jam, a reprimand form your boss or a piece of bad news, and your internal reaction to them. Some people feel a strong tension when stuck in a traffic jam, but some are fully relaxed and listen to an audiobook, accepting the traffic jam as an external hindrance they cannot remove. I teach people how to do it and  it makes them not only healthier, but also happier.

You can react to the pressures of time and the environment, as is in the case of stress, in two ways:  at the external stage (as Jacek Santorski puts it),  you can organise your work environment in such  a way that you don’t have to run like a hamster  on a treadmill with your projects, while at the internal stage, just a few breathing techniques allow you to release pressure and feel at ease.

AND MY QUESTIONS:

How is it possible that, in just two years, you have become a speaker invited to the biggest congresses  in Poland and abroad?
I also ask myself this question sometimes. I think  that my passion and my numerous successes outside  the training market make me credible for the audience. I am all the more happy about it that I take part both in very large open congresses, and in events for the boards of the largest global corporations. I also give lecturesfor MBA students.

Have your experiences in sports helped you to become an international speaker?
Definitely, but not so much because of my knowledge of sports, but more in terms of the determination, which sport taught me.

Can you say a bit more about your new book, written with Jacek Santorski?
With pleasure. I must admit that Jacek’s proposal to write a book with him was a great honour for me because Prof. Santorski is one of the most outstanding Polish psychologists, and certainly one of the most coherent and credible ones. Earlier, Jacek invited me to deliver the inaugural lecture at the Academy of Leadership Psychology, and it seems that my ideas appealed to the listeners and to Jacek himself. We are now writing about business, ethics, multitasking, and the training market. This book will also be a meeting of two generations and two ways of thinking, so everyone will find something in it for themselves. The launch of the audiobook with a fragment of the work, which is important for me personally, will take place at the “Life Without Limits” event in Kraków, were I will have the honour to speak for a 15,000 strong audience. In short, dreams do not come true. You MAKE them come true!