Next Level University
Confidence, mindset, relationships, limiting beliefs, family, goals, consistency, self-worth, and success are at the core of hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros' heart-driven, no-nonsense approach to holistic self-improvement. This transformative, 7 day per week podcast is focused on helping dream chasers who have been struggling to achieve their goals and are seeking community, consistency and answers. If you've ever asked yourself "How do I get to the next level in my life", we're here for you!
Our goal at NLU is to help you uncover the habits to build unshakable confidence, cultivate a powerful mindset, nurture meaningful relationships, overcome limiting beliefs, create an amazing family life, set and achieve transformative goals, embrace consistency, recognize your self-worth, and ultimately create the fulfillment and success you desire. Let's level up your health, wealth and love!
Next Level University
#1541 - One Reason You Don't Feel Like You're Making Progress
Fostering empowerment by discussing the importance of tracking. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about measuring progress, debunking myths around age and wealth, and the profound impact of these elements on our personal and professional development. By providing a clear picture of our progress, tracking empowers us to take control of our lives. They also discuss the importance of vulnerability in relationships, shedding light on how opening up to our relationship needs can pave the way for healthier and more fulfilling connections.
Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level Hope Foundation -
https://www.gofundme.com/f/next-level-hope-foundation-2023-holiday-event
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Website 💻 http://www.nextleveluniverse.com
The best way to track your habits is here! Download the app: Optimal - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/optimal/
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Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
- Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
- Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
- Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
- Next Level Monthly Meetup: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
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Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
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Show notes:
(3:31) Not measuring your progress
(6:00) If it matters, you'll measure it
(12:07) Bianca, the co-founder and COO of Evolve Ventures, talks about Alan's unwavering support as her coach and the profound impact of mentorship on her life
(13:02) Running away from what you need to track
(15:44) Measure what you can control
(24:05) Outro
All right, you know what I mean, man.
Speaker 2:I do, it's all happening. We're definitely figuring it out.
Speaker 1:I stuff there, stuff happening definitely.
Speaker 2:I feel like we're figuring a lot out these seriously. So many million, that issue. It's like you're only 29. This is stuff that takes people a lifetime to learn. This is real good.
Speaker 1:I still don't like. For some reason, I thought she was like 25 years of age same with Bianca about there, both 25 years old of age of age, yes, with us we're 35 now, so that's the thing is. I don't know how old I am. How am I supposed to know how old?
Speaker 2:there is this thanks all right, let me get situated here.
Speaker 1:This is plus, I don't care, that's the other thing too I do.
Speaker 2:I talk about age because of the compound effect.
Speaker 1:No, no, I mean I don't. I just don't care about how old I am neither do I.
Speaker 2:I do to the extent that it matters to the what is possible in the world. Yeah, you know, because I think a lot of people misunderstand that and their their self-worth takes a huge hit.
Speaker 1:Like you're not supposed to be wealthy and young that's not a thing you know people make it look like it's a thing.
Speaker 2:But of course you know, if you knew how much rappers actually made, you'd be alarmed.
Speaker 1:I've done my research, so I know more than I ever have at least okie dokie, even though they act like they're the richest people in the world. Yeah, rap like they are too it's like look, you made two million dollars last year. You shouldn't have that three hundred thousand dollar car.
Speaker 2:That's not the play see, now you're seeing the ways.
Speaker 1:Now I know, now you know all right, so this episode is episode number 1541. One reason you don't feel like you're making progress, that one reason you don't feel like you're making progress is because you're not measuring what matters yeah, and I want to just have an open conversation about what you are measuring and why me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not measuring anything you're measuring a lot of things zero things.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I measured the fact that I'm measuring zero things. Now I know I already have my story that's gonna talk about what I'm measuring. Okay, jesus, fucking with me pardon my friend, your pardon, pardon, hold on.
Speaker 1:Yes, we're good. Okay, here we go. Next level nation. Welcome back to another episode of next level university, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. We hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode, episode number 1540. What does it mean about you if you disappoint someone? It probably should be. What does it mean about you when you disappoint someone? Because it's probably gonna happen, unfortunately, but we can grow through it. Today. For episode number 1541, one reason you don't feel like you're making progress I got an aura ring from from Taren. Taren got me an aura ring for a Christmas present almost a year ago, which is mind-blowing, and it's been a year. Nice, for those who don't know, an aura ring tracks your sleep, it tracks your heart rate, all sorts of different stuff, stuff that I do not even comprehend. I'm sure this is not an ad or a sponsor or a plug for a ring, but it does help. It does go with my story this episode brought to you by aura cut to the sponsorship.
Speaker 1:I recently, when I was talking to Tara and I said I don't know, I don't really feel like I've been sleeping well lately. I just don't feel like I've been sleeping well. And she said well, what's the aura ring say? And I said well, it depends. I mean, some days it's 60, some days it's 70, some days it's 80, some days it's 89. The highest I think I've ever gotten is 89. I said, but just overall I don't really feel like I've been sleeping that well.
Speaker 2:Those are rookie numbers in this racket.
Speaker 1:Those are. Well, you know, the kid gets up early.
Speaker 2:I have to set an alarm? Kev, I'm kidding, I know some of us just wake up when we want the birds awaken us. Time in bed nine hours and 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:I am jealous. There's a little part of me that's envious not jealous envious, but I do. I like getting up early, so for me I should just go to bed earlier than I do, but I am a rebel around bedtime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes you don't want to, man, I understand.
Speaker 1:Most of the time you don't want to. So what have I done recently? I have something called a fit tracker that Alan created and taught me how to use, made me a sheet, all that happy jazz and I track my weight and I track my calories and I track my activity. And recently I started tracking my sleep score, because you were tracking your sleep score, nice, and what that revealed to me is my sleep has actually gotten far better over the last few months. Why am I telling you that?
Speaker 1:One reason you don't feel like you're making progress because you are not measuring what you're trying to make progress in. So even the fit tracker, yeah, before I might have an idea of. Well, today I weighed 175 pounds and yesterday I weighed 176. Awesome, I feel like I probably ate 2,000 calories yesterday. So 2,000 calories, I'm losing weight. All right, cool, that's good, versus having way more specific numbers. Where yesterday I ate 1,850 calories, today I was 179.1. Okay, I'm down X amount over the last seven days.
Speaker 1:That might be a little bit more intense than you wanna get into, but the point of it is, when you're measuring something, you actually know whether or not you're making progress. We've talked many times about the difference between logic and emotion. Emotion is what you're feeling. I don't really feel like I'm making progress. I've said that so many times. Logic is based on the numbers and based on the facts, and usually those are gonna be based on the things that you're tracking. So that is what we're gonna talk about today Another episode that's not necessarily sexy in terms of tracking things, but it is one of those fundamentals that, if you can do it for a long enough period of time, I am willing to bet you will be drastically more successful than you would have been if you didn't do it.
Speaker 2:I was on a podcast last week and they often ask me questions. Lately I've been going back on shows and they'll always ask you're coming up on 5,000 coaching sessions? Because I'll often say that, because that's another thing I measure. By the way, I measure coaching sessions because I wanna get better at coaching. How do you do that? You practice, and so they say what are you doing with your clients? That's making the biggest difference. And I always I say listen, this is not just a plug for my app, but habit tracking. We do have a habit tracking app and if you want it, email me, alan at nextleveluniversecom. But even if you start with just three things green, yellow, red Green light means you did it, yellow means you kinda did it. So for me, yesterday I foam rolled a little bit in the gym so I got 0.5, aka a yellow light for mobility. The things that you track keep you on track. And to Kevin's point, this is not a sexy episode.
Speaker 2:I, emilia, introduced a book to me two years ago or so and it's called Measure what Matters. I do not remember the author's name and the whole idea is exactly like the title it's if something matters to you, you'll be measuring it. So Emilia and I do three gratitudes for each other before bed every single night. We missed two nights ago, so we did six last night. But at the end of the day, if something matters to you and you start measuring it, you're gonna focus on it. And when you focus on it, it's gonna improve. And so there's a bunch of different examples we can give and you don't wanna over-measure because if everything's important, nothing's important. So I track my sleep, I track number of gratitudes for Emilia each night, I track my habits, I track what I do on my calendar and when I track number of coaching sessions I also have a love score. So Emilia and I have her top three cup fillers. We talk about this on the Conscious Couples podcast different podcast and you can go check that out. Just type in cup fillers.
Speaker 2:But I have her top three cup fillers and I track how often I do that. So each week I have these three columns and did I do that or did I not do that? And at the end of the day the idea is two things. Number one I like the analogy of the inner tube at the beach. So if you're just falling asleep for 10 minutes at the beach and you're on an inner tube just relaxing in the sun. You're gonna wake up a mile down the beach and you're gonna be like whoa, where's my towels, where is everybody? And I feel like that's what happens in life we just drift. But if you had a little, somehow an inner tube alarm system that when you drifted too far, it started going beep, beep and then beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep like the farther you got away, the more it beeped, the more it annoyed you. You just stay on track much more. And so number one is tracking keeps you on track.
Speaker 2:I just thought of something, kev, that I think is actually really funny Tracking keeps you on track. I was at the track how many times can I say track in this episode? And I was trying to do a marathon, and so, for those of you who don't know, I think most people know this, but four revolutions around a standard track and field is a mile, and so I had to do 26 miles. So 26 times four. And I swear to you, kev, I was holding my phone clicking the button. So I had a little tracker app where you would add a check every mile, and I was holding it the whole time.
Speaker 2:It's gotta be a better way. I remember we had a team member where he was like wait a minute, you did a marathon holding your phone and you like manually tracked it and you did it on a track where you ran around the same track a hundred and what's four times 26? It's like 104. 104. I think it was 104 laps. He's like you did 104 laps on the same track. I said it was awful.
Speaker 1:It was so bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's like, normally, marathons are like good scenery, lakes and mountains, and you know, for me it was that same loop, you know, 104 times. It was awful, genuinely. But at the end of the day, tracking keeps you on track. And the second thing that I would have everyone say is to Kevin's point originally, he has data that has a bigger timeline. He can zoom out and go, oh, I am making progress. Or you can zoom out and go, uh-oh, I'm really not, even though I feel like I am, because maybe you lose a pound, feel good, gain a half pound, gain a half pound, lose another pound, feel good. You might not be making any progress, you might be completely stagnant and not even know it. And so this episode, as unsexy as it might be, I'm not saying to track 50 things. I genuinely don't think you should.
Speaker 2:I had a client once who was tracking 42 things. I'm like, listen, man, you gotta cool it. If 42 things are important, nothing's important. And again, that's just my perspective. I was his coach. I'm supposed to give him my truth. But if you're tracking nothing, you've gotta track some things that really matter. Maybe it's finances for this quarter, maybe it's your weight for this quarter, maybe it's sleep, maybe you wanna focus on sleep this quarter, whatever it is, I use 90 days, I use quarters, so 2024 is coming up. What do you wanna track for the first quarter of 2024? And what do you wanna focus on? Cause, whatever you track, you're gonna focus on.
Speaker 1:I think, scale bank account and then some sort of relationship measurement that, even again, that even could be a relationship measurement of you to yourself. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in a relationship. I think those are probably the best places to start, because that's what well-rounded, holistic tracking looks like Health, wealth and love, health, wealth and love. If you can track, if you can wake up and again, I understand maybe there's community members out there that are going through a rebuilding stage of their relationship with the scale or calories or food, whatever it may be. So take this and insert it to the degree that you're ready to use it.
Speaker 1:But how long does it take to weigh yourself every day? 15 seconds, depending on the scale? If the scale's in the bathroom and you just jump on it, cool, and it takes another five seconds to write down that number or put in a spreadsheet or whatever it is. How long does it take to track your bank balance? That depends if you're gonna go through and okay, I got a cheeseburger, I got a coffee. Okay, I spent this, this, this. It can take some time. I know when I was. You're doing the finances now, but there's days where it would take, let's just say, 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, man depending on how long you let the expenses ride.
Speaker 1:The longer you wait, the worse it gets.
Speaker 2:What was the longest you've waited, by the way, because I'm coming up on a time where it's going to take me probably two hours to put the expenses in.
Speaker 1:Oh, I never got that far. The I don't know probably like five days. Oh yeah, five days probably. Well, because I trust me, I've been to the point where you have to go through and there's 30 credit card transactions. You're like did this one already die, or?
Speaker 2:use this one. Yeah, I know it's brutal. Yeah, you have to go through. And Bank of America sucks Shots fired at Bank of America. This episode brought to you by Bank of America, not brought to you by Bank of America.
Speaker 1:But that's another good thing. If I've found that we usually run away from the thing that we should be tracking the most, the thing that we're not getting results in is usually the thing that we're not tracking, and it's usually the thing we try to run away from the most because we have so much uncertainty or we have so much fear around it, or we're embarrassed, or it's probably for me at least, I'll say in the past it's been anxiety. There's that anxious moment when you hit the button that opens your bank account on your online banking platform of choice and you're waiting and it has the swirly thing. It's swirling and you're thinking I hope it's positive, I hope this number is positive.
Speaker 1:I've been there, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. But those are the times where you need to track even more the growth that I've had in health, wealth and love. Most of those opportunities for growth came when I was losing, not when I was winning, and I started tracking all of this stuff when I was losing, not when I was winning. Now, is it coincidental that that's when I partnered with you and I was losing? Maybe, maybe, maybe not, I don't know. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, that's up for grabs.
Speaker 2:Is it coincidental? I was going to ask you, sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why don't you wait a damn second?
Speaker 2:Sorry, I do have a question for you.
Speaker 1:when you're ready, okay, yeah, I'll let you know. I'm ready now, okay, yes, I'm scared.
Speaker 2:I wanted to ask you, as someone who never tracked back in the day, what would you and I've asked you this before, but I want to see what your new Kevin 3.5.
Speaker 1:Are you 35 yet, man? I don't know how old I was, born August 8th 1989. I believe I'm 34 years of age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in August of next year you'll be 35. I think so. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so this is Kevin, version 3.4. Yeah, and what does he have to say when I ask the following question what would you, what did you originally think of habit tracking and what do you think of it now? Yeah, why, why should someone have a track? Or why should someone track anything? Let's, let's do that. Why should anyone track anything?
Speaker 1:I would say it's the only. It's the only way to truly know what's going on. There's no emotion involved. It's you can feel like you're doing well but be doing terribly. You can feel like you're doing terribly but be doing well. The only way to really know that is to To have the data.
Speaker 2:As a non numbers oriented person who, I realize you know, does numbers, you do quick mental math and all that, but I don't think you think in numbers necessarily. I think you think in words. So, as someone who's not a naturally numbers oriented person, what, what advice would you give if?
Speaker 1:You want to get control of something, you have to measure what you can control. That's that's I don't know. I don't know if I'd be able to sell myself on it.
Speaker 2:That sounds super empowering, I know.
Speaker 1:The reason I, the reason I was struggling back then, is because I Ran away from. It's almost like this If you don't want to see the number, you probably think you're going in the wrong direction. That might be true, it might not be true, but the only way to know for sure is to look and track it. The only way to turn not the only way the best way the most replicable replicable, my goodness the most In-control way to do it is to track it. Yeah, you can hope that your job changes or you make more money or you spend less money, but the only way really to To have influence on it is to track it. I was laughing at you earlier in the episode because you said I Was foam rolling when I was in and I thought for sure.
Speaker 1:You're gonna say in the shower, I thought for sure the next thing that was coming out of your mouth was I was foam rolling when I was in the shower. No, no, I have yet to get a shower foam, or I was doing yoga the other day in the shower. I was Painting that we're gonna be putting up on the wall in the shower, and then I really like to have it stack man, you got a habit stack. I brush my teeth in there. I floss in there.
Speaker 2:I respect I shave in the shower. It is what it is. You got a habit stack for those of you Don't know what a habit stack is real quick super fast, go ahead. You just take something you already do and you just stack something on top of it super simple. I like to learn in the shower too, because I know I'm gonna shower every day, so now I know I'm gonna learn every day. Simple. You know I respect it. Thank you appreciate it. I was foam rolling the other day.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:Was playing basketball the other day.
Speaker 1:You might have a little hoop, little hoop above the little hoop.
Speaker 2:What does he do when he's not working? So?
Speaker 1:Real quick, real quick. I just want to make sure I button up my my answer you asked me the question. Give the guy the respect to let him answer.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean, that's all I'm saying I Don't really have a good answer. Honestly I don't. I don't have a great answer because I don't know what I would have said to him back then, because he was Stubborn, he probably wouldn't have listened. But I would say, the things that you're running from are probably the things that you should be tracking, because you're probably running from them, because you have anxiety or uncertainty around them. What if More certainty would actually bring more empowerment? I'm not saying it would immediately, because it probably won't, but what it will do is it will create the necessity for you to learn how to rebuild your relationship with it. That's, that would be what I would, what I would say to Kevin that I'd punch him in his throat. Gently. Get it together, kev, sir, gently, not a bad, just I just to wake him up a bit.
Speaker 2:Well, what I was, what I was gonna say, was two things. One is mathematical certainty will give you, hopefully, help the anxiety. So so if you're unsure of what the the scale says, or the bank accounts has, or whatever, when you go and track it you're gonna get a lot of uncertainty up front. But then you'll get control back right, and so that sense of control is really good for our well-being. There's a lot of studies underneath that. And then the second thing is get a tracking buddy. So Emilia is my tracking buddy. We send each other our sleep score every single day. We do a little screenshot and and what was it she sent?
Speaker 2:Today, yeah sorry, so hold on, hold on, let me go find it, because we text it a lot today. So mine is a, hers is a, mine's an 88. I think I won yesterday and hers is a 85 85 decent numbers pretty good, yeah, but we went to bed a little late.
Speaker 2:So timing, I just want you to know. The aura algorithms I do not agree. So if no one from or is listening, but let's say they were, hey, get it together with your timing algorithm, because Just because I went to bed at midnight does not mean my sleep score should take such a big hit Well the old circadian rhythm that they say yeah, but they overweigh it definitely.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean say that for an episode deep sleep and REM, we'll say that we'll say that for another episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to say real quick I know deep sleep and REM matter way more than timing. I'm just saying so. Anyways, I love aura. It's one of the best things I've ever purchased in my entire life, and again. This is not still not an ad but the timing algorithm needs work, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Okay, anything else you want to say to Anybody who's created a product or service what's up? How's that water bottle? Look what. What flaws do we find in that little thin?
Speaker 2:It's kind of thin, I like this water bottle a lot, does it ever?
Speaker 1:tip over when you're, when it's empty.
Speaker 2:No, I like the has a good spout on it, good spout Through the next level nugget before you sip that water if something matters to you, measure it and Long term that will improve Long term long term.
Speaker 1:Very concise, next, I would say the things that we're most afraid of are probably the things that we need To be tracking, because a lot of the fear comes from uncertainty and perceived lack of control, and when you start tracking you can see how an input affects the output. Is what I would say. I Maybe I have a big meal on the weekends and my weight spikes. But if I start to understand that I Don't have to be emotional about the fact that the scale says a different number, maybe I get to the point where I say, oh yeah, I had a big, I had a big meal. I'm sure it's gonna flatten out in the next few days because of sodium intake and water holding and all that stuff. So, yeah, that's what I would say. Well said, I appreciate that very much. I have a little giggly episode today for you.
Speaker 2:It was good one.
Speaker 1:It's been a weird day. It's been a weird day. Next level nation. If you have not yet joined our private Facebook group, appropriately named next level nation, please do so. I believe, now more than ever, three things self-belief, self-worth and your community those are really three big pillars to success if your community needs To be more next-leveled. That is exactly why we created the Facebook group. Alan and myself are in there every day, amy's in there every day, the team's in there every day. There's always something going on, so we would love for you to be a part of it. If you have not yet joined, link will be in the show notes.
Speaker 2:I think we just surpassed 715 people, actually just invited some people who came to our holiday event last year to next evaluation this year. Speaking of which, so two things I want to say. Number one if you want help tracking, there's two ways you can use our app. Reach out Alan at next-level universe calm. I'll teach you how to do it. Or you can reach out to me and I can set you up in a Google sheet. We have a next-level fit tracker. We have a next-level finance tracker. We have a peak performance tracker. We are trackers at NLU. In case you did not know, I will help you. I'm happy to help you. It's totally free. Please reach out Alan at next-level universe calm. Google sheets is free, so you can use it on your phone, right? I have a lot of clients doing this. Really good, okay, and then the second piece is our next-level Hope Foundation holiday event is Sunday.
Speaker 2:This Sunday, december 10th, at from 1 to 4 pm Eastern Standard Time. We Rented out the entire Gym at the YMCA Greendale YMCA and Worcester mass and we have an arts and crafts room. We're gonna get pizza, there's gonna be basketball, football, photo booth, there's gonna be frisbee. It's gonna be awesome. If you want to attend. If you're a single parent or once we're a single parent with your littles, please attend. Rsvp at the link in the show notes. We love to meet our listeners and we would love to have you. And everybody's gonna get a book, everybody's gonna get a gift to open and everybody's gonna get a beanie baby as well.
Speaker 2:My not the kids will get.
Speaker 1:Make it tomorrow for episode number 1542 an easy way to express your Relationship needs. We've talked many times about the challenges Underneath vulnerability expressing not just in an intimate relationship but any relationship. So we'll talk a little bit about that tomorrow in a very easy way for you to improve that. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and NLU. We've run of fans. We have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Measure what matters next elimination.
Speaker 1:Nice little giggly one today, huh.
