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
#1389 - Can You Be TOO Positive?
Is there such a thing as being too positive? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros open the debate on the potential pitfalls of excessive optimism and make a compelling case for a more balanced, realistic outlook. The conversation floats into the delicate dynamics between confidence and humility. They also explore the concept of 'productive paranoia' and encourage you to consider whether you're prepared for the negatives and positives.
Links mentioned:
To learn more about group coaching - https://nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Next Level Monthly Meetup #19: "3 Things Everyone Should Know About Their Intimate Partner" on July 6, 2023, 06:00 PM EST - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
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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 #19: "3 Things Everyone Should Know About Their Intimate Partner" on July 6, 2023, 06:00 PM EST - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
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Instagram 📷
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LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/
Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com
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Show notes:
[4:19] Kevin was overly pessimistic, Alan was overly optimistic
[7:25] Being realistic
[7:58] Janine Morris talks about how valuable Group Coaching is, what her takeaway is, and why she thinks you should take the leap
[9:25] Quitting when the reality is harder than expected
[12:24] Productive paranoia
[16:11] Outro
So we are recording right now. We are recording in audio. We are recording in audio right now, we are recording in audio.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello. What's happening? What's happening.
Speaker 1:That all looks good to me.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm gonna hit record Right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I. Need you local recordings or Record it's all happening, all right.
Speaker 2:We have 49 minutes.
Speaker 1:two episodes and 49 minutes, yeah, so let's yeah, let's boogie Yeah all right, you ready, i am ready. Are you recording? Yep, okay, this is weird, definitely production team.
Speaker 2:What's happening?
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:Think that's a good idea. I'd say that's a pretty good idea.
Speaker 1:Can you be too positive? is the episode All right? man, you ready? Here we go. Next level nation. Welcome back to another special, as always episode of next level university, where we teach you how to level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. If you're watching this on YouTube, alan I are together at Alan's studio because we were having some tech issues, some AC issues, so I swung on down and got the wrench together.
Speaker 1:We hope you enjoyed our latest episode. It was episode number 1388. How to maintain momentum today for episode number 1389? can you be too positive? anything we're gonna be to get through this? I think so.
Speaker 2:This is a good episode. Can you be too positive? Things are gonna go wrong and I think it needs to be known. Kevin was in my attic earlier. It was and we have solved many issues, which is good.
Speaker 1:It's been a good day. It's the 4th of July. We're recording this on the 4th of July. It's very weird for Alan and I to be together in the same studio because we haven't been together in person and recorded in Toronto is the last time. Okay, we got to do two quick episodes because obviously our day has gone off the rails. Can you be too positive? This is my story. Are you ready? I'm ready. Taren and I love watching The show alone, where contestants go out into the wilderness and they try to. They try to survive for as long as humanly possible. With they get 10 things they can go with, like a knife, a pot, a pan, whatever it is, and They have to survive how weird is it that you have to talk to the camera and I'm right next to you?
Speaker 2:It's very weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting thing, terrans Sister-in-Law's brother actually won one of the seasons of alone and he was on Joe Rogan Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in the beginning they introduced the people and they give the little backstory. This is what they do. This is where they live, all that stuff. It's very interesting because of what I've seen. I need to be more professional. You stare at me, i look at the camera. Just look at the camera for me.
Speaker 1:When they introduced these people, oftentimes they're like I have been doing this my whole life. I used to be in the military. I've taken hundreds of expeditions into the outdoors. I'm gonna crush this.
Speaker 1:There was this very honest guy who literally said the next hundred days are gonna suck, really, really, really bad. And I said to Taran I bet on him. I am betting that that person is gonna win, not because he has a negative outlook on life, but he is okay with the fact that things probably aren't gonna go that well. I mean, you're in the wilderness for a hundred days. You have to make fire, you have to build a shelter, you have to hunt for your food. It's probably gonna suck.
Speaker 1:Usually the people who say this is gonna be amazing I'm so excited for this. I've been training for this my whole life. Oftentimes those are the people who are eliminated first. So when I was hearing that introduction, i literally said I wonder if being too positive Has a downside that people don't Talk about enough. Now, i don't. That doesn't mean you want, you are an epessimist and you're always talking about what could go wrong. Maybe that's more a realist. I mean that person is very realistic with the understanding that this is gonna suck pretty bad. I mean, you know it's negative 20 degrees, it rains all the time, it snows all the time. I would just bet on somebody who is more aware of the downsides and Doesn't try to sugarcoat everything.
Speaker 2:I I actually used to. So Kevin and I story. I used to be very, very, very optimistic, optimistic. Kevin was overly pessimistic and then we drove to five, and I think optimism is thinking things are gonna go better than they most likely are. I think pessimism is thinking things are gonna be worse than they really are, and I I think that realistic is Five and I think realistic is accurate.
Speaker 1:And so it's just interesting I'm like next to you But also talking to you know, and I think it's, i think it's zoomed on your face, i think it's focusing on your face, but it is what we're gonna do. This is par for the course.
Speaker 2:Thank you, listeners, for bearing with us through the challenges. And Okay, perfect example. You want to start a podcast? you want to chase your dreams? You want to start a YouTube channel? you want to be a coach? whatever it is, if you go into it thinking It's gonna be easy, you're in so much trouble and What's gonna happen is You're gonna go into something with a certain attitude. Some of those people had an attitude of this is gonna be no problem.
Speaker 2:I've been training my whole life for this and and some of that is confidence and some of that is valid. But the person who's going in saying honestly, this is gonna suck. They're coming in with a lot of humility. They're coming in with the humility to say mother nature is way more powerful than me, no matter how much I've trained. And I also would bet on that person. And I have a Really hard experience where I went into my first fitness show thinking I was gonna win, thinking it was gonna be easy, and I got stomped. The second show, i actually thought I was gonna get stomped, which was weird for me. I didn't feel confident, you know, i didn't feel lean enough and I actually ended up beating everybody by a pretty significant Margin. That second time and then the third time, i actually went in feeling like I was gonna win again And I ended up losing. I came in fifth, then first, then fourth, and the lesson in that for me was Humility is everything. And so, yes, be confident, yes, be positive, but not delusional. Not delusional. Maybe some of those people, some of those contestants that are going into this, they're delusional about their own capabilities and maybe they're delusional about what mother nature can do, and we've seen a thousand times Where arrogance got people hurt or killed.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was young, i I got a Volkswagen Jetta was my first car and I used to drive that thing way too fast, because you just underestimate how dangerous cars are when you're a young boy, young girl, whatever, you just don't know. And I got into several different car accidents and fortunately I was okay. But I'll tell you what I remember. My very first car accident This was not the one that you've heard about, if you're a long-term listener This is when I was 17 years old. I got a text message out of and this is back when we had flip phones way back in the day and it vibrated out of my pocket. I was headed to my girlfriend's place and she was texting me, it vibrated and it vibrated out of my pocket. I went down to actually grab the phone and then I ended up on the right side of the road like kind of in the dirt and I couldn't recover. And then I ended up doing a 360 and hitting a telephone pole. And Fortunately the telephone pole would hit the back right of my vehicle or back left I think, but I was okay. But the car was totaled and after that I never drove the same.
Speaker 2:After that I was like okay, cars are dangerous. I have to be really, really, really careful and I have to be realistic about the danger here. This is not, you know, this is not something to be messing around with. And so wear your seatbelt, you know. Look both ways, make sure you're paying attention. You just stay humble, and I'm not saying to play scared, you don't want to be fearful all the time, but I think that at the end of the day, whether it's life or business or an intimate relationship, you've got to stay super humble. The moment you think your relationship is just going to work out on its own is the moment you stop putting in the work to make sure it works out We.
Speaker 1:I haven't finished the season so I don't know who wins. I will keep keep everybody updated with that. I just think if you were, imagine like you have done something that somebody else is getting ready to do and you're giving them accurate advice, and if the person who won the show that is in the family, his name is Jordan, i imagine he would probably say, hey, it's going to kind of suck, this isn't going to be good. I've talked about this many times. My I've only had one fitness coach really And he said if you, if you want to win the show, you'll suffer more than everybody else. And I'm really. Yeah, it sounds dark and it sounds like he was kind of a hard ass And he was. He was very much a hard ass, but I was very grateful that he told me that because it set my expectations correctly.
Speaker 1:That really, for me, in this episode, the next level nugget is if, if your expectations are that something is going to be easy and when it is not easy, you quit, i don't think that's serving you. Now, if you are the type of person who expects it to be easy and when it's not, it motivates you, Okay, cool, maybe this episode isn't the same level of value, or maybe you're not going to take the same thing away, but I just always, when I watch the show, it's always like, oh yeah, it's going to be amazing, i mean, it's going to be easy. Or they go in and say my goal is to stay the longest anybody has ever stayed. Cool, i love that goal. I would bet on the person who says, yeah, this is probably going to suck and it's going to tax me, it's going to be the hardest thing I ever do, because most likely they're more accurate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now maybe it'll be easier than they think. I don't know, maybe, but I can assume it would be Well.
Speaker 2:I also tell the story about the marathon. Kevin and I had an honest conversation on this podcast where I said that I think I can do a marathon. I think I can run, jog, light jog 25 miles without stopping. I ended up trying to do it Granted, i did it dehydrated and it was a 95 degree day but I was very humbled. The first half marathon was actually pretty easy. I was like doing a really good job, to the point where I was a little arrogant in the middle of it. Emilia ended up coming halfway through and doing the second half with me, but by the end I was like I mean, i wasn't crawling, i was walking, but I was really, really humbled. I remember having a lot of humble pie by the end. The full marathon was way harder than I thought. The first half was actually easier than I thought And I think that we just underestimate things. But again, some people I do think are on the other end, kev, where they think it's going to be so hard They don't even try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fair, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I think that that's detrimental too, depending on what it is Right. So at least the people that are positive are still giving it a shot.
Speaker 1:Well, if your expectation is I can't do this, then you'll never try Exactly. But I think if somebody came in and just prefaced it with yeah, no, it's going to suck, i mean you're capable of doing it. I just wonder if that would help. I just wonder if if the it's almost like if your expectations and the reality are too far apart Yeah, you're in trouble It almost shocks you into saying, oh, this isn't what I expected, but if they're close, you can actually plan for the suck.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's kind of my thought process for this episode, which is the balance between confidence and humility. That's really what it is. I'm confident I can get this marathon done, but I'm going to be very humble and make sure I pack extra water, make sure I sleep right, make sure I eat right, make sure I do my mobility versus. This is going to be no problem, and I've been on both ends of that, particularly the optimistic end. So I think everyone is tends to be a little bit overly optimistic or a little bit overly pessimistic, and I think all of us could drive to five better. For me, i got to work on humility. For Kev, he has to work on believing things are possible, and we've become a lot better because of it. So I think that's a good good next level nugget.
Speaker 1:Last thing before we go. What's the book? Is it dare to be great? What's the book that? I'm Bernay, no, no, no, the From Good to Great.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, jim Collins, is that the book? Yeah, it's called From Good to Great.
Speaker 1:They are talking in that about product. What is it? productive paranoia, yeah, that you could probably explain it better than I and more quickly than I, but there is something to be said about the fact that people who plan for bad situations tend to do better. Yeah, assuming they do it Exactly. Plan, not Not do it because of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because if you think it's gonna go horribly wrong, you might not even do it, in which case, You're dead in the water, Yeah so, to be brief about this, it's called from good to great and they talk about how you have to hold this duality of knowing that it's possible And that you can do it, while Simultaneously being kind of paranoid about what could go wrong. And and holding that duality, i think, is really really critical, and we've had each other to kind of do that like you've been like dude, this is gonna go bad and I'm like dude, we got to do it and because of me, we did a lot more, whereas Kevin might have bailed, but because of Kev, we also failed a lot less than we would have if we didn't prepare enough.
Speaker 2:And so how do we all cultivate both Kevin's attitude and my attitude in ourselves?
Speaker 1:Simultaneously. Well, that's I'm. You want to talk about why I'm here today? We were having audio issues yesterday as a recording. This I said I think it's this piece of equipment for you. Let's order you a new one. It got overnighted, which was awesome, and then to the wrong door, to the wrong door, and then we logged on today and we got ready to record and we had different mistakes or different problems And I and I told Alan I said I knew I should have come down. I should just came down yesterday, because maybe we would have figured something out. That Productive paranoia is huge.
Speaker 1:So that's another thing we can connect to this episode. So that would be my next level nugget. Are you ask yourself a simple question are you Only planning for the positives or are you planning for the negatives as well? Because if you plan for the negatives and they happen which they most likely are going to at some level, because life is life At least you'll be more prepared. And if your expectations are that something could happen I think that's why you've heard me say many times I consider myself a really good driver. Yeah, because I'm a defensive. I'm always Looking around me with the in the understanding that something could happen.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm always thinking about that and I think that lends itself to being somewhat good at something. Okay, we got to go because we're gonna do another episode. Next level nation. July 11th 2023 is our next round of group coaching. It is group number 11. We already have somebody who signed up today. We have a bunch of messages from people and out to people who have been interested in the past. If you reach out to Alan and or myself, kevin, at next level universe, alan at next level universe, calm, we have a discount code for you. It is only for the amazing NLU family, but if you have ever thought about coaching and you say, well, one-on-one might be too much, group coaching is a wonderful place to start. We would love to have you. Everything you need to know is in the show notes. Also, we have a monthly meetup.
Speaker 2:This is dropping Thursday. This is dropping Thursday Thursday. Okay, so the monthly meetup is tonight. If you're listening to this before 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, immediately click the link in the show notes and register. If not, you have missed this one, and We have one every single month. But this meetup is about the top three things you need to understand about your intimate partner. If you don't know your partner, Well, you're gonna, you know, really crash in your relationship tomorrow for episode number 1390.
Speaker 1:How would someone else introduce you? So we were talking and I think we're gonna do a full episode on this but we were talking last week about the difference with the opposite of arrogance, and I think that people who are actually really, really competent and really, really amazing Struggle to own that, and I just imagine if somebody else was introducing you, what would they say about you that you would never say about yourself? We are gonna talk about that tomorrow. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and NLU. We do not have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Stay humble. Next level nation boom. Nice, we're back.
