Next Level University

#1450 - What You Focus On Expands…

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about the fascinating world of content consumption, its impact on our lives, and its role in shaping our behaviors. They discuss how we are continually influenced by what we read, watch, and listen to, and how these influences can profoundly affect our choices and journeys towards our goals. Our content preferences are directly related to the outcomes we experience in life. If we want to achieve specific results, we must consciously consume valuable, productive, and inspiring content. We can make strategic content choices that align with our goals and help us become the people we aspire to be.

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Show notes:
[0:00] Intro
[3:01] What you're consuming influences your behavior
[9:43] Be careful about what you consume
[13:29] Kim thanks Kevin for going above and beyond in helping launch the Peaceful Productivity podcast
[14:07] Everything is influencing you
[18:27] Unfollowing some people on social media
[24:21] Outro


Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

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 our latest episode, number 149. Three things required for transformation. Today for episode number 1450 happy Tuesday.

Speaker 1:

What you focus on Expands. That may be a quote that you have heard or you've seen on various social media sites, and today we're gonna talk about it. I told Alan, or Alan said I think you said, kev, you look the most jacked you have in a minute something like that. And I said man, I'm not kidding, I'm taking this, this fitness thing, seriously. I'm watching fitness content pretty much every single day. When I eat my meals. At the end of the Day, I'm watching this fitness content. That's really what I'm consuming the majority of the time. And he said it's, it's telling, because when you're consuming Specific content, you're behaving in a specific way as well. And I said well, think about it. We had the the time where I was playing a lot more video games, a PlayStation 4 Throwback dude ski a lot of Call of Duty.

Speaker 1:

For those you don't know, it's one of the biggest, one of the biggest games on the planet. Honestly, and when I was, I was consuming more content about gaming and about Call of Duty specifically. It's probably not a coincidence that I was playing more Call of Duty, that I was thinking about it more, that my social media might have reflected what I was consuming on social media might have reflected it. My desires, my, my triggers, my polls were probably more to that. Where now I'm consuming All of this fitness, nutrition, exercise content. I downloaded a new app to track my workouts, which came from the person that I'm following. If you go on my YouTube, a Lot of the recommended videos are health, fitness, nutrition, exercise. So that's really what we want to talk about today. There's a lot of, there's a lot of influence on your behavior from what you're consuming, way more than you might give credit to. I've said this before.

Speaker 1:

One of my favorite shows of all time is the king of Queens with Kevin James. Just, it's a funny, stupid show, and I notice my communication with Terran is different when I watch too much of that show. It's not bad, but I'm way more jokey. I joke way more and sometimes the jokes just aren't. It's not the right time to joke. This isn't a freaking sitcom, kevin. This is real life. Get it together. I've noticed that. I told Alan and I told you all in previous episodes.

Speaker 1:

I've been watching a lot of suits lately. I think that might be one of the reasons I've gotten better at sales is because I'm watching people have very serious Conversations about lots of money all the time at night. It's not the most relaxing show in the world to watch at night, but I like it. I've learned a lot about business from that show. So that's really the the jam for today. What you consume is Creating a lot of the things that you're focusing on, and then, when you focus on them, it makes you, it doesn't make you. It creates re-focusing and re-consumption of other stuff and it becomes this kind of cycle. I Wanted to get in better shape. I started watching more fitness content. I'm getting in better shape. I feel more like a bodybuilder. I'm actually watching even more content which makes me feel more like a bodybuilder and I'm actually getting better results, and that locks that in, and here we are today.

Speaker 2:

You've heard that saying Kev, you are what you eat.

Speaker 1:

I have.

Speaker 2:

You are what you consume Another version of another, another flavor. Pun intended of that saying is you are what you consume inputs and outputs. If you're consuming nonsense and things that are not Useful or practical or tangible, you're most likely gonna feel it. One of the best parts about listening to NLU is it's just gonna keep your focus on Things that are productive, things that are that are valuable. So if you think about, let's say, hypothetically, kev someone actually did listen to every NLU episode every day.

Speaker 2:

Mmm and they really were with us on this journey, and I know some of you are so. Thank you. Every single episode is About getting to some next level, next level in your life love, health and wealth. If you were to just do that daily Over the course of, I really wish I could do this. I wish I could have someone listen to NLU for a decade and someone else listen to the radio and I wish I could compare. How cool would that be. And one of the main reasons I mean I use books all the time because I believe in inputs and outputs. I believe that you, if you want to make chocolate cake, you need the right ingredients and so you're not gonna have a Great, magnificent, growth oriented, impactful, positive, influential life.

Speaker 2:

If you're constantly watching the news, the news is often Nonsense. A lot of it is really heinous. A lot of it is the bad stuff that's happening, the violence and the crime. I Want to watch and listen to positive things that are that are gonna help me be inspired. I'll notice when I watch Captain America, the Winter Soldier, that movie that I love. I'll notice that I'll be more focused on physical fitness because he is Jacked in that movie. I'll notice when, whatever you are consuming, you will notice. I'll notice when I watch the show House MD, I'm a little bit more. They do what's called a differential diagnosis and Essentially what they do is they all try to figure out what's wrong. It's a puzzle. They're trying to figure out what disease is killing the patient and they have like healthy discords, healthy debates. Emilia and I are watching that show right now and we'll have like really healthy debates and really healthy discords where we're back and forth a lot and we're coming to these amazing breakthroughs about personal development, about professional development, about business development, about how to grow.

Speaker 2:

The Podcast about XYZ she's a podcast as well for the new listeners and I use books for this all the time With my clients. I always ask what book are you reading right now? I always ask that what's really underneath that? For the listeners, I'm not just asking what book you're reading because I'm curious about what book you're reading. I could care less what book you're reading. What I care about is what are you focusing on? The clients that need to be more consistent I want them reading relentless. The clients that are already consistent that need to improve their intimate relationship I want them reading attached. The clients who want to focus on sales. I need them reading the books you're reading by Phil M Jones, magic Words or the Art of Selling, or Emilia is having a huge Brian Tracy kick lately.

Speaker 2:

I always talk about Brian Tracy. She asked me. I was on a walk with her last night. I said Emilia, what books are you reading? I didn't say, emilia, what books are you reading? I said what books are you reading? And she said I've been just going through all Brian Tracy stuff Leadership, sales, persuasion, all kinds of Brian Tracy stuff. She said what do you think is the biggest downside to Brian Tracy? Because we always debate about all these different authors and some authors. Every book has pros and cons. Some books are great for certain things and not for others. I said he's just wicked boring.

Speaker 1:

And he's 250 years old.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's also 250 years old. He's just super boring. And she's like I don't think he's boring. I'm like, well, of course you don't, sweetheart. All he does is teach principles. You love principles.

Speaker 2:

So my point here is whether it's the books you're reading or the podcasts you're listening to, or the YouTube videos you're watching, or the movies or the shows, whatever it is, it is having an impact. It is, it's having an impact and you, if you change the inputs, the things you consume, you're gonna change your behavior, you're gonna change your perception, you're gonna change your thoughts, You're gonna change your feelings. You're gonna change what you do and don't do. Say and don't say, think and don't think, feel and don't feel, believe and don't believe, especially that last one. I was watching a YouTube video of a speech talking about the power of beliefs, belief systems, recently, and I've been thinking a lot lately about my beliefs. I've been thinking a lot about what don't I believe, yet that I need to believe in order to achieve my goals. That's a great question, and it's because of these videos. So I'm very, very, very, very careful with what I consume.

Speaker 2:

Today, I actually spent 10 minutes right outside my shower. I was sitting there trying to find, so I'm taking a course right now on leadership. I'll be brief about this. I'm taking a course right now on leadership and I'm very focused on leadership leading the team, leading the clients, leading leadership and I got locked out of my course. Very upset, still can't get in, got locked out and it took me 10 minutes sitting outside my shower to figure out what else I want to listen to. Because I'm so locked in on this course I don't want to listen to anything else. I want to focus on leadership right now. That's the chapter I'm in. I don't want to learn anything else. I want to learn about leadership and I want to make sure it's quality content. I can't stand bad content. I hate it. I don't want to waste my time. So hopefully you're as discerning if you're out there watching or listening, and hopefully NLU is something that you're finding extremely beneficial.

Speaker 1:

And, to your point, there's seasons, there's seasons. I told Alan this and I don't mean this from an arrogant place, but I said I don't know if I'm ever gonna listen to a mindset book again. I'm just that's just not the place I'm in right now. And will I struggle with mindset? I'm sure, but I'm struggling less with mindset that I ever have. So I'm gonna put my time and energy and focus into something that I believe will serve me in the season that I'm in right now. And this is also one of those unfortunate things of the downside of awareness.

Speaker 1:

There are some TV shows that I absolutely love and I know you've dealt with this that I just won't watch anymore because I've noticed I get too different and just maybe not in. One of my favorite shows of all time is it's called Eastbound and Down, but it is. It is filthy. It is a filthy show. It's filthy and there's a lot of misaligned things that when I was I don't know when it first came out, I was probably like 23 when I first started watching it I thought it was the funniest thing on TV. It was on HBO and I tried watching it last year, I think and I was like I can't, I can't watch this, no way it's. I feel gross, I feel Dirty. And no judgment if you love that show. It is very funny, but there's a lot of stuff that just it's too low. Vibe You've heard us say that before.

Speaker 1:

The vibe is just too, it's too low. We tried to watch super bad together and Alan and I when we were in Wisconsin, and we made it through the first 45 minutes and then the next day I said, hey, man, can we not watch that? I don't want to finish that. I feel gross, I feel dirty and he's like, yeah, man, same. So that's a potentially unfortunate byproduct.

Speaker 1:

But this is all. This is self-awareness. There's a self-awareness in a nutshell. When you watch something, how different are you and Do you realize how different you are and are you willing to potentially adjust the amount that you're Viewing it to make sure you stay aligned, and aligned with the person you're trying to become? That's a very hard thing to, because that is a sacrifice. If, if I was a different person when I watched UFC, I probably wouldn't watch UFC as much as I do. But it's a passion, it's something I love and it doesn't really affect me. I mean, it's just, it's a sport. It's a sport, I guess. I suppose if it was on every night of the week, that would have to be a different conversation, right, luckily it's on once a week.

Speaker 2:

It would also affect you in terms of your You're watching a fighting Thing, so you're probably more aware of If there was a physical altercation.

Speaker 1:

This is what I would do, and you're always aware of different moves and see what.

Speaker 2:

I mean. So it does influence you. It just doesn't necessarily influence you in a bad way. I Think this is an important point. Everything is influencing us, everything, and I think the best analogy for this is children. When we're kids, some of our parents not all of them, some of our parents were very concerned with who we hung out with, but that's true for adults, whether it's a TV show or a podcast, or a author or a book or a Superbad, the movie, whatever it is. If you wouldn't want your kid, there's a reason. There's PG-13. There's R rated. I've been watching the Jurassic Park movies lately, so they had the 30th anniversary. I talked about it recently and they they actually grossed 1.7 million dollars with re doing that Movie just in the opening weekend of it. 1.7 million, just million. Is that good?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah yeah, it's pretty well for an old movie, for a 30 year old movie yeah, I'm not the guy, but it's definitely not for if I mean, if that was like Avatar, that would they would have lost.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Solid billion dollars. But the point is, is for a 30 year old movie, it's like nice, pretty good, right, because that's all gravy, they didn't have to spend anything, yeah, although they did have to Make it 3d, so that was that, but anyways, I digress. Everything that you're watching or listening to Is impacting you. It's impacting what you think about. I was thinking a lot about lately the, the economy in terms of the internet. In that movie that was 30 years ago, the first Jurassic Park, they didn't have internet.

Speaker 1:

And did you? Did you know? Sorry to interrupt you. I watched it behind the scenes and yeah, not a big deal, I'm watching behind the scenes at Jurassic Park. That was the first time they ever used CGI.

Speaker 2:

Dude the long neck scene. Yes, the long neck scene in the first movie. It's unreasonable how good it is for 30 years ago.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, it's insane.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we were talking. Emilia and I were talking about that. We are obsessed with the making of movies as much as actual movies and then storytelling and all that. But anyways, I was thinking about the internet and how, before the internet, what life must have been like. They had pay phones and landline phones and when the power went out, none of them had cell phones. It was just fascinating.

Speaker 2:

So, at the end of the day, you protect your kids from what movies you watch. The Jurassic Park movies are PG-13. And Emilia and I were talking about how they never show. They don't show much people dying. There's very few deaths where the dinosaurs are actually eating They'll actually show. They'll show the person getting eaten behind a, behind a log or something, and then blood running through the, through the river to indicate that someone died. But they can't actually show it because they want it to stay PG-13. Because if it was R-rated, a lot of their target demographic, which is kids, wouldn't be able to see it. I would still get to it because I'm 34. I'm good, but the point that I'm making with that is that we protect kids from R-rated movies because of the negative influence. We need to be careful with what we're watching and what we're listening to.

Speaker 2:

And the very last piece I'll say on that is Emilia and I tried watching the new Game of Thrones. It's Game of Dragons or Throne of Dragons or something like that. It was just brutal. I mean, if you've seen it and you're listening, it's new, it's on HBO and I'm sure it's well done in certain capacities, but it's just the gore is so bad, it's too much. I mean, some of the stuff, I mean one guy was I'm not even going to talk about it, it was just bad.

Speaker 2:

So I told Emilia I'm like I'm not. No, I'm not into this. This isn't. It's wicked low vibe and I don't like seeing tons and tons and tons of violence. I'm okay with certain things, but they went too far in that there was a guy getting castrated, it's a whole thing. So, and they actually show it too, which I'm not for that. Nope, not for me, have you. And so, anyways, that's the point is what are you listening to, what are you watching and what's the impact that it's having? And do not be naive, it is having an impact. The only question is whether or not that's a positive impact or a negative impact.

Speaker 1:

And this connects to the episode we did about why are you following? Who are you following? I've been, I've been unfollowing a lot of people, and one of the reasons is I get very fired up when I see their content because I don't believe they're truthful and I just don't. It's not serving me, it's not serving me to follow this person. It's not serving me to get fired up. I'm not learning anything. There's also other people that now their content is more valuable than it's ever been. So that's it. That's another piece of this too.

Speaker 1:

It's it sucks that you have to pay attention to stuff like this. It does it kind of sucks that once you become aware of this, you have to question eh, is this really the best use of my focus? Am I going to like who I am after I watch this? Maybe it's not that heavy, but am I going to recognize any difference in the way I act after I watch this, after I consume this, after I follow this, after I attend this, that there? Last thing, before we go, there was a concert I was supposed to go to, I don't know, last year, and it's an artist I like a lot and I enjoy their music, but not to the point where I'd want to go to a live event because I know the vibe just wouldn't be, it would just be a little lower than I want it to be, and I I thought I would regret it if I went. So I decided not to go and it is what it is right.

Speaker 1:

That's part of becoming aware. That's part of understanding how things influence you Really. Anything that creates anything, that creates a new thought is going to create a new opportunity for influence. Songs, anything. When you listen to a song, it's influencing you in some way, shape or form, positive or negative. That's totally up to you. So that would be my next love of nugget Get very familiar with what is influencing you in a lined way, in a serving way, and what is influencing you in a way that might not be ideal for the goals that you have determined, you would like to accomplish.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was just going to say that about goals. Is this getting you closer to your goals? If you have a goal to be a better leader, reading a book on the 22 irrefutable laws of leadership or 21 irrefutable laws of leadership is aligned. If your goal is to be wealthier, e-millionaire, reading the Science of Money by Brian Tracy and we're talking about money more On our walks we're talking about the book. We're talking about Brian Tracy. We're talking about personal development, we're talking about wealth, we're talking about money. That is aligned with our current goals, that is aligned with the current chapter. And so, whatever you feel called to, just remember that sometimes the shiniest, sexiest, most alluring content is actually mental candy, and it's the mental kale that is actually what's best for you, and so all of us do both. I like candy too, but just make sure your percentage is more kale than candy.

Speaker 1:

Mental kale. That could. If we ever rebrand the podcast, we could just name it mental kale. Yeah, that would be.

Speaker 2:

What are your thoughts? That would be great. Yeah, I feel like that would blow up, it would really do it.

Speaker 1:

It would be excellent. Next Love Nation. If you want to join our private Facebook group, kale Nation, the link will be in the show notes. No, it's called Next Love Nation and it's filled with amazing people like you who care about where they're being influenced from. They are focused on getting a little bit better every day, becoming more vulnerable, becoming more courageous, becoming braver. So if those things resonate with you, you would fit wonderfully in our private Facebook group Next Love Nation. Link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 2:

Last night I was heading to get food. What? Did you get I BK Burger King. Burger King Nice I got Whopper with cheese.

Speaker 1:

With cheese, no mayonnaise.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, Of course you got mayonnaise. Of course mayonnaise. Yeah yeah, yeah, whatever that comes with Large number one with onion rings and cheese, please. Okay, two Whopper juniors with cheese. Emilia gets chicken sammy. Yeah, that was great. Big fair For the.

Speaker 1:

Eileen family.

Speaker 2:

I've never seen a worse establishment with better food. It's absolutely atrocious.

Speaker 1:

I have one right in the street. I order online. I order online and I'm not kidding. It takes 10 minutes every time I get there, every single time.

Speaker 2:

Last time, the gentleman and you still get it.

Speaker 1:

Of course, the gentleman working the window was a very, very pleasant human being, a great, very, very good person. I was like, okay, you got me, I'm coming back Every time. I'm like I'm not going to do it For the audience. Allen doesn't have Burger King every night, just every time that you listen, if you've heard him say it a million times Because he's very, very healthily more often than not.

Speaker 2:

It's 80-20. We try to do one-fifth. We try to eat at home and then we eat out, probably one-fifth at a time.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, you got a zig and you zag.

Speaker 2:

That's the life I want to live, emilia, and I love it every once in a while. Okay, what was I talking about? Oh, I was listening to Limitless, this book that we're reading in Book Club, and I was listening to this whole book about the brain, and I'm thinking a lot more about the brain lately Neuroplasticity, what I'm learning, my memory, sleep, all these things. So, if you want to join us in Book Club, really the benefit of being in Book Club is, yes, you're going to learn a bunch, but it's going to be more incentive to keep you reading. A lot of people want to read more, but they don't do it. Book Club will keep you reading because no one wants to show up to Book Club not having read the chapter. So it keeps me reading, and not that I have a ton of trouble with that, but I really, really enjoy Book Club. You should join, that's wrong.

Speaker 1:

Tomorrow for episode number 1451, the results you desire are hidden in the work. You don't. If that, if that isn't the truest statement I've ever heard, other than you should come to Book Club because I like it, Then I don't know what it is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as always.

Speaker 1:

Hell of a plug. Hell of a plug, as always. We love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU, we don't have fans, we have family. We'll talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

Focus on empowering things. Thanks a lot.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host