Next Level University

#1480 - Do You Recognize How Much You've Grown?

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In the journey of self-discovery and personal growth, there are peaks and valleys, successes and setbacks, and moments of clarity and confusion. But often, amid the hustle and bustle of life, we forget to pause, reflect, and truly appreciate how far we've come. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros discuss the power of setting a line in the sand to mark our progress. They discuss that by reflecting on our progress, harnessing motivation, and embracing breakthroughs, we can comprehensively understand our growth process.
 
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Show notes: 
[4:31] Kevin shares his perspective on their progress
[5:45] Tips on how to mark where you currently are in your journey
[12:09] Alan shares an analogy of their journey
[14:22] Alex highlights how Next Level Business Solutions helped him optimize his time for maximum productivity
[15:16] It can feel like you're not making progress
[19:18] Remember what life used to be like
[22:54] Humble yourself
[27:50] 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, episode number 1479. We said it was gonna be one question to bring clarity to your relationship. I think it was really three questions to bring clarity to your relationship, but we're gonna leave it as one question because that was the goal. That was let the latest episode today.

Speaker 1:

For episode number 1480, do you recognize how much you've grown? This is an episode that we have done in the past, but I Think it's an episode always worth doing because if you're a new listener or you haven't had the opportunity to do a perspective Revisit, today is a great day to do it. I Was having a conversation with somebody recently and they said how's how's life, what's new, how's everything? And I said it's everything's really, really good. I'm just going through a little bit of an identity thing because Everything's a little bit weird.

Speaker 1:

It's very weird to me that it's almost another year of podcasting and the business has grown a ton and nlps, next level podcast solutions we have 50 something clients now and I remember when there was just one, and we have days where we get three times the amount of listens in one day that we got in the first year. That's mind-blowing to me. I don't understand that. And we've done 11 rounds of group coaching and we were in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh recently for a speech, and it's just.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of weird stuff that I just it feels very, very weird for me. And then I look back and the reason it feels so weird is because a lot has changed in a relatively short period of time. Five years, six years is a long time, but the amount of change that I've felt over the last five or six years is just amazing. It's incredible, and a lot of the things that I'm experiencing on the day-to-day today are things that I never really Expected to experience. I told Alan I feel like I'm on the other end with a lot of things that I never really thought I'd be on the other end of. But I want to tie this in Can you give us more of those, more what?

Speaker 2:

what are you on the other end of that you never expected to be on the other end of I.

Speaker 1:

Mean.

Speaker 2:

I never. I said microphones. Oh nice, well done I.

Speaker 1:

Never. I never expected to be on like 700 other podcasts. That's super weird. Shout out to Laura, who is Laura, and Jerry in, who are crushing the system. I never expected that. That's weird for me. What I think here's, here's a perspective. I think a lot of Me. I want to phrase this correctly you believed we'd be Everywhere we've been and you will almost always believe we're gonna get to where we. We're gonna get to you. It'll never really be a surprise for you. I'm gonna say no, I knew we'd make it here.

Speaker 2:

I yes and no. So yes in the sense of, I think, the end, I would say 90% yes, but I didn't anticipate having this creative relationship with Emilia. There are things that are, by products, that I did not anticipate. So my relationship with Emilia is way beyond what I ever thought was possible.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to success just business success and numbers and all that stuff I think what happens is I have a very unique perspective because I really didn't think we were going to make it to where we've made it, to the degree we have. But I'm okay with admitting it because I don't really feel like it lessens anything about me admitting it where I don't think I can really ever hear other people say I don't really know how I got here and I pinched myself and really mean it.

Speaker 2:

I feel like that's kind of a rare, super rare, I feel like it's a unique perspective.

Speaker 1:

So the reason I share that is because if you're somebody who has struggled with low self-worth, low self-belief, it's hard for you to imagine five years from today. I feel you at a very, very deep level. I also want to tie this in. Any other episodes we've talked about you and I have a wonderful roll the decks of content where I can look back and say where was I on April 15th of 2020? Oh yeah, I remember what was going on in my life.

Speaker 1:

If you're not a podcaster, you might not have that. This would be a really good opportunity to do one of two things. One, if the last time we talked about this and you heard me say take out your cell phone and record an audio note or write something or record a video of what's going on in your life right now, now would be a great time to pause the episode and watch that video. If you're not, if you're driving, or listen to that audio or read what you wrote to yourself. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I think this is a super powerful thing Right now, take out your phone and record a video to yourself and audio to yourself, write a message to yourself of today is whatever. It is Thursday, the fifth Thursday, october 5th 2023.

Speaker 1:

This is what's going on in my life I am in a great relationship or I'm single. I'm the most abundant I've ever been with money. I'm the most scarce I've ever been with money. I really feel like I'm falling in love with my body. I really feel like I'm struggling to love my body and write out where you are and then check in in a month, three months, six months, a year. I'm blessed because we have the content and I can look back and say, oh yeah, I remember our first client, I remember our first speech, I remember our first podcast episode.

Speaker 1:

I think that perspective is super important, but we have to create it. You have to put a line in the sand to say this is where I'm going to start my perspective, and then that's the one you can always look back on. So I would challenge you. That would be my early next level nugget. I don't think we did next level nuggets in the previous episode. Right here, jeff.

Speaker 1:

That would be my next level nugget for this episode is do that practice and when you check in six months from today, because you know I'm going to bring it up again. Of course I love. These are like my favorite episodes. Next time I'm going to, I'll say the same thing and that can be a reminder of oh, yeah, yeah, let me see. All you have to do is make a note in your iPhone or Android, or record a video in your phone and save it. Just save it as reflection journal, and then you'll always have it. And then imagine, in five years, if you have 15 of those, 20 of those, 30 of you, those you're going to see your growth in real time. That would be pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

I was on a zoom meeting with Laura on the team, so Laura's getting a couple of shoutouts here.

Speaker 1:

I asked her if I could share this.

Speaker 2:

And she said, yes, laura Kev has been doing that. I don't know if it was based on an episode that we did. It might have been when you suggested it years ago, because we've done this kind of an episode several times, many times, and you've been making that suggestion. I think we even suggested to do that in group coaching back then when she was in gratitude with attitude, which was one of our groups Kev she hasn't missed. Since then she has one video per day.

Speaker 1:

That's wild.

Speaker 2:

Every day. She hasn't missed a single time. And when I found that out I was like, can I share that? Not not the videos, obviously, but because they're private, but can I share that? You've done that every single day. And one of her homework assignments after our coaching call last week was go review some of those and see how far you've come.

Speaker 2:

It's wild to see how far she's come. I remember when I first met her she wanted to fear chase and she was putting a video a day in the gratitude with attitude WhatsApp group, and I think Greg at the time was in that group as well.

Speaker 2:

And he was doing the same thing. That group was on fire. Yeah, what I want to share here is if you don't have content online that you can look back at I mean, I do this with clients. I told one of my clients recently. I said, listen, I looked at your entire Facebook and I know that probably sounds creepy. I don't mean that in a negative way. I just looked at your past. I need to understand your past. I need to understand your present and I need to help you align for the future that you want. I need to understand where you came from and who you are and your family and the dynamics and who's what.

Speaker 2:

When you do research online of someone's Instagram or someone's Facebook, there's a lot that you can deduce about their past, their present and their potential future. You can do this with yourself, though. Every now and then, I'll go through past photos. The other day, I was actually in my iPhone. I have iCloud notes and that used to be one of my journals. I have a bunch of journals behind me as well, but Kevin is saying do a video journal, take out your phone, do a video.

Speaker 2:

Talk about where you are, talk about your dreams, talk about your goals, talk about your aspirations, talk about where you're struggling, talk about where you're succeeding. Yes, yes, yes. The other thing to look back on is your journals. If you have a diary or a journal or anything that you write your thoughts in, that, go back. I have a journal entry from 2016 that I recently read and it is wild. Do you care to share with the class, I mean, some of the quotes? A lot of it was quotes and stuff. I can share some stuff you made me share my cringe worthy messages to that young lady.

Speaker 1:

That's a good thing.

Speaker 2:

All right, so April 2016,. Notes and quotes. Notes and quotes is nice, right, yeah, all right, so there's. I'll just give you a couple. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and, time after time, given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been truth, goodness and beauty. That's an Albert Einstein quote.

Speaker 2:

Okay, success is actually a short race, a sprint fueled by discipline, just long enough for habit to kick in and take over. That was Gary Keller from the One Thing. In order to get what we want, we must deserve what we want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a bunch of undeserving people. Charlie Munger, what he's trying to say there is you have to earn your way to success. You have to do the hard work. These are just some examples. I have a Jim Carrey quote in here. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. These are quotes that I used to log because they were pebbles toward my success back then, and you can just tell Some of the quotes that I wrote. It's like I wasn't a podcast, or I wasn't a speaker.

Speaker 1:

I was just getting started. No, you weren't. Yeah, you weren't, no.

Speaker 2:

I was just getting started. The podcast was March 2017 and I wasn't even a part of it yet, and mine was probably early 2017 as well, but this is the analogy that I wanted to bring. I actually did some numbers, some math, before this episode. I told Kev there was a couple episodes ago that I talked about Chauncey's Peak and how I'm considering myself a hiker Emilia and I hike all the time. Now it's awesome, I don't know all the time, once per quarter at least, and so four times a year. And we went to this place called Chauncey's Peak, which is my favorite hike of the I think seven that we've done that are pretty significant Appalachian Trail, blah, blah, blah. And this Chauncey's Peak experience was fascinating because I think it's a great analogy for life, one of the best. When you're it's raining, it's wet, it's difficult, it's rocky, you're trying every step not to twist your ankle, it's not necessarily all fun, even though it is beautiful. Okay, it's definitely challenging, fitness wise, particularly if you want to do it in a good clip to get home before dark. I get to the top of this thing and it's one of those things where and I articulated this on the last episode you get to what you think is the peak, and you realize it's not even close. And then you get to the next level and you realize there's another level. And you get to the next level and you realize there's another level. Eventually you actually get to the peak.

Speaker 2:

And there was this point in Chauncey's Peak where we can go right or we can go left. I wanted to go left because it looked like there was a higher road, higher part. She said, let's try, right. I went with her intuition, because she knows nature better than I do. It ended up being the best view ever of all time. I would have skipped that altogether. Quite frankly, I shouldn't have, but I did, I would have.

Speaker 2:

So we go with her, I divert to her, I go to this and it's the most beautiful view, one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen in my life. Now it's misty, it's foggy, but you can see our car like four miles down the way. This is the analogy. Life is a lot like that. You're climbing and you're trudging and you're trying not to break your ankle and it's hard and you're out of breath and you. It's beautiful if you look around but it's challenging. But then you look up and you look back. You're going one step at a time and it's challenging. But then when you get to the top or whatever that next level is, when you look back you go holy crap, look how far we've come, even though all along the way it felt like you weren't getting anywhere. So I said, I did some math and If you've ever seen the movie Ace Ventura, when nature calls, I've seen this one.

Speaker 2:

You've seen it nice, the slinky down the stairs Mm-hmm, everyone loves a slinky, a slinky, the big staircase. So I crunched some numbers. Let's say you were to wake up in the morning and you were to do three steps in the right direction, towards your goals, towards your dreams, towards your next level, whatever that is. In 165 days you would be 1,095 steps up this staircase and if you looked back you'd go holy crap, look how far I've come. But here's the thing the first day, the second day, the first week, the first month, you're it's not that big a deal. It's like oh, that's all, that's all I've come, that's how far really. It's like my car is still right there. If you can sustain three steps a day for ten years, you are 10,950 steps up, and when you turn around and look back at how far you've come, it is going to be wild. Here's the problem we don't stay consistent because we can't see that we're making any progress. You don't feel like you're making any progress.

Speaker 2:

Along the way, along the way of this six-year journey, kevin and I have been on podcasting every single episode, challenging, you know, tired. Do we have the right concept? We have the right intention. Are we talking to the right listener, we have the right story. Is this gonna land? Stop saying um, stop saying you know, stop saying, like Kevin says, interesting. 8,000 effin times? Yeah, not anymore. It's such a challenge, it's such a trudge, it's so. It's so mundane and boring sometimes sometimes, but when you look back it's like holy crap, holy crap. And so for me, math is my favorite gift, because I crunch the numbers in advance and I can't wait for 10,950 steps and I can't wait to look back and go holy crap, look how far we've come. And To Kevin's point earlier, when he said you knew we'd get here Mathematically, I did. What I didn't know is how beautiful the view would be, in this analogy, of having a magnificent relationship with Emilia, who I met along the journey of these three steps a day, five steps a day, ten steps a day.

Speaker 1:

Even if this is a really, this would be like a really good meme, maybe a framework picture or whatever. Let's just say one step a day just for the sake of math, because it makes things a little bit easier. If you do that every day, that's 365 steps. Imagine if each step was a foot, you'd be 365 feet up in the air. But the first day you're one, you're one foot up, and then it's two, then it's three, then it's four. By the end of the month You're 30. That's a good ladder, I would argue. Most of us have probably been 30 feet up in the air, whether it's on a Balcony, somewhere on a ladder or whatever. Whatever it may be the bleachers somewhere talking to a painter. Sir.

Speaker 1:

I was also 2009, so I also had my my fair share of yeah scary Thatters we used to run the scissor lifts in the gymnasiums so we were like 50 feet up.

Speaker 2:

So you know I know the hard hat.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's gonna do much from up there.

Speaker 2:

Did the people who put windows on skyscrapers and stuff not a chance?

Speaker 1:

no way there is zero amount of money you can pay me to do it. It's insane. I don't think I could physically do it same. But you 365 feet, that's a lot of feet. That's a 36-story building. Now you do that for 10 years, 3,000. Let's just say you do that for 15 years and you end up 5,000 feet. That's a mile. Imagine you're being a mile up. 5,280 feet is a mile. Nice work. So imagine that.

Speaker 1:

But it doesn't seem like it. It doesn't seem like it on the day to day. It just doesn't seem like it. So the perspective is so important. That's why I love the fact that we can go back and look at episode 500. What was going on then? Not a lot compared to now, but way more than the beginning. And then here's the last piece of perspective I would give.

Speaker 1:

When I know someone is struggling, usually let's just say they became an entrepreneur Again. You're listening to this. You're a dream chaser. That means you want to improve health, wealth, life. Love Doesn't mean you want to start a business or be an entrepreneur, necessarily. But I always love saying, when I know someone's struggling remember when you left your job, because I know it probably seems, either you've forgotten about it completely and now you're just in the mud of this new thing, or you just you forgot what life used to be like before you were able to do your own thing. Same, I've had those moments too, of course, of course. But 2018, it's been six years since I left my job. That's wild. That's wild. Now, do some days suck and they're very hard? Yeah, of course, absolutely, but that's a very powerful perspective for me to have the very last thing I want to share.

Speaker 2:

I didn't anticipate sharing this, but I think this is something that I've always gone back to whenever I'm struggling. So I was cleaning the kitty litter earlier today. Emilia's in South Carolina with her fan bam and she's coming back tonight. I'm super pumped, but I've been on cat and dog duty full time. Dad, pet dad, pet dad, and we have this huge kitty litter. I mean, we got this big bin, so it's like a big one and I, of course, you know, let it ride for a couple days. Big bin, it's all good. You know, tauriel got mad at her dad and knocked one of them over because she's like, clean this thing, will you. So anyways, I'm cleaning the kitty litter today and there's kitty litter all over the floor in our basement because Tauriel knocked, one of the kitty litter is over. The big bin was fine, but the little bin was knocked over and so I've got kitty litter on my feet. It's like a whole thing. So I'm cleaning the kitty litter. All good, all good, all good, I do it. It's all good, good to go. Mom's coming home, you know, everything's good to go. Dad crushed it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm in the shower cleaning my feet. This is the punch line to the story, and I'm sitting on the side and I grabbed the soap and I'm cleaning my feet and I had this actual moment of isn't it so awesome that we have running water? I think about stuff like that all the time Because, quite frankly, my life is really difficult when it comes to business and leadership and podcasting and I'm tired and you know kitty litter and making sure the house is clean and I cooked dinner for us tonight and I'm going to go to the gym tonight and but all of those are awesome problems to have and I really do every now and then I'm telling you I do this all the time Like how much would it suck if I didn't have, like, running water. You know that would suck so bad. I think it's important to do what I call a perspective reset. There are a lot of people who don't have running water and for me, I need that. I need to remember like this is a luxury to clean my feet right now.

Speaker 2:

As funny as that is, I'm doing, I'm doing that on the regular and I'm convinced that Kevin and I would not be able to work so hard if we didn't do that. You know we would get too entitled. We would. We would get above sweeping kitty litter. You know, and I'm not saying that, sweeping kitty litter is the best use of your time If you're a business owner. I think there's, you know, there's a this robot thing. I think you tried it. It may or may not work well.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. Yeah, it wasn't the answer Wasn't the answer.

Speaker 2:

The point is is you, you've got to level, set yourself and humble yourself every now and then and just realize how great you have it. Otherwise, you're going to constantly get caught up in victim mode of I'm too overwhelmed. So Kevin calls it privileged pressure, I call it aligned overwhelm. Yeah, we're overwhelmed, yeah, we're struggling. We talk about it all the time on this podcast, but at the end of the day, this is the struggles we chose and the truth is it's way better than it used to be when we had a studio in my mom's basement. Definitely it's way better than it used to be when we didn't have stream yard and I didn't have a nice camera and I didn't have a remarkable and I didn't have two laptops and I didn't have an iPhone 14 and I didn't have AirPods and I didn't have a beautiful condo and I didn't have pets and I didn't. Yeah, it's challenging.

Speaker 2:

Every new level requires a new level of responsibility. Our third cat, I told Emilia. I don't know if this is the time I will do it, but that's another layer of responsibility that I want to handle with Grace, and I don't know if I'm going to do a good job. I think that's humility, and I do believe that all of us need to, every now and then, go back and look at old journals or old videos or old content or old photos or old things they posted on Facebook that they're embarrassed about, because it shows you how far you've come and it shows you that the problems you faced back then, the challenges that you got through back then, are going to give you the strength and the courage to continue on that trek, that upward trajectory, that grudging, trudging, challenging, muddy walk up the mountain, because when you do look back you are going to go holy crap, I'm so glad I kept marching versus. Damn. I really used to be so great, Strong work.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, brother, strong work. The litter box and you know it's not to compare or anything but the litter box in the Palm area household gets cleaned twice a day, every day, whatever, no biggie. One of the things I often say so I don't know how much detail to go in is that the cats were having poop problems, they were having diarrhea, and they went to the vet and we had to get this somewhat expensive food. It's like 80 bucks a bag or something and it was like what? We're going to spend 80 dollars a bag for this? This is reckless. And then it was.

Speaker 1:

I'm so grateful to be able to provide that for the cats. That's awesome, at least. I'm grateful and I understand not everybody's in that position, but I'm grateful. Where we can provide that for the cats, let me be grateful for that, not frustrated. Plus, I order 80 dollars worth of food in a night. I'm an idiot. So the least they can do that's like a couple months' worth. It's not that big of a deal. I second that and any chance to talk about cats I am in.

Speaker 2:

Well, you need the gratitude, and the perspective creates gratitude, I think.

Speaker 1:

Of course I would concur. Next elimination If you are listening to this, on Thursday, five days from today, we are opening, I guess, starting. I never know whether to say opening or closing group coaching, because it's not, it's already open, it's not. We don't really close it, we get 10 people, so that's when the next group is having its first call. So if you have wanted to join group coaching in the past and you've missed the boat, you've missed the bus, you've missed the taxi, this is your opportunity with the discount code NLUListener. All one word in the show notes. It ends up being 96 dollars per month and that's going to get you two calls per month for 96 dollars. I have spent 96 dollars. Worse than that, Maybe you have as well. So if we want to invest that money in ourselves, please join group coaching.

Speaker 2:

We talked on an episode this past week about when you invest in yourself. There's something that happens with your self-belief and self-worth, like are you worth the investment? And maybe you're afraid I'm not going to be able to show up. Maybe you're afraid that you'll let yourself down again. Maybe you're afraid you won't keep the promises to yourself or to the rest of the group. Take the chance. Take the chance, make the investment. I believe that you will Thank yourself. Your future self will thank you If you are struggling financially and you still want to be a part of something great.

Speaker 2:

Next-level monthly meetups are every month and they're free, okay, and they're similar to what the group coaching sessions are. They're deeper than this podcast, but not as deep as group coaching, and they're designed that way for a reason. And it's a good way for you to get in the room with like-minded people who are growth-oriented listeners like you. So if you love this show, you have something in common with these other people, because that means you love growth. That means you have goals. So are you taking these three relationship mistakes? Are you making I'm sorry, are you making these three relationship mistakes? October 5th, which is tonight actually, if you're listening to this, it's tonight at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time. Kevin and I will be there and we will teach you what those three mistakes are, to make sure that you are not making them in your relationship and to make sure that you grow together with your partner and not apart.

Speaker 1:

Be there or be square, as they say. Tomorrow for episode number 1481, what really motivates you. I had a lot of breakthroughs with one of my clients on a call recently and that inspired this episode. I think it'll be a very, very powerful episode for us all. So please tune in tomorrow for that. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you At NLU, we do not have fans, we have family. We'll talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

Keep taking those steps to your next level, next, sublimation.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host