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
#1491 - You're Supposed To Take The Training Wheels Off
Are you ready to ditch the training wheels and level up your life? Gear up for a riveting discussion that will make you reconsider your reliance on tools, resources, and digital crutches. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about challenging this dependency and advocating for a reevaluation of our reliance on these digital 'training wheels.' They argue that these aids, while helpful, can sometimes limit our personal growth and foster a dependency that is hard to break free from. This conversation is not about completely eliminating the use of tools and resources but striking a balance that encourages growth and improvement.
Links mentioned:
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Next Level Life Coaching with Alan Lazaros, book a 30-minute call NOW: https://bit.ly/3WpxLLo or email Alan at alan@nextleveluniverse.com
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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
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- Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
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Email 💬
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Show notes:
[2:00] Constructively losing
[5:38] The training wheels should be a supplement
[11:20] Nicole shares how Kevin and the Next Level Podcast Solutions team seamlessly help her with her podcast and provide a fantastic experience.
[12:09] Use training wheels for a headstart
[18:06] Overcome the crutch
[21:08] Outro
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 1490 the two keys to getting what you want. Today, for episode number 1491, you're supposed to take the training wheels off. It was a wise man who once told me kev comma, when it looks like we're losing, we're actually winning, and that wise man was Alan H Lazarus. Each well done. Yeah, I couldn't. That was that.
Speaker 1:Really took a risk on that one Higgins, one out of 26. I knew I had a shot and I was always like I don't know what you're talking about, man, what do you mean? Well, that doesn't make any sense to me. When you're losing, you're winning it. I don't think so. Every game I was losing that I lost, I didn't win, I lost it by definition. That's how it worked and I started to understand over the years by working with Alan, that usually that as long as you are Constructively losing, you're probably actually winning in the long run. Intentionally losing and we'll. We can kind of define that.
Speaker 2:But well, I was you're not intentionally losing you're losing with intention. There you go strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't know how else to say it. By the way, real quick, are there?
Speaker 2:26 letters in the alphabet, or 24?
Speaker 1:There are 26 letters in the alphabet. Are you certain? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I think something today?
Speaker 2:Yes, hey Siri, how many letters are in the alphabet?
Speaker 1:26.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I thought 24.
Speaker 1:I'm a weirdo. You can leave a few out. I mean, nobody really uses some.
Speaker 2:X. Which one would you get rid of? X?
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably X, I loveX.
Speaker 2:Xylophone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all for X, not for me. No pass, get rid of X and I won't have to solve for anything important. Yeah, that is okay. I was on a coaching call With someone recently and I absolutely love this client. She comes with a list of questions and she just hammers through them and you know, me.
Speaker 1:I love when people ask me questions and one of the things was how do you guys do solo episodes? You and Alan do solo episodes. That's how you do it. I said well, it's not really like that because Alan's there and I'm there. But what I will tell you is for podcast growth. You, I do solo episodes. It's just me. No, no, co-host, no guest.
Speaker 1:And she said how do you do that? You write out a script, or do you have cheat sheets, or how do you do it? And I said when you are right now, I would be totally comfortable with you having a script, having cheat sheets, getting the app that is the teleprompter. You could definitely do that. And she said all right, cool, I'll just do that forever. And I said absolutely not. No, no, no, we can't do that forever. No, no, no, way, no way. And she said why not? And I said because if we get into that behavior, you're gonna get to the point where you're gonna be giving a speech or you're gonna have an opportunity to interview someone live or you're gonna have the opportunity to do a live podcast somewhere, and you're gonna you're not gonna have the training to actually succeed. I said at some point we have to take the training wheels off. For some of us, that means not putting the training wheels on in the first place if we think we're gonna struggle to take them off later. So imagine this and you've heard us talk about this many times, but I just think it's very applicable in a situation like this.
Speaker 1:If you've never posted on social media before, putting a filter on your picture might be a training wheel, might be a railing. It's gonna be hard to go back from that, though, because those things make you look so damn good you don't even look. You don't even if you don't even look like yourself. It's gonna be really, really hard for you ever to go back. Mm-hmm, if you've ever photoshopped yourself. There's an account I follow. I don't remember his name, but he's a. He's a fitness guy, and he literally finds people who photoshopped their profiles and calls them out, and it's wild to me, because it makes you wonder how long have they been photoshopping their pictures and what would they do if they? I think it's too. It's too deep now They've done it for too long where they can't take the training wheels off. So I think this is a powerful conversation, because, now more than ever, there's a million ways to put training wheels on, whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1:My next episode for podcast growth you is talking about AI. So if you, if you're out there, I'm sure you've heard of AI and chat, gpt and all those Wild things that are happening and I wanted to do an episode on the training wheel. Slash railing should be a supplement, not the main course. If you wouldn't do it without the training wheel, I would suggest the training wheel might be too big. And what I've seen and just recognized in time is, if you know someone who doesn't know how to ride a bike right now, it's very, very challenging and it takes a very high level of humility for someone who's 27 years old to put training wheels on a bike to learn how to ride, because it's almost too late for them to put the training wheels on and then have to take the training wheels off. So that was really my thought for this episode.
Speaker 1:The main thing is when you're starting something new. I think it's very beneficial to have training wheels, but I also think it's very beneficial to say, okay, but when I get to blank place, I'm going to take these training wheels off, because if I don't, it looks like I'm losing. Sorry, it looks like I'm winning but I'm not getting any better. And I always use this as an analogy or an example with clients where I say don't over edit your podcast, don't edit out every um, every like, every pause. Don't edit all of that out because it doesn't create the necessity for you to get better. And when you go on another podcast, when you go on stage, there are no edits. I'm okay with you having a safety net, but eventually it's going to get to the place where you're playing at a level where there are no safety nets, so we have to prepare you for that.
Speaker 2:Ultimately, yeah, the editing the ums and the likes and the you know out of your podcast is a short term win for a long term loss. What we've done is not edit those things out, which I know was a short term loss, for sure for a long term win, because now we, instead of editing them out, we worked on not saying them, and now we say way less filler words than we used to. And so that's just one example of the thousands of examples of what's referred to as the challenge skills sweet spot. Kevin and I interviewed a man named Steven Kotler. He wrote a book called the Art of Impossible back at the tail end of 2019.
Speaker 2:And this book is essentially about how to do the impossible. It's a peak performance book neuroscience. It's talking about how do the best people in the world become the best in the world, and Kevin and I interviewed this person and we talked about what's called the challenge skills sweet spot, and what Steven Kotler and all the research shows is that the people who become great at what they do always stay in their own unique challenge skills sweet spot. In other words, when you're doing a task like me with recording this right now, I'm not so far outside my comfort zone that I'm freaking out, but I am far enough outside my comfort zone that it's a little bit of a challenge. And so when you use the teleprompter, at the beginning maybe that's within your challenge skills sweet spot, but eventually you have to outgrow that. Eventually you have to try without it.
Speaker 2:And so, kevin and I, we were headed to Toronto from Milwaukee. We are flake canceled, so we ended up driving from Milwaukee to Toronto, which was a trip. It was a trip. And when we got to Toronto, we were supposed to interview Evan Carmichael on his YouTube channel. You know how big his channel is.
Speaker 1:Now it's like 3.6 million or something.
Speaker 2:It's coming up on 4 million. He's on his road to 10 million, what he calls it. So it's a big channel and it's a big deal and we're nerves right. I wasn't super nervous, but a little bit, and Kev was pretty nervous Not calling you out, just being honest.
Speaker 1:I always am.
Speaker 2:So we were going to do back to back interviews, four different interviews Lights, camera Action go and there's no break, so there's no like. Okay, that was a good 30 minutes, let's do another 30 minutes on a different topic. So we had four topics picked out. We ended up only doing, I think, three because one of them went over.
Speaker 2:But I remember prior to it, we Stayed in this hotel where you had to basically drive like six levels deep underneath this building in order to get in there, which was that I was nervous about, didn't like that at all, I was claustrophobic as hell. But I remember being in the parking lot and I said kev, I think we're good man, don't don't, you don't need the notes you, you can prepare behind the scenes. I appreciate. I remember I woke up he always wakes up early than I do and he was preparing his questions and he had all these questions prepared and I wasn't as prepared, and that tends to be the way. And but little did we know. Now we understand this, we didn't before. What if I'm in my challenge skills sweet spot? And you're in your challenge skills sweet spot? And I said to kev I said kev, you're ready, man, he's like what do you mean I said you don't need your notes, can those? Can the notes? Now you already prepared, so you have the questions in your consciousness, let's just go and talk to have.
Speaker 2:We've done this hundreds of times at this point. We got this. We've interviewed people hundreds of times, you're good, you don't need notes. And he was like Not a fan, not a fan. But we did it and I could tell you were super nervous at the very beginning, but you got into flow and we crushed. It was real good. So, yeah, strong interviews. And that's a good example of Kevin was ready to take off the training wheels and now he believes in himself more. But if he had taken the training wheels off too early and Bombed it, he would have believed in himself less. So you get a time this right and that's a whole art in and of itself.
Speaker 1:It's almost like you need what's a good example of this? Okay, it's almost like you need enough jet fuel to get you going Before your wings can start to carry you. You need a, you need a head start, you need a push, you need a little extra Easier momentum, and I think that's what training wheels will do. Training wheels are something that will help you do something that you might not have the level of belief you can do, or you might not have the level of belief necessary to actually start. It puts it a little bit almost like it's on easy mode. Easier mode You're in more control, there's less that could go wrong, the safety net is closer and then, ultimately, the goal is to move the safety net down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, and eventually you don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1:Eventually, depending on what that looks like for you, it's gonna it's gonna be completely different, but my early next level nugget maybe not early my next level nugget for this episode would be when it comes to health, when it comes to wealth and when it comes to love, where are your training wheels currently? If you're using filters on your pictures, like that might be one. If you, maybe you're using alcohol for social situations. Okay, that might be one. Been there, been the same same, for sure. That would be my next level nugget for this, because it just goes back to awareness. It goes back to awareness if maybe you haven't checked in in a minute and maybe it's time to take one of those Training wheels off. It might be, it might be time and you might be fine without it. That interview went really, really, really well with Evan because Alan pushed me to do that.
Speaker 2:So it was very uncomfortable you know that you? How did you know that it was time like?
Speaker 1:how did?
Speaker 2:you, I Didn't, I knew after. Yeah, that's the problem, I know that's the problem but here's the thing I Said.
Speaker 1:It was clear, though In hindsight, yeah, but I was willing to kind of risk it. I was comfortable enough. I mean, we know Evan I, you and I know Evan at a deep enough level.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know we've done this before. If even if I revert to my training I had my notebook closed so I could just open my notebook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I did have a safety net. You had the training wheels ready if you needed them, if I needed them.
Speaker 1:If I started to feel like I was getting the wobbles that I could have threw one. Oh, I could have bolted it on the side real quick. The weevil wobbles, the weevil wobbles. But you kind of don't know until you try, you don't. You don't really know. Right, it is that you remember your first interview Wellness, total wellness show. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when it first starts it's like, oh my god, yeah, it's very scary, very scary right. And then eventually it's not anymore.
Speaker 1:It's such a trip now I feel like that would be quite easy, but I've just, of course, I've done 900, whatever, 800 other shows or 700, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:If you just said that and stopped there, how arrogant would that sound? Very yeah, that's, I think, and again, I just want to share this with anyone. If there is anyone listening or watching that Struggles with this. I used to say things like that, presupposing everyone understands that that's not arrogant. I've just done this a bunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, when I say I could get into MIT and I feel like I could get my PhD from MIT, I remember I was around the Thanksgiving table a couple years ago and you me and I are considering going to MIT for our PhDs in neuro technology.
Speaker 2:And they're like I really think you can get into MIT and I was like, yeah, of course, but I didn't understand the that. That sounds arrogant. It's like no, no, I, I'm. I'm certain that I have the grades, I'm certain that I bubba. It's not like an arrogant thing, it's like I know, I've actually calculated that this is a high probability.
Speaker 2:So awareness thing, it's an awareness thing, yeah, but to bring it back to the original episode, I didn't start there. It's not like I'm seven years old going, I'm gonna get my PhD from MIT in Neuro technology and it's a guarantee and it's very high probability they accept me. You know you mean that would be arrogant. Yeah, let's, you're a boy genius, in which case? Yeah, which is also possible. Tools and crutches, that's all it is. If you are using Filters, because that's the way that you overcome your fear of judgment to post on social media, that's a tool. If you only ever use filters and never outgrow that, it becomes a crutch. It becomes, and it's crutches are actually a good example when I twisted my ankle, sprint my ankle really bad back in intramural basketball back in the day and I was on crutches and in hindsight I actually didn't rehab my ankle well because I stayed on crutches too long.
Speaker 2:Hmm and so you. The crutches are necessary at the beginning, but then eventually you have to start using your ankle again. What do you laugh at?
Speaker 1:it. I remember we were remember the puddle that there was a town park in the town Allen and I grew up in called the puddle, oh yeah, and we used to play hockey. When the puddle froze over, we would play hockey. The people that lived near the puddle would bring lights out. It was awesome. It was amazing. And I was playing goalie one time and I fell and I thought I snapped my ankle. I was like there's no possible way my ankle could ever bend the way it just did. But I sprained it really badly and I took like three days off of work and I'm not even kidding when I'm 100% serious. I Went back to work because I needed the money and I was dragged like literally dragging my foot, climbing up the ladder. It was brutal. And my boss is like you sure you can work, and I was like absolutely Yep, yep, and I just weathered it until he left and I was just like dragging it. It was brutal.
Speaker 2:Have a brutal. You have too many of those stories, man. Oh what's the one of your pinky, or something that you just kept going, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Well, my, if you look see how small this this pinky I broke. I broke this pinky when I was playing football.
Speaker 2:I Just never got a six.
Speaker 1:I just never did anything about it. He's never did anything about it. No, I Definitely. I've definitely held my my health over my head for a long enough period of time. All right, next level, next level nugget before we go if you don't overcome something, it hovers over you forever. If you don't overcome the crutch, it then becomes an insecurity. That that is my next level nugget. Well said, I appreciate that very much.
Speaker 2:I feel like.
Speaker 1:I've been connecting a lot of dots up in my brains lately.
Speaker 2:Good, so the growth in the breakthrough front it's been really good for sure lately. I feel like I'm starting to get a lot of new stuff that I never understood before life and hopefully we're transferring that to all the Listeners so all here, that's the goal, for sure.
Speaker 2:That is the goal. My next level nugget Would be just a question which is what? What were once tools that have become Band-aids, that have become crutches, that have become that are holding you back? What tools are holding you back? You know? I mean, I remember this would be the last example I give I remember snapchat. I, when I was a fitness model. Snapchat made you look so much better than the iPhone photos. I have some snapchat photos that I look like a superhero in comparison to the iPhone photos. What is that about? And I used to use snapchat and I used to Download the photos from snapchat and use those instead of the iphone ones because they look so much better. That's just the reason why that's detrimental is because you're gonna think you look better than you really do and and therefore Maybe not dial in as much as you would have. I know that's an extreme example, but at the end of the day, what tools have become crutches? That's my next level nugget next level nation.
Speaker 1:If you feel like having more supportive people, more growth-minded friends, would be beneficial to you, please join our private Facebook group, next level nation. As always, I think the community aspect of our growth is so important and if you don't feel like you can be yourself around Certain people, it's gonna be very hard for you to Value yourself at a deep level. So the link will be in the show notes. We'd love to have you in there. You are more than welcome.
Speaker 2:And if you feel like you're struggling, directionless, you just feel kind of Like you're stagnant or stuck. You don't really know what the next chapter looks like for you, reach out. I Will help you gain clarity. The clarity will create certainty. The certainty will create confidence. The confidence will create new action. The new action will create momentum. The momentum will create massive results. That's the cycle of my coaching. I will inject clarity, I will help you unlock. Please reach out. Do I have a link that we can put in the show notes? Just Email me, alan, at next level universe calm, and say, hey, I'm interested in coaching. We'll do a free session, completely free, and I also have a Calendary link that we're gonna put in the show notes as well For a half an hour session. If you want to book directly on my calendar, all right.
Speaker 1:I don't know what tomorrow's episode is. Again, we're Jeff in this week, but I promise next week we will do better with all of this. Group coaching weeks are always heavy weeks to start but as always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and an L? You. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow for episode number 1492 take off those training wheels.
Speaker 2:Next elimination
