Next Level University

#1571 - What Are Your Three Words For 2024?

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In the quest for personal and professional success, the power of language often needs to be recognized. Yet, the words we choose to define our intentions and actions can shape our reality. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros delve deep into this phenomenon, exploring how selected words can catalyze transformation and achievement. Let the power of language be the compass that navigates you toward a future filled with achievements, relationships enriched by clear communication, and personal growth that knows no bounds. The words you choose are the seeds from which your success in 2024 will flourish.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level Monthly Meetup #25: "Creating Clear Goals For 2024" on January 4th, 2024, 06:00 PM EST - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

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Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Show notes:
(1:44) Looking back
(3:54) Helpful exercise 
(6:03) Crafting lexicons for achievement and progress
(10:38) Nathan expresses his appreciation for the invaluable coaching services he received from Alan.
(11:13) The three words
(15:27) Self-awareness and strategic approach
(17:02) Learn and grow from it
(18:50) Choose your words wisely
(20:28) Keep it specific
(21:57) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin:

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 1570, yesterday's episode. Don't make this mistake to start 2024. We talked about starting off too hot, beating yourself up if you don't maintain momentum and then losing all the momentum you were building. That is what we talked about yesterday. Today, for episode number 1571, what are your three words for 2024? One of our mentors turned friends, I would say, evan Carmichael has a book called your One Word and that is kind of his brand. His brand is helping you figure out what your one word is and how to use that one word to impact the world. You have it.

Alan:

I have it handy. I have it handy, I'm hoping.

Kevin:

I'm trying not to put my whole shelf over Would make for good camera though good television.

Alan:

Your one word, nice, strong word, I thought it was orange. If you're on YouTube, you can see it. Your one word.

Kevin:

So you and I were talking we're going to do a little bit of an episode on kind of this frame I'm going to talk about in a second but you and I were talking about 2023 at the end of 2023, and we were looking back and I said 2023 was the year of boundaries and that was my one word. I had one word for 2023, amongst other words, but that was really the one I was focused on and it was boundaries and I said that at the beginning of the year. I said this is going to be a really big year for boundaries, for myself and for Alan and for the team. I could just feel it, and that wasn't something I proactively did. I didn't go into 2023 and say I'm going to choose a word and try to connect the dots and learn all the lessons about that and really focus on that. So I figured, well, you and I would benefit from this, and this is the first time I've ever seen you choose words for the year Not that you haven't before, probably, but maybe I was included in.

Alan:

I did in 2023, I honestly remember respect. My word for 2023 was respect and Emilia actually bought me a little framed respect over here and it's got the definition on it the human right we are all born with valuing yourself and one another how everyone should treat each other, regardless of their differences. So respect and boundaries it makes sense. That was a whenever I felt disrespected. I kind of sailed away, so to speak, and set boundaries, and so we did a good job of that. Honestly, I would say so.

Kevin:

I would say so, but you mentioned some words that you were going to live 2024 by recently and I figured you know what. I think that would make a really powerful episode and I didn't have any words chosen, so before this episode, I chose mine. Whether you're watching or listening, I think this is a really good exercise because it will help you stay focused on the things you want to stay focused on in 2024, or it will help you improve the things that you want to improve in 2024, or maybe it will help you sail away from the things that you do not desire to have at the end of 2024. Alan, you said you had five words. Can you break it down to three? Maybe?

Alan:

Yeah, I also. So we were in group coaching last night and the team all meets each other and we all choose a word for the next 90 days. So I think it would be cool to share some of that as well, for people to have ideas. So these are just ideas.

Kevin:

Whichever one resonates the most, Okay, whichever one resonates the most If any, if any, if any resonates.

Alan:

I might not If any resonate, and if they don't think of your own, obviously. So I won't tell you whose word is with who, just for privacy's sake. But okay, so one of the words was focus. One of the words was vulnerability. One of the words was accountability. This was an interesting one. Vavacity V-E-V-A-C-I-T-Y. I have looked at it, veracity.

Alan:

Veracity yeah yeah, really, I messed that up. Veracity, v-e-r-a-c-i-t-y, I believe, veracity, all right. So, amy, amy L, if you are listening to this right now, you put vivacity. So that's me passing the buck onto aim. But honestly, full disclosure. Last night I messed it up too.

Kevin:

So how do you spell this word. I believe it's V-E-R-A-C-I-T-Y. Veracity, veracity, veracity.

Alan:

And you looked it up it's living pretty much living in the truth.

Alan:

Commitment to truth.

Alan:

Okay, fire, love it. So that one Abundance, gratitude, growth, connection. Mine was proactive, kevin's was momentum and Amy's was empower, empower. So those are just some ideas.

Alan:

Now, when Kev asked about the five, what he's referring to is actually something that is more than just this year for me, it's more for my business coaching, but I think it applies to everybody, and he asked me to narrow it down to three. Obviously, I can't do that, I'm really sorry. So the five fundamentals, the words that matter in my business coaching. I think this applies to life as well, so hopefully it'll apply to all the listeners, even if you don't want to be a business owner. Here we go. Number one is longevity, and the context of each of these words I'll provide briefly. But if a business owner comes to me and says, hey, how do I grow this business for the next two years and then sell it, I'm not really the right coach for you. I'm playing a very long game. So longevity is how long can you do this business or this habit or this career, whatever? So longevity. The question underneath that, by the way, actually came from a team training of NLU, where what was true about you five years ago? That will also be true five years from now, and I think we actually did an episode on that last week, and so that's the idea is longevity Number one.

Alan:

Number two is sustainability. We talked about that a lot yesterday Yesterday's episode. We talked about not going too hot out of the gate in 2024 and how sustainable is going to the gym for three hours a day? Not really not sustainable, but a half hour a day, maybe it is right. So that kind of thing. So sustainability is so number one longevity how long can you do it? Number two sustainability how sustainable is this really? I told that story about me in cross country going too hot out of the gate and then pretending that I fell to because I was in shame of letting the whole team down.

Alan:

Okay, number three is consistency how consistent can you be? We talk about consistency constantly. If you're a brand new listener, consistency is one of our favorite words. Okay, how so? How long can you do it? How sustainable is it and how consistent can you be?

Alan:

And then the fourth word is improvement. So this is a holistic, self-improvement podcast, so you don't just wanna do something for a long time and sustain it and be consistent, but you also want to improve. And the analogy here is going to the gym and squatting the bar every day for 365 days. If you'd never increase the weight or the reps, you're not really gonna get any better. You're not gonna necessarily get any stronger. So not only do you have to sustain it and be consistent and over the long haul for longevity, but you also need to improve, and the idea is 1% improvement per day. That's actually why we do an episode per day is to get a little bit better each day. A little bit better, a little bit better.

Alan:

The last word is a brand new one that I don't think I've ever talked about on this podcast, and it's scalability. Scalability is essentially how scalable is this thing? So, for example, I'm doing a next level certified coaching program where I'm coaching Amy, jerry and Lizzie on how to coach and that helps me scale something that isn't normally scalable. So obviously I only have a certain roster and I can only coach so many people and I'm very grateful at this stage, coming up on our seventh year of coaching, and I'm very grateful to have a huge roster of 20 plus people now, but it's gonna get to a point where I can't take on anyone else without the quality of the coaching taking a hit. So, in order to make that scalable, I'm gonna coach on how to coach and you'll have other coaches that are next level certified coaches, type of thing. So that's just an example of scalability.

Alan:

So those are the five words longevity, sustainability, consistency, improvement and scalability. But again, the point of this is not to use my words or Kevin's words, but to come up with maybe three of your own or one of your own, and I think three is probably a good place to land. So if you're out there watching or listening to this, think of three words that you're gonna go. Imagine it's the end of 2024 and you're sitting there thinking about your three words. You're thinking about the year, you're thinking about how well it went and the year was the best year you've ever had. All things considered, what were the three words that made the difference?

Kevin:

For those just listening, Alan and I both have our glasses on, so this is a distinguished gentleman episode. What did you call it the Spectacle? No, the Distinguished Gentleman podcast.

Alan:

But before the episode you said the two. Oh, I don't know, Spectacle or something.

Kevin:

I could have said anything Damn, it was funny. It's what I do. Speaking of funny, my words are definitely better than yours, I would say. At least I'd say maybe more relatable.

Alan:

What are your words?

Kevin:

Let me preface. I chose the words, I chose out of necessity. I thought to myself where are the biggest rooms? What is the biggest room for improvement? However, I should phrase that how do I dedicate or how do I focus on that for 2024? Three words. Number one proactivity. Alan and I might be two of the least proactive humans on the planet. We tend to just do things at the last minute, not because we procrastinate, just because there's a lot of other important stuff and some things aren't important until right before they have to get done, and then they become the most important thing, and that's been the life of a business owner for us. I like it.

Alan:

Riding the lightning. I like it.

Kevin:

sometimes I'm okay with it, but I want to be more proactive. For my sake, for your sake, alan, for Tyrone's sake, for the team's sake, for everybody's sake, for client's sake. I want to be more proactive. So proactivity is number one. Number two communication. I have found in time that you can eliminate 90% of problems if you just communicate properly. Usually you're a relationship coach. I've coached couples in the past not nearly as many as you but oftentimes somebody will come to you and say yeah, my partner, they just keep doing this thing and it really pisses me off. And you say understand, you ever told them no, never, won't do it.

Alan:

Okay, let's start. Maybe we start there.

Kevin:

That's a good place to start. This is how you do it. So communication is number two and then number three. It's kind of a toss up for me. I went with finality. All finality means to me is when I make a decision, I'm going to let that decision ride.

Kevin:

So, just as an example, today I had a coaching call with someone scheduled and there's been a lot of back and forth between myself and the team and this client. They have very specific goals and they have very specific requirements for their podcast. So I messaged them and said, hey, I need to reschedule our call. It would be a better use of my time for me to work on some of your stuff today. Just trust you got to trust me on this, like I need to get this done. There's too much going on and there's not enough progress on your end to warrant a call. This will unlock a lot of the stuff that needs to happen. And I just sent the message and said this is what's happening. Most of the outcome. This is what I'm going to do, because I think this is what's best and I think this person will trust me and I'm not checking my phone every five minutes to see if they responded. And finality. Finality is very important. Now again, you can take that off the rails. So I'm doing my best to make sure that stays honed in and I go with what I think is best. But those are really the three that I felt were most necessary.

Kevin:

Proactivity we have a lot of clients. Right now we're serving I don't know consistently. We're serving 40-something clients between NLPS and NLSM. We have almost close to 60 on the roster. There's a lot of clients. Proactivity is huge with clients because not everybody has the understanding of podcasting that I do and they don't know how it goes. It's my job to proactively communicate. That's why communication is number two. And then finality make a decision with all the information you have, make the most informed decision you can and then go with it. Because if you take time to say, was that the right decision, was that the wrong decision? Either way it was either the right decision or the wrong decision. But you can keep momentum if you just make it final and continue doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Alan:

When you say finality, all I can think of is back in the day I'm gonna say a flawless victory.

Kevin:

I knew I could tell flawless victory.

Alan:

How could you tell?

Kevin:

Because it's fatality. That's what you're thinking.

Alan:

That's what I was thinking of. Fatality Got it.

Kevin:

I was like fine, I'll deal trap up here you also played for a little sure. I was into really fighting games, like bought real boxing games. Those things don't do any. The button mash or just xxx, cc, cc. You know I know, low kick, low kick, low kick, low kick, low kick. No, no, no, I like some some skill though those games no, well, not, not anybody. I was planning. Would you like to add? So, would you like to add a value to this?

Alan:

episode of value Fatality no, for the people in the room that are that are Kevin and I's age. You'll remember Mortal Kombat. You can. You can tell for yourself whether or not you like the Mortal Kombat.

Kevin:

No, judge me either way, no, judge me Anyways.

Alan:

Oh yeah, either way, all good. The words that Kevin and I chose are specific to us. I also don't think that the finality one you could have played that way in the beginning. I think in the beginning sometimes you have to jump through more hoops. It's it's a different game later on, when demand gets higher and you've proven yourself and you have credibility and you have track record, you have momentum and and that's the other thing too that's really important is you have to make it contextual to where you're at right now.

Alan:

You know, maybe it's the year for momentum for you, maybe it's the year for proactivity. There's a reason it's proactivity. For us, it's because the business has gotten a little bit ahead of us in many regards. But in the beginning we could be a little more reactive because we didn't have long-term relationships back then, we didn't have as big of a team. Because right now, kevin and I often are the bottleneck to the team moving forward, because they're waiting on us and we have to and just like scalability scalability would not have been my word at the beginning of this journey, right?

Alan:

So pick a word that is suited to you, suited to you having the best 20, 24 year possible, and then maybe you'll pick another word next year and another word the year after that, and If you want to do one, you can do one. If you want to do three, you can do three. If you want to do five, you can do five, and it's entirely up to you. If you want to do 25, you can do 25. I just don't recommend it because the more you do, the less important each one becomes all very good points and I appreciate the context.

Kevin:

It's a hundred percent. Finality is not something I would have said in the beginning and even even now. It's not me, trust me, I still I'm. You know, I'm jumping through a lot of hoop, so it's not me Not doing what it takes to make sure we continue to grow at the rate we want. It's more Making decisions in myself and just being okay with it. So I don't ruminate over things like ah, should I signed off the email a little bit differently? Oh man, I really hope they don't think I was mad because I didn't put an exclamation point there, just that that minor type of stuff. Now will I focus on it, improve from it? Absolutely, I'll learn from it and I'll grow from it, but I don't want to question myself as much in 2024 to a negative extent. Strong work.

Alan:

Yeah, real quick. Remember that. A story of a client that came to you with a great offer and you said, mm-hmm of course I remember 100, nothing, that's.

Kevin:

That's final.

Alan:

You were doing. Fine, I was too early. Maybe can you tell that story.

Kevin:

It was early in the next level podcast solutions days. I Don't really know what the hell I was doing and there was somebody that was a little bit of a mentor to Alan and we had interviewed him on the podcast and he said I, I'd like to have a podcast. I said I'd love that for you, it will be $1,500 a month, what you're looking for, and he's a multi-millionaire. This shouldn't be an issue. This is the should be the easiest thing ever. And he said what about thousand? And I'll pay you three months up front and you can promote your businesses on my podcast and it'll be great. And I said ah, I'd love to. I would, I really would love to. Unfortunately, it is $1,500 a month or nothing. And it became. It became nothing and I've never I have not spoken to that man yet Since and that was probably 2019, so that's been. I'll never speak to him again, most likely.

Alan:

You and I invested a solid amount of time and effort Into into that and we were very bright.

Kevin:

We really could use that three thousand dollars up front that would have. I mean, that was life-changing money. So it was he. Yeah, it was a mistake in In reflection, and if I could go back and do it differently, I would, but I wouldn't have a cool story to tell every time you want me to call myself out.

Alan:

Well, your word back then could have also been finality, in this case fatality my word back then was Breaking eggs and learning.

Kevin:

And it still is, it still is sure but yeah, be very careful with the words you choose, because and just make sure you have them define the way you want. Finality for me probably means something different than finality for somebody else. Proactivity same, maybe communication, same Whatever your definition of the word is is more important than what the actual definition is, so I'll throw that up there too, it's a good point.

Kevin:

Because I didn't even think of that, because when you said it, it was like I'm not, that's not even the way I'm thinking of it, but that's a really good point.

Alan:

Yeah, well, that's why. I brought it up just because there's implications to whatever word you choose and there's also implications to what it means to you.

Kevin:

So you have yours on your whiteboard, whether you're watching or listening, I think it would be. Maybe put it on the fridge, put it on the mirror in the bathroom, put it in your office, put it on the dashboard of your car, safely, wherever you're gonna see it most often. That would be my next level nugget Choose your one word, three words, five words, and put them somewhere where you're gonna see them every day. That way, you can stay focused, stay on track and stay reminded.

Alan:

Yeah, put it somewhere you can see it daily. My next level nugget is you can't focus on everything at once, and if you try to focus on everything at once, you're gonna get overwhelmed and do nothing. Try to be specific and intentional this year and it will be better than it would have been otherwise, for sure.

Kevin:

If community is one of the things you wanna focus on in 2024, we are gonna be in next level nation every single day. The next level nation will be there for you every single day. I know finding new growth-minded friends can be challenging or scary, intimidating. So if you are looking for a group of like-minded individuals, link will be in the show notes. It is a private Facebook group so you can feel safe to be authentic and real, not so you have to jump through hoops in order to get in. We would love to have you.

Alan:

So tomorrow, nope, tonight. So if you're listening to this, it's actually tonight. There's a monthly meetup. It's our 25th monthly meetup setting clear goals for 2024. So if you have not yet set your goals for the year, totally understandable, join us. We're gonna set goals together and they're gonna be achievable. Goals that build self-belief and build self-worth and help you keep the promises you make to yourself and don't consistently. They're gonna be sustainable. We're gonna make them sustainable on purpose. It's gonna be fire. We hope you join us. We're gonna be setting our goals as well. So, setting clear goals for 2024, monthly meetup number 25, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time tonight. If you're listening to this on the day that it launches, it is January 4th, 6 pm.

Kevin:

Eastern Standard Time Tomorrow for episode number 1,572. This came from a conversation you and I had, alan about something in 2023. How well are you using your intuition? We haven't done an episode on intuition in a long, long time.

Kevin:

It's been a while we were talking about I don't know we were talking about the trends in 2023, and what made the biggest difference and what did we really focus on? And I said one of the things was intuition. How many times did you and I say I don't know how to explain it, man, just intuitively, I think we should do this. That was a pretty common conversation, so I figured you know what. We used it a lot in 2023. Let's bring it back for an episode. I know we haven't done an episode like that in a minute, so hopefully you will find a value in that. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we do not have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Alan:

Keep it specific. See you next time.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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