Next Level University

#1574 - Does Inspiration Help You Get Your Goals Quicker?

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In the humdrum of everyday life, it's easy to believe that inspiration is a rare commodity reserved for grandiose moments or extraordinary events. However, a closer look at our daily experiences reveals a different truth—one where the seeds of creativity are sown in the most common places. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros take us on a journey through the unexpected landscapes that serve as a canvas for imagination and productivity.

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Show notes:
(1:38) Super-inspirational story
(5:40) What inspires you?
(9:54) Nathan expresses his appreciation for the invaluable coaching services he received from Alan.
(10:37) Finding inspiration in unique places
(16:33) Stay inspired 
(17:35) Manifestation equation
(21:16) 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 yesterday's episode, episode number 1573. Don't worry about getting there fast. Today for episode number 1574, does inspiration help you get your goals quicker? I know it might seem like you guys just talked about not getting there fast, but now we're talking about getting there faster. That's not my intention behind this episode, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. Okay, I had to get an oil change on my car. Now Let me preface with I understand this part might not land, but I promise it will connect with something that that should land had to get an oil change for my car, dropping it off at 815 in the morning.

Alan:

That's how every good story starts. Always I had to get an oil change at my of my car and then drop it. Oh, it's gonna be a good one.

Kevin:

I could I chose to drop it off at 815, tara and I. Well, tara was gonna drive me. I should drive down with their drive down there with me and drive me back, and then I was gonna go get it later. Nice, she said, hey, is there any way you can stay? Do you mind staying? Something came up. I have to be somewhere. I said, yeah, it's all gravy, I'll stay, shouldn't take that long. So I go down awesome, near my keys, fill up paperwork, cool.

Kevin:

I Texted Taryn because she said hey, how's it going? How's it going with your oil change? Do you need me to come pick you up? And I said, no, I am living the dream. Right now I am in a dealership that has a bunch of expense, expensive cars, and it's super inspirational to me. Working in this environment Is just super inspirational and it it took me back to the time frame where we were talking in the previous episode, where I was riding the struggle bus, where there was this coffee shop near the town we lived in and on days I Was gonna say on days that I didn't have a bunch of calls, but back then I didn't have a bunch of calls because there.

Alan:

Might have been why we were definitely one of the reasons.

Kevin:

I would go to this coffee shop and I would get an iced latte and I would sit out on the deck and it was the best. I used to tell you. I know I probably shouldn't be spending like six bucks for this iced latte, but I don't know how to explain it. Man, I get so inspired when I'm at this place and I'm sending messages and I'm working on stuff and I'm tracking my habits and I'm listening to audiobooks. It's just a different vibe. I don't know how to explain the same. I get the same thing when we go to Vermont.

Kevin:

Terrence family has a house in Vermont and it's right on Lake Champlain and it is like the best. I love it. It is one of my favorite places in the world. Every time I go up there I get a new jolt of energy because I'm super inspired. I don't know if it's being by the water or just I Don't know. I don't know what it is, but I I in the past was guilty of suggesting everybody work the way I do, the way we do.

Kevin:

But I'll just speak for myself. Where you should lock yourself in your office, you shouldn't get any external light. Don't worry about the sun. You don't need it, even though it's good for you, you should just do that. I used to confuse me when I would see people going and working at coffee shops because in my mind it was like you can't, there's no way you're gonna be able to get that much done, compared to me locking myself in the office with nothing going on. But now I understand. There's something about being inspired while you're chasing your dreams, whether that's a micro working on your laptop in a coffee shop or macro checking in with your purpose and your why throughout. That I didn't really understand until I experienced it for myself.

Kevin:

I love waking up in Vermont, walking down to the dock with an audio book in my ear, and there's nothing like that. I am so inspired to learn and get better and grow and evolve, and I always come back with new lessons and new breakthroughs. So I figured doing an episode like this. I don't know. I know we're hardcore very often and I think obviously consistency, commitment, discipline all that stuff is necessary for success. But this is the other side of it. This is the more spiritual side. This is the more inner alignment side. This is the more intuition side of if you have a place that inspires you and you think you can do more, you can do better. You can connect with yourself and your mission and your purpose at a deeper level. I would say it's probably good to visit.

Alan:

So where I would go with this episode is what inspires you? I think that's really the question to ask, Because when I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about in this episode, I kind of had this dialogue inside my head of is anyone else going to resonate with what inspires me? I don't know. I think we'll give it a shot, but underneath this, I want everyone thinking about what inspires them. So Kevin just talked about a couple of things that inspires him. I'm gonna talk about a couple of things that inspire me, but I want you listener to be thinking about what inspires you. What inspires you? So Kevin and I had a studio for three years and two years, Two years in it.

Alan:

Two years and it was, honestly, pretty awesome. It was the best. Yeah, it was awesome and we did it upright. We did not get our security deposit back as we ripped.

Kevin:

Yeah, if you watched us back, then you'd see the fake wood, the fake wood panels behind us were adhesive and there's a miscommunication between myself and the property manager. I thought they wanted us to take them down when we left. I didn't think they'd want us to just leave them up. Taking them down left many holes, slash, destructions of the wall and we did not get our security deposit back.

Alan:

Didn't they tell you the day of like, just yeah, just take them down? I don't know, you know, and I remember you saying that we're good. I already checked with the guys, so, anyways, we weren't vandalizing or anything like that. This was we're supposed to take these down.

Kevin:

Ooh okay, some of the wall paper came off.

Alan:

Miscommunication, so I didn't mean to make it sound like we were vandalizing, no criminal activity was happening?

Alan:

No, no, of course not, and we paid dearly for that with the security deposit that we never got back. But anyways, okay. So that's neither here nor there. We had a studio and when we left the studio unpacking, it was very nostalgic because we had spent two years of our life there. And I remember, before we left I asked Kev, what are you gonna miss the most? I think of that Friends episode at the end when they're leaving the apartment for the very last time. If you're a Friends fan, you know what I'm talking about. It's very nostalgic. It's. We're never gonna be here again. This is it. We have so many memories in that studio man, good, bad, ugly. It was the place for years of our life and we really appreciate this. Before we left, after we had packed the cars, it was okay. What are you gonna remember most? Do you remember what you said? I don't know if I remember what you said.

Kevin:

No, I probably had some silly breakfast. There's a breakfast place downstairs.

Alan:

That's right, that is what you said. Yeah, the breakfast downstairs. What was that place called? Oh, no. Lucky's Cafe. Lucky's.

Kevin:

Cafe. They went out of business. Unfortunately, there was some again. You wanna talk about inspiration?

Alan:

That's because you left, I know no, somebody else bought them out.

Kevin:

I would get there. So at that point we went to the studio right after we got the studio in COVID during COVID yeah, because we did a virtual tour. We didn't see the place before we got it. I used to go when the gym's opened. I would go to the gym, I'd shower at the gym and I would go down to the studio and I'd get to the studio at like six o'clock in the morning and there was something so inspirational for me about just turning on we had mood lights, much like I have in my studio, turning those on, connecting my laptop to the big screen, making a coffee, hammering work and then getting breakfast. It was like, oh, let me just take the elevator down and get breakfast. It was one of those pinch me things of I can't believe we have a studio, this is ours and we get to do whatever we want. We had a couple of guests there. So, yeah, I think it was Lucky's Cafe. My thing I miss the most was breakfast for sure.

Alan:

Nice and that place. I remember the breakfast you would get were intense Home fries eggs all that I used to get an omelet with zucchini and home fries and hash.

Kevin:

It was like seven bucks.

Alan:

Also, every now and then, kevin and I would go down to this place. Hold on the Fix the Fix Burger Bar. That place had awesome burgers. So if you have a frequent Worcester, if you ever visit Worcester Massachusetts, the Fix the Fix is the place Okay, and Fried Pickles, oh my God.

Kevin:

Yeah, that news.

Alan:

Yeah, we don't always eat well. Okay, moving forward. So that was his and mine is a little weird, so I'm just gonna share it. But I said it's the empty parking lot Every single, I mean for two years. I don't wanna say every single time, but I would say this was grind time, this was building time. I remember this is, I think, the second year we had the studio. I was with Emilia, but the first year we had the studio I was alone. That was the loneliest time of my life and I remember I used to frequent the studio and a Panera that was near there and I used to kinda go between the studio and two different Paneras because I wanted good wifi and I wanted to work, but I didn't necessarily wanna be fully alone. That's why I did Panera, where I wasn't fully alone, plus they had bottomless coffee, which was awesome, and then the studio. I did wanna be alone. So I remember I would every single weekend, and this has some nostalgia in it too. So I'll explain.

Alan:

There's a place called Ralph's in Worcester where I went for my 21st birthday. It was at WPI, my college. The fraternity that I was in would take you there for your 21st birthday, and so I got hammered on my 21st birthday at this place called Ralph's. Everyone bought you a drink and it was one of the worst nights of my life. I got lost, I blacked out, I was wasted, it was a whole thing and Ralph's would be off the hook, for lack of better phrasing. All summer they had live bands. Do you remember? Across the parking lot you could hear I don't know if you were there on the weekends as much as I was, but some weekends you were, but every single weekend, and particularly in the summer. There's something about this and again, I know this is unique to me, but I want everyone out there listening and thinking about their own.

Alan:

What inspires you? There's something for me about looking out the studio window on the fourth floor at an empty parking lot, while everyone else is partying, while I'm working toward our dreams. For me, I'll never forget the empty parking lot. Every single weekend I was there from nine o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night and I remember, after I worked a 12-hour day, I would go to Chipotle and I would get a huge burrito and or burrito bowl and I would get a full Cal Coke and nachos and I would just watch a movie by myself in the studio and it was like after a full day's work.

Alan:

To me that was just heaven on earth. It was the best, and sometimes I would stay at the hotel across the street, which I could not afford at the time. I could, but it was probably not the best idea, and the reason why is because I wanted to get up the next day and do it all over again. To me, that was it. Hearing them partying outside while I was inside building our dreams, building toward our dreams that, to me, is what was so inspiring. And while I was there every single time, every weekend, well, I was the only one there because it was a whole complex of a lot of different businesses. So during the weekdays the parking lot was full. On the weekends I was the only one working and for me that was so inspiring. That was so inspiring because I knew that's what was going to make the difference, and I do believe it did honestly. And it was tough, it was lonely as hell, but it was worth it.

Kevin:

The studio. Yeah, man, look, I'd like to have one in the future. I know you're not going to necessarily live we don't live close, we're an hour and 50 minutes away right now but I don't know, I'd like to have one in the future at some point. I don't know what it's going to look like, but there's just something about going in, turning the lights on, powering up the mics, getting the camera going and just hammering episodes. So we'll see. But the ultimate point my next album nugget for this episode is figure out what can you tap into that inspires you. But there is a coffee shop that you, when you go there, you dream bigger. Do it. Mm, hmm, I that was one of the things is when I used to go to this coffee shop, I would just believe in myself. I don't know why. I have no idea why. I don't know if it was because I felt like I was. Maybe it made me feel more valuable than I'd ever felt, and that was rare.

Alan:

Vibe, I think.

Kevin:

Vibe. Yeah Well, that's the other thing too about, about the dealership I went to. It's a lot of I mean, it's their expensive cars, so everybody in there is getting their car fixed. They're successful, they're on business calls and it's like oh, I'm a business owner, I belong, I fit in here. This is weird. Yeah, it was that. It's just so.

Kevin:

Whatever inspires you, if it's the vibe, if it's the location, if it's the view I remember we went to Toronto to interview Evan Carmichael and we had this Airbnb on like the 27th floor of this high rise. Oh no, I know I got the bedroom that week, which was nice I was. I was grateful for that. I give it to Alan because he doesn't fit on. He's not going to fit on the couch. I'll fit on the couch, I can. I can wrap up on the couch. But my the bedroom I had had this floor to ceiling window and when I woke up I'd roll it up and you could see like the sunrise and it was amazing. I was like this is amazing. I love this, except I don't like the city. So that's my next love of nugget Find what inspires you and chase it, and if you can make that a big part of your life as big as is reasonable. I would argue that it probably will help you get your goals quicker, as long as you're doing the work, obviously.

Alan:

I have one more real quick before we go being on the water 100% and any time I go to the ocean. So inspiring stars, looking up at the stars, so inspiring. Just One last story. We were, we were in Vermont. We got this Airbnb. I can't take credit, emilia. It was this beautiful cabin in the middle of an orchard and the brightest stars I'd ever seen was it was just us. I mean, I went for a run Because I was exercising consistently and I was genuinely afraid of getting eaten by a bear.

Kevin:

You're gonna stop doing a reckless shit, dog yeah.

Alan:

But you know, and it's an orchard too, so you know the the animals are like hey imagine something happens to you.

Kevin:

They're gonna find the podcast clip and that's what's gonna be on the news. Gonna be you saying yeah, I was really scared for my life that time. I went for a run around those bears, it's like, but this time things didn't go out his way.

Alan:

We got bear spread, so but I'll never forget. It's in an orchard, it's beautiful. Emilia is in the cabin there's. There's a fire and it's just this wonderful evening together. And I'm out there, running, exercising toward my dreams, and I'm looking up at the stars, and it was. It was unbelievable.

Alan:

So, whether it's a lake or an ocean or looking up at the stars, there's certain things that inspire you and there's certain things that you have go to inspiration. I think you need that. I remember looking up. I was listening to a motivational video while running and it was so inspiring and I was just thinking about. I've been doing this ever since I was a kid. I I would go out to my we grew up on a Large pond, small lake, and I would go out to the, to the water and whether it was raining or whatever, and I would just look out and I would just dream. I would think about what could be. That's what dreaming is Just think about what could be. I would do that all the time, all the time actually. Sometimes I go in the woods and I do it. That's been a through line for me.

Alan:

I remember very last thing I promised we created something called the manifestation equation and I know you, if you want it. It's 10 steps, it's very in depth, it's really, really powerful. You can email me, alan, at next level universe comm. It's called the manifestation equation and Basically what you do is you assess which one's the bottleneck, so you're manifesting your dreams. All of us are good at most of them, but we have a couple that are just giant kinks in the hose, so to speak. So Email me if you want that, I'll send it right to you.

Alan:

Very power, but anyways, kevin came up with one of the steps. He's like dude, where's visualization? Damn right. He said where's visualization slash emotionalization? And I was like mm-mm, not for you, no, man, nope. And then I realized, oh, I do that all the time automatically. I don't ever not do that, I'm doing that all the time. And he said not everybody is. You gotta put that in there. That's step number two now. So it's called visualization slash emotionalization, and it's exactly what Kevin was doing back then, going to that coffee shop. That's exactly what you're doing. You were writing down your goals and your dreams while there visualizing and emotionalizing. That's why you rented that BMW, mercedes, mercedes, my bad, you rented that Mercedes and then that was your inspiration to get the BMW. So, anyways, visualization slash, emotionalization is super important. It's definitely something that I do automatically and I've been doing it ever since I was a kid, but more and more and more of that, for sure, as long as you follow it up again with work and discipline and consistency and commitment.

Kevin:

One of the things I do. I haven't been doing this as much lately, but I used to do this every night before bed. When I close my eyes to go to bed, I would imagine I was in a different room than I was in, and there's a window here and I can hear the waves crashing, and there's a fireplace here and that's like the dream home in the future. But I haven't been doing that as much. I had a moment last night intuitive moment we were talking about this in a previous episode where I have to start meditating again. Don't know why, don't know how to explain it, but I'm missing out on some creative stuff and I can just tell you gotta do it. Just tell 10 minutes Easy.

Alan:

There you go, there you go, and you can call it visualization, slash, emotionalization.

Kevin:

Yeah, Put it on my PPT. One less thing for me to do, one more thing for me not to do and my score is gonna be lower than it already is. Yeah, it's important. I would agree with that. Next, Lovination, if you have not yet joined our private Facebook group yet, please do a group of like-minded humans who want to grow and evolve. I know community can be hard to find. This community is for you. If you listen to the show, this community is for you. I promise you belong, you will fit in and you will be appreciated there. Link will be in the show notes, as always.

Alan:

If you want to do that manifestation assessment with me, you can jump on a half an hour session. The link will be in the show notes. I love to meet our listeners. We'll go through it. There's 10 steps and it'll make more sense when we jump on the phone. But we'll rate you from zero to 10. Self-awareness is one of them. Strict alignment is one of them. Visualizing and emotionalization is one of them. Strategy is one of them. We rate you from zero to 10. We figure out where the bottlenecks are, because if you never visualize and emotionalize but you're always 10 out of 10 work ethic, you might not be manifesting the vision that you want. If you're the opposite, where you're always visualizing and emotionalizing but you're not working, then you're not gonna take action and toward your dream. So we'll find the kink in the hose. Link will be in the show notes. You can email me out at nextleveluniversecom. If you don't want to get on the phone with me. You just want the PDF. I'll send it right on to you.

Kevin:

And by phone. Alan means zoom. Zoom, yes, lock up the old landline.

Alan:

I'll dial it in All that Go over to the pay phone. I used to actually do coaching calls on the phone. I don't anymore. I've decided not to do that Zoom only we were talking about that recently.

Kevin:

Tomorrow, for episode number 1,575, a little Monday in LU. One reason we all need to avoid fake confidence. This came from, oh, a lesson, a lesson from our first call of group 13 for group coaching. One reason we all need to avoid fake confidence. That will be tomorrow's episode. 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:

Stay inspired. Next one

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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