Next Level University

#1653 - Top 3 Lessons From Next Level Live 2024!

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 42:50

Next Level Live 2024 wasn't just an event but a testament to the human spirit's ability to survive and thrive amidst chaos. In this episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros take you through an extraordinary journey, exploring how resilience and personal growth can emerge from the most pressure-filled circumstances.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
April 9th, 2024, (30% off) Discount Code: NLULISTENER
Next Level Monthly Meet-up - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

______________________

NLU is more than just a podcast; we have many more resources to help you achieve your goals and dreams.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

_______________________

Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
Next Level Monthly Meetup:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

_______________________

We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

_______________________

Show notes:
(2:49) Day of VS month of
(7:05) NLU Live 2024: A transformative event
(9:15) Choose things that are aligned
(11:48) Growth journey
(15:54) Zones
(20:09) At NLU, we want you to win! So, we're giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 6 PM.
https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
(21:25) Managing anxiety zone and external circumstances
(24:04) It requires a ton of humility...
(29:45) Setting sustainable minimums for success
(33:28

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

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 yesterday's episode. Episode number 1,652, don top three lessons from Next Level Live 2024. We survived Next Level Live 2024. It was awesome. Full room, full virtual room, awesome. It was amazing. Amazing Went better than expected, as it often does Go ahead.

Speaker 2

Huge shout out to everyone who joined us Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was nothing short of a massively transformational day for everyone, including Kevin and I, so thank you so much for your support. Thank you for coming and making it such a great day, because, wow, yeah, I think, the most impactful thing we've ever done.

Speaker 1

I would say so.

Speaker 2

Yeah, in a single day.

Speaker 1

I would say that's great, and not just for the attendees, but some of the team came in. Like you said, you and I have our lessons, many of which probably haven't even landed yet. We're only we're recording this on Monday, so it's we're only two days out from the event. So I'm sure a lot of other stuff is going to fall down as we go, but we wanted to and we planned on doing this episode before the event. We came up with this idea last week just because events are so transformative I think, alan, you just used that word Not just for us as speakers and presenters, but also for everybody in the audience and just the way the event happens. It's so fast. It's months and months and months, and then it's six hours and it's done. And it's this weird thing there's so much energy going into an event and then we're in the room after everybody leaves and it's just this empty room with a very tired, exhaustive energy, and then you're just reflecting. So we're coming with three lessons that we learn from next level live 2024. And our goal is to make them relatable to anyone. Not you don't have to be a speaker or somebody who hosts event or whatever it is. So number one and this.

Speaker 1

This is the one I wanted to start with, and I told Alan there is a drastic difference between the day of something in the month leading up to it, the month leading up to the event. The months leading up to the event were very, very challenging. There was a lot going on, business and just it's very, very hard to host an event. But the day of was awesome. Yeah, we got to meet a bunch of people we've never met. At the end, people were asking for pictures with us, which is always extremely humbling, and I'm super grateful for anybody that did. It was awesome, the food was awesome, the venue was awesome. Everything was awesome.

Speaker 2

If you only the airbnb was awesome yeah, everything was, everything was. Thank you, I appreciate it. I gotta say when I first pulled up I was like so last year we got an air, kevin got us an airbnb next to Wachusett. Mountain on a lake.

Speaker 1

So when.

Speaker 2

I first pulled up, I was like, have we gone down or have we gone up? And then we got in there. It's real nice, it's really nice.

Speaker 1

I was very close to getting us the same Airbnb. The only problem was it was a further drive and I figured I didn't want to subject the team to a longer drive than than necessary. Parking was much better on this one. Yeah, parking was much better on this one.

Speaker 1

The lesson and we've talked about this before it's not if you optimize for the results, you're going to have to suffer through the process. So if you optimize for the result of having a really good event, the process leading up to it might suck, depending on the size of the event, how often you've done it, whatever. So whatever event in this scenario means to you. Maybe you're hosting a birthday party, I'm sure I'm sure the birthday party is awesome, but the week, the month leading up to it, the, the night before, when you're setting stuff up and then maybe the cleanup after it, kind of sucks. But in those moments where people are celebrating and enjoying and you're getting to see the fruits of all the work you've put in, it's really, really awesome.

Speaker 1

But I understand why people don't follow through with things that they say they want, because that was only two frames. That was only really three months of work on one hand, but it was also seven years of work. On the other hand, it was three months between when we said venues locked, let's go. And it's seven years since we started this journey and all the stuff that we put in. The three months were really, really, really challenging, because this was the main focus. The seven years obviously was too, but the day of is always worth it and when you weigh that out, if the day of is not worth all the effort you put in, I think it's time to reevaluate whether or not you want to do that thing, because maybe you didn't get the result, the results that you wanted.

Speaker 2

The one thing that made it extra special, too is seven years ago, kevin and I, our very first speech together. Kevin's first speech ever, but my very first speech with Kev. And there's not a lot of speakers that speak at the same time simultaneously. I know some people do, but it's really kind of cool. It's like doubles tennis. It's we're ping-ponging off each other. He's making a joke, I'm making a point. I'm making a joke, he's making a point. It creates a really cool dynamic. It does, and we've been doing that for I think six of the seven events that we've done. The very first event was at that same venue seven years prior it was not seven years.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it was not seven, because I was with taron at the time. Okay, so six years prior, I think. When did we do? I think it was 2019 I don't think it was five years, I think it was probably. Yeah, I think it was like five years ago okay.

Speaker 2

So we did confident women's consortium in 2019, but then we we did Top Notch. No, we did your World Within Live 2019 as well.

Speaker 1

I think it was also, so we did two events in one year, I think so Wow.

Speaker 2

And then we did Top Notch Live in 2020? Yeah, and then what did we do in 2021? Because I know we've done an event every year. 2021 was COVID. Yeah, 2021 was COVID, so we weren't able to do an event. Yeah, then 2022, we did next level live, next level live 2022, and then next level live 2023, and then next level live 2024, which was this one, yeah, yeah, but it was interesting to be back at that same venue.

Speaker 2

But in this case, five years later, and a lot changes in five years, and then certain things don't. Some of the jokes stayed, some of the same people were there, but then so much was different too. So that was a trip, and we used to have a high school teacher that used to say the more things change, the more they stay the same, and I think that that's very true. I do. I think a lot changes, a lot evolves, that you grow a ton, you're so much better, you're so much more capable, you're so much more intelligent, you're so much more aware, you're so much more emotionally mature, whatever it is. But then there's certain things that never change, like some of our jokes that just last for for a lifetime, like the jeffin thing I mentioned, jeffing several times during the speech. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I realized in the middle of it, like how many people don't know what I'm talking about, although in the context it's probably pretty obvious what I mean. You know, so it's cool.

Speaker 1

Hopefully, hopefully. I think you and I have said it so often. We've probably forgotten. It's very challenging. This is it makes sense to me. It really makes sense to me why success in quotations is so challenging. I said this one time, and there's no math to equate this. It's just one of those philosophical things that I've said and it just makes a lot of sense to me.

Speaker 1

The journey is 99.9% of the process and then the 0.1% is like the celebration of doing it. 99.9% of it was the lead up to this event and the 0.1% was the day of. And now it's two days later and it's gone, and now it's the next mountain, like what's the next mountain we're going to climb? That's why it's so important that you choose things that are aligned. You've got to choose things that are aligned. You got to choose things that are aligned because for the majority of the time, you're going to be climbing up the mountain and if it's not the right mountain when you get to the top, you're not going to think the view is worth it. We were saying that I'm very grateful it's done, because event season is super stressful, but that was the best one. I felt the most comfortable and we'll talk more about that throughout the week, I'm sure. But now we kind of know what we're in for. We know what the view from the top of the mountain looks like.

Speaker 1

Next Level Hope Foundation is another great thing. The charity events we host twice a year. Those are super stressful. It's super stressful. And then we're playing with kids all day, which is exhausting. Shout out to everybody who has children and plays with them all day or plays with them throughout the day, whatever it is. That's always exhausting. But the feeling after is always oh man, that's awesome. I'm so grateful. I feel so privileged. We have the opportunity to do it. We don't measure success based on leading up to the success or sorry, sorry we don't measure success based on the actual success. It's based on understanding the lead-up to it. If you can get through the lead-up to something, you'll actually get the result. But if you're only doing it for the result, unfortunately you might tap out long before you ever have the pleasure of the result.

Speaker 2

So that's the first point if you're only doing it for the result, I would say you're probably in trouble. I would agree. I would agree. Yeah, it's. I think we all start there. I think results look awesome and we want results and I think that makes sense. You know everyone wants abs. I think that's fair. Back when I was fitness coaching coaching that's what everyone said is like, if you could, what's the most sought after part of a physique? And everyone always said abs every time. And we all would love to have abs. But the process to get abs sometimes aren't worth it 100% and unless there's a deeper meaning that having abs is going to give you like self-esteem, self-worth, feeling like you're maximizing your potential being fulfilled, fitness shows, fitness, competition. It can't be just for the result. It has to be for the identity and it has to be for the process. We have a pyramid, we have many pyramids, but we have one pyramid where it's identity, process, results. And if you're and it's in a pyramid on purpose cause, it's kind of a good analogy for the mountain, but the bottom is identity, then it's process, then it's result. If you're doing it for 90 of the result, when most of the time and effort you're going to put is for the process and the identity. For me, kev, it's more about the identity. It's how can you become someone you're proud of. It's the growth.

Speaker 2

Like you and I, I had like a really hard time on Sunday night and then into this morning. We were supposed to record seven episodes today. I woke up not feeling well at all. My stomach was in knots, I don't know what I ate, but, my goodness, I'm actually feeling pretty good right now, which is good. But I was just talking about an emotional hangover, physical hangover, not from drinking or anything like that, but just from the power of the event. In the months prior to it and I know I had the moment earlier I was in some pain. I told Kev it feels like my lower intestines are being kind of like stretched, it's like they're tied in a knot and they're being pulled, and I was finally able to go to the bathroom. Tmi, I know, but anyways, I'm feeling much better now.

Speaker 2

But I did have that moment while suffering, because this morning I was having trouble even walking a little bit and it wasn't anything drastic like emergency room type of thing or anything, but it was definitely. This is really uncomfortable, this is really painful. I don't understand how this happened. But I also feel so exhausted, physically exhausted, mentally exhausted, exhausted, emotionally exhausted, spiritually exhausted just the emptiest of all cups. I'm like how am I gonna unpack all this stuff? How am I gonna get my ass together? How am I gonna do my big five to thrive today? How am I gonna be consistent? How am I gonna, how are we gonna redesign after this? All this stuff? But I had that moment of everything. From now on will be a little different. Why? Because we are a little different. We grew.

Speaker 2

Yesterday you were talking about this prior to the event. You said the interesting thing is, after this event is over, everything's going to feel a little bit easy. I already have that feeling too, even though today's been hard. Prior to the event, I was checking my messages online throughout the day what? Five, six, seven times a day. Now I've.

Speaker 2

I've been still reverting to that habit a little and I'm like, oh okay, there's nothing, we're good, all good. It's just I have a feeling this next, this next chapter, is going to be. It's not going to be easy, because we're still climbing, we still have goals, we still have results we want to achieve, we still have processes we're doing, we still have identities we're shooting for. We're still trying to grow, but it will be different.

Speaker 2

And I do think that when you go through stretch phases, chapters that are just absolutely beyond your current capabilities, like a live event and it's not like the live event alone was beyond our capabilities, it's the live event plus everything else we were doing, because each year we do a live event and we get better at the live events, but we're doing that on top of everything else we're doing. So we were playfully saying this at the event you do eight episodes a week, I do eight and a half. That's on top of this event, that's like in addition to it. So I think it's who you become and I think it's being able to look in the mirror and say, wow, we made an impact and we grew and we expanded. And I know I'll never be the same. I'll be a little more after this, assuming I actually recover.

Speaker 1

Well, so that leads us into our second point, which is you can only live in the anxiety zone so long and so much. And Alan you've heard over the last couple of weeks, alan was sick for the first time in like nine years and this thing I have been I don't want to say under the weather, but I've definitely been off for maybe the last month. I think it's just because I'm super stressed out, maybe the last month I think it's just because I'm super stressed out. But we really committed to a lot of stuff that we knew it was going to be a lot. We knew it was going to be heavy. But Alan texted me today and he said, hey, man, I'm, I'm down and out, I'm going to schedule us for later. And I said, yeah, man, no worries, take your time.

Speaker 1

And there was a part of me that I wanted to work. I won't even say that. There was a part of me that said, kev, you should really work and just knock stuff off your list. And there was another part of me that said, kev, just take a break. Yeah, you took a break on Sunday, but not really. You worked around the house Right after I got home. I sat down for like an hour, not even an hour, half hour and then Tara and I did stuff around the house and I stayed up with until 10 30 with her watching a movie, and because I wanted to spend time with her, because I was gone for the for the uh, second half of the week, so I I knew I should have done something. But I also had that moment where I said you've been in the anxiety zone for the last like three months and I've been more anxious than I think I really understood.

Speaker 2

Can we unpack the anxiety zone for people who might be new?

Speaker 1

Yeah, so the thought is, and I'm guessing this is a psychological thing. I don't really know if there's a name for the framework, but there's the.

Speaker 2

I think it's called the growth zones.

Speaker 1

Okay, growth zones. Give it a Google. There's the comfort zone. The comfort zone is where you exist easily. It's not really much of a challenge. R and r there's no challenge, it's simple it's easy.

Speaker 2

You don't really have been working out for years and then you do a quick 20 minutes on the elliptical yeah but you're like a marathoner, it's easy.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's like below your challenge threshold. Yep, like going to the gym and for me, like squatting 135 pounds.

Speaker 2

It's kind of like checking the box.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I could go do that, and it's like, okay, cool, I kind of worked out. Today. The learning zone is something that challenges you, but not in a scary way. You're learning but you're not at the risk of injuring yourself. You're not overwhelmed to the point where you can't think long term. You're in a good spot. You're in a really good spot where you're learning information, but you feel safe enough to take it in. You're not getting a drink through the fire hose.

Speaker 1

The anxiety zone is that it is. You are beyond your current capabilities, and the way I like to think of it is you have a limited amount of fuel that you can burn and when you run out of that fuel, bad things happen. Or you have a limited amount of oxygen Like, let's say, you just floated off into space. You only have so much oxygen before you get back to the ship or you're going to run out. You're going to run out of air and bad things are going to happen and it's just overwhelming and you're stressed out and you're not getting enough sleep, or you're struggling to sleep and you're more anxious than normal. It's just you being under the weight of a load that you just cannot handle for a lengthy period of time and that has been the last three months. And again, this is privilege pressure.

Speaker 1

We signed up for this, we decided to do this, we said yes. So I don't want this to be like a feel bad for me thing. I don't want that. But I want to liken that to maybe whatever it is you're going through. If you're in the middle of a move and you're going through a rocky part in your relationship, or financially things are rough, or stuff with the family or the kids is rough, that stuff adds up, it adds up and it's really hard to make progress when you're in the anxiety zone for a long period of time. So just my little next level nugget for this section would be check in. Check in on where are you. Are you in the comfort zone? Are you in the learning zone? Are you in the anxiety zone? When's the last time you were in each and what are the signs for you that you know you're in there?

Speaker 2

I always like talking about that, because I think it's just an important reminder.

Speaker 2

Oh so good. Yeah, and so the other part of this that makes it so hard. Kevin mentioned how I haven't been sick in a really long time and this, this live event, in tandem with everything else we've got going on biggest team. We've ever had all kinds of stuff. I I got sick and then whatever's going on with my stomach right now. It's interesting because what I can normally handle in my learning zone, as soon as you're not feeling well, all of a sudden you're immediately in the anxiety zone yeah it's like a workout that I do today, for example, if I was at a hundred percent.

Speaker 2

So emily asked me earlier she's like where are you at? We always say that I said I'm at about 70 and she said headed up or down? I was headed up. So tonight when we work out together I'm gonna try to find my learning zone. I told kev that if, if I try to lift weights and I'm struggle bus to the point where this is not constructive, I'm going to go on the elliptical or I'm going to walk or whatever. But if I start feeling it, that's what you always want to find. You want to constantly find the learning zone.

Speaker 2

The problem with that is that when external circumstances come in, like you get sick, or suddenly there's an unexpected bill that comes in, or or maybe your partner brings up something really heavy, or maybe the death of a pet or a loved one or whatever life happens all of a sudden, you're immediately in your anxiety zone because you were already at the edge of your learning zone. So when you live life on the edge of your learning zone, you grow more than other people. But when something bad happens externally, you're not really ready and it can be really scary because if you're already at capacity, say, you sign up for a marathon and that's puts you at capacity. It's harder than you thought you're. You were overall optimistic overly optimistic I tend to be. Now, all of a, your pet gets sick or whatever. Insert something happening. Now, all of a sudden, you can't keep up with what you originally intended. And so now do you crumble your self-worth or do you lower? So I told Kev this earlier.

Speaker 2

I try to think of minimums. I woke up this morning feeling awful. Got bad sleep. Minimums. I woke up this morning feeling awful. Got bad sleep in and out of bed constantly to the bathroom, I said. I woke up in the morning and I was like okay, what are the minimums?

Speaker 2

Today is going to be a minimum day. What are the minimums that I have to hit in order to make sure we minimize the momentum that we lose? How do I maximize my potential today, my growth today, the impact today, the results today, but not in a destructive way? How do I push it but not push it to the point where it's destructive? How do I and so that's the thing is, when you're feeling like a hundred percent, go seek, challenge, seek, challenge up the ante? You know, okay, I'm feeling good, maybe do an hour today, great. But remember, when you're not feeling good, are you still okay with that half hour? And I think that that wiggle room is so key, and so I try to have minimums that are sustainable and then I push beyond that when I'm feeling it, and that way, when I'm really down and out or struggle bus or whatever, I mean, when I was sick last week I had to go straight to the minimums and even that was probably beyond my learning zone.

Speaker 1

I've been there. I've been there, and that ties very nicely into the last thing. So we're talking about minimums, we're talking about starting small, we're talking about sustainability. It requires a ton of humility to start something small. Imagine if you're just trying to get so Alan's two plus years of exercising every day. Imagine where, if you're at a place where you just want to start exercising consistently, whatever that means running, jogging, yoga, whatever hot yoga, cycling, peloton, weight training, whatever you might start by doing it for five minutes a day, all right, I'm going to do yoga for five minutes. I'm going to search a five minute yoga thing, or it might even be meditation. I want to start meditating every day. I'm going to start with a five minute meditation. I remember that's where I started. It takes a lot of humility to say I'm going to do this thing for five minutes Because deep down, I think that's probably where I'm at. I think it would be good for me to start there because I don't want to overwhelm myself.

Speaker 2

That's a ton of humility, right ton of humility, because you and I remember working out. We were working out constantly blah blah, and then, after covid, we had to start all, not all the way back, but we had to start at an what we felt was embarrassing yeah, when we were in toronto together, we had injuries back.

Speaker 1

Yeah, injury, I hurt my shoulder and I had to start over. You have a, you hurt your leg. You have to start over. It's very it's very humbling.

Speaker 2

The only alternative is just don't restart, yeah, don't stop building. So you either have the humility to start small or you just stop building. So, anyways, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Speaker 1

No, no, you're good, you're good and then it's pairing the humility with the belief that, although it doesn't seem like I'm making any progress at all, what is this five minutes of meditation going to do? I'm going to do 35 minutes of meditation this week, and there's meditations that are 35 minutes. That's it. That's all I'm going to do. I'm going to do 35, 70, 105. I'm going to do 140 minutes of meditation this month. That's two hours and 20 minutes.

Speaker 2

That's like a it's hard to have you say that, because that's actually life-changing.

Speaker 1

It is life-changing, that's potentially life-changing, but it's not if it doesn't feel life-changing.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it doesn't feel life-changing, even though it is.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's like One of the hardest things for me. Maybe this will land, I don't know when me this is, maybe this will land, I don't know. I, when I have ice cream, I try to have ice cream in a smaller bowl because for the longest time, if I didn't have a huge bowl of ice cream, I wasn't having any. And then as I've gotten older and I understand that fitness isn't the way it used to be and nutrition isn't the way it used to be it, aka humility.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, fair it's just not what it used to be, and I'm busier, it's just yeah, there's a lot of things that are leading up to it.

Speaker 2

We're in these chairs a lot more. We are in these chairs a lot more. We're a lot more sedentary.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I used to walk three, four, five miles a day any day, Really Same. I ride in this chair all day. But I used to be very much the all or nothing. I'm either going to have a giant bowl of ice cream or I'm going to have none. Now I like a little bowl of ice cream, A nice little bowl of ice cream at the end of the night.

Speaker 1

Craves the sweet tooth, Good for the waistline, Awesome. But I understand why somebody might say well, if I can't have a whole bowl, I don't want any. If I can't go to the gym and see results next week, there's no point in me starting. If I can't meditate and instantly feel better, there's no reason to do it. I don't think there's anything that's set up like that. There's nothing good really and again, most things that are good you're not going to experience the relief right away. It's not really going to work that way. I was going to say, maybe like a massage, you go get a massage, you feel really good after you know that type of stuff, yeah, yeah, I want to share this briefly.

Speaker 2

Jump in here. You know how much I've struggled with mobility. Kevin and I have a joke. Way back he asked me hey, how's, how's mobility going? And I'm like good, good, we're like I don't know where were we? We were in Colorado. No, we were in.

Speaker 1

Colorado. We had just left the gym. We were taking a left at the lights. I'll never forget we were taking this long left on the lights and we were talking about. I said how's your mobility been? I don't know if you were struggling in the gym that day or something. And he said, yeah, no, it's been good, it's been good.

Speaker 2

And I said, oh, you've been doing it consistently and you said, ah, mobility, mobility, oh no, no, I haven't been doing it almost at all. Okay, I had been foam rolling, but not not doing any stretching, and for me foam rolling, stretching, that kind of stuff is mobility, band work. But at the end of the day, I wasn't consistent and so we've been playful. Over the years, kevin's been really consistent. I don't know if you are right now or not, but over the years you've been consistently, more consistent than me, that's fair.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and it only in 2024 that I finally figured this out and, to Kevin's point, with the humility thing, I dropped it to 10 minutes. I've done mobility every day in 2024 for 10 minutes. I sit on that yoga mat and foam roll or do stretching, both band work, whatever, but I do 10 minutes. I set a timer, 10 minutes a day, usually listening to a book as well, which is cool, but anyways, so I can tell. I was at the Airbnb and we're all getting ready for the PowerPoint and we're doing a dry run, and it's on this tiny little coffee table. There's this weird little turtle seat that's tiny and right next to the ground, and I in the past would not have been able to like maneuver through all of these wires and stuff the way that I did, and I was bending down and I was looking over at Kev. I was like dude, this mobility is paying off. Seriously, though, real, real talk.

Speaker 2

There was a time, probably last year, in 2023, where I would be bending down like what you saw, and it would have hurt, and this you it looks like it's not doing anything. It doesn't feel like I'm some. I can't do the splits or anything. I'm not like super flexible, but I don't hurt. I don't hurt that much and my workouts are pretty good, but it's only 10 minutes a day. It's it is it's making such a drastic difference. And sometimes it is just checking the box. I mean I'm doing the same routine. Sometimes I really push it and I'll do some intense stretches and yoga down dog, all that kind of stuff, but sometimes I'm doing the same foam rolling. I mean I'm talking check the box level 10 minutes, just basic stuff, foam rolling my lower back, that kind of thing. Yeah, it's making a huge difference, kevin I believe, it can change your life.

Speaker 1

I'm convinced of it, I believe, 100, 100 but on the day-to-day it doesn't feel like it. Yeah, it's 10 minutes a day for a year or six months or three months or whatever it is. It's like if you go outside and you dig a hole, you dig one inch, a one inch hole every day.

Speaker 2

Sorry, Siri is interrupting you, Kev.

Speaker 1

Keep it down, Siri, I'm trying to work here. You go outside and you dig a hole an inch. The next day you go and dig another inch and another inch, and another inch Again. That seems like nothing. Another inch and another inch, and another inch Again. That seems like nothing. But at the end of the year that's 356 inches, which is what 365.

Speaker 2

Yeah, 365. Hold on, hold on. You're 30 feet down.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you couldn't even get out of that hole if you wanted to, unless you have a 355 day year, like Kevin. No, I said 366,. I think.

Speaker 2

What did I say?

Speaker 1

You said 355, I think what did I say?

Speaker 2

You said 355, I think oh man, I don't know where I am, but that's a really good example.

Speaker 1

But in the day-to-day, you're two weeks in and it's like a foot. Is this even doing anything? Yeah, just very, very, very, very, very minutely, very, very, very minutely. So that's the third point. It requires extreme humility to start something very simply, but it also requires the understanding that you're probably not going to see results in any meaningful fashion anytime quickly.

Speaker 2

But you have to know over time. You will 100% Over time.

Speaker 1

you will Well, okay, okay, if and again, potential trigger warning. I don't mean this in a negative way, but if you are, let's say, you're 15 pounds heavier than you were three years ago. That didn't just happen today, that happened over the course of the last three years. The opposite is also true and you can do it faster because you're actually intentional and you know what's going on. I'll never I I said this on the podcast before I remember I had a night where I was lying down, I was getting ready for bed this is a thc thought for me.

Speaker 1

I was lying in bed and I had a moment where I I was like tara and I haven't checked in in a minute and I said, holy shit, this is what happens in relationships. We're we great, we're amazing, but we haven't checked in. And it's that, those little things that add up. Oh, we didn't do it this hour, busy on Sunday. Oh, we didn't do that. And eventually there's like a little, there's a little resentment and nothing gets done about it. It doesn't it. It doesn't happen overnight. No, I don't know. Again, I don't know the stats. I'm willing to bet most breakups and divorces and bankruptcies don't happen overnight. They're just very small things. They're very small breadcrumbs that never get picked up over a long period of time.

Speaker 2

Negative habits and positive habits work the same way, just in opposite directions, fortunately or unfortunately, if you've never read the book the Compound Effect, I highly, highly highly recommend it. I think it's the most valuable book.

Speaker 1

Never heard of it, never heard of it, never heard of that book. You've heard of it 12 times a year, every year for the last seven years.

Speaker 2

And the other one that's really, really powerful, about small habits, starting super small, is atomic habits Definitely the compound effect and atomic habits. In my opinion, they're both in my top 10 favorite books and they are nothing short of absolutely life-changing and they're about this exact thing. So the humility to start small. Emilia wanted to jump, so we started March 1st 2022 doing a fitness challenge and it was 30 minutes a day every day. Soccer counts, basketball counts, walking counts, everything moving your body, weight training counts. If you're moving your body for 30 minutes we set a timer, it counts. Okay, hiking, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2

I wanted to beat my old best. My old best back then was three and a half months. We started 30 minutes a day, just 30 minutes. Beat three and a half months, got to four months. I was like, okay, and I always talk about Forrest Gump Well, I got this far, I might as well keep on going. So we did.

Speaker 2

I was like, let's see if we can get to a year. And we get to a year and we're in the garage and I've told this story before, but I'll never forget it. And she says now what I think. I turned to her and said now what she said. I think we should do this forever, and I genuinely had a panic moment I playfully call it a panic attack, but it wasn't Panic moment of. That would be, I would say, possible, but pretty awful. I would say that sounds pretty awful, and I'm being playful with that because I also think it's great. Imagine if you could just kind of okay, exercise, check, that's taken care of Now.

Speaker 2

I was playful at the event. I said no, no, I exercise every day. I did not say I diet every day. So that's the next thing Mobility and exercise 10 out of 10. A diet six maybe Might be why my intestines are in a knot, but anyway. So the point I'm making, though, is that we started that with a goal of four months, which my old best was three months, three and a half months. It's not like I started out saying let's do two years.

Speaker 1

Well, even you, four months is a lofty goal. That's lofty, in fairness.

Speaker 2

Fair, true, but here's what I wanted to really share. Emilia wanted to bump it to 45 at the end of the year and I had to talk to her and say I can't. I don't want. To say I can't, I don't want to, I don't want. If I'm going to exercise every day, I'm not doing it for 45 minutes every day. I have other stuff to do. So you can even see the resentment that was built when we tried to do 45 dude. It got exponentially harder.

Speaker 1

I know it sounds like 15 minutes, but it's insane no, because even that fifth I'm gonna start meditating. So after the event we've been putting it off we're gonna redesign our ppts. Our habits are gonna change. One of the things I want to do daily is meditate. I'm gonna start with 10 minutes. Nice, but 10 minutes is a good amount, just like adding 10 minutes 15, canned it back to 10. Yeah, it's not you.

Speaker 2

If that's all you were doing, then that'd be fine. Well, you expand, but no one's only meditating.

Speaker 1

You've said this for a long time and we'll hop after this because I don't want this to be a two-hour episode. But you expand and then you lock it in and you expand it and you lock it in the expansion and locking it in phase. It depends. It's all different. It's different. When we're doing six episodes a week, it's not that hard to just do one more. But when you're doing one and you go to two, you're doubling the amount of episodes you're doing every week.

Speaker 1

That's different, that's different. So when you're going from one gym session a week to two, it might be harder for you than five to six, or six to seven or whatever it is. So, just yeah, humility, but the understanding that it might not seem like anything is happening, but we have to believe it is, because if we don't believe it's worth it, we won't continue doing it very, very last thing.

Speaker 2

My next little nugget set a minimum that at least gets you to keep the promise yeah just set a minimum if it's five minutes, so for you, if I was coaching you, kev, I would say set the minimum at five, shoot for 10 I would tell you to stay in your stay in your effing lane.

Speaker 2

I'm just kidding, I know I know, but the minimum 30 minutes. If we bumped the minimum to 45, I genuinely wouldn't have done it. Yeah, and so keep the minimum and you can raise up the ante, but there's going to be days where you have dips. There's going to be.

Speaker 2

I mean, one of the times, emilia and I was freezing cold. We forgot. We woke up. Not woke up, but we napped. And then it was 11 pm, we were on a little adventure at a place called the Chateau up in New Hampshire and it was like, oh my God, we haven't exercised. And that was the one time. That was the one time where Emilia, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was exercise. It was freezing out, super cold, and we're out there just like walking in this parking lot. It was genuinely pretty terrible. Now again, we were fine, but the last thing on planet Earth we wanted to do was get out at this little trip and walk. But if we had been 45, there's no way I would have done it. I would have Keep the minimums.

Speaker 1

That's all I'm saying. Keep the minimums, check the box. I might be the last person on the team who has an exercise streak, and I might be the last person on the team who has an exercise streak and I don't care.

Speaker 2

I'm all right with it. You're standing your ground on your minimum.

Speaker 1

I don't know if anybody can get me to do it. Not that I don't think I could. I genuinely think I could. You don't want to? But, I'm not willing to sacrifice what it would take to do it.

Speaker 1

If it's 11 o'clock at night no, no, I know you've never put pressure on me, I'm not, but I'm just saying that's the other thing too is it's more important to Alan than it would be to me. We will never miss an episode. There's a reason, because it's very important to both of us. I don't know if you, you and I, were supposed to meet one weekend to record. I don't know if you, you and I were supposed to meet one weekend to record and I don't know if you were sick or something happened and I was like traveling or something, and I was like, hey, man, I'll just record an episode and then you can like record your own. And Alan messaged me later. He's like, dude, I can't, Please, please, please, I'll do anything. And I said, give me a million dollars and I'll think about waiting around.

Speaker 2

And think about waiting around and he wired me zero dollars and then we did it together, we did, but even this, this is an episode that we only did one today, but we got the minimum, got it done. The minimum per day is one yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah, the minimum per day is one and unfortunately at times that means we have to do 14 in a day to hit the minimum.

Speaker 2

But that is when you go on your next trip. That will happen shortly.

Speaker 1

Okay, we're gonna go because I don't want everybody to have to listen to us anymore.

Speaker 2

That's fair. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I think that to the point of minimums if we want them to listen tomorrow, to stay consistent.

Speaker 1

I think the episode is probably a little too long. Okay, if private Facebook group Next Level Nation, please do so. We will have the link in the show notes. It's been amazing. Amy is crushing it with posts in there, daily, daily posts in Next Level Nation. So if you're looking for a positive community, people who are growth-minded like you, and just a safe place to be yourself, link will be in the show notes. We would love to have you.

Speaker 2

April 9th is when Group 14 is launching A team of 10 like-minded, growth oriented people, humble, grateful and growth minded, all trying to achieve their goals and their dreams. There's something about being on a team. Remember when you were on a sports team. That's what this was created for it was. It's going to keep you accountable. It's going to keep you motivated. No one wants to let down the team. It's bigger than you. We are better together and that's what group coaching is built on. Use promo code nlu listeners spelt just like it sounds. It doesn't matter if it's all capital or all lowercase. Click the link in the show notes, lock your spot now Again. 10 people all working toward their dreams, with simple habits for 90 days.

Speaker 1

It's a 90-day program six sessions with Kevin and myself and biweekly connection calls with Amy as your assistant coach as well, and starting small and sustainability are two things we are hyper focused on in that program, so we will practice what we preach there Tomorrow for episode number 1,654. Stop running from uncertainty. We had some very uncertain times at Next Level Live 2024, which we'll talk about a little bit in tomorrow's episode, just as an example and what we can learn from it. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2

Keep those minimums. Next Level Nation.

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host