#1725 - One Important Thing For ANY Level Of Success…

What if the secret to achieving your goals lies in the metrics you choose to monitor? In this episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros discuss the practical application of monitoring critical metrics for personal growth and success.

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Show notes:
(2:01) What are you measuring?
(5:47) Everything in life has metrics
(10:07) Measurements shape our approach
(13:02) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
(14:45) Understanding how we behave
(17:33) Importance of regular tracking and monitoring
(21:09) The impact of trends
(23:40) Outro

🎙️ 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.

Transcript

Kevin 0:00

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 1724. It was a heavy one growing up without one of your parents. Shout out to anyone who has slash is currently experiencing that. Slash is currently experiencing that Today. For episode number 1,725, an important step for success and success will be in quotes because success is subjective.

Kevin 0:40

I have started asking this question of podcasters Alan, what are you measuring? I'll say what are you measuring? And they'll say what do you mean? And I say, just in terms of like, what are you measuring? I'll say what are you measuring? And they'll say what do you mean? And I say, just in terms of like, what are you looking at? Are you looking at your social media following and likes? Are you looking at your listens? Are you looking at your? What are you ultimately looking at? And people say, well, I'm looking at a lot of things. Or often and again I completely understand I'm not looking at anything at all. Okay, well, let's fix that. Alan would not like that very much. Alan likes tracking things.

What are you measuring?

Kevin 1:09

My belief is, the three most important things to measure are these three things, and I'll give it to them, and my ultimate goal with giving those things to them is I want you to feel like you are capable of being more successful. So one important thing for any level of success is to understand what are you measuring, why are you measuring it and, I guess, how to effectively measure it. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today. One of the reasons I think this is important is because we're doing the NLU 10 pound in 10 week challenge and shout out to everybody. Everybody is crushing it, and we have a whatsapp group. Alan and Amy are are running this way more than than I. This was, this was Alan's idea, I believe right, this was your idea. I want to make sure I give credit where due and I think it is.

Alan 2:01

I think it was, I know I honestly don't know anymore. I know it wasn't mine, so it's well, the 10 pound in 10 weeks was your idea, but the doing it with the community I think we mentioned it on the show. And then the WhatsApp group was Amy and I.

Kevin 2:13

Okay, Well, shout out to you. I was going to just suffer in silence by myself, me and you. And then you opened it up to the community through Next Level Nation and the podcast and a lot of people were in. So awesome, one of the things I'm learning and I put in there today.

Kevin 2:28

I put in the WhatsApp chat I said I just want I think it's very important for us all to understand that these day-to-day fluctuations are really really they don't matter as much as you think they do. So anybody in there who's maybe tracking their weight and trying to lose a specific amount of weight in a specific amount of time, maybe this is the first time you're looking at your weight every day and you're seeing, like, how did I gain a pound overnight? You didn't. You didn't gain a pound overnight, just like you didn't lose a pound overnight. And I said today it's more important to look at the seven day, the 14 day, the 21 day trends than it is what happened today and what happened tomorrow. But I think that's a really good example of well, if you're measuring if in the first week, so if you're out there and you want to have some sort of weight loss journey in the first week, the numbers are all over the place and if that's what you're measuring and you're saying, well, I've done this for a week and nothing happened, you're going to end up giving up In reality. That's kind of how it works for everyone.

Kevin 3:30

I think I lost four pounds in the first week. I didn't. I didn't lose four pounds in the first week. A lot of that was water weight. A lot of that was probably just food weight, because I went from eating a lot to eating less. Right, it can have a. There's a lot of different things that can go into that. So that was one of the reasons I wanted to do an episode on the importance of what you measure, because you could be successful. Okay, let's do this. How many days have you in the past waged yourself for? If you've only waged yourself for three days and then you gave up, if you're on day seven, you're already quote unquote more successful than you might think you are because you're instilling a potential new habit. So the measurement yeah, what you're measuring is super, super important.

Alan 4:15

Well, I love this episode. I adore the very first part of the iceberg under the results is metrics. So I'm obsessed with metrics, obsessed with numbers. I love it, but I can when the metric becomes the goal. That's the issue, because what's a good example of this? I was on with a new client. I have a new client who considers herself a gamer. I'm probably going to butcher the name of this game Guild Wars or something like that. I don't know.

Kevin 4:43

If you know I'm not the guy I don't know. If you know I'm not the guy, I don't know anything.

Alan 4:46

So I said, have you ever been a gamer? Like, did you game? Back in the day, Because this person's kind of techie Calls herself a techie and I was like, perfect, and she's like I am a gamer. Not was I a gamer, I am a gamer. I'm like this is going to be great. This is going to land Now for the listeners it might not land, Bear with me. Way back in the day I played a game called Call of Duty Ghosts. You remember Call of Duty Ghosts?

Kevin 5:14

Yes, Okay, it was an awesome game.

Alan 5:16

I loved that game, big fan of all of them, the new ones with the jetpacks and all that man, I can't do it, it's not for me. Well, it's not like that anymore. Oh, okay, I don't know, I haven't been, I've been out of the game for a while. It's probably good, metaphorically and literally. So back in call of duty ghosts days for the xbox 360, I think. Yeah, xbox 360.

Everything in life has metrics

Alan 5:35

I was really good at the game and I I had a kill to death ratio of a 3.4 and I had over 70 000 kills in team deathmatch I. I remember at one point I was top 1000 on the charts and I was a weekend warrior. I didn't do this daily, it was. It was on the weekend and sometimes during work hours, which you know I'm not super proud of, but I was in sales. So you get, as long as you're hitting your numbers, you're good type of thing. Anyways, used to play with my buddies all that.

Alan 6:04

I wanted to keep my kill-to-death ratio. So essentially what that meant is I need four kills for every one time I die, and in Call of Duty, in Team Deathmatch, you die all the time. I mean it's just, and so the analogy that I use again bear with me if you've never played. A lot of people will run around knifing people and or playing with new guns. I kind of had to get. I remember I got to a point where I had to really crush it. If I die 10 times in a row, I have to get 40 kills without dying. Just to break even right technically 34, 3.4. So 34 kills if I die. So if I have a death streak of 10 in a row, how many times does that happen to you? Just keep running out and dying? Well, I mean pretty much every time, yeah, yeah, especially when the other team is crushing you and there's which they have helicopters and all that stuff.

Alan 6:53

So yeah, okay. So it was really hard to sustain my point of this whole thing on this coaching call with this client is. I asked her. I said you play guild wars, what are? And she said number of special items or unique items Again, I'm butchering this If you're listening, I'm sorry to the client and then such and such number of quests or something like that.

Alan 7:13

I said, okay, what you measure changes the way you play the game. If I was measuring most kills and I was going for most kills, I wouldn't care how much I died, but I had to play with a sniper rifle and I had to be very strategic with where I placed myself and I had to play very carefully not to die. I was optimizing not to die. I wasn't necessarily optimizing for most kills. If I wanted most kills, I might run out there with a machine gun and just start hammering.

Alan 7:42

And so my whole point of this whole thing, rather than some video game rant, is what you measure in life does determine how you play the game, and a lot of people don't like it when you refer to life as a game, but it is. It is Podcasting is a game. I mean, it's the same idea. How do you know you're good at Call of Duty? How do you know you're good at Guild Wars? How do you know you're good at basketball? How do you know if you're good at business? How do you know if you're good at podcasting? There's certain stats that basketball players track Shooting percentage, rebounds, assists, scoreboard right.

Alan 8:21

Everything in life has metrics, and so, whether it's Guild Wars or Call of Duty or podcasting, or whatever it is that you do in the world out there, listening or watching this, watching this, what you track changes the way you play the game so much that you have to be so careful with what you track. One of the reasons people don't like to track their weight is because it makes them so scarce yeah the problem is if you don't track your weight, what are you going to track?

Alan 8:51

are you going to track the mirror, because that's very subjective. Are you going to track your body fat percentage, because those are usually inaccurate numbers unless you're getting an actual DEXA scan. I mean, the problem with life is that we track these things, these metrics, and you should and you need to if you want to make meaningful progress. Any professional athlete out there tracks all their stats. Every business tracks their metrics. Before you invest in a company, you have to see the profit and loss statement, and so tracking is so important. Metrics are so important. There's a great book called Measure what Matters, and there's these things called OKR, objectives and Key Results. The objective is different than the metric, though. The objective of this podcast is to help people with self-improvement. Tracking the listens helps us understand how well we're doing at that, but it's not directly correlated. No, just because we have a bad week in listens, bad week in quotes, doesn't mean that we're not adding value.

Kevin 9:49

Or just because you have a massive episode doesn't mean it's not because you had a really big guest. The most listened to episodes aren't necessarily the most valuable ones, and the least listened to episodes aren't necessarily the least valuable ones either.

Measurements shape our approach

Alan 10:02

Yep. So if you're doing a marathon or a triathlon, there's these mile markers and they help you understand where you're at in the journey. The problem is, the metrics that we create in life are mile markers, but if we misinterpret that data, we end up demoralized and it ends up derailing us, and a lot of times, instead of a mile marker, we think that's the goal. It becomes the goal. What's a good example of this? I need a better example. 10 pounds in 10 weeks it's the goal. But what's the goal underneath that goal? To be more fit, to be more healthy, to lower our body fat percentage. We're not losing 10 pounds just to say we lost 10 pounds. We're losing 10 pounds because that's on the way to a greater life. It's on the way to greater wellness. That's why I said when I posted in Next Level Nation about the 10-pound, 10-week challenge. That's why I said beware of your mental health. If your mental health's in a bad spot, don't do this.

Alan 11:01

And some people said listen, I'm not going to do that. I don't have 10 pounds to lose. If anything, I need to build muscle. One of our community members said I can't help you. I got to build muscle. I'm already too thin in my opinion. So I'm in a reverse diet. It wouldn't make any sense for her to track her weight loss when she actually needs to be gaining weight. That's the only reason Brandon's not doing it too, because Brandon already lost 10 pounds, because he hasn't been feeling well and he's trying to build muscle and gain weight. So the metric needs to be there, but it can't be overly focused on to the point where it's demoralizing. But it also can't be ignored to the point where you have no mile marker at all and you get lost and it can't become the actual goal itself. It has to be a means to an ultimate purpose that's bigger than the weight when I flew back from.

Kevin 11:43

So we flew from Scotland to London and then London to Boston. When we flew back I was measuring the metrics too much. I'd look every like 30 minutes, like how far from home are we, how many minutes are we from the airport? And that's kind of like when you clock in for an eight-hour day and you look at the clock 15 minutes after you get there and you say, oh, my goodness, it's only been 15 minutes.

Kevin 12:09

I think the same thing can happen if you're checking your weight six times a day, because don't do that. That is a recipe for making yourself feel really bad. I just ate a little while ago. I guarantee I just ate. I probably ate two pounds of food.

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Kevin 12:24

So if I go and get on the scale, I'm going to be two pounds heavier than I was this morning. And all the liquid I drank, right, and the sodium and the water, I'm holding on to all of that stuff. And when's the last time you used the bathroom? So to your point, if you obsess over it and I'll use obsess lightly, but number one, understanding what your relationship with the metrics is, I think that's super important and then rebuilding a relationship with that. But yeah, you can over-measure and you can under-measure. Both of those, I think, are really really disheartening, because, let's say, you're doing something. I guess a good example of that could be. I guess it wouldn't be disheartening in this scenario, but if we're flying for eight hours and then I look at the time before landing like 15 minutes before we land I'm going to be super happy, that's not necessarily a good example.

Alan 13:20

What is the optimal amount of checking in? Probably what every couple hours. For an eight-hour flight, you should check in every hour and a half. Whatever's productive.

Kevin 13:29

I think it depends on the person. For me, I do it too much and for you I don't think there is. There is a not enough, because shout out to anybody who can sleep on an eight hour flight for eight hours. Good for you, you're, you have a superpower. So I don't think there's anything. There's anything off on that, but it's.

Kevin 13:46

It's like if you were rowing a boat and you were trying to get to a certain place. You have to check every so often because if you don't check, you might end up somewhere completely different and it might not be where you want and it might be more work to get back to where you wanted to in the first place. But I understand why it's hard. I understand why it's hard. I think one of the reasons tracking metrics is so hard is because if you don't feel like you're in control of the metric, the last thing you want is the reminder that you don't know what you're doing, and I can understand that. I think that's why a lot of people struggle to do the bank account thing. The paradox of that is 100%.

Understanding how we behave

Alan 14:22

If you don't track it, you won't improve it. I told my new client this yesterday, but I tell all my clients this I no longer want to coach anyone if you don't want to track metric. I'm very, very grateful to be in a place where that's the case. And the reason why is and this is an interesting analogy and metaphor I've never been able to use before and trigger warning for anyone out there who is frustrated with this happening but this is happening in the world. We drove through eight states, from Massachusetts to South Carolina, emilie and I, and the Tesla drove itself. Now it's called supervisor mode, so I'm still in the driver's seat and it just drives itself and I just have to have my hands near the wheel and every now and then it says, hey, grab the wheel, okay, but it drives itself. It's awesome. Okay, I think it's awesome, but I'm also an early adopter. I love tech and I used to program things like this, not things this intense, but you know what I'm saying. All right, it's the best thing ever. I only had to stop this thing, maybe five to seven times and honestly, that's I don't know if I really had to. It's just because, just in case, a lot of those were just in case stops. The Tesla genuinely drives itself. It's so cool. That said, what's my point? There's, there's nine cameras, so there's three in the front, one facing to the right, one to the left and one straight straight. There's a camera in each driver's side door, and then there's a camera in both rear doors. That's three plus four, so you're looking at seven plus there's a camera in the in the very back, and then there's also one in the actual car that shows the actual car.

Alan 15:51

Now I was talking to kev about how measuring things in peak performance tracking, the habit tracking that we do. There's two real main measurements. There's most important metric, which is just a cumulative measurement Weight would be a good example. Another one of my clients tracks the number of days that she's habit tracked. So she's on, I don't know, 170 days in a row of habit tracking, okay, so one of them is the most important metric, the other one's a habit. So did I drink my water today? One means yes, 0.5 means some of it. If my goal was 80 ounces, I only ate 40, it would be 0.5 and then zero. No, I just didn't drink water today, which probably doesn't happen, hopefully. Okay, what I told to Kevin.

Alan 16:34

This metaphor is PPT, peak performance tracking, and my coaching program. What I want it to be is like a self-driving Tesla. When it's rainy out or there's mud covering one of the cameras, so at each of the superchargers I have to go and rub, I have to go and clean off each of the cameras because I want to make sure this thing can drive itself, because I don't want to drive Okay. So I would like clean off the cameras at each stop, especially if it was rainy or muddy or whatever. And if one of the cameras is not working well, it says camera occluded, self-driving not possible. It shuts it off. It doesn't let you do it if one of the cameras can't get the data, because if a truck's coming from the right and it can't see the truck, it can't move accordingly, and so all of us in life.

Importance of regular tracking and monitoring

Alan 17:18

I think that's a great analogy. Imagine you go into a Tesla trigger warning, you plug in a destination address, which is your goal, and you have a current address, and then you click the bing and it just rainbow roads and you just show up. Now you have to watch, obviously, just in case, because bunnies and birds it doesn't do a good job. So I had to make sure I saved the bunnies and the birds, but at the end of the day, it needs the data if the cameras are occluded. It says occluded, which I didn't even know what that meant. We looked it up means blocked. Yeah, if one of the cameras blocked, you can't get that data.

Alan 17:51

And so for all of us in life, when we're avoiding the bank account, bank account, when we're neglecting, the bank account when we're neglecting account, when we're neglecting the bank account, when we're neglecting our weight, when we're neglecting our body fat percentage, when we're neglecting our check-ins. In our relationship it's basically like the Tesla trying to drive without any cameras. It's just driving into the wall maybe, and I feel like a lot of us do that in life, and then we end up living in a shitty place, driving what we don't want to drive, doing what we don't want to do, living not our dreams, having a life that kind of sucks. And we don't realize that a lot of that was just neglect Not always, not always, but a lot of it was neglect. And so what I try to do with all my clients is how do we get you to measure the right stuff so that you can focus on the right stuff, so that you can do the right things, so that you can achieve your the right stuff, so that you can do the right things, so that you can achieve your goals and dreams? And the journey along the way is hard. It's emotional.

Alan 18:45

I lost four pounds, then I gained two, then I lost one and now I'm back to 191.8 as of today, but I was 190.6, which was my new low super pumped and then I'm right back up to 191.8. What did I do? I definitely was in a deficit yesterday. I'm still hungry. What happened, no idea, just par for the course.

Alan 19:05

So the trend line is what matters. Life is up and down, and up and down, and up and down on the day-to-day. And it feels like crap on the day-to-day, I'm convinced. But the trend line can be in the right direction. And as long as the trend line is in the right direction, you're in good shape. Just keep it up. And when it's not over an extended period of time, a couple of weeks, that's when you got to make some pivots and go back to the drawing board and say maybe I am eating too much. Emilia and I just figured out that she's tracking her chicken and her rice wrong. She was doing eight ounces of chicken when she actually should be tracking. No, she was tracking four. She should have been tracking eight. And she was tracking dry rice, not cooked. Those are classic mistakes in the early journey. She just started tracking macros this year.

Kevin 19:46

The rice. One's always challenging. That's like the hardest thing in the world to find. You go down a once you find the number, once you have to use that number forever because when you search it again the number is going to be different, especially with rice. That's the whole thing. Strong work you as well, brother. Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate that very much, maybe for everyone out there. One thing under health, one thing under wealth, one thing under love. What are your metrics? Get clear on those and again, don't obsess. But it is a good thing to have because it will help you stay on the rails.

Kevin 20:19

Shout out to the amazing NLU community. We hit our fundraising goal in a day or two days. Right after we put the GoFundMe up, we got $600 worth of donations. Alan and I already matched the $600. Personally, if you are local to the Worcester mass area and you are a parent of like a single parent and you have kids and you want to bring them to the event, it's not Saturday now, it's Sunday on Father's Day. There was a miscommunication with the YMCA, that's a whole thing, but we're going to move forward because that is what we do. So it will be on Father's Day. It is 1 o'clock.

Alan 20:56

Yes, 1 to 1 to 3, we can start at one. One to it's three hours, so one to four. One to four, yep. One to two, two to three. Three to four.

The impact of trends

Kevin 21:05

Okay, yeah, so from one to four Eastern Standard Time, Worcester, Mass. If you're interested, you can DM Kevin at nextleveluniversecom because the landing page, the website, there's a bunch going on the website's down right now.

Alan 21:19

That would be email. What did?

Kevin 21:20

I say you said DM, dm through the email machine. Cool Tomorrow for episode number 1,726,. It's Freestyle Friday, so we don't know what we're going to talk about, but we're going to talk about it and then we'll title the episode based on what we talk about. 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.

Alan 21:45

Measure what matters, next elimination.