Next Level University

#1773 - The Truth IS All That Really Matters

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Have you ever thought about how being truthful can change your life? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros discuss the importance of living honestly and facing brutal truths. They share stories about self-belief, misconceptions, and the path to self-acceptance. This open and honest talk shows how honesty can help you grow and warns against avoiding uncomfortable truths. Whether you’re struggling with self-belief, unsure about your abilities, or wanting to set higher goals, this episode provides helpful advice and insights to support your journey toward real growth and stronger connections.

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Show notes:
(3:27) Living in truth and authenticity
(6:45) Prediction pendulum
(11:31) Who you really are?
(14:31) Kevin’s journey to living more truthfully and its challenges
(19:01) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/f1FWAQA
(20:08) What sucks worse?
(24:01) Neglect
(27:01) Hard truths for growth
(30:01)

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. Today, for episode number 1,773, the truth is all that really matters. That sounds like a bold statement. I would say you think it's a bold statement, alan, for the listeners all right for the listeners, anyone viewing or listening to this.

Speaker 2

What's happening? Hello, hello, hello. This is going to be a funny one, most likely because kev is way past go, I'm very past go, and he gets funnier as he's I don't feel great.

Speaker 1

I told alan I kind of have a migraine, my throat sore. It's just been a long day. It's been a good day, very good day. It's been a productive day, it's been a good day.

Speaker 1

It's been good day alan asked me what are we doing for an episode? And I said I don't know. I want to talk about truth. And he said isn't that kind of like too close to what we've been talking about recently? And I said I don't think so. And I looked back and then he's like I don't know, isn't that exactly what we talked about on monday? My goal is to make it go in a different direction. This is my thought. This is my thought. I'm gonna try to be serious. You ever, you ever watch a like a blooper reel? I'm always mind blown at how fast they'll laugh and they just go like all right, no, no, I'm good, give me a sec. And then they just do it. I have no idea how they do it. That must be years of practice. I aspire to get there. I just don't know if it's possible with you and I, but you seem like you're pretty good at it.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Now let's hold it together. All right, I don't know. This is my thought. Okay, let's go with it. Let's go with my thought. We just did a group coaching session. In this group coaching session, one of the things we were talking about was self-belief and self-worth, and you and I literally called out the group in a positive way and said I feel like everybody in here was super honest about if you have a level two self-belief. It doesn't really feel good to put that in a group chat, but I was proud of everybody who did it. Some people put that they were over on self-belief and over on self-worth. They said I actually self-identify as maybe a little bit entitled. I'm super proud of them for doing that.

Living in truth and authenticity

Speaker 1

That's why I wanted to do this episode, because truth is one of those things where you can hide from it, and for a long period of time it seems like your life gets better, but eventually it gets drastically worse. Time it seems like your life gets better but eventually it gets drastically worse, and I think that if we were just able to live in a place of truth, I think everything would change for all of us. The hard part is the further you've gone down the road of delusion, the harder it is to get back to truth. Yep, and alan and I were talking about this episode and the latest episodes and alan said I feel like what we've been doing on the podcast has really been good, just trying to be ourselves and what do we want to talk about? And and just being authentic, being authentic as as we want to be, that's based on us in the past, living I don't want to say living less in our truth, but kind of we were living from a place of I feel like I'm supposed to be like Alan and Alan feels like he's supposed to be more like me and we're supposed to be this type of way.

Speaker 1

And eventually we learned and we grew and we evolved and we said, look, I don't, I just want to be the truthful of way. And eventually we learned and we grew and we evolved and we said, look, I don't, I just want to be the, the truthful version of me and I am funnier and I joke more and I'm less serious and I like to laugh and I make dumb analogies and dumb metaphors sometimes. Sometimes I make really good ones, sometimes they're not so good, but I feel like a lot has unlocked in you and I, the more we've leaned into our own unique version of the truth and, honestly, I don't necessarily know how to advise someone else to do that. I don't really know.

Speaker 1

If someone said what advice would you have for someone to help them lean more into their truth? I don't really know, because we've done it in such a public way, but we've done it together and behind the scenes, obviously, but it's different, so I don't. If somebody said to you, if somebody said, alan, I feel like you've done a really good job recently of leaning into your truth and being a more authentic version of yourself, what advice would you give to somebody else who wants to be more authentically truthful to them, to themselves? And what advice would you give to someone who wants to start giving themselves harder truths about themselves?

Speaker 2

Well, the first thing would be asking the question where might I be delusional? We were talking about this in group coaching. There's two types of delusional. We call it the prediction pendulum. So I'm going to give a good example, an example that I think is good. But maybe I'm delusional I've talked about this in previous episodes where I did a timed mile. I think a timed mile is a good example of this. I thought that I'd do better than I really did. Kev, you told the story about when you thought you could run a six-minute mile. You were delusional, Everyone's delusional, it's just to what percent error. And the human brain is a prediction machine. So you tell the story, Kev, about how you were a baseball player and you were an all-star baseball player back in high school and then you and taryn were at a circus and you were like I am gonna hit these dead on.

Speaker 1

Winner, a teddy winner, a teddy bear, I'm gonna get the biggest teddy, biggest teddy bear.

Speaker 2

And then you hammered no teddy, all no teddy bear.

Speaker 1

Did you even hit the well, first of all, the circus is rigged and everyone knows that. That's okay, so that's. And again, I didn't hit the things, so it doesn't matter, but the circus is rigged just as a side.

Speaker 2

As a side note no, I bounced it.

Speaker 1

I wasn't even close. It was horrendous, embarrassingly bad okay.

Prediction pendulum

Speaker 2

So essentially what happened there is, kevin's identity was I am a baseball player and I can throw a baseball like nobody's business, and that's his hypothesis. And a good scientist regardless of whether or not he identifies as a scientist says okay, I think I'm gonna crush this, I'm gonna win at teddy, let's rock and roll. And then you benchmark that up against reality, and the reality is sometimes really harsh, and the harsh reality is you didn't hit a single one of the things you were aiming at, and I think that that's where I would start, which is you have to ask yourself where you might be delusional and the places that were delusional. Typically, there's this thing called the prediction pendulum that I just created in one of my blogs. It's on my LinkedIn and it's simple. It's it's zero to ten. Ten is you overestimate your own abilities, zero is you underestimate your own abilities, and five the drive to five is you're accurate.

Speaker 2

So Kev was at a ten thinking he was the man in baseball, and then he got the truth that he's actually overestimating his abilities, and the reality is he kind of man in baseball. And then he got the truth that he's actually overestimating his abilities, and the reality is he kind of sucks at baseball now with love and that he hasn't played in 15 years or something like that, and he realizes that not only does he not, is he not that great at baseball anymore, he's also fairly old I'm joking, but this is the reason why we would rather be delusional. It feels good to think you're an awesome baseball player and it doesn't feel good to realize that you suck, and I think that the problem in life is we would rather feel good than actually be good. But here's the thing A lot of people underestimate it's a protection mechanism against failure. If Kev says no, no, no, no, I'm not a good soccer player, I'm not Then you might never even step on the field and that stops you from living, because being on the field is where life is, and so all of us are either overestimating our own capabilities and we're gonna meet that truth at some point, whether we like it or not and other people are really underestimating their capabilities.

Speaker 2

And the people that are underestimating maybe you would be better than you think, but maybe you don't try because you think you suck worse than you really do and the people who are overestimating maybe you're delusional and think you're an awesome baseball player without having to put in the work. They're both protection mechanisms. They're both the ego getting the best of you. It's your mind getting the best of you.

Speaker 1

It's hard, though, because if you undershoot, you may never realize that you're undershooting.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

You may never realize.

Speaker 2

And if you over over overshoot, you might think you're too good for some circus game.

Speaker 1

So you fortunately had an opportunity to find out that you were delusional. Wouldn't that be better just to think you're above it and just never? Do it, it would you think you're below it and never do it.

Speaker 2

No, both had to choose both.

Speaker 1

Of had to choose, gotta choose one no, uh, my brain, my brain. You do have to. It's the rules of the game. You gotta choose one whose game is.

Speaker 2

This is my game.

Speaker 1

Sorry, they're both delusional.

Speaker 2

If I had to choose, I guess I'd choose over, because at least your identity is more positive. But I think right, I think it's very detrimental I would agree both are very detrimental. They're equally detrimental, in my opinion, because they both stop you from taking action, and they both stop you from taking action and they both stop you from building either self-confidence or humility, and neither one is fulfilling. I mean, dude, it's fulfilling to live in the truth and I just want to Not always.

Speaker 2

It's fulfilling long term. Yeah, in the beginning it's awful. Yeah, not always in the beginning.

Speaker 1

Also, I'm not crying. If you see me on youtube, I'm not crying. I've just been laughing with alan for the last like 30 minutes, so there's just tears streaming out of my tear ducts, so I'm gonna read this real quick, if that's cool I don't have much of a choice okay, here we go.

Speaker 2

Who you really are. This is about truth ready. This last layer of the ego represents who you really are, and this is the metaphorical mountain that gets higher as you climb it. Truth be told, we never fully see ourselves accurately, and even if we did, it's only for a short time as we grow and evolve. That's the infinite challenge we all face. The moment we actually get all three circles to be the same, we courageously embark on our own next adventure, which causes even more growth and reassessment. And the three circles I'm referring to is the outer layer, is who you want others to believe you are, which is posting on social media. The middle circle is who you want to believe you are, which is self-delusion, like Kevin with thinking he's awesome at baseball. And then who you really are is who he realized he was after. So who he wanted Taryn to believe he was was a rockstar baseball player. I'm going to win you a teddy babe. Who he wanted to believe he was was a rockstar baseball player.

Speaker 1

Who he really is is a washed out 35 year old at a circus, thinking he's the man, all right.

Who you really are?

Speaker 2

So next paragraph, I realized I wasn't where I thought I was after that timed mile. Which level set my expectations? This fueled my fire and got me working harder. Several weeks later, I ended up running a 5k and the opposite happened Instead of being wildly disappointed, I was pleasantly surprised with my performance. And that's the pendulum we all have to deal with. So I thought I'd run a six minute mile. I ended up running a seven, 10 and eating all the humble pie. Then I realized, wow, I kind of suck at running. And then I did a 5k, thinking I was going to suck and I was like, oh, seven and a half average, that's not that bad, nice. So it's a pendulum.

Speaker 2

We usually we underestimate our capabilities. Then after we win, we overestimate our capabilities and it swings back and forth. Last part Our brains are hypothesis-generating machines. Before taking action, inevitably we either overestimate our capabilities or underestimate them. Then we're met with the reality that reveals how far off we were, also known as percent error, which then forces us to re-evaluate our perception. Then we often end up over-swinging in the opposite direction next time around. This process repeats itself over and over, but hopefully, as we mature. We should get better and better at each of these iterations. In other words, hopefully next time you're at a circus you can at least predict a little more accurately what your real capabilities are and therefore you can set an optimal goal based on where you're currently at now, not where you were at 17.

Speaker 1

Taron and I went to Dave and Buster's for one of our anniversaries, because that was our first date ever and they have a. It's similar and I was smoking the pins this time Nice, so it was the circus.

Speaker 2

So it was the circus Nice.

Speaker 1

Blame the circus, blame the circus. This is the ultimate thing. This is my ultimate goal in this episode. If somebody could have got me when I was 25 to say Kev, I know, I know that you know deep down that a lot of the stuff that you're doing is terrible for you. But you know, the terribleness is not going to happen for years and years and years and years and it might never happen. If I could get that version of Kev to know that, so much would have changed.

Speaker 2

Okay, can you go and give some examples of that, because you're talking about not reading books, not taking hard feedback, not having a coach, not having Just being, yeah, watching porn every night, taking the easy road. The easy road, if you take it for too long, ends up the hardest road, the normal road, because that's always the justification.

Kevin's journey to living more truthfully and its challenges

Speaker 1

It's like well, everybody does it. I mean, everybody drinks, everybody watches porn, everybody has vices, everybody blah, blah, whatever, whatever it is, everybody stays up too late. Since I started going to bed at a reasonable time, my life has gotten drastically better. Since I've like prioritized sleep for the last however many months and I track my sleep score, it's like my life has gotten drastically better. Something so boring and unsexy. It's just get eight hours of sleep, it's just yeah, just that type of stuff. What else?

Speaker 2

Can I ask you something? Yeah, of course, let's say I and I did meet the kevin back then, so I guess I kind of did this in real time. But would this land and and obviously be honest, uh, don't try to make me feel better about this would it land if I said you said well, everybody drinks, everybody stays up late, everybody watches, blah, blah, blah, it's normal. If I asked you, do you want normal, like, do you want a normal life? Because normal to me, statistically is is average and average to me is mediocre and mediocre to me, statistically, is average and average to me is mediocre and mediocre to me is not what I want.

Speaker 2

I want an extraordinary life, I don't want an ordinary life, and so maybe that's a weird me thing, and maybe some people out there don't believe they can have an extraordinary life. Maybe they don't believe they can be extraordinary. I think that a lot more people can be extraordinary than they realize over the long term. Now you have to pay the price. You have to read the books, you have to do the work, you have to listen to the podcasts, you have to choose. I took a training earlier today rather than listening to music. Those little choices add up.

Speaker 1

For sure.

Speaker 2

But if I had asked Kev back then, yeah, that stuff's normal. You're right, that is normal. Most guys do watch porn. But do you want to be?

Speaker 1

most guys. I don't know if I felt like I could have been more than most guys. I don't know if I really had that belief.

Speaker 2

What if I said you can be if XYZ? I don't know if I would have believed it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I don't know if I said you can be if XYZ. I don't know if I would have believed it. Yeah, I don't know if I would have believed it, it's just it's hard to.

Speaker 2

How did you believe it? Because you did. That's kind of what I tried to tell you back then.

Speaker 1

Yeah, but I don't, I don't know. I just kept showing up, it didn't happen all at once. This took no, I just kept showing up, it didn't happen all at once. I mean, it took time and pain. It took time and it took pain and it took time. When the pain of the lies you have been telling yourself are greater than the truth you're ready to receive, I think you'll give yourself the truth.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 1

And I just got to the place over and over where I was like oh, you know what? I can't have sex with my partner because I've been watching so much porn. I probably should stop watching porn, oh interesting. But it took that level of pain and then it became an awareness.

Speaker 2

This is why we don't believe in avoiding pain. Well, because it's created so much Pain is After my car accident at 26,. That was what it was. It was more painful to live in regret of the truth than it was to change, and that's why facing mortality can be so transformational, because essentially, you have nothing to lose now. You almost just died so I realized if that was the end, like it was for my dad, then I would be so that would be so devastating. I didn't do. I was playing not to lose. I feel like that's most people. Most people are playing not to lose. If you're playing not to lose friends, you're not going to be, as you're not gonna be as extraordinary as someone who says I might lose some friends and I'm gonna go this way anyway. Or, like kev, if you're playing not to look bad, you're gonna do so much less living. For sure, if you were playing not to take l's dude, you would not have done a third or probably a half of, if not 90% of what we've done.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

If you do 1,750 episodes, you're going to look bad a lot more than if you do no episodes, and I think that's a good metaphor.

Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy:

Speaker 1

It is. I think that the perspective, now more than ever, is when you try to avoid pain, it just multiplies it for later. Again. I know we've been talking a ton about fitness because we're both deep into fitness right now and I'm very much in bodybuilding. I'm watching bodybuilding every night before bed. I'm back in bodybuilding it's weird. I'm watching shows. It's weird, and I'm I'm back in bodybuilding. It's weird. I'm watching like shows. It's weird. And I'm training like a bodybuilder. It's awesome.

Speaker 1

What sucks worse? Exercising now, whatever that means to you, or not being able to walk up the stairs when you're 70? What sucks worse, you choose. For me, I don't want to. I've seen enough people. My grandmother, mima, can't walk up the stairs Because she has emphysema, because she was smoking when she was young. She didn't know. Back then they weren't exactly forthcoming with the negative side effects of cigarettes. Back in, whatever, whatever 30s, 40s, no, 40s, 50s, maybe.

What sucks worse?

Speaker 1

What would you rather? Would you rather, would you rather hide something forever, or would you rather come out with the truth and say, look, this is something I'm going through and I'm dealing with and I need help getting through it? Because I think, when you look at it that way, go through the Rolodex and look back at all the patterns. How many of the pains not you, alan, but the collective us how many of the pains that you have pushed away and said I'll deal with later have come back and really bit you in the ass? Because I've had many, many, many, many of those. You know, parks and Recreation is not only the best show on television but it's the best self-improvement that you can possibly get.

Speaker 1

Obviously there's a character, ron Swanson, who is a haggard, stubborn man. I actually got the kind of whiskey that Ron Swanson drinks, called Lagavulin. I can't drink it to save my life. It is horrible, terrible, the worst. It's too hard for me. It tastes like smoke, can't do it. I'm not ready for that.

Speaker 1

But there was an episode somewhere where leslie, who is the main character, has a boyfriend and she knows she has to break up with him because they work together and you're not allowed to work together. And he goes on to tell a story about how he lost one of his toes, I think, and he something happened to his toe and it got infected and he knew it was bad, but he kept putting it off and putting it off and avoiding the truth and avoiding the truth and avoiding the truth. And I think eventually he, when he went to the doctor, they said if you just came in when this happened, you'd still have your toe. I kind of think of it from that perspective. That's a great example. If you, it's some parks and rec, I'm telling you right now I know I joke about it Some of the best life lessons ever from Parks and Rec, I'm telling you, show changed my life. Wasted a lot of time too, but it changed my life as well.

Speaker 2

You've heard me say this a lot recently. I think a lot of the reasons we don't succeed and or aren't fulfilled come down to just pure neglect. I was neglecting a lot of things before my car accident. I wasn't exercising, I was drinking too much and too often I wasn't doing therapy. I didn't have a coach. I did have mentors, lots of mentors, so there's a lot that I was doing right. I'm not denying that. I think for everyone out there watching or listening, kevin, and I'm not denying that I think For everyone out there watching or listening, kevin and I are not here To make you feel good about yourself. We're here to help you dial in the lock. Maybe you already have Six digits and you need the seventh one to unlock you.

Speaker 2

I had a lot going for me at 26. I didn't start from zero after the car accident. I had a great degree. I was very intelligent. I there was a lot going for me, but there was a lot of neglect too, and I neglected self-improvement. I was more professionally developed than I was personal development. I didn't have a therapist. That was part of the lock. Now I have a therapist. So that's dial in that. Okay, got that. Okay, there's a seven, there's an eight, there's a one, there's a two and then unlock a new level. This is next level university.

Speaker 2

We're not here to talk about what feels good, we're here to talk about a selling point you got there we're gonna here to talk about what is going to unlock your potential, what's going to help you be successful and fulfilled your unique potential, not mine, not yours and I realized that that it was. It was tough for kevin and I early on to realize that we're never going to be as successful as some of the podcasters that are focused on helping people feel good rather than get better. But we decided that that wasn't real for us. That wasn't.

Speaker 2

I had a podcaster earlier today. His name's RJ Parrish and he has a podcast called the Entrepreneurial Breakthrough Lounge, something like that. It was really good, it was an awesome show. And he said dude, I cannot believe how many episodes you guys have. And I said it's so funny. I appreciate that, I really do.

Neglect

Speaker 2

When you tell a non-podcaster that you have 1,750 or whatever, 70 something, how many episodes? 70, 73., 1,773. So when you say that to a non-podcaster, they go oh nice, that's great, that's awesome and it's funny because they just don't have context. And I get it. When you say it to a podcaster, they're like wait a minute, those cash was like wait a minute, those are like micro episodes. Those are three or four minutes each. I said the average is probably around 25 minutes.

Speaker 2

So he went back and he looked to see if he could find a miss. He went all the way back. He didn't go all the way because we're missing the first six episodes, for whatever reason. That was before I was even in the picture. But he said I couldn't find a miss. I needed to see if you guys missed a daily podcast. He couldn't believe it and he's. He asked me how, how did you do that? And he wasn't saying it from. I want to butter you up. It was a real question for his listeners of how is that even possible? And I said the shortest form of the answer is it was absolutely fucking brutal and that's not fun to hear. It's 8.05 pm. My Zen book that I'm recording on just shifted to nightlight. In the middle of this episode my screen just went almost dark, into nightlight mode.

Speaker 1

I don't even have that.

Speaker 2

And my voice sounds like crap. I worked a long day today. I mean I've been up since 8, 30 I've been, I haven't not worked yet today and it's 805, so that's 12 hours, and I've been on three podcasts. I've done a coaching session, we did a prep for a group coaching, we did group coaching, then we did an experience review after group coaching and now we're doing this. That's monday through saturday, six days a week, every week on the week, with a couple exceptions for travel and stuff. But when someone says I'm so impressed, I'm grateful, I appreciate it and we have an extraordinary life, but we don't do the ordinary. This is an extraordinary thing to do, but it's also extraordinarily difficult and I think anytime you want something extraordinary without extraordinarily difficult, I think you're messing up. I think it's just not real.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, I would agree with that. Somebody asked me that today and I said I don't know if I can give you a valuable answer, because the truth is it's not an option to miss, it's not, it doesn't matter, it's not an option. It's quite literally not an option to miss 's not even a thought how did we do that?

Speaker 2

because it's true, I don't know.

Speaker 1

It's not an option when you get to a certain amount, it's harder to stop than it is to keep going. It's like what, are you just going to stop at 1500? You know, I feel like we got there. No, if anything it's, I'm convinced when you get to a certain point, it's easier to just keep going than it is to stop. Agreed, like Forrest Gump, like I. Just what is it? I just kept running. Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 2

Well, I got this ball, I'm sure, when you get to a certain point, so I figured I'd just keep on running.

Speaker 1

I think it's that and I said here's the truth.

Hard truths for growth

Speaker 2

You know, I would be miserable People don't want to hear that, though I would be absolutely miserable. That's the thing. Well, I don't care. No, I know, and that's the truth. Same, that's the truth. They would say well, everyone makes mistakes, it's not a big deal. No, it's a big deal to me.

Speaker 1

I make a lot of mistakes. This isn't one of them. This ain't one of them. No, this is a priority, just like it's. Like, yeah, people make mistakes, like the person got behind the wheel drunk, like that's not a mistake I'm willing to make. I'm just not willing to make that mistake, it's a standard or whatever it is.

Speaker 2

It's a standard and it's a commitment and it's a bar that we're not willing to lower.

Speaker 1

That is the truth. And for the listeners, what is that bar for you? It's not this right. You're most likely not a podcaster who wants to. I don't want to say you're most likely not. Maybe you're not a podcaster who wants to do this full time and make a business and all that, whatever, Totally fine. I don't expect that If you are. Listen to Podcast Growth U, because I talk about podcasting every single week and that's the main focus over there. But what is the thing for you where you want to give yourself that level of truth, the level of truth of I would be so upset with myself if I missed an episode. I think I've had nightmares of missing episodes.

Speaker 2

I have too.

Speaker 1

I'm not kidding, I have too. Yeah, so that like it's, it's who we are. You have something like that too. It's just probably not the same thing where do you want to be extraordinary?

Speaker 2

where is that important to you? And then, where are you not willing to delude yourself into thinking I mean, at the end of the day, it comes down to taking responsibility that if we can do this and stick it out and keep this run rate, we will be more successful and more fulfilled than if we don't. And that's a commitment we made to ourselves and a commitment we made to each other, and no one's going to police that for us. The listeners would forgive us if we were to miss. They would forgive us.

Speaker 2

It has to be an internal standard, and so, at the end of the day, the point of this episode is to be an internal standard. And so, at the end of the day, the point of this episode is where are you wanting results in tandem with also allowing yourself to not face hard truths? Because on the other side of hard truths is transformation, and there's not a person on this planet who isn't neglecting some area, something. Maybe you're not opening your mail, maybe you're neglecting your exercising, maybe you're not sleeping. Well, kev's looking at his show in mail.

Speaker 1

There's your mail right there.

Internal standard

Speaker 2

Maybe you're neglecting that hard conversation with your wife or your husband. Maybe you're neglecting to I don't know go to the dentist. It can be anything. And here's the thing Podcasting just happens to be one of the areas that Kevin and I are not neglecting. Yeah, and there's been times in this journey over the last seven years where we've sat each other down and said dude, I think we're neglecting the show, we're prioritizing the business. Now we still show up on the mics, but it's not nearly as thorough or as proactive and intentional as we once were. And so it's highs, lows, ebbs and flows.

Speaker 2

And the next level unlock for everyone out there is the next level of truth that you're willing to face head on with courage, and I think it takes courage. It takes a lot of courage to face hard truths. It takes a lot of courage to say I need to quit drinking, and I know it. It takes a lot of courage to say I need to quit drinking, and I know it. It takes a lot of courage to say I kind of suck at X, y, z and I'm going to get better at it. It takes a lot of courage to say, wow, my self-worth is not as high as I might've thought, and here's the root cause of it, and honestly that's on me, because I've been letting this happen Take responsibility the best for what you say. Think, do, feel and believe, and you will be better off, even though it will suck a little more. That's the paradox of it.

Speaker 1

It is the paradox of it. If you want to go through the suck with other humans that are signing up to go through the suck, I can speak for Alan and I. We're going through the suck. We'll go through the suck. I can speak for Alan and I. We're going through the suck. We'll go through the suck with you. Make sure you are subscribed.

Speaker 1

Again to Alan's point some episodes I think you will leave feeling better about yourself. I do. I think some episodes you will. I think a lot of the episodes you won't. I think a lot of episodes will be a big mirror.

Speaker 1

But that's what we've learned about ourselves and other people and our research and experience is what helps the most. I don't want to blow smoke up your butt and tell you you're the best and if you just believe in yourself, you're going to accomplish all your wildest dreams. Because you're not. And if I do that, I'm doing you a disservice. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that guy. I do not want to be that guy. There's enough of those people out there already and that's not what we signed up to do. So if you're into that, if you're into real growth, real self-improvement, make sure you subscribe Because, again, just like Alan said, he took a training instead of listening to music today, next time you want to listen to Spotify doing something instead of the podcast, you'll get a gentle reminder and it'll you drop the new episode. Give it a listen. The title will maybe intrigue you and you'll say you know what? I'm gonna get a little bit better today instead. So make sure you're subscribed to whatever platform youtube, all that happy jazz.

Speaker 2

I think that learning hard realities and facing them courageously in the betterment of oneself and the world is awesome and I think you can get really quite addicted to it over time. And if you feel like you want more of this in your life, be careful, because the tortoise it's important the tortoise and the hare you can't take. You can't face every hard truth all at once. That's called trauma. But you can do one hard truth a day and subscribe and you certainly can come to book club or monthly meetups or even the journal that we have called the dreamliner. And you know there's a most important win, most important improvement in there every single day that you do so. Go to the website nextleveluniversecom. The link will be in the show notes. Everything's on there. We've got group coaching, we've got one-on-one coaching, we've got business coaching, we've got podcast coaching, we've got monthly meetups, book club all the stuff is on there. Check it out, peruse the website and let us know, and you can email us if you have any questions peruse it as always.

Speaker 1

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 keep facing hard truth.

Speaker 2

Next explanation

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host