#1776 - An Unfortunate Truth About Success…

Ever wondered why some people seem to get ahead while others struggle? In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan explain the crucial habit of tracking your progress and how it can make a big difference in reaching your goals. Whether it’s finances, fitness, or personal growth, knowing where you stand can be a game-changer. Together, they share practical tips and real-life examples that will inspire you to take charge of your journey to success. By keeping track of your progress, you can stay focused, gain clarity, and achieve your goals more effectively. Tune in to start seeing results in your own life!

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

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Show notes:
(1:53) Where does somebody start?
(3:46) Adopting restrictive habits
(5:55) Arrogance and humility in action
(8:17) Metric matters
(10:03) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/f1FWAQA
(10:52) Focus and simplify
(12:27)

🎙️ 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

Speaker 1 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. Today, for episode number 1,776, to continue the seemingly negative week which is not supposed to be or intentionally is negative an unfortunate truth about success Sounds pretty sad, sounds pretty negative. We're not going to go in that direction. Hopefully, hopefully it'll be a positive, uplifting, valuable episode.

Speaker 1 0:28

So one of my clients said to me the other day one of my podcasting clients over at Next Level Podcast Solutions. She said I'm having trouble doing solo episodes. I'm just with myself, I don't know what to talk about. I feel like I don't want to blabber for 20 minutes. It's weird. I said yeah, no, it is. It's definitely a little strange. For sure I understand. I said what if I come on kind of as like a special co-host and I just ask you questions and she's like you do that? And I said yeah, I do that for you, let's do it. I get interview skills, I get to be on the mic. I mean it's, it's in alignment, let me do it.

Speaker 1 1:00

And this person is in the financial industry, so this person knows a lot about finances. They help people with finances. So I went on and we had a conversation and one of the questions I asked was where does somebody start? If somebody feels like they're stuck in a hole and they want to make progress, where do they start? And she said it's always hard to answer this question because it starts with making a budget and tracking your finances. And I was like all right, cool, that's a really good point.

Where does somebody start?

Speaker 1 1:30

And then I asked like four questions after that and they all had the same answer Honestly, it doesn't really matter if you're not tracking, it doesn't really matter if you're not sticking to the budget, it doesn't really matter if you aren't aware of where the money, how much money is coming and how much money is coming out. And it got to the point where I was like so that's kind of like the main thing. All right, if somebody, if somebody only listens to the the too long didn't listen version, too long didn't listen, that's my thing. I'm gonna brand that. If the too long audio thing is happening, brother, don't you dare effing tell me that I think, hold on testing, testing, testing.

Speaker 1 2:08

To me it doesn't look like it. There's been a few times where it's been not great to me it looks normal, it looks 100 normal to me okay, it might be internet, uh, internet, involved on my end then, well, we're gonna run it, we're gonna run, run it, we're going to run through it and we're going to find out.

Speaker 2 2:26

You sound not great, but it might be internet.

Speaker 1 2:30

I think it's you Okay. Do you think Now you got me nerves?

Speaker 2 2:39

I don't think my internet is lagging.

Speaker 1 2:41

Let me check. Let me check my audio. Everything's normal here. Everything's normal me check my audio. Everything's normal here. Everything's normal in StreamYard. Everything's normal from what I can tell on the.

Speaker 2 2:51

I have all my bars internet-wise.

Speaker 1 2:56

Same here, same here. Yeah, I think we're good. Okay, either way, we're going to run it because it doesn't matter, do we want? To redo yeah, you remember where I was, uh, yeah talking about yeah, you got it.

Speaker 2 3:15

Yeah, yeah, production team, please cancel, uh, delete all of that crap so I was talking about okay, right, three, 3, 2, 1, go.

Adopting restrictive habits

Speaker 1 3:25

So essentially, we got to the point where the realization was, if you're not tracking, almost none of the advice you're getting otherwise is going to help. It doesn't. It doesn't matter the advice you're getting if you don't know where you're starting from, if you don't know how much money you have, it's really hard to save more money. If you don't know how much money you have, it's really hard to save more money. If you don't know how much money you're spending, it's really hard to spend less money. So Alan and I were talking about that today and we were talking about how the unfortunate thing is you're probably going to have to practice a level of restrictive behavior, in this case tracking habit, let's just say habit tracking to get ahead. And I know it can seem constricting, I know it can seem negative, I know it can seem a lot of ways, because I had all those feelings in the beginning. But that is the number one thing that has helped us over the last me seven years alan, nine or ten years is sitting down every day and saying, okay, let me track the things that I'm supposed to be doing today. I know, in the fairy tale land of you just wake up when you want and kind of just go through the day. Can you be successful that way? Yes, would you be more successful if you measured the things that you did and were more strategic? Yes, would you be as fulfilled? I don't know.

Speaker 1 4:46

I think that's kind of where the conversation can shift. I'm very fulfilled doing the things. I'm doing in the way that I'm doing them. Honestly, not right now. We're going through a season where I'm not super fulfilled. If I'm being honest, that's par for the course. I think alan knows that some somewhere inside of him he knows kevin's been struggling with fulfillment a little bit lately. Can you be successful without tracking? Yes, can you be as successful? I don't believe so. I I do not believe you're nearly as informed, and when you're not informed you can't be as intentional. It just who's gonna win? Let's say that we're doing a 10 pound in 10 week weight loss challenge, like we're doing. Are you going to go with a person who's eating intuitively or the person who's tracking every calorie? Are you, alan? Are you eating intuitively or are you tracking every calorie Intuitively? I'm tracking every calorie.

Arrogance and humility in action

Speaker 1 5:35

Yeah, you've got a better view, and I'm a little bit further along than Alan. That's all. And Alan's really good at tracking intuitively because he's been doing it for a decade, and I would be really good at tracking intuitively too, because I've been doing it for 15 years or however long it's been Longer than that 20 years but I want the results, so I'm going to measure everything that I do.

Speaker 2 5:55

So, just as an example, I'm going to call myself out on this. I actually think it's arrogant for me to not track I think so too yeah, yeah, but the when you were cfo of the company, I was big, a big deal yeah, yeah you were.

Speaker 2 6:12

you had many leather bound books. Kev was the cfo for several years and I realized in hindsight I think that was a little bit arrogant of me to think that I can be the CEO without being in the numbers every day. And I think it's a little arrogant of me to think I can lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks without tracking calories. Now, does that mean I can't do it and it's not possible? No, does it mean I'm making it harder than it needs to be, definitely. And it's not like I'm not tracking anything. I'm tracking my weight. It would be really arrogant to do it without tracking your weight. So I track my weight every day during the 10-pound, 10-week challenge. So I know that a lot of our listeners don't identify as arrogant and I've recently come to an understanding that if you have higher self-belief than you do humility, you actually are a little bit arrogant.

Speaker 1 7:04

We're gonna do an episode on that tomorrow. We're gonna do an episode on that, okay, so I'll I'll table that, but I'm calling myself out.

Speaker 2 7:10

One of my One of my strengths is self-belief. I'm very grateful for that. One of my weaknesses is arrogance, and I'm working on the humility piece. I think it shows humility. To track, I think tracking finances, tracking your revenue, tracking your calories, tracking your weight every day, tracking your habits I think it shows humility. I think it's called humility in action.

Metric matters

Speaker 2 7:40

I was on with two different clients today and I'm very grateful at this stage to get to a point where I actually have said this to new clients that have been on board. It is I don't want to coach you unless you're willing to track. There's two things that all my clients track. There's something called a MIM, a most important metric, and then there's an MIH, which a most important metric, and then there's an MIH, which is the most important habit. So I had two clients earlier today and I said what do you want to be the focal point for your life? I said true or false, correct me if I'm wrong. These are the three things you care most about and again, correct me if I'm wrong, because I've known this person for a long time. You want to be a great father, you want to be a great financial professional and you want to be a great husband, and other than those three things, there's really not much you care about at a level, at a really high level, and he said that's it.

Speaker 2 8:33

I said well then, here's what we got to do. We got to create train tracks. And I said this what does it mean to you to be a great husband? What does it mean to you to be a great father? What does it mean to you to be a great financial professional? We need to create metrics underneath these, and so, for anyone out there who's ever played any video games, there has to be metrics. I don't care if it's Mario Kart or if it's Call of Duty, or if it's Halo or if it's World of Warcraft. There's metrics that matter. I was on with someone who used to play World of Warcraft recently, earlier today, and I said okay, back when you were playing WoW World of Warcraft, what did you track? She said, well, it depends on the character I was playing. I was like okay, give me an example of a character. She said well, it depends on the character I was playing.

Speaker 1 9:22

I was like okay, give me an example of a character.

Speaker 2 9:23

She said there's a mage. I was like, okay, what did you track? When you were like, how did you know whether or not you were a successful mage? She said, oh, the mage needs to get as many kills as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. I said, okay. So if I was your coach in World of Warcraft, I would say, okay, we need to track whether or not you're improving or not in the amount of kills you can get in a certain amount of time. What you track dictates how you play the game and life is not a game, but the way you're playing life in this metaphor is based on what you're tracking.

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

Speaker 2 9:56

Fast forward in the conversation, I say we got to get you back on track. Your life became too complex. We got to get you back on track. Your life became too complex, we got to get you back on track. What are the three things you want to really focus on this year? I said correct me if I'm wrong same thing. You want to be an extraordinary mother. You want to be an extraordinary business owner this person runs her own business and you want to be an extraordinary future wife because she's in a new relationship. Future wife. That's it. Okay, if those are the main three things, let's stop going over here doing all this other stuff. Let's at least dial those three in.

Focus and simplify

Speaker 2 10:31

It sounds constricting, I know that. Well, I also want to be good at piano and guitar or whatever. I know it sounds constricting. You can still play guitar. You're just not going to design your life around guitar, Unless you're going to be a guitarist in Metallica. Don't design your whole life around the guitar. So, Kev, you want to be a great podcaster, you want to be a great husband and you want to be in great shape. Those are the three things that you've decided Now. It doesn't mean you can't ever do martial arts. It doesn't mean you can't ever do rapping, but you're not going to be a rapper and spend four hours a day rapping. That would be really not conducive to our business Challenge accepted.

Speaker 1 11:15

I can see what you're doing here and it's really motivating me, thank you. I will spend four hours tomorrow rapping.

Speaker 2 11:20

But so I think that's why it sounds so constricting because it makes it feel like you can't eat what you want. It makes it feel like you can't do what you want. You can still go to dinner with a friend, you just don't design your calendar around it, yeah, and, and you don't need to track numbers of dinners with friends, unless that's what you want to be is a great friend, and then that's what being a great friend means, is quality time, so designing. I'm an engineer, so I adore this I need a 60 second answer.

Speaker 1 11:48

I need a 60 second answer ready. What is the definition of an engineer? Because you led me into it, I've been waiting to ask that. What is the 60 second definition of an engineer? What does an engineer do? An?

Speaker 2 12:00

engineer designs a system for a specific purpose, toward a specific goal.

Engineer and reverse engineering goals

Speaker 1 12:16

Nice. So to design and create a system to create a specific goal? Ultimately, yes, and in order to Go ahead, An engineer that designs a car, the car.

Speaker 2 12:33

Buying a car for the sake of having a car is dumb. Why do people have a car? You have a car so that you can get places comfortably and safely. I don't like unsafe cars. I didn't like the Mazda. I'm glad we're getting rid of it. I don't like the Mazda. It's not as safe. The tesla we have the tesla we have is a tank. Well, look at, the mazda is a little plastic toy.

Speaker 1 12:54

I can't I bought the mazda for seven thousand dollars, I know. Okay, I hope the tesla is better it's way better.

Speaker 2 13:01

the but the point is, is that it's engineered better, right, and the engineering is it's designed for safety? The mazda is not engineering is it's designed for safety? The Mazda's not designed for safety. It's designed for cost-effectiveness.

Speaker 1 13:15

And so that's an engineer.

Speaker 2 13:16

That's what engineers do.

Speaker 1 13:17

Yeah, the reason I ask that is because you hear Alan and I say this often probably and I know what it means now, but I probably didn't always reverse engineer. Reverse engineer means I have a goal in mind and then I work backwards in order to determine the weekly, monthly, yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily goals, nice, and then it shows up in your calendar as okay. Today I have to send today, and every day for the rest of the week I have to send five messages a day to a potential prospect if I want to get to my million dollar revenue or whatever again in this example. But it's got to be measured, is that?

Speaker 2 13:57

very obvious now to you now it is yeah yeah, can we? Know we real quick sell it to kev sell it to old kev because old kev didn't want to have a track at all old kev.

Speaker 1 14:08

I could have sold it to him with fitness, kev, if you want to lose five pounds before this country concert, because you're going and you're single and you want to impress some beautiful women, you know exactly how to do it. But you're not going to do it unless you measure stuff. You just happen to know what to measure and you have a positive association with it because you can get the results you want. What if I told you that the rest of life was like that too? You want to make more money. Why aren't you tracking your money? Oh, because you're afraid to look at the number. I completely understand. Then there for sure. But what if I told you you might have been afraid to look at the scale in the beginning too, and then it became empowering and not disempowering. Nice, and then kev would have, he have, he'd been like dude, I'm in man, where do I sign Nice? You have a coach. You know a coach that could help you?

Speaker 2 14:53

That's not at all what I said?

Speaker 1 14:55

No, but again, I know what it is.

Speaker 2 14:58

I don't know how I got you to do it. I was really stuck between a rock and a hard place like I'm going to take that path. That seems like a way out.

A gentle reminder

Speaker 1 15:09

It seems like a way out, Just it's a. This is a gentle, just a gentle reminder or a gentle kick in the butt that what you're measuring is most likely what you're going to get results in and the stuff that you're avoiding measuring. You might get stuck and that might be where you get stuck. Now, again, I understand. When it comes to weight, there's there's stuff out there, right, right. If you have an aversion to the scale and there's there's some disorder stuff going on, that's a different conversation. So I'm not saying just to jump into it, but if there's a place in your life you're not doing it just because you're afraid or because it feels constricting it might be worth taking a look at. That's all I'll say. What is your quick 10 second?

Speaker 2 15:44

wrap up if anyone wants help. This is my favorite thing in the world.

Speaker 1 15:48

I adore. Thank you I love it.

Speaker 2 15:50

I mean, we can talk about. What are your priorities? What does it mean to be a great mother? Okay, let's break it down and create metrics and then stay on track. It's truly life-changing. It is. I've seen it transform so many people's lives.

Speaker 1 16:05

So Alan's email will be in the show notes. Reach out to Alan. You do literally a free 30 minute call where he will help you reverse engineer your goals. Tell him your goals, he will help you reverse engineer them and then he'll help you set up your peak performance tracker and all that stuff and you'll be off to the races. So his link will be in the show notes. If you have not subscribed yet, please make sure you are subscribed so you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level. An episode in your pocket every single day, from anywhere on the planet, completely free. That is us, but I don't want you to miss an episode and miss an opportunity for growth. 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'll talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2 16:42

Keep tracking those metrics. Next level nation.