#1784 - What Used To Be Cool Isn’t What’s Cool Now

Ever wonder why things you once thought were cool don’t affect you anymore? In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan share how their values and habits have changed. They discuss the importance of sleep, financial awareness, self-improvement, and living authentically. Discover how embracing these changes can help you lead a more fulfilling life.

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Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:01) Something has shifted
(4:22) Self-improvement over time
(6:38) Actively seeking knowledge
(8:39) Regrets about past drinking habits
(10:38) 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 5 PM. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
(12:10) Healthy brain, healthy life
(14:48) Lifelong learning
(16:16) Not like others
(19:20) The cool thing...
(21:00) 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

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 1784, what used to be cool isn't what's cool now. I'm not talking about music, I'm not talking about movies, I'm not talking about food necessarily. What I wanted to talk about was how a lot of the things that I thought were super cool in my mid-20s, early 20s, maybe even late 20s it's kind of the opposite now get up early. I think it's cool to go to bed early. That has completely changed for me. I used to love staying up late. I don't know. I don't like staying up late anymore. Something has shifted in me.

Speaker 1 0:58

So a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I was going to watch UFC, and UFC ends at like one o'clock in the morning, depending on where the fights are, and it was like 10 o'clock. And I remember I went I usually watch in the living room and I went to Tara and I said, hey, are you going to bed? And she's like no, I'm just kind of, I'm just kind of vegging out. And I said can I watch the fights in here with you? I'll watch them in bed and she's like, yeah, yeah, sure, and I watched like one fight.

Something has shifted

Speaker 1 1:23

It was probably like 10.30. And then I was like, honestly, I'm just going to go to bed and I'll just get up at 6 tomorrow and then I'll do my work and then I'll watch the fights later in the afternoon on Sunday. I don't like staying up late anymore. I used to think it was super cool. I also used to think it was super cool to not get eight hours of sleep, and that's like a whole other thing that's a huge focus right now is just try to get eight hours of sleep. If I can get eight hours of sleep, my day is just infinitely better. Yeah, it's not close, it's not close, but I used to think it was cool maybe it was ego or whatever to say like, yeah, I only got four hours of sleep last night.

Speaker 2 2:12

Now, when I say that, it's like kev, you are jeffing, yeah, jeffing so hard, and you can't sustain this life at all with four hours of sleep.

Speaker 1 2:16

No, no, another thing is I used to. I used to think it was cool to not know how much money I had or where it was coming from. This is probably like mid-20s. It was just kind of cool to say like, yeah, I don't even really worry about it that much. You know, I know it's there, I know it's. Alan just made a face at me, a very judgmental face. For those of you who are just listening, but I think that was true.

Speaker 1 2:42

It was about how much money you made, not how much money you had back back then, and I think that's just. That's just evolution. I think that's evolution. Last one that I would add you, alan, and I gave a speech to a school in wisconsin and it was three different age groups and I wanted to say this but I didn't want to sound like a dick To the were they juniors and seniors?

Speaker 2 3:09

The oldest group. Yeah, so we did seventh and eighth. No, we did eighth and ninth, and then tenth and no. No, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, we did seventh and eighth which was technically middle school, but in the high school. Then there was 9th and 10th, and then there was 11th and 12th, so juniors and seniors.

Self-improvement over time

Speaker 1 3:26

So I wanted to say to them I know that everything we say is going to sound super dumb and probably pie in the sky and it's not cool to get better. I think getting better is one of the coolest things in the world and I never, ever, ever did. I never thought self-improvement was cool ever. I thought it was weird, it didn't make any sense to me Until I started, obviously, and then we went all in on it, but that it used to be cool to say you didn't really care. It used to be cool to live from a place of more ego and less humility, vulnerability and construction of your life. And I think a lot of that has. Yeah, a lot of that has changed. I think we're starting to see because self-improvement there were a few pioneers of self-improvement before the internet was a thing, so it was different. It wasn't as widespread. Jim Rohn, jim Rohn, mr Jim Rohn, yeahohn, mr Jim Rohn.

Speaker 2 4:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:25

Brian Tracy was. Yeah, he's a.

Speaker 2 4:29

Zig Ziglar. Zig Ziglar, brian Tracy's an elderly Og Mandino An elderly fellow Napoleon Hill, napoleon Hill.

Speaker 1 4:36

Now there's a million people that are into self-improvement and it's all over the place. It's probably not all over the place as much as I think, because I'm in it. So my feed, my social media feed, as the algorithm of self-improvement food and cars and fighting essentially at this point, so that's kind of all I see, but yeah, I thought it'd be a cool episode. What do you think is cool today that you didn't think was cool back then?

Speaker 2 5:06

today that you didn't think was cool back then, or what did you think was cool back then that you don't think is cool today? Oh, such a hard conversation because so upset with myself for this. I didn't think reading was cool. I remember at one point I actually thought it was awesome that I could get straight a's all through high school and go to a really, really prestigious technical college and not have to read a lot. I remember I had I've said this before I had a back when Facebook was only college students. You needed to have a college email to get on Facebook and it used to just say Alan Lazarus is blank. That was a status update, alan Lazarus is. I read somewhere the day about the dangers of drinking, so I quit reading.

Speaker 1 6:00

I saw that recently and I thought did you?

Speaker 2 6:03

Yeah, and I would play basketball, I would lift weights, I would drink, I'd party. I would never read. What the hell was I thinking, man, I'm so mad at me who doesn't Think about how important it is to read books. It's so important. Imagine you never read a book.

Speaker 1 6:25

Yeah.

Actively seeking knowledge

Speaker 2 6:26

You would take away so much of your understanding. Remember Stretch? There's a book called Stretch. There's so many deeper understandings and concepts that come from reading great books. I mean it's just unbelievable. We've been doing book club for almost, I want to say, three years, or more than three years maybe, but we've read 17 books in book club. That's wild and they're really yeah, they're really good books. These are very cherry-picked, extraordinary books and I've talked every week for three years.

Speaker 2 6:55

so however many weeks, that is what 50 so one one 156 weeks, right, 52 times three, 156 weeks, so at least 156 weeks of book club where we talk with great people about great books. So that would be my biggest. I have two. I have several regrets, but I have two huge ones, huge ones. Number one what was the deal with all the alcohol, alan? You poisoned your brain, sir, not okay, holy crap.

Speaker 2 7:28

I had a lot of fun and, don't get me wrong, I mean, every now and then you got to run amok. When you're a kid, like I, knew some people that didn't party at all and I figured they would regret that eventually, and I honestly do think they will. But what the hell, man, you do not have to do that many shots. You could just get a buzz going. What are your thoughts on that? Right, you don't have to get hammered. So I regret drinking as much as I did and as often as I did. Definitely, that was cool and it was cool, quote, unquote and it's definitely not now I don't drink. I I haven't drank in. Last time I drank was back in 2019. Summer of 2019, I want to say. Remember, I was in Westerly Rhode Island, so anyways, that's one Biggest regret by far is the amount that I've drank alcohol Poisoning my brain.

Speaker 1 8:26

What do you think you did to your brain, like, how would you quantify it?

Regrets about past drinking habits

Speaker 2 8:33

So there's the things that I study the most, that I try to study the most are mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, neuroscience and psychology. I think that's the. If you understand all those, you really understand a lot. And then there's like other things, like economics also, but at the end of the day, the neuroscience shows that I just made my brain a lot worse, and that's the less technical way to explain it. But there's something called a myelin sheath.

Speaker 2 9:06

that I that myelin sheath, you remember? Yeah, so I just made less neural connections than I should have and I there's, there's a lot of. There's a ted talk called what I learned from 80 000 brain scans and essentially I remember I went into my chiropractic. Chiropractic wow, this must have been from all the drinking. I went into my chiropractor's office years ago I'm talking, I was in my early 20s probably and I saw a photo of all the different brains and it was brain scans of people that smoke, people that do cocaine, people that do meth, meth all the different and people who drink alcohol. And then it showed a healthy brain scan and the healthy brain scan was very clearly good shape. There's no holes, no, no craters that kind of thing, and and you can look a lot of this up anyone listening no craters that kind of thing, and you can look a lot of this up anyone listening.

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Speaker 2 10:06

But essentially there's nothing more important. Like people say well, think, you know, use your heart, not your mind, and all that stuff. It's like listen, all of it's in your brain. If you take someone's brain out, that's the end. Now you need a heart too, obviously, but the point is that all your emotions physical, mental, emotional, spiritual right. All of you is in your brain. Without a healthy brain, you can't have a healthy life. I don't care how good your body is, you need a great body and you need a great brain, need it. It's a necessity. Everything else is built on that.

Speaker 2 10:40

I mean I had my grandma. She was 94 years old. I remember we went to see her before she passed away and she thought I was my mom's husband. She said, wow, you got a good one. And it was like grandma oh, my goodness Right, I mean I do. I do look like my dad's, my birth father, so maybe that was what was happening. But she got alzheimer's. She never got good sleep, she never took care of her brain to the extent that she should have, in my opinion, and she started losing her mind. As painful as this is to talk about, she started losing her mind in her 80s and honestly, she was never that sharp before that and that's really hard for me to say on a public medium, but that's the facts. Everyone else sees people's bodies. I see their mind. You mentioned how sometimes.

Speaker 2 11:29

We went on a podcast recently where it was four of us and Kev said I could tell Alan was judging me. And when he says. Judging what he really means is. I'm a scientist who is, who is trying to understand where everyone's at. Intellectually, you've always been a physical specimen when it comes to like. What's your physique and like. If I were to get in a fight with you, would I be okay? And that tends to be your go-to. Mine is intellectual. I know if you're sharp or not. Like when I first met you, you were sharper than people think I accept that yeah, you were sharper than you thought.

Speaker 2 12:01

For sure you were. And again, maybe less than I thought. I'm kidding um, that's very possible, but but that's one thing that I will never not see.

Healthy brain, healthy life

Speaker 2 12:09

I can tell when someone is not all there, and that's unfortunate because the truth is, if you get good sleep and if you don't drink a ton and if you take care of your health and you take care of your brain, half the foods emily and I eat are for brain. Blueberries are really good for your brain. She set an alarm last night for 8.30 and it went off today and it almost woke her up and I said we got to switch that, like you need, if your body can sleep more, sleep more Because your memory improves. You guys can all look this up. So I'm not going to turn this into a sleep seminar, but at the end of the day I'm upset with myself for two reasons. Number one what in the hell with all the drinking? That is not cool. It's not as cool as I thought. And then, number two reading books is also going to develop your brain. Imagine everyone.

Speaker 2 13:03

Go back to when you were in high school. Think about when you were in high school. Think about how unintelligent you were. You didn't know how anything worked. You didn't know how human beings worked. You didn't know how the school system worked. You didn't know how the government worked. You didn't know how the globe worked. You didn't have a global perspective. You didn't know anything, so you can't succeed in the world, and so a lot of people.

Speaker 2 13:27

I'm being very intense right now, but at the end of the day, people come to me and they say well, why aren't people achieving their goals? Why don't I achieve my goals? Why am I unsuccessful? Why aren't I fulfilled? Because you don't know enough. You, you have to go learn how to be fulfilled. You have to go learn how to start a business. You have to. You can't just like set goals and then go to the beach. You have to. I mean, that's the truth too Seven years ago when I first met you. You have to. I mean, that's the truth too. Seven years ago, when I first met you, you just didn't know enough. Oh, I, that's fair. It really is that simple. You've told me that. You've told me that.

Speaker 1 14:00

Alright. You said I just don't think, I just don't. I said to Alan one time I said I don't think I'm smart enough, and he said what if you're not smart enough? Yet what if you're just not smart enough? And that was the truth. I didn't know anything. Not that I didn't know anything. This is a really good example. I knew a ton about fitness while I was in good shape, exactly Because I knew a ton about fitness. That's all, yeah, that's all I know. My Wi-Fi is juffing, so no worries on that. All right, we only have a couple minutes.

Lifelong learning

Speaker 1 14:34

This is another thing that really jumps off the page for me. I think it's cool to be what I would consider a positive outcast Versus just. I think for a lot of us, we're afraid to be outsiders, so what we do is we change ourselves and we mold ourselves and we fit ourselves into a box that other people are in, and then we're unfulfilled and we're unhappy and we regret it. I wish I just went more in the direction of trying to be a positive outcast, and I think I kind of did. I do think that's something that I didn't think was cool. Really. I actually did think it was cool, I think. I think now I understand it's more cool than I thought it was.

Speaker 1 15:12

And all I mean by that is I go to bed at 10 o'clock every night Friday night, saturday night if I'm not watching UFC. I love that. But I know a lot of people on Friday and Saturday want to get wild. I don't want to get wild. I want to go to bed so I can get up early. I love getting up early on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not telling you you need to do it, that's not what I'm saying. I love getting eight hours of sleep and then getting up, and for me it's 10 to 6. That's kind of the way it works for me.

Not like others

Speaker 1 15:42

I understand that's rare. I understand it's rare to go somewhere and not drink and say, no, I'm good. I understand it's rare to go out to eat with a bunch of people and get a salad or get something that fits your macros or whatever. I understand it's weird to go somewhere and say, hey, just so you know I can't stay late, I got somewhere to be after this. I think that's cool as shit. Now I really do, because the behavior, the mindset, starts. You start with a mindset and eventually you have the behavior. And when your behavior is different than everybody around you. Your results are eventually going to be different than everybody around you, but you're probably going to feel like an outcast. But what if the thing that you're aspiring to, the thing that's going to keep you company, is your progress, your awareness and, hopefully, the accomplishment of your goals? That's what I think is super, super, super cool. Now that I didn't All right, alright, last thought before we go what do you got?

Speaker 2 16:43

I do think that I all of us, when we're in high school or middle school or whatever I think that the goal is ultimately to fit in with the cool kids or whatever and I'm sure that everyone has some flavor of trying to fit in with the quote-unquote, popular kids or whatever. I would say that is the biggest mistake you can make. I, I, made that mistake too, and eventually I did become one of the popular kids quote-un or cool kids or whatever, particularly in college, and that was the most unfulfilled I've ever been. There was a time when there was someone in college who came to me and said you are the most popular person on this campus. You know everyone and I, I really would say I was on the very top of that list.

Speaker 2 17:31

Yes, would say I was on the very top of that list, yes, I knew everyone, but I lost myself. And so I would say the cool thing back then was being invited to every party, being a part of every club, knowing everybody, being there for everybody, having all the girls try to date you, all the guys try to be your friend, like it was a phase and it was awesome in some ways, but I would say the downsides are massive, and I think it was a mistake. I would rather be a high-value, virtuous man that carves his own unique path, and I do think that everyone falls for that to some extent. I think I just fell for it a lot more than I'm proud of.

Speaker 1 18:19

Next level nation. If you are focused on raising your awareness, make sure you are subscribed to the podcast so you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level, whatever that means for you. Everybody has a different level, Everybody has a different start, but progress is personal, but progress is progress. So make sure you're subscribed on whatever podcast platform you are listening to us on, or make sure you're subscribed on YouTube if you watch us in glorious high def 4K.

Speaker 2 18:42

I had someone reach out yesterday for coaching. This is awesome If you have ever considered getting a coach. This person said well, I don't have a business yet. I said just consider it a success coach until we do build a business, because she does intend on it. You're going to get accountability. You're going to get habit tracking. You're going to get metrics to stay on track. You're going to be more successful. I will help you become more successful, fulfilled to, in alignment, to consistent as well, but ultimately, my focus in coaching is to make you as successful as possible without going outside of alignment.

The cool thing...

Speaker 1 19:19

As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and at NLU we do not have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2 19:28

Talk to you soon.