#1788 - The Simplest Self-Improvement Advice Ever

Feeling stuck? In this episode, Kevin and Alan show how facing the things you usually avoid can lead to significant improvements. They offer easy-to-follow tips for business owners and anyone interested in personal growth, helping you tackle your biggest obstacles and build on your strengths. Join us for an engaging talk that will inspire you to view self-improvement differently and give you practical advice for reaching your next level of success.

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Show notes:
(1:58) Flip the script
(4:33) Book recommendations, coaching, and their impact
(8:49) Tailored advice
(12:25) Accurate value Vs. Feel-good content
(17:04) The barrier to entry is so low...
(18:57) 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/group-coaching/
(20:44) Certainty and accuracy
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🎙️ 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 1,788, the simplest self-improvement advice ever. Hopefully, hopefully, it will be the simplest self-improvement advice ever. I was on a podcast the other day and the host said Kev, if somebody was struggling in this case it was an early entrepreneur if this person was struggling, what advice would you give them? And I said you're kind of setting me up.

Speaker 1 0:34

This is a tough question to answer because it really depends on where the person is. It depends. It depends on a lot of things. It depends on a lot of circumstances. It depends on mindset, it depends on strengths. It depends on a lot of things. It depends on a lot of circumstances. It depends on mindset, it depends on strengths, it depends on weaknesses. I said but if I was to blanket statement a piece of advice that hopefully could be valuable to anybody, it would be do the opposite of the thing that you want to do, because that probably is where most of your growth is going to come from.

Flip the script

Speaker 1 1:02

If you feel like you are very, very good at achieving external circumstances sorry, external results you working on the internal side of things and fulfillment, and figuring out how your past has affected you and figuring out where your ego comes from and what's your trauma response and all of that. That's probably a very valuable use of your time. If you're really good at achieving external results, you don't necessarily have to put as much effort into that right now. If you're stuck, that's probably not why you're stuck On the other end. If you're somebody who has 10 out of 10, can you really 9 out of 10 self-awareness? And you understand your past and you know how the way you were raised affected you and you have so much understanding of that, but you don't feel like you're organized. You don't feel like consistency and discipline is a strength for you. You struggle with asking for help. That's probably where the work for you is.

Speaker 1 2:00

So the advice is very, very dependent, but this is my ultimate goal. So the advice is very, very dependent, but this is my ultimate goal. If you're really good at one thing, how much are you practicing the opposite side of the coin? Because that most likely is where most of your growth is. If you take nothing else from me, at least in this episode, that's an important lesson. I was really good at a lot of things in the beginning, just not a lot of the things that I wanted to do. In the beginning. I was consistent and I was relatively disciplined. I didn't really need as much help on discipline and consistency as much as I did strategy and organization. But I also didn't want to work on strategy and organization because I wanted to go with a path of least resistance, and the path of least resistance is usually a thing that you're already good at, so that is my take for this episode.

Speaker 2 2:58

Yeah, that was really good. The path of least resistance is usually the thing you're already good at Fair. So, for everyone out there, self-assess it throughout this episode, where, if what you wanted was what you needed, you'd already have it, I've been saying that quote a lot. A lot of what you need in order to get to the next level is something you probably don't want. I have certain clients that come to me and they say, well, I don't really want more structure, but those are the people who need structure the most. And then I have people who already are super disciplined and super structured who want more structure.

Speaker 1 3:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2 3:40

And that's not actually what they need. The way this episode came up is I was talking to Kev about how I'm very grateful People reach out to me very, very often for book recommendations, which is cool. It's really, really cool. You're the book guy, I am the book guy. That's awesome. I never expected that, but I realized when I was talking to Kev about this behind the scenes yesterday.

Book recommendations, coaching, and their impact

Speaker 2 4:05

I very rarely recommend the same book. I have like a handful that I'll recommend, but I never recommend the exact same book to each person, and most of my clients 26 people I have most of them reading a specific book. If you're a client, you're listening and I don't have you reading a specific book or I've never recommended a book, please let me know, because usually there's a book that, in tandem with the coaching, can be super supplemental and helpful. It's kind of like in fitness if you take a supplement like you do protein, it's not going to do the work for you, but it's going to help you stay on track. And so I had a client. So we have two people that are married in group coaching and one of them is my one-on-one client while he's doing group coaching and the book that I recommended to. Each of them is very, very different. And so my one-on-one client, he asked what's a good book for me right now? And I actually recommended a book called Relentless. It's by Tim Grover. I don't recommend that book to certain people, and the reason why is it's not going to resonate. And I said now, keep in mind, when I recommended the book, it came with a disclaimer. I said I'm recommending this book, but I need you to know that I don't necessarily think Tim Grover is not toxic. I think he's on the very far end of what a lot of people would refer to as toxic masculine and I also think there's a lot of merit to what he's saying.

Speaker 2 5:36

The book is basically talking about how it doesn't really matter what you want. It doesn't really matter if it feels good. It doesn't really matter if you want to do it or not. If you want the result, you have to do the thing. It's a very, very, very, very, very, very hardcore book for very, very, very, very, very hardcore people. And he was the personal trainer of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, so obviously he talks about in the book how how do you take the people that are already the best in the world at what they do and then make them even better. He said that's my job, and so it's a very hardcore book.

Speaker 2 6:13

My point, though, is I recommended this to him because he's in a position where he needs a kick in the ass. He is already amazing. He's brilliant. He's winning, winning, winning, winning, winning. That's great. We need you to up the ante.

Speaker 2 6:29

Like I'm not impressed, and I said that to him, and he he talked to his wife. He's like no one's ever talked to me like that. I don't understand. I said, brother, it's my job to ignite you. I know it's going to ignite you. It's not going to shut you down. I don't say that to other other clients.

Speaker 2 6:43

The point is is that you have to understand who a person is in order to coach them effectively, and where it gets really challenging and this is something I've definitely been challenged with in the past is someone who pretends to be a certain way around you, and then you coach them at that, thinking that that's who they are, and then, deep down, they're actually very hurting, like if someone, if a client, shows up and they're in tears, the last thing you do is hammer on them and say, hey, you really need to get it together.

Speaker 2 7:08

Like I'm not. But if someone's chilling and winning and totally arrogant about it and I'm not saying that client's arrogant because he's not, but like totally just in their comfort zone some people's comfort zone is multi-millionaire. I think that's hard for a lot of people to fathom. But seriously, some people I mean right now you're in shape, kev, but that's your comfort zone. I mean you're a little outside your comfort zone now, but back when I said you were not the fitness guy anymore, you were still in better shape than 99% of people. It doesn't matter because maybe 90%.

Speaker 1 7:43

I was going to say that might be a stretch.

Speaker 2 7:48

But that kick in the butt in that arena. But if I had done that with some other area or some other person, that wouldn't work. And so the advice that you give to one person is actually detrimental to someone else. That's why podcasting is so damn difficult. I find podcasting way harder than coaching, and the reason why is because that's why Kevin and I are always talking in dualities. That's why we're always saying there's a full spectrum. That's why we're saying well, there's toxic negativity, but there's also toxic positivity.

Speaker 2 8:15

Toxic negativity is you suck, get better every day. You're the worst. If you don't grind your face off. You're not worthy of anything unless you earn it every second of every day. And yeah, there's some of that. That's true. Let's be real, some of that is effing, true, but that's destructive for someone who's already down.

Tailored advice

Speaker 2 8:35

You just lost a loved one and you have someone yelling at you in a microphone and then you've got the other side of that, which it's all going to work out. Don't worry, go with the flow. Everything you do is right. If it's not right for you, it won't work out. If it's not aligned, it's not aligned. That just wasn't in the cards. Right now, that stuff is basically well, just throw your hands up and go with the tide and what happens will happen.

Speaker 2 8:58

And that's toxic positivity. It's overly affirming. And so, to bring this full circle, the medicine that cures one patient will actually kill another. And that's been the most humbling experience ever over the last seven years, and that's actually why I often talk about how I coach so many people, because I want people to understand that I have quite a sample set and quite a spectrum. You can't do research with three people. I have quite a sample set and quite a spectrum. You can't do research with three people. If you're going to be a researcher and you're going to study something, I can't just study Kev. I found out that human beings really like pizza.

Speaker 1 9:38

That is fair.

Speaker 2 9:42

Yeah, that's fair, but only from studying Kev. And they also love the movie Titanic, but somehow hate Avatar, even though it's the same director. You know people just don't. No, I'm just talking about Kev, specifically Kev, and so all of us are unique, but we all have certain principles, and so, at the end of the day, the books that I recommend are always based on where the person is, what their goals are, the emotional state they're in the chapter of their life that they're in right now, and then what specific subject is going to keep them focused.

Speaker 2 10:11

So I have another client, the wife. In this relationship, I recommended Atomic Habits and I wouldn't recommend Relentless. The reason why is because her goals do not require Relentless. You don't need to read Rel, read relentless, nor should you. By the way, if you did, you probably hate the book. You want to know why? Because relentless is a book about how to become the best in the world at something, and that's not your goal, whereas atomic habits is about how to start small and build so that you can feel better about yourself and stay more consistent. That is relevant, and so all these books are not relevant to all of us, and while there's something to learn in every book, even if it's what not to do. I do think that there are certain books that need to be recommended, and I think that is a testament to the fact that all advice has to be custom.

Speaker 1 11:00

I was thinking when you were saying this or saying that I was thinking that you and I have a very we feel a very heavy sense of responsibility to make sure that we're adding actual value. Yeah, because I remember in the past years and years five years ago at least I wanted to do more motivational stuff and I wanted to have a more motivational Instagram page, and then we got to the point where I think we realized that really wasn't going to. Would it be better for growth? Probably, in terms of metric growth, vanity stack growth, maybe we would. Everything would be bigger, I don't know. And then it got to the point where cause, this is very weird again, not, this isn't, this isn't me pumping our tires or or giving us kisses on the, on the butt, but we had a potential guest on. Yeah, I don't know whatever, let me kiss my own butt you can kiss yours.

Speaker 2 11:55

Yeah, yeah, ass kissing you know I just don't know if anybody's ever put it that way yeah, yeah, I'm not.

Accurate value Vs. Feel-good content

Speaker 1 12:00

I'm not kissing our own ass, that's what I'm trying to say. We had a really big interview scheduled for I don't know three years ago, four years ago, and this person has I think they have like almost two million followers on Instagram. This is like a get. If you can get this person, it's good. It's very, very good. And part of this was on me for sure, because I didn't do a ton of research until the day of, because things were busier and it just wasn't. It just things had changed. I didn't have three hours like I used to do an interview, to do research before an interview.

Speaker 2 12:32

You remember those days, man. You used to have an interview and that was the whole day.

Speaker 1 12:37

I miss those days, I know sometimes the nostalgia of that one episode, and that was your day.

Speaker 2 12:43

That was my that was like the big, the big thing for the. I told.

Speaker 1 12:46

Someone that on a podcast recently they said what was the? What did you need to know in the beginning that you didn't? I said I was naive, I thought this was going to be easy, we would just do an episode and that was it. So even in the beginning I wasn't a real entrepreneur, I was just. I was a podcaster.

Speaker 2 13:00

I wasn't an entrepreneur. You and I talked earlier. I have 11, today he has seven and you said verbatim seven Nah, pretty light day, pretty light day.

Speaker 1 13:09

Yeah, it's not a bad day. I have a couple hour blocks Today's going to be fine.

Speaker 2 13:15

This is nothing.

Speaker 1 13:16

First call at 9 and then the last call ends at 6.30. It's like that's not that bad All things considered, but that quite literally would have killed me six years ago. Yeah, exactly, we had this opportunity to interview this person and I was doing research an hour or two or in the morning before we were going to interview them and I remember messaging Alan and I said we can't do this, we can't do this interview, we can't, we gotta can it? Because so much of the content that I saw it just was like feel good, if it's meant to be, it'll be. And again, is there a place for that? Maybe, maybe. I think there's a smaller place for it than people want to believe the best way I can describe it is they're just wrong.

Speaker 1 14:00

They're inaccurate about what it actually takes I, I agree that shouldn't be a strategy. Can that be a supplement, like I think visualization and I think positive affirmation, and I think that stuff is really impactful. Yeah, of course, is that going to be the thing that gets you there? Can you tell? The story about the the cinnamon that I was going to tell that tomorrow. Okay, yeah, yeah, I have an idea for freestyle friday, so tomorrow's gonna be that is so.

Speaker 2 14:29

We're gonna talk about why we stopped having guests.

Speaker 1 14:31

We're're going to talk about that tomorrow. Okay, I'll lock it up, it's okay, I also didn't want to be the host that pushes back on a guest. I don't want this to be a gutsy moment where it's like is that really how you lost the weight, or did something else happen?

Speaker 2 14:48

I don't want to be that guy. I did not start this. Do you think it may or may not have been the fact that you stopped binge drinking?

Speaker 1 14:55

on the weekends. That definitely had something to do with it. That had something to do with it. But the ultimate thing is we take a very real and heavy responsibility to add value.

Speaker 2 15:08

Accurate value.

Speaker 1 15:09

Accurate value based on what we've experienced and what the humans that we've coached and how that's worked, and I just am starting to understand that I think people forget about what works.

Speaker 2 15:23

You want to know what the problem is too, brother. We used to say things that we now realize were inaccurate, for sure, yeah, we've said some dumb shit For sure.

Speaker 2 15:31

That's the problem with the way the world is now, and I don't want to go down this rabbit hole necessarily, but now that everyone the barrier to entry for being an entrepreneur or being a thought leader or being a mentor or being a guide in any industry, whether it's fitness or whatever, or health or wealth, the barrier to entry is so low, which is great because everyone has an opportunity to make it. Yeah, the problem is and you and I, when we started our podcast, we were what 29, 28, 27, 27, 27 we were less accurate than we are now. Is that fair About basically everything? 100% Okay, so we unintentionally quote, unquote, misguided people, but not any more than anyone else.

Speaker 1 16:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:20

I mean half the mentors that I had and coaches I now realize were inaccurate and didn't know they were inaccurate. I think one of the problems with this is I don't know if other people actually know how they got to where they are. This is the thing If you stumble upon success. Let's say, kev stumbles upon a great physique. He works out really hard, he doesn't really eat much, he loves to be lean.

Speaker 1 16:42

Well, we could even use my job as an example. My job, remember. I made six figures at 26 with no college degree. That was by accident. I did not strategize on how to do that I know.

Speaker 2 16:54

So you can't teach people how to do it if somebody asked me.

The barrier to entry is so low...

Speaker 1 16:58

If somebody asked me how did that happen, I tell them I got lucky. That's exactly what I say. Are you the only? One telling the truth about I don't think I'm me, I don't think I'm the only, not the only one, but are most people just like making up reasons why they got there and then telling them.

Speaker 2 17:12

I think that when you're being interviewed about something.

Speaker 1 17:20

You want to have the right answer yeah so and the problem is your answer, depending on who you are, is kind of taken as fact. I have said many times, a fair amount of times on podcasts. I don't know if I have a really good answer for that. I don't really know if I have a great answer for that question. I can tell you what's worked for me, but my circumstances are very unique. It's different. It's not the same. That's what this episode is in a nutshell. How do I get in shape? How I get in shape is going to be different than how you get in shape. Probably maybe the way I do it or how consistent I am, or the fact that I just starve myself for lack of better phrasing, isn't what you want to do. Maybe you want to take it slower and you want to do it differently and you want to do this exercise instead of weight training, whatever.

Speaker 2 18:13

But that that's why I'm so big on principles and frameworks, because sleep, hydration, nutrition, training, mobility supplementation and breath work are the seven that apply to everyone. It's not my opinion. I don't really do the opinion thing.

Speaker 1 18:28

Like. You'll know when.

Speaker 2 18:29

I do opinions when we talk about movies or it's like I think. But sleep, hydration, nutrition, hydration nutrition, training, mobility, breath work and supplementation. That works for every human, I know. But the problem, the way you apply them, it changes.

Speaker 1 18:41

Yeah, that but it also. It doesn't. We did. We talked about this recently. This was a book by morgan housel. Same as ever. One of the quotes in there. It jumped off the page for me because it was like that is it that is.

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Speaker 1 18:53

I believe that is a universal truth. Many people are more interested in getting certainty than they are accuracy. Diet soda is not going to kill you. Diet soda is not going to kill you. There have been countless studies that prove that diet soda is not bad for you. Who thinks diet soda is going to kill you? Many people, many people do, and again, I'm not. If that's your prerogative and you don't want to drink diet soda, that no worries. Don't drink diet soda. But there are numerous studies based on humans that have been studied over time that prove that diet soda is not bad for you. If you drink 60 cans a day, it's not great for you, actually. No, no, that's not even. I don't even think that's. That's the the, what they came up with. If you drink 60 cans a day, you might be on the fringe of experiencing negative side effects, right, but? But it doesn't. But if you, if you drink 60 glasses of water a day, you're also gonna die.

Speaker 2 19:56

Yeah. So, kev, you and I don't want certainty more than accuracy. We want accuracy.

Speaker 1 20:02

I used to want certainty, I would say this podcast is focused on accuracy.

Speaker 2 20:05

I used to want certainty for sure.

Speaker 1 20:07

That's why I'm like harping on this, because I I've always focused on accuracy. That's you. You're weird, you're a weird person.

Speaker 2 20:15

You're a weird thing, can we? If you're inaccurate, you basically can't succeed. Can we go into that quickly? I know that's not the point of the episode.

Speaker 1 20:25

Well, it's the same. We did the episode recently where we talked about do you want to get better or feel better? It's the same thing. It's the same exact concept where if Does the GPS land?

Certainty and accuracy

Speaker 2 20:40

Because if the terrain, if you don't have accurate routes, you'll just drive off a cliff.

Speaker 1 20:46

I think it semi-lands. Okay, I think more an example of something where I, in the past, one of the Okay, this is very accurate. This is very timely and very close to my heart, because it's a thing that I thought of and went through recently One of the reasons I stopped smoking weed. Remember how I went through a phrase that was like I'm not going to smoke weed. I kind of want to smoke weed Because I looked up the research. I went through a phrase. It was like I'm not going to smoke weed. I kind of want to smoke weed because I I looked up the research after years of smoking weed and realized this is not, it's not not bad for you. Is it as bad as other things? I don't know, maybe or maybe not, but in the future, this most likely, this will not most likely, this will have not most likely this will have adverse health.

Speaker 2 21:41

You can't just smoke into your lungs regularly and not have it be negative.

Speaker 1 21:44

Because for the longest time I was more, I had the certainty of oh, there's a bunch of people that do it and nobody's ever died from it, quote unquote. So I'm not going to worry about it. Then I looked up the to worry about it. Then I looked up the I won't, I want to. I, I still want to. I still want to smoke weed. I do. But every time I do it, I just think to myself kevin's not, this is not good, this is bad. This is bad like. This is bad for your future.

Speaker 1 22:08

This is not good yeah that's the accuracy that I needed. I was chasing, I was with certainty, the certainty well, nobody else is tied from it, so it's not that big of a deal. Nothing ever happened. I was super healthy when I did it. I still had really good cardio.

Speaker 2 22:25

All of that. That's what we call rationalization. Those are the lies that we tell ourselves.

Speaker 1 22:32

I think that is. You did this to me earlier.

Speaker 2 22:35

We showed a picture of me on the beach in Newport On Sunday and I'm disappointed. We'll say but it's not terrible. But based on my standards and where we came from In terms of the fitness space, it's not what I want. And you said dude, here's the truth. It doesn't matter that you've exercised for two and a half years, you need to track your fucking macros. And Kev said I don't know why.

Speaker 2 23:01

I just started. So much. Right there Kev said verbatim. He said can you imagine if you track your macros every day for three years You'd be ripped, or whatever you said? That is true. And then I sat there and I went yep, that's the reason. That's the reason. It's not because it wasn't aligned and because I wasn't Dude. The reason I'm not in as better shape is because I didn't track macros. I've been intuitively eating for freaking years.

Speaker 1 23:34

Well, I think this is a really good example of it. This is what happens when you exercise every day but you don't do the most important, fundamental, exactly, and you said that to me too.

Speaker 2 23:42

You said you don't track finances, alan. What happens? You go broke. You don't track macros. What happens? You're not in good shape. That do you want certainty or do you want accuracy? That is a great question to ask yourself. Because certainty is yeah, I can run a six minute mile. Accuracy is you three laps in dying on the sideline? That is one of them. Is humble pie that helps you become a better person? I think I think humble pie helps you become a better person. I think I think humble pie helps you become a better person, but here.

Speaker 1 24:19

So this is where the layers come in. Okay, there are some people out there that have some sort of aversion, trauma, negative relationship with food, who aren't ready to track macros yet or they're not. They're not ready to weigh themselves every day yet, and I think that's the difference, is the motivational, inspirational stuff would just be, of course, you're not in shape, you haven't been tracking your macro and that's not what you're doing.

Speaker 1 24:47

I'm not saying that's what you're doing yeah yeah, yeah, but then there's a layer under that of well, for some people they have tried that and they've had really bad experiences, even if they did get the results, and now they have body dysmorphia potentially, and they're working through the internal stuff of the external behavior.

Speaker 2 25:05

So what you're saying is that that would be destructive, not constructive so what would be? The staircase. It could be, yeah what is the?

Speaker 1 25:14

what is the thing, what is the habit, what is the task, what is the behavior, what is the awareness? That would be a constructive step towards the goal you're trying to achieve.

Speaker 2 25:28

It most likely will be smaller, that's completely dependent on where the person is 100%, both not only emotionally, but also in their journey and based on their goal.

Speaker 1 25:39

Well, that's why I'm always trying to go under the thing, because I know there's a subset of humans that just won't resonate with that, just like there's a subset of humans who won't resonate with me getting up at 6 am every day, like you don't have to. You don't have to, you don't have to. I like it, I wouldn't do it, I would. Who am I kidding? I wouldn't talk about it as highly if I didn't actually like it. But you don't have to do that. Alan doesn't get up at 6 am. You don't have to do that to be successful.

Speaker 2 26:08

That's not a requirement. Yeah, but I also worked until 10.30.

Speaker 1 26:13

know, I know, but some people like working at night but there are certain requirements to be successful.

Inner drives behind outer actions

Speaker 2 26:17

That's the problem. What's the minimum? I know, okay, you can't wake up at 11 every day you can't work until midnight yeah, exactly, you can, and that's I think that's why our podcast is so different is that we really do care about each individual person's journey and we're trying to take a stance.

Speaker 1 26:38

That's the thing. It's like I don't. We've had conversations Sometimes we don't take stances, because we're just cowards. Most of the time, I think it's less than yeah, most of the time.

Speaker 2 26:46

I think it's because we're trying to. And the other piece of this, too, is we don't know as clearly who we're talking to, because we have a very large variety of people. Yeah, our audience is a lot of different walks of life now even my clients the youngest is 16, the oldest is 63 everywhere from brand new starting a youtube channel to I'm already a multi-millionaire.

Speaker 2 27:05

That's a big, wide audience. I can't give those two people the same advice. No, no. The 16 year old you're brand like you have time. The 63 year old I've told her, like, how long are you going to be working? She said another decade. Uh, another 12 years. I said, okay, let's reverse engineer from that. Where do you want to be in 12 years? It's a the whole, the way that you play the game changes based on the circumstance and, and I think all personal, all self-improvement advice needs to be catered.

Speaker 2 27:38

I have speeches that I cater and I curate and I put into different, I give to different clients. I purposely won't. I have one in particular that's about it's called Insane Productivity and it's an hour and a half speech and it's one that I think is world class, but if I give it to the wrong person, it's dangerous. I have a book, a. It's one that I think is world class, but if I give it to the wrong person, it's dangerous. I have a book, a specific book, and I'm going to just share this with everybody. It's called 10X is Easier Than 2X. I cannot recommend that book. I was on a walk with Emilia and I was reading 10X is Easier Than 2X and she said what do you think? I said it's a really good book, but it's dangerous for the wrong person. And she said something along the lines of do you think that I should recommend it to B? And I said no. I said it's a dangerous book for someone who's too early in the journey, and B is pretty far in the journey, all things considered. But the point is you have to be very careful with what advice you give to what person at what time.

Conscious filtering

Speaker 2 28:38

My mentors half the reasons why I don't talk to most of my mentors anymore is because their advice is detrimental to me. One of them is literally a multi, multi, multi-millionaire and he's gotten really soft, and that's okay for him. You have all the money you already won. You crushed it. Congratulations, you're good for the rest of your life. All you have, all the money you already won. You crushed it. Congratulations, you're good for the rest of your life. All you have to do is work smart. You don't have to work hard anymore. He literally said yeah, I don't really swim in water lower than 75 degrees anymore while he's in the bahamas playing golf. That's all fine for you. I can't do that. I'm 35, I have a family I have to build right. I have a family, I have pets and a future right. I have a family, I have pets and a future family. It's still a family.

Speaker 1 29:18

It's still a family. It's still a family, exactly.

Speaker 2 29:20

And we're going to build a family. You think that I can start hanging out now, and then Emilia's family too. They're very, very successful. What were you doing at 35? You were grinding at 35. I can't hang out on a Tuesday. What day is it right? And they have a good time and I have a blast with them. But listen, I need to not play like they play.

Speaker 2 29:45

We all have to be very careful about who we allow to guide us. We really do. If I could give my old self a piece of advice, it would be Alan, you got to be really careful who you allow to guide you. Kev told me to get my ass together and track my macros. That's useful for me. You know what's not useful. Someone's saying hey, alan, you're already in such good shape, don't beat yourself up. No, I'm not. I'm not based on what I want. I might be in great shape compared to what you want. That's not relevant to me, right? You know I'm disappointed. Of course I am, and that's okay. So everything needs to be filtered through your own consciousness and we all have to take personal responsibility for our own results and or lack thereof.

Speaker 1 30:28

And last thing, before we go, I always say this I say this on other podcasts, I probably don't say it on here enough Make sure you filter everything that we say through your own experiences too, because I'm always trying to do my best to say the thing and then say the thing under the thing and try to get to as deep as I can, but I don't know the full depth of everything. I am learning and evolving and I'm trying to learn more and evolve more, but there's a lot of stuff I don't know. I know less than I I don't know. I know less than I. I don't know more than I do know in this weird ass world, experience, existence, universe thing. So that's that all right.

Speaker 1 31:04

If you want to know more than you currently know and you want, you want to learn more with us, kind of through our experiences and conversations and examples and mistakes, successes, failures, quote, unquote. Make sure you're subscribed on whatever podcast platform you are listening to us on, and on YouTube as well, so you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level. Imagine if you listen to this podcast every day for the next five years. A lot can change, even if it's one awareness that creates the opportunity for growth and then another awareness. It becomes this beautiful domino effect. That is our goal with this podcast, so subscribe if you want to get to the next level.

Speaker 2 31:47

All of my guidance is completely custom and completely catered to you, your context, your goals and, like I said, the advice you give to one client is actually destructive. The advice you give to another is constructive. If you want someone who, if you've been listening to podcasts, you've been reading books, you've been doing the stuff and it doesn't seem to be working, you're not getting actual, tangible results in the real world, it's probably because you don't have a custom plan. I put everyone on a very, very, very, very, very, very, very customized plan to actually get to your goals. Your milestones, which are quarterly, lead to your annual goals, which are annual, lead to your decade dreams, and that's it. Everyone Kev, the NLU team, all my clients are all on the same similar system where you break down your dreams into annual goals, into milestones, into daily inch pebbles and metrics, and all of us are set up the train tracks, stay on the train tracks, improve the train tracks and it's it really, really, really works.

Speaker 2 32:47

I was on a call with a client yesterday who's been working with me for two years. His transformation photo is insane from when we first started and that's just fitness finance. He's crushing too. He makes a lot of money. So the transformation can happen. But here's the thing he's been working with me for two years. It's not going to happen in two weeks. So if anyone's interested, my link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1 33:12

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

Speaker 2 33:20

Focus on accuracy, not certainty. Next level nation.