Next Level University

#1823 - How To Stay Focused

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Ever feel like distractions are pulling you in every direction? In today’s world, staying focused is more challenging than ever. But what if you could cut through the noise and find the key to success? In this episode, Kevin and Alan share their insights on focus, offering simple yet powerful tips to help you avoid distractions, set clear goals, and level up in every area of life.

Link mentioned:
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Group 16 - The 1st call is on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 5 PM EST, and the group runs for 3 months. Discount Code for N.L. Group Coaching (30% off): NLULISTENER

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

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:15) Impact of technology on focus and distraction
(6:20) Harder to stay focused than ever before
(9:05) The fine line between productivity and mental well-being
(16:42) Practical ways to protect your focus
(20:23) 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.
(20:43) The connection between goals and focus
(29:13) Three quick tips to improve

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.

The Challenge of Staying Focused

Speaker 1

The reason people start is because they don't ever think it's going to be bad. Well, it's never going to catch up to me. If you have a goal of being healthy, you can't. Immediately. It becomes a non-option for you if you decide that that's not healthy.

Speaker 2

What you put your attention on controls what you say, think, do, feel and believe. What you say, think, do feel and believe determines where you invest your time, effort and money, into which person's places, things and ideas, and that's what dictates the quality of your life ultimately.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and.

Speaker 2

I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Speaker 1

At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Speaker 2

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.

Speaker 1

We bring you a new episode every single day, on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success.

Speaker 2

Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. Welcome to.

Speaker 1

Next Level University 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 1,823, how to Stay Focused. I was on a podcast the other day, alan and we were talking about I think we were talking about social media or something, and I was talking about how amazing we have a lot of really amazing technology. Technology is like this wild thing that speeds up so fast and the next thing you know, your phone looks at you and then it lets you into your phone based on the way your face looks. It's like how the hell did we get here? I remember when we didn't have cell phones, and now it recognizes my face. Interesting, a little strange, but with the opportunity that comes with technology. So doesn't the distraction of technology and good?

Speaker 2

I was at the lake this weekend with emilia's parents. We had a awesome time and we connected and the next day after we had dinner and spent a lot of quality time at their place at the lake beautiful place, I said to her mom we played a game called Roomie Cube. It's like gin rummy but board game style. Okay, anyways, interesting. I said isn't it interesting how you and Nate? I said isn't it interesting how you and Nate her dad's name is Nate are only 25 years older than me but yet it seems like we grew up in two different worlds, because those 25 years in technology years might as well be 350 years.

Speaker 1

Can you imagine getting on a plane and the person next to you is just ripping butts? Dude I, that wasn't that long ago.

Speaker 3

That wasn't that long ago.

Speaker 1

You just imagine that it's like hey, I'm your seatmate, Do you mind if I spark one up real quick?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I absolutely do.

Speaker 1

Because we're on a tube flying through the sky. The last thing I need is one of us to catch an extra spark here by accident. What are we doing? No, no, yeah. No that wasn't Smoking in restaurants. That was not that long ago.

Speaker 2

I know my mom and stepdad used to go to restaurants only the ones that had a smoking section. That's interesting, it's wild. And back then cigarettes were unbelievably common. More Wild, and back then cigarettes were unbelievably common. More percentage of the population smoked than didn't smoke. Really, Way back then?

Speaker 1

yeah For sure, oh yeah, way back then I noticed that in Europe a lot, I feel like we looked it up, it seemed like more people smoked cigarettes in Europe and I asked Taryn, I said, do you notice that? And she said yeah. And then we looked it up and it it didn't say it was any higher than the US. But maybe it was because I was outside.

Speaker 3

For the first time ever, I came out of the bottom, but anyway.

Speaker 2

So technology has exponentially improved and the internet started what 20,. It really started to get big when we were kids. Google's only 26 years old so did you hear me?

Speaker 1

no, no, I heard you, but I didn't 26 years, so that when I was nine years old, that's when google came up.

Speaker 2

Yeah, hold on. I remember googling on the little, remember the little macbooks, the little MacBooks, not MacBooks, they were called Macintosh computers back then yeah, I used to run Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail.

Speaker 1

And gerbils or hamsters or whatever it was Ready when was Google founded?

Speaker 2

Hold on 1998. 26 years, so Google's only 26. So Emilia's parents are around 25, 24, 26 years older than me, but those 26 years since google was founded, think about how much technology has changed in those years. It's insane. In technology years, you know how there's doggy years, and if tucker is seven, he's actually 49, which again is a little different because he's a chihuahua, and they last longer because they're smaller dogs, whatever.

Speaker 1

The point is they survive longer. They're like a battery they last longer.

Speaker 2

My phrasing is not optimal. We're actually trying to go for the record. He's a palm tree Pomeranian chihuahua, we looked it up. That's why we exercise so often. Exercise, diet, all this stuff doesn't matter, all right. So my point is, though, is that there's doggy years, so if you're seven in doggy years, you're actually 49. Well, there's technology years, so 26 years in technology exponential increase might as well be. I'm not joking. There's something called the law of accelerating returns that talks about technology, and it's one of the r&D people at Google that made this paper, and it might as well be 100 years. It might as well be 300 years, actually, probably even more. Anyways, the point of this episode about focus it's harder to focus now than ever before in human history, by a significant margin.

Speaker 2

We're watching Emilia and I. We're watching the director's cut of Napoleon, the film by Ridley scott. Interesting film, I don't know if I can say it's extraordinary. I I think the sets are amazing. I think the history is fascinating. I think the going back to what it was like back then is fascinating. It looks terrible to me, and napoleon's an interesting cat, psychologically. For sure. People say napoleon complex, so yeah, doesn't matter. The point, though, is they had, they wrote letters and then, yes, horses, dude, yeah, yeah, we text message. I texted kevin last night some stuff in the past. Really think about this.

Speaker 3

I would have to sit down in cursive by myself in a dark, candlelit room without electricity and write, dear kevin I was disappointed today in your inability to keep a positive attitude in the face of adversity and love always most likely, alan and then I would put my seal on it with wax.

Speaker 2

I would have to melt wax and then put my seal, and then you think it's my seal, even though you could easily copy that, probably. Well, I get it eventually. And then you'd get it in six to twelve weeks eventually, and then you'd think of a thoughtful answer and then write me back. Dear alan, kindly f off. And then you'd send it back. Dude, we've sped up the treadmill to such a drastic extent. You and I were playfully joking earlier about kev said this. He said, alan, it feels like I'm on a treadmill that I'm trying to fix, but I can't get off it. You ever wish you could just pause time. I said, dude, that's the superpower I want. If I could have one superpower, it's pause time and it does it. We've sped up the treadmill.

Speaker 1

It's very hard to stay focused let me throw something out there real quick Now again. This is why it's weird, because if you were just going to silo something, this is how you would do it in theory. If you wanted to be the most productive, focused version of yourself, you would lock yourself in a room that has nothing else in it. If you wanted to write, if you're a writer and you're thinking I just really wish I could write the book, you would lock yourself in a dark room with a pen and a piece of paper and whatever, maybe some food, but even that would be like the least amount you need. There would be no entertainment, there would be no music, there'd be nothing. It would just be darkness and silence and you'd probably get a boatload of stuff done.

Speaker 1

The problem is you would not enjoy your life at all and you wouldn't enjoy the process at all, and you wouldn't enjoy that at all and you wouldn't be fulfilled and it would probably be very bad for your mental health, honestly, to do something like that. But how do you find the right amount? How do you find it? Because it's so easy in the morning when I so I track our listens every day. I go on YouTube. Okay, how many views? Big?

Speaker 1

day yesterday, man, I, I, I don't even look at the numbers. Honestly, I just drag and drop and throw them in there and I'm very. I look at them every day. I'm very detached from the numbers at this point.

Speaker 2

It I look at them every day. I'm very detached from the numbers. At this point it's just like cool. I think it's 1,410, yesterday 1,400 is a big day.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I want more, of course, but even then it's like I don't know. It's weird. I used to I would literally not look at the number before I dragged and dropped it because I want it to be a surprise every day. And then now it's. I just cool Onto the next thing, onto the next thing, onto the next thing, but it's. You know how easy it is when you're on YouTube to see a video that peaks your interest at six, 15 in the morning and then end up watching that video. It'd be super easy, super easy.

Speaker 2

You know of video, it'd be super easy, super easy. You know, what really bothers me is youtube made it so you can't go to your playlists without reels popping up first, like if I open youtube on my phone.

Speaker 3

See, I don't, because I always do, because you know I do my morning mindset workout, yeah.

Speaker 2

So I have a specific video called ode to excellence that I listen to every morning, and in order to get to it, I have to open. There's four reels that pop up. I'm on youtube right now. You're one of them. If you're watching, yeah, if you're watching youtube, us on youtube. I'm on youtube, on youtube. So this is meta youtube. But, yeah, I'm one of them. But look at this leonardo cap dicaprio's phone addiction oh, interesting, okay, oh interesting, okay. Anatoly has two women in stitches. Okay, word Good for.

Speaker 2

Anatoly this advice changed my life by Jim Rohn.

Speaker 1

That one I might click on, that's positive.

Speaker 2

And then look, do you like me as a friend? It's me, it's an image of me, but it's so frustrating that I can't go to my playlist without seeing those.

Speaker 1

That's why they do it. Yeah, that's why they do it. Of course, that's why they do it. The hard thing is, attention is now the new currency, so if you have attention on something, that thing is growing. A lot of people have built their success on just getting the eyes, getting the attention, getting the focus, getting the energy of other people, and we always we've done meetups on this, and you probably. I don't know if we've ever done a productivity speech together, maybe, maybe not, I don't. I don't remember love that, but I always say that the stuff that makes the experience better is also the thing that can make you the least focused. It's. I love listening to music when I work, but you have to have the right playlist and you can't be changing the music every five minutes because you're going to lose focus.

Speaker 2

So I have a. I know this episode is about focus, one of my favorite things in the world, I think what, what has your attention, is influencing the future you build. So, kevin and I are in your ear or your eyes right now. In your eyes, we're in your ear for sure. What I am saying right now genuinely is pouring the mental ingredients to the future that you build. I work really, really, really diligently on protecting my mind from silly, mundane stuff. It doesn't mean every now and then I don't like. I watched a Joaquin Phoenix is an actor who lost 49 pounds for the Joker and I was fascinated by it. Like I'll, I'll fall down the rabbit hole every now and then, but it's very rare and I try really hard not to.

Speaker 2

Yeah but the playlist that I listen to when I work. There's two of them, they're both. You ever listen to Binaural Beats?

Speaker 1

I haven't in a long time because it made me very anxious. No, in the gym I used to listen to the Gamma the Gamma Binaural Beats, and it was just like too intense.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so we have study music, adhd relief, music for better focus, and then alpha waves activate 100 of your brain after so both of them. So if I play them right now on youtube, that's one of them. That is a little bit too calming for me and I'll fall nine nights nine nights so this is the one that I use when I'm jamming.

Speaker 2

This is the one when I'm the most at work. Dark room focus time Right here, okay, and I'm AirPods in, noise cancelling, shades down, no lights, game time. You are a weirdo in that, for sure. I think it's necessary if you want to be successful.

Speaker 1

I think it's necessary to move in that direction. I am always trying to walk the fine line of what Alan doing. I don't ever want it to seem like it's completely normal. I don't either. You know what I mean, so that's all I mean by that. I don't think you're a weirdo. I think that's exactly what you need to do, based on the massive goals yeah, the massive goals that you have insane right I. I need to do that as well and continue to move into that direction. I've been listening to batman vibes playlist.

Speaker 3

You know so different.

Speaker 1

No, no if you played it, I'm telling you?

Speaker 3

yeah, would you remember?

Speaker 1

good. Remember when we were we did the next level, live 2024. I don't know how that was only five, five months ago, six months ago. I don't, I don't believe it. I do not believe that it was the same calendar year at that we're in right now. But do you remember when we were working I had a playlist up on the tv and you loved it. It was batman. That was batman, deep focus, really, yeah batman, deep focus side, tangent.

Speaker 2

Briefly, sure there's the original batman begins dark knight batman rises or dark knight rises yeah okay, those ones are awesome. Huge fan, awesome Christopher Nolan way to go. What are your thoughts on the newer ones, because apparently they're really good?

Speaker 1

I saw it on a plane?

Speaker 2

I've not.

Speaker 1

What are your thoughts? I enjoyed it. Robert Pattinson did a really good job. And it's dark, it's very dark.

Speaker 2

Do you mean dark, psychologically dark? It's very dark. Do you mean dark, psychologically dark and vibe dark, or do you?

Speaker 1

mean dark in terms of the shading and the lighting both, but I think for the same reason, yeah yeah, I enjoyed it, so were the first darker the first, really. Yeah, I again I watched it on a plane and it's and I was watching it on the tv on the plane, so you can't really hear anything. It's really hard to hear. You can't use AirPods, so you have to use noise-canceling plug-in headphones, and they're just not as good.

Speaker 3

Yeah, or maybe I'm just living in the 1990s Speaking of focus.

Speaker 2

Right, that was a little side tangent I've been. It's one of those films that I've been putting off it's worth it because they're coming out with a second one of that trilogy.

Practical ways to protect your focus

Speaker 3

I think that's going to be a new trilogy. You think it's worth it?

Speaker 2

yeah, okay side film tangent back to the focus piece. So what you, what you put your attention on, controls what you say, think, do, feel and believe. What you say, think, do, feel and believe. What you say, think, do, feel and believe determines where you invest your time, effort and money, into which person's places, things and ideas, and that's what dictates the quality of your life. Ultimately and I often try to say, you can't succeed at anything of value without focus.

Speaker 2

Focus, in my opinion, is the most important skill. Let's say and again, please anyone watching or listening, try really hard not to villainize me for this I'm saying this because I want to see you all succeed at a higher level. If I were in a room with 50 people, I would be able to predict with fairly high accuracy who I would bet on being successful and I would be looking at who can control their attention best, the people who struggle to focus, and I'm thinking I've coached hundreds of people at this point I have 28 on my roster currently. The people who can stay focused will always win. There is no exception to that. There's no one who doesn't. There's no one who struggles with focus, who can't sit down and work for a solid hour without losing focus that can suddenly win really at a very high level. There's this is very, very, very, very, very correlated and I don't think we talk about it enough but ultimately, kevin and I, before this episode, we were behind the scenes trying to figure out what to talk about, and I think he and I are a little insecure about how unrelatable we are in certain things Him more than me, probably, but I'm leaning into it more. I focus, my main focus is to stay focused. When I wake up in the morning, my entire day is play defense, to make sure nothing gets my consciousness unless it absolutely has to. So there's only three humans on planet earth that text me. I'm very. I have a little folder called the rabbit hole that we talked about in the upper left corner of my phone. I only have one home screen. I don't. I don't allow any rings, dings or bings.

Speaker 2

So anyone out there who wants to be more successful in particular and then fulfilled number two what are the things that you really want to make progress in, that you have goals attached to that are really meaningful to you? Focus is not getting yourself to do the right things. It has more to do with keeping yourself from doing the wrong things. So I try really hard to keep myself from doing so. I won't leave this room. I'll leave this room as minimal as possible until 7 pm and, yeah, I'll catch you in the hallway and we'll hug and kiss and we'll have a moment.

Speaker 2

I call it my supercharger. We charge the Tesla at a supercharger, so that's my supercharger when I need it, when I'm down or struggling or taking a big L or whatever it is. I need it when I'm down or struggling or taking a big L or whatever it is, but then it's immediately Alan, get back in the office, get back to the most meaningful work. Now, when seven hits, I need to transition out of that, otherwise I'll hate my life essentially. And so, for everyone out there, you don't need to be.

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.

Speaker 2

If you have level 10 goals, you need level 10 focus. If you have level 10 goals, you need level 10 focus. If you have level 5 goals, you need level 5 focus. If you have level 2 goals, you only need level 2 focus. But there is no exception to that rule from my honest, scientific perspective. Nlu, listener, what is happening? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster. We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month. You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. The link to register will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1

Well, and it's really hard to stay focused if you don't have a goal. What do you stay focused on? If you don't have a goal, there's no target. If there's no target, there's nothing to aim at. If you don't have anything to aim at, there's no point in being focused. It's kind of the opposite of what you want.

Speaker 1

If right now, you're struggling to formulate a health, wealth or love goal and you don't have that, how do you know what to focus on? If you're single and you're looking for a partner, then you're focusing on that. Maybe it's dating apps, or you're focusing on having more conversations, or you're focusing on asking your friends if they know anybody that might be a good fit for you. Okay, cool If you're single, but right now you're. I'm working on me. I'm going to work on me season. I don't want anybody else. All right, what's my main focus? Well, I want to build self-love because I know that when I'm in a relationship, a lot of the relationships I've been in, they've kind of tanked my self-love. I want to work on boundaries Because I feel like I'm struggling in relationships because I don't set boundaries and that ends up sabotaging the relationship. I want to work on my body because my ex said some things that were not super kind. And now I have some trust issues around or some self-esteem issues around that. Okay, cool, not cool, but you know what I mean. And then that becomes the focus. So that's another reason why goals are so important. Even if it's not, even if you're not obsessed with the goal, at least it creates a level of magnetism, like you. Just you know you want to be moving closer to something, even if it's not the most specific goal in the world.

Speaker 1

Somebody in the Next Level Fitness Accountability group today said hey, I'm going to start a diet because I'm struggling to prioritize fitness and I know that when I set that goal, I will pay more attention to all the things necessary to get that goal, a big piece of which is involving fitness. And I feel the same. I'm not as dialed in. When I don't have a goal. There's less necessity. There's no downside to me not going to the gym. That's one of the reasons goals are so wild, because all you're doing, okay, if I don't go to the gym today, there is no perceived downside. It doesn't really matter Today, it doesn't matter, it's not that big of a deal. Will it matter? Like, 70 years from now, I'll be 105 maybe if I make it that far.

Speaker 1

Maybe, maybe it will.

Speaker 2

But if I have, this one workout yeah, yeah, yeah okay, okay, so good.

Speaker 1

All the goal does is it shortens the amount of time before you see the downside or the upside that's all the goal does I? I'm not a cigarette smoker, I've never been a cigarette smoker. I have asthma, so I used to have asthma, so it was never a thing. But somebody out there who says I want to be healthy, what can I help you with, mother?

Speaker 2

I just had an image popping in my head of kev ripping butts, ripping darts. Yeah, never tried never tried.

Speaker 1

I for some reason in high school everybody was smoking cloves I don't even know what clove is like.

Speaker 3

There's a weird, it's like a purple looking cigarette, so I guess, I guess technically, I thought there were cigars I was trying to be cool man same same.

Speaker 1

So technically I guess I did, if cigarettes or cloves or cigarettes I was yeah, I guess I've ripped some darts hey man, can I bum a clove, sure, yeah, I don't

Speaker 3

know what it is, how stupid stupid.

Speaker 1

It was not intelligent, for sure, but the reason people start is because they don't ever think it's going to be bad. Well it's never going to catch up to me. If you have a goal of being healthy, you can't.

Speaker 2

Immediately, it becomes a non-option for you, if you decide that that's not healthy. You know, maybe San Diego Padres is a baseball team. Okay, who's the guy that's? You know what I'm talking about, though. He's in the hall of fame. He's world-class baseball player. He was chewing tobacco and he got cancer, but it wasn't till 35 years later or something, I don't know.

Speaker 2

No, damn all right, so I'm gonna keep I don't know the. I could look it up, we don't have time. This baseball player started chewing tobacco, as many baseball players do, and for 20 or 30 years I'm not sure, don't quote me on this there was no perceivable downside, there was no noticeable issue. And then, 20 or 30 years later, he developed cancer of the salivary gland and then had to remove his jaw and then died within, I think, four years. You can do something or not do something for decades without anything noticeable. Kevin and I cannot tell you. We could both sit here and say, look at the. We could both analyze the last client we both got and we could sit there and go okay, what was the one thing that brought that client when, in reality, I'll tell this story briefly. So shout out to my client, brenda First names only Brenda's awesome.

Speaker 2

Brenda heard Kevin on a podcast with a woman named Debra. Brenda listened to Next Level University, our podcast. She realized that I'm the man, obviously no, she did not realize that she. We plugged book club and said hey, every weekend, book club, great books, great people. Next level books, next level people. She comes to book club, she learns about group coaching in book club. She signs up for group I don't at this point, probably eight or nine, something like that. She signs up for group coaching, loves it. She ends up doing a free coaching session, breakthrough session, with me after group coaching, and she's been coaching with me for over a year, maybe two one-on-one and her business has grown a significant amount.

Speaker 2

And she said One-on-one and her business has grown a significant amount. And she said, oh my God, if I had Alan years ago. I always ask her. I say can you imagine, because she's been in business for 12 years, can you imagine if you were this dialed in? And she playfully says, oh, I don't even want to think about it Because she just wasn't focused back then. She was what most business owners are.

Speaker 2

At the beginning they were all over the place trying to figure it out. We didn't know what matters and what doesn't, and don't major in minor things. The problem is in the beginning you don't know what the minor things are. We all can look at our teenage years and look at massive wastes of time, massive wastes of time. The amount of time I wasted on certain things, it's insane. So for everyone now, rather than just beating ourselves up here, it's an accumulation. You don't really know the power of focus until after you start focusing for quite some time on the things that matter and then you have to look back and go okay, what actually is making a difference? Because if I focus for three hours tomorrow in a dark office just doing my most important priority, there's no big revolutionary breakthrough the next day that people notice. But if I do that every day for a year, I mean, my life will be imperceptibly different or perceptibly different, wildly different. And that's the problem with success, dude it's.

Speaker 1

Nothing immediately pays off, nothing well, it's usually good or bad. I guess some bad things can pay off immediately pay off.

Speaker 2

Even then, it's usually neglect over time usually, yeah, usually.

Speaker 1

But I mean I find that it's easier to go off a cliff negatively than positively, you know yeah.

Speaker 3

I agree.

Speaker 1

Because you're more in control of that. All right, what are three quick things someone can do to focus better, to stay more focused, because that is the name of the episode. So I want to make sure we do that.

Speaker 2

Number one is what are your top three distractions and work harder on avoiding those. You know what it is Be bored, and that's it. I'm not even going to give you three. Write out a list of your top three distractions the things you know that you know that. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know that are not that. You know that, you know that are not good for you, and you know it. Write them down, tackle one at a time and be willing to be bored. The cool part about being bored is you'll end up working on your goals if you avoid the things that you know aren't good for you. What about you?

Speaker 1

Man, it would, you man, it would be very similar. I think there's only so many things you can do, but I think the things that you can do are usually the things that you don't want to do. Get rid of your cell phone for X amount of time. There is a point in your day where you do not have access to your cell phone for an hour. I'm willing to bet that's going to be one of the most productive times of the day. And, again, that's for me too Nice.

Speaker 1

If you don't need it, if you're not doing something on your cell phone, you should probably not have it around you. Now, again, if you have children or older parents or whatever, whatever it is, and you need to, I mean, maybe that's a different thing, right, but that's what the Apple Watch is for, right? You can take calls on the watch. That's a thing. So it's that If you want to be more focused than those around you, you're going to have to operate differently than those around you. And the whole.

Speaker 1

I know in the beginning, for me, the not having any bings dings, whatever it was rings, bings, dings, whatever you said In the beginning, for me that was super strange. And now I had somebody say to me recently hey, I'm sorry I texted you so early. Now you can text me anytime. My phone never goes off. It's, you're good, you're no worries, my phone's always on silent, so it doesn't matter. That was a weird, very strange thing for me in the beginning, but I can't imagine my phone dinging at this point you lived with that for years and it was very weird when I stopped.

Speaker 1

Honestly, I was probably less focused right after I stopped because I was probably checking my phone way more to see if anybody texted me and then eventually it crossed the chasm. So that's the thing. To Alan's point that the hard thing is you've got to trust the fact that if you focus on it long enough, you're going to get some level of result. It's not going to happen immediately. It might seem like you're going backwards immediately. If you're focused on I don't know why I keep using writing, but if you're focused on writing for the first time and you sit down and you're bored because you can't come up with anything to write, it feels like you're not making any progress.

Speaker 2

But if you're building a new habit, you're probably making more progress than you realize.

Speaker 1

You're definitely making more progress, progress than you realize. I love it. The most important skill set in the 21st century about focus, I do super important. It's not sexy. It's not sexy, but unfortunately, the sexy things are probably not the ones that are going to lead you to the results you want. And if they are, the sexy things are usually the the ones that are going to lead you to the results you want. And if they are, the sexy things are usually the easy ones that people want to do. If it's sexy, people are attracted to it. Let me do that. That's what I want to do. It's usually the stuff that you don't want to do, that the secrets, the shortcuts, the hacks are usually buried in the work that you do not want to do, always, always. Unfortunately, I didn't set it up that way.

Speaker 2

That is the way it is. That is the way it is.

Speaker 1

he says Okay, we want to see people succeed. So, of course, heart-driven but no BS. Heart-driven but no BS. This is sometimes it's just a matter of saying, yeah, you know what. You want to know how much you're potentially struggling with focus. If you have an iPhone I don't know if Android has this, but if you have an iPhone you can go into. I don't know what the label is. Let me look, because there's a big difference between saying it. If you go into settings and then you go into screen time, you'll see my daily average is four hours and 20 minutes. Most of that's email and WhatsApp, but imagine what I could do with four hours and 20 minutes.

Speaker 2

I would say this episode is probably harder for you than it would be in the past, because I think you in the past past there were times when you were more focused because of how much the business has become so busy.

Speaker 1

I told Alan I'm I feel very reactive. Yeah, I feel just super reactive. I'm checking my emails 50 times a day. I'm checking whatsapp. I could not tell you how many times a day I'm checking WhatsApp. I could not tell you how many times a day I'm checking WhatsApp. Hundreds of times a day probably. But that's that's kind of the season for me right now.

Speaker 2

I would say that's the reality, but and we need to figure out how to dial it in- we do.

Speaker 1

Alright, If you are looking to dial it in when it comes to health, right. If you are looking to dial it in when it comes to health, wealth, life and love all of them really. Our 16th round of group coaching starts on October 8th at 5 pm Eastern Standard Time. I was on a podcast the other day and they said what is it? Why should somebody do it? And I don't like when people do that. It was kind and I don't like when people do that. It was kind. The person meant it in a good way, but he was like why should someone? What's the one reason I was like eh, I don't really like that.

Speaker 1

If I had to give you one reason, I would say because at the end of the 90 days, you will be the most consistent, fulfilled, aligned version of yourself. And the thing about group coaching is we want you to be successful, as we want you to be successful as successful more successful after the program than during it. It's not just well, after 90 days you need to sign up for something else. No, it's after 90 days you'll have habits that you've actually been doing for the last several months and you'll have self-trust and more self-belief and boundaries and all that stuff. So if you're interested in any of that, we'll have the link in the show notes. If you use the discount code NLULISTENER, it'll take 30% off and you can just enter that at checkout and it will be very, very, very affordable. I would say the best, most affordable group coaching in all of the land is what I would say.

Outro

Speaker 1

And if you're struggling with fitness and you're looking for accountability, you're looking for other people that are focused on being into fitness more, whatever that means. It doesn't mean weight training. It doesn't mean marathon running. It doesn't mean you have to track all your calories. It doesn't mean any of that. We have a WhatsApp group We'll have the link in the show notes for that as well and it's just a fitness accountability group, Totally free. Participate as much or as little as you want. It might be a nice little gentle kick in the. 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

Please reach out.

Speaker 1

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Speaker 2

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Speaker 1

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host