#1841 - Progress Is Easier Than You Think

Do you believe success happens overnight? In this episode, Kevin and Alan discuss the power of small, steady actions that often go unnoticed. They challenge the idea that you need to take giant leaps and instead focus on how tiny steps can lead to real progress over time. With personal stories, they show that progress isn't about being perfect but about improving little by little, even when things aren't perfect. Whether you're working on a project or personal growth, this episode will remind you that success is a journey and that you should stay motivated.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Dreamliner: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
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

Free 30-Minute Podcast Breakthrough Session with Kevin: https://bit.ly/3MAuczF
Free 30-Minute Coaching Call with Alan: https://bit.ly/3ASu9wu

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

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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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

I think the issue is I didn't know Apple before Apple was successful. I didn't know Amazon before Amazon was successful. I didn't know that they started in a garage until they made it, and then it was cool for them to talk about how they started in a garage. I didn't know Tesla.

Speaker 2 0:16

There is no one or zero. You're not successful or you're not. You're in progress. Everything is in progress. The question is are you making progress toward a constructive direction or a destructive direction? I think about that all the time. Am I building something that is meaningful, that will last through the decades? That's always the question I'm asking myself constantly.

Speaker 1 0:38

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Speaker 2 0:52

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

Speaker 1 0:59

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 1:15

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Speaker 1 1:21

Welcome to Next Level University completely free. Welcome to 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 1841, progress is easier than you think. I was on a podcast yesterday and they're like, yeah, tell everybody about yourself and all that happy jazz. And I was like, yeah, we have 1,750 episodes. I was like I think it's like 1,800. I completely forgot how many episodes we had. Yesterday was one of those. It was one of those days for sure. Okay, progress is easier than you think.

Speaker 1 1:59

Alan and I, when we were not preamble but we were in the preparation for this episode, alan said why do you want to do this? And I said a couple things. One, I think that everybody has probably heard at some point or another to take massive action, and I don't think that's the right advice for most people. I think there's a time and a place for massive action, but I think for the most part, it's small, seemingly insignificant action that adds up over time. That's part one, and then part two I've been working with a lot of people recently where clarity is bigger progress than you think, going from zero to one on something is bigger progress than you think. Going from zero to one on something is bigger progress than you think. I think we have it in our mind that we have to go from where we are to where we want to be, and there's just a million steps in between. And if you're only focused on where you are and where you want to be, you're never going to feel like you're making progress.

Speaker 1 3:01

Tony Robbins has the old saying that progress is happiness. I've heard that one before. I don't know if I agree wholeheartedly with. I think it's a positive thing to think about. I think happiness is much more complex than that, but I'm not going to challenge Tony. Tony's been doing this a lot longer than I have and he's a wizard amongst humans. So that's kind of my thought for this episode. I think progress is more simple than you think, because if you can redefine what progress is, wouldn't that help you make more progress, do it for longer and then ultimately achieve more results? That is my thesis in today's episode.

Speaker 2 3:36

One thing I always did admire about Tony is how many people he's worked with, so he sees patterns that are common amongst all different backgrounds, how many countries he's been to, all that kind of thing, and I've at some point. I would like to actually do this because I have a list of everyone I've ever coached. I would love to see how many countries I've coached in, but ultimately, the more and more I coached, the thousands and thousands and thousands of hours and hundreds of people, maybe even thousands of people, who knows? But I don't have that metric so I can't authentically say it. But I would say it's getting there Billions of people, billions of people, billions, bajillions, kajillions every person, on every everyone I've coached everybody?

Speaker 2 4:24

No, but you do start seeing certain things that are true for everyone. The way you apply them are always different. So meaningful progress does, I think, lead to fulfillment is what I would change that quote to, based on what I've seen. But meaningful progress looks different to everyone because everyone has different goals, everyone has different aspirations, everyone has different core values and all that. So I would say the best quote that I could come up with for this is meaningful progress, in alignment with your core values, toward meaningful goals for a meaningful purpose, equals happiness.

Tying self-esteem to progress and personal growth

Speaker 1 5:01

Well see, it makes sense why he says progress equals happiness, because that's way easier yeah, it's way easier. Nobody's gonna remember all that right less accurate, though I'm not gonna call out tony, because if he was here I wouldn't say it to his face I might.

Speaker 2 5:15

I might say that's a little overly simplified, don't you?

Speaker 1 5:18

think, but then he'd probably say, well, alan, let's, let's take a walk. And I can explain to you why I made it overly simplistic, maybe, yeah and then he'd say well, or he might hadouken you, because he's a giant person.

Speaker 2 5:30

He's very large, excuse me, my goodness See, you can't even do a podcast episode.

Speaker 1 5:36

He's going to put you down probably 8 am on a Saturday.

Speaker 2 5:40

So you say I say this massive messy action is important, but if you take away the massive, because that's overwhelming, just messy action in the direction of your goals and dreams, I actually think people should tie their self-esteem to progress. I think that makes the most sense Progress toward, I think, meaningful progress, toward meaningful goals in alignment with your core values, for a meaningful purpose. I do believe you should tie your self-esteem to that. I do.

Speaker 2 6:07

I thought you should tie your self-esteem to your own personal development as well. I thought it was inputs. You tie your self-esteem to inputs. That's what I'm saying, though Meaningful progress is, I just want to make sure as long as the inputs are in alignment, but that's the thing that requires clarity to your point. You need to have clarity of what inputs.

Speaker 1 6:28

It makes sense why success is so hard. We were I was on a podcast yesterday that was about entrepreneurship last night from 6 to like 7 15. It was awesome. It's a podcast I've been on before and it's just. It's called unlearned and it's all about unlearning stuff. It's awesome, it's great show. And I was talking about how nothing went from non-existent to ideal existence. It was non-existent to like just shitty, and then it was like a little bit less shitty, a little bit less shitty, a little bit less shitty. And I said we have an app and it sucks. And I said this live I said it doesn't suck because because we designed it wrong or the people that we paid to design it. It doesn't suck because of any of those reasons. It's just the first draft, it's just not. But you know how much progress that is. Yeah, we went from no app to a real app. Is it where we want it to be? Absolutely not. Do we talk about it at all?

Speaker 2 7:25

No.

Speaker 1 7:26

Could. Is it where we want it to be? Absolutely not. Do we talk about it at all? No, could you?

Version 1 of anything is still meaningful progress

Speaker 2 7:29

download it if you wanted to. I'm not entirely sure it might be hidden somewhere, but you couldn't use it because we stopped paying the subscription temporarily. Yeah, you can't use it.

Speaker 1 7:35

It was expensive and it didn't make sense to do it in the way we were doing it. But we went from zero no app to one. We have a version of an app To one. We have a version of an app and that is deeply meaningful progress, even though we are not even close to the end. The Dreamliner is a really great example. This is version two. We went from zero no physical product. There was nothing you could buy and touch in your hand. I don't think right. We've never had a physical product. No, no, that's the first one. And shout out to the products team and Alan leading the charge and the entire team Lizzie, lizzie.

Speaker 1 8:12

Oh, I mean products team Lizzie leading that. I had very little to do with the Dreamliner, so I'm grateful. The team has absolutely crushed it. But we went from zero nothing to Version 1, and Version 1 was really good, and now Version 2 is a little bit better, and then Version 3, and forever it's going to get a little bit better. But if you're just thinking to yourself, well, yeah, no, I created something and it has mistakes in it, that's still progress. You created something, you took something from your imagination and you brought it into the real world. Of course there's going to be mistakes.

Infinite game: the goal is to keep improving, not to win instantly

Speaker 2 8:48

Of course there is. Why do you think people? So this is a, and I always talk about Alan 3.6. I'm going to be Alan 3.6 soon. The iPhone 14 versus the iPhone 2. This iterative 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, all that that has, I think of the horizon as something you never get to. It's an infinite game. You're never going to. You're never going to actually achieve your dreams. You're going to achieve what's? A good example of this. How do you even explain it? I'm. We're never going to have the most successful self-improvement company in history. That's. That's an infinite game. It's a mountain that gets higher as you climb it. Okay, let's imagine it's Kevin. Before personal development, before self-improvement, before knowing me, how would I explain infinite game to you? Because that's really the thing. The point of the game is to keep playing the game. The point of the game is not to win the game.

Speaker 1 9:40

I don't know Now only matters to the extent of how long you're going to do it for Like the dreamliner.

Speaker 2 9:53

When people say they want to live their dream life and they say living the dream, the dream life that they want, is a byproduct of a process, so there is no end state to life.

Speaker 1 10:07

There's no finality.

Speaker 2 10:08

Yeah, there's no finality.

Speaker 1 10:10

The only finality is passing away. There isn't anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but then again I don't know.

Speaker 2 10:15

Yeah, who knows, I might come back as a microphone. Alan's going to be talking into me. He's going to be like hey man.

Speaker 1 10:20

Hey, what's going on, brother.

Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching.

Speaker 2 10:28

Every night when I go to sleep, the microphone, just like, somehow ends up in the fridge, start singing Josie's on a vacation.

Speaker 1 10:31

Next level nation. What is happening? If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. That's really why we created it in the first place. We start a new round every 90 days. So if you're hearing this, go to the website nextleveluniversecom and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one.

Speaker 1 10:59

The biggest thing that we've seen is, as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. The group fills up and they can't do it, and then they end up regretting that. So please head over to the website. The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there. I think that we milestones. What did you used to think? I used to thought. I used to think that we would do a podcast episode, we, we would go viral and then I would be the man. You're joking, right? I'm not joking.

Speaker 2 11:30

No, really, seriously. What did you think it was to start, really?

Speaker 1 11:34

seriously when you thought of Apple.

Speaker 2 11:36

Okay, when you thought of Apple, right.

Speaker 1 11:38

Apple's 47 years old, 48. Now I'm going to F you up with the truth right now, please. I need to understand. You got your seat belt on. Is your seat belt on? I have to make sure that's a. Click it or ticket. Son, I don't have a seat belt. Yeah, click it for me, give it a little click. I don't know.

Speaker 2 11:57

Um, okay, I almost did I was hoping you would the rebel in him.

Speaker 1 12:02

I saw you alan was getting his hands ready to click it. Now I I'm going to have to get him. I'm going to send him a ticket in the mail. I think the issue is I didn't know Apple before Apple was successful. I didn't know Amazon before Amazon was successful. I didn't know that they started in a garage until they made it, and then it was cool for them to talk about how they started in a garage. I didn't know Tesla. I didn't know. Yeah, brendan Burchard, I didn't know Tesla.

Speaker 1 12:25

I didn't know Brendan Burchard, I didn't know Tony Robbins, I didn't know Taylor Swift. I didn't know any of these people when they weren't successful. So they worked out all of the kinks for lack of a better phrase early on. Is there anyone?

Speaker 2 12:39

that you saw and enjoyed before, when they were garbage, yeah.

Speaker 1 12:48

I don't know if I thought they were garbage.

Speaker 2 12:52

But they weren't that good or whatever.

Speaker 1 12:55

No, no, I can't really think of anybody, because how would I have?

Speaker 2 12:59

found them. Yeah, that's called the survival bias.

Speaker 1 13:03

That's what it is.

Speaker 2 13:04

I think the majority of our listeners are recent, so that's what.

Speaker 1 13:10

I'm saying yeah, it's fascinating.

Speaker 2 13:11

It's such an interesting thing. By the time you learn about us, we're already polished hopefully to a certain extent well, yeah, yeah, now, now.

Speaker 1 13:20

But that's the thing is, you might, if you just came into our ecosystem right now and you said, okay, 1800 episodes, million,800 episodes, million-dollar business, all of these things, million listens, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You are seeing a blip of time. You just happened to find us at that point.

Speaker 2 13:38

I know.

Speaker 1 13:39

And it might seem like, oh, they've always been. I'm telling you, this is the quote. I'm telling you, this is a thing. I just can't connect it to more things because it's complicated. One of the biggest misconceptions is where somebody is today is where they've been forever and where you are today is where you'll be forever, and neither of those are true.

Speaker 2 14:00

How did you view your life? Like a company and a person are very similar in the sense that when you were seven, you're a toddler. Apple at seven was garbage.

Speaker 1 14:13

You know what I mean. I didn't know Apple at seven. Nobody did.

Speaker 2 14:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:19

Nobody knew Apple at seven. Nobody knew James Cameron before he started directing Nobody.

Speaker 2 14:26

No, but they did. He had movies that were garbage before the big ones, so like Terminator 2 was his big one, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 14:31

But nobody most people didn't see those movies.

Speaker 2 14:34

I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, most people. What did you think about? So you just thought people were successful or they weren't? Yes, 100%. You think people think that.

Speaker 1 14:46

People are just like successful or they're not. Probably. I don't know if it's that simple, unconsciously. It's almost like the light is on or the light is off. It's like that person is successful If the light's on. That person's successful If the light's off that person's not.

Speaker 2 15:00

No wonder why there's the big leap Like I need to go do something big.

Speaker 1 15:05

I think that's. I think it's a trap. Yeah, it's a trap. Yeah, it's a curve. You're never really, yeah, yeah, you're never really going to. You're never really going to go from where you are to where you want to get to one day. It's not going to happen.

Speaker 2 15:19

It won't happen?

Speaker 1 15:21

no, no, no, definitely not. And even if it does, the question is are you capable of handling that? And you? I said that to someone recently. I said I could give you a million clients right now. You, it wouldn't work because you're not prepared for that. I know that's what you want, but there's a big difference between attracting something or earning something and sustaining something. Those are two very different things. I'm fired up today.

Speaker 2 15:43

Well, whatever level of success that you want in life and this is really important too. So I have a client who was dating someone, and this person was this client, was this person's dream partner, and this person decided that they didn't want to be with her anymore and they moved on. Yep, and what I don't think people think about is I'm not yet the type of person who's capable of sustaining this, and so, to try to bring this all together, there is no one or zero. You're not successful or you're not. You're in progress, everything is in progress. The question is are you making progress toward a constructive direction or a destructive direction? I think about that all the time. A constructive direction or a destructive direction? I think about that all the time. Am I building something that is meaningful, that will last through the decades? That's always the question I'm asking myself constantly, and so I know we've got to go, but yeah, it's a complicated thing.

Speaker 1 16:48

It's a complicated thing Because if you had a bad day, you might say, eh, it was a bad day, but it's not the end of the world. Success is the same, but opposite, where you can have a really good day, and it's good progress, but it doesn't mean you went from where you wanted to be to where you want, but it's still. That's still worth celebrating. I think it's the same thing. It's the same thing, just like one bad habit doesn't pay off, just like one good habit doesn't pay off immediately.

Speaker 2 17:16

Tell Kev in one sentence. If you had to tell kev old kev in one sentence what he was missing, what would it be?

Speaker 1 17:21

oh man, um, I don't even know. The reason you're where you are today is not based on what you did yesterday. It's what you've been doing for the last five years, same for the next five years. If you are today is not based on what you did yesterday. It's what you've been doing for the last five years, same for the next five years. If you want to be in a different place in five years, you can start today, but it's not going to arrive for five years. It's just every day. It'll arrive a little bit more, but it's never. It's an accumulation more than it is a snap of your fingers. Nice, just an accumulation.

Speaker 1 17:54

Rain drops, one rain drop doesn't really matter. You're not going to get that wet. But if you run around in a storm for long enough, you're going to get soaked. That and then I would punch him right in his jojumba, hit him with a jojumba shot. All right, next Level Dreamliner is on. Amazon Group coaching starts October 5th. Alan has coaching spots, I have coaching spots. Next Level Nation everything October 8th. October 8th at 5 pm, eastern Standard Time. It's, yeah, my mind steel trap.

Speaker 2 18:19

Join group coaching Group 10. No group 16. Wow, we're in trouble.

Speaker 1 18:23

It's Saturday morning. This is Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 18:25

Episodes are probably not going to be for us.

Speaker 1 18:27

It's like cartoons, saturday cartoons, saturday cartoons Tom and Jerry over here. All right, we're going to go October, 8th, group 16.

Outro

Speaker 2 18:33

Please join.

Speaker 1 18:34

Yes, 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 18:41

Please reach out.

Speaker 1 18:44

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

Speaker 2 18:55

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 19:00

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.