Juggling Fulfillment And Financial Success (1872)

Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros discuss finding harmony between fulfillment and financial success. They reveal a practical “formula for fulfillment” and highlight the difference between short bursts of motivation and the lasting energy true purpose brings. For those struggling with feeling stuck or overworked, this episode offers actionable strategies to realign values and build a fulfilling, financially sustainable life.

Link mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700

______________________

NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

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

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

_______________________

Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://bit.ly/3BQBYDr
Next Level Monthly Meet-up:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

_______________________

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.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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

_______________________

Show notes:
(2:23) The "cool-burning" fuel
(5:16) Finding balance
(11:40) Superchargers
(16:17) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://bit.ly/3Up1FkG
(18:41) Setting goals that align with core values
(25:44) Financial discipline
(30:24) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Transcript

Fulfillment and Self-Improvement in Success

Kevin 0:00

but people were saying, oh, they're greedy, they raised their price. It's like I don't think that's what it was. They probably have been trying to create the most affordable competitive pricing since they began and they're realizing if they keep doing that they're going to go out of freaking business.

Alan 0:16

And I had a 3.4 kill to death ratio and basically there's stats and there's rankings and there's team death match and all these different categories. Whatever the point is is the way that you, whatever you track, changes the way you play the game. So if you're tracking fulfillment, you're going to optimize for that. If you're tracking profitability, you're going to optimize for that.

Kevin 0:34

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.

Alan 0:49

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

Kevin 0:55

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

Kevin 1:17

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level Nation success. I had somebody reach out to me the other day and I've been having a back and forth discussion with this person for I don't know a month or so now and they're a fitness coach who has opportunities and you heard me talk about this in one of the previous episodes and they have a podcast and they're trying to build their own brand. So they're dream chasing and they messaged me and said so I feel like the thing that's going to be the most financially successful for me is going to be coaching, but not necessarily through the podcast. So do you think I should just can the podcast and just go all in on trying to get clients? And I said, it's always hard when giving advice on something like this because it depends on how much the podcast fulfills you.

Kevin 2:23

If the podcast fulfills you, I have a belief that you'll actually make more money because everything else you're doing is more sustainable. Fulfillment is important. I think fulfillment is a fuel that burns very, very cool, but for a long period of time. Where I think, for most people, inspiration and motivation. Where I think, for most people, inspiration and motivation motivation especially burns very, very hot, but for a short amount of time. Like gasoline, it burns you, light it it's going when.

Alan 2:53

Maybe fulfillment is something that doesn't burn as hot, but it burns for a longer, like the coals. Like the coals After a good fire, after a good fire that lasts all night.

Kevin 3:01

You throw a piece of wood on there that lasts all night. You throw a piece of wood on there it sparks right up, you throw gasoline on there. You might burn your face off. It's very possible you could burn your face off your body. It's possible I haven't seen it happen, but I've been close to seeing that, I've been close to having it happen, I think.

Alan 3:16

Yeah probably the same Back in the bonfire days.

Balancing Fulfillment and Career Growth

Kevin 3:20

Reckless, reckless, mm-hmm, reckless times. And I use the example of. I said Alan and I have had a conversation recently where I am more fulfilled when I'm in shape. Now does that mean I'm going to go to the gym for three hours a day because I want to be 10 out of 10 fulfilled? No, that's reckless. But it also means I have to put a meaningful amount of time into fitness. So for me it's like 45 minutes a day and I think you just up to your 45, your 45 or your 40 to 45.

Kevin 3:51

If I didn't go at all, I wouldn't be fulfilled and then everything else would just kind of suck. If I do it too much and I optimize a thousand percent for fulfillment, we're going to go out of business because I don't make money from exercising. I'm not a fitness model. If I was, that would be different. This entire conversation would be different.

Kevin 4:09

It would be well, I'm in really good shape and I exercise and I get paid to go to the gym, but I also like to write poetry, but I'm not going to make any money doing that. I probably shouldn't write poetry, right? Well, if it fulfills you and it brings your mood up and you're more likely to go to the gym and get better workouts, then you're going to make more money as a fitness model. Bada bing, bada boom. It all kind of aligns. That's kind of what I wanted to talk about today, because when you are fulfilled, I think everything that you're doing you're probably going to do better, just like when you're in a terrible mood, everything you do you're probably going to do a lot worse. And I think fulfillment is a multiplier in some way. Do I know the exact number that it is a multiplier of?

Alan 4:50

no, but that's kind of where my thought process is for today's episode it's also an influential multiplier as well, because fulfilled people are more energetically attractive there I think that, and then they have more energy because their cup is more full, and then they're more energy Because their cup is more full, and then they're more likely to. But here's the thing, right it's so easy To focus too much On what fulfills you At the expense of your career.

Kevin 5:16

Well, I think it's. Those are the polarities, right? You only focus on what makes money and screw fulfillment and you end up miserable.

Alan 5:24

Yep, and you burn hot and then burn, end up miserable.

Kevin 5:26

Yep, and you burn hot and then burn out you burn hot and then burn out, or you only focus on what fulfills you, and then you're living the day-to-day. The present is amazing, but when you do arrive at that unplanned future, there's not a lot of money left to live life with what? What do you have? You have squirrels running around your office.

Alan 5:47

No, I just got a, so I have two computers going in the space station. That's what we'll call it Space station, the Space Command Center. I have a bunch in my office. I got a lot going on here. I'm very grateful. My other computer just popped up with a notification that said you are offline, now Things might not work. And then now it's back, so that's good.

Kevin 6:07

I don't know why that happened. I didn't lose you or anything. You didn't. No, I think we're good, so we're all good, we're all good.

Alan 6:13

Okay, although I did have an interview on Monday, that two hour long interview, awesome interview, I think you did three hours.

Kevin 6:21

I think we talked about it.

Alan 6:22

Yeah, and my internet cut out right in the middle of our nice Emilia and I the company we higher, higher we use had an outage. So three times it happened and we still powered through. I kept showing up. I was like I'm so sorry, let's keep going, and we just we did it. So even if that happens, we're gonna make it work.

Alan 6:43

Okay, all of that was irrelevant. I've been saying this a lot lately, it's my new disclaimer. I don't know why. I don't think anyone else needs to hear it. I need to hear it for me.

Alan 6:53

I, I'm an engineer. So now that gives me permission to be all weird, to be an ass. Kev told me no, no, no, well, I don't know, maybe who knows. Kev told me once he said I don't really know any engineers. I think that was on the show and I was what. And then I talked to amy behind the scenes, showed up to amy lenius. She said yeah, no, I don't know any engineers either. What? Why would we? I don't know. I just can't imagine a world where you wouldn't know a bunch of engineers.

Alan 7:25

But I also went to an engineering college and a lot of my friends were engineers and emilia felt the same way she's. I always thought about engineering too, because I love tech, but I don't know that many engineers either, and I'm like what the hell am I like in this echo chamber of engineers? Yes, that's so fascinating. So, anyways, I'm an engineer, so everything's a formula. Here's my formula, and a lot of people have heard of icky guy so they think I'm ripping it off, when in reality I actually think this is better. But whatever, okay. So the first one is what is meaningful work for you, and I underline the word work. I do this with clients all the time. This is always what we're trying to get to. The center point of the first circle of this Venn diagram is what is meaningful work for you, and it has to be work. Underline work Metaphorically and if you are writing this for whatever reason, underline it.

Alan 8:16

Second one is what are you statistically great at? It has to be tied top five percent. Tithe has to be top five percent. If you aren't good at it, you can't build your career on it, and I know this is about fulfillment. I understand that. However, this is about success and fulfillment, and the only way to have success and fulfillment is to have a career that is meaningful work for you and something you're statistically good at, because if you're not good at it, you're never going to succeed beyond the norm and you're not going to be able to afford your high quality of life. High quality of life costs a lot of money. It needs to be clear, like if you want to drive the car you want to drive, if you want to live in a nice home in a nice area, safe neighborhood, like it all costs a ton of money, okay.

Alan 8:58

Second, uh, third one, rather so. First one is what's meaningful work for you? Underline work. The second one is what is what are you statistically great at? Underline statistically. It can't be your mom who thinks you're great, kevin I think you're so handsome, right?

Kevin 9:12

yeah, of course she does.

Alan 9:14

And then the third one is what is actually profitable in the economy now and in the future. So what will the economy actually pay you for? And that's the one. That's the reason why it's so hard. I say this on other shows, I don't say it on our show enough, and sometimes I want to. I want to bring those things to our listeners as well. I actually think success, just success without any fulfillment, is actually fairly easy. Of course I would think that, but that's my truth.

Alan 9:43

Fulfillment without success is also pretty easy, I think yeah I would agree I think doing them both simultaneously but external success in your career in tandem, in parallel with internal fulfillment, I think, is the hardest, freaking thing in the world. Because even when you achieve it, like we have now, you have to sustain it and grow it, and I think that that's the hardest thing and that's what I do with all my clients. Some of them are burning hot. One of my clients shout out to Matt, not fulfilled, I could tell, showing up to the call. It's like dude you. I said is this a pattern? He said well, I, you, I do. I burn hot and then I burn out. He used almost those exact words and he said some of this is a pattern. I said some of this is a pattern, but some of this is you're not fulfilled right now. Why we got to dig into this? He's like yeah, I think 60 of it is. I'm not really doing anything I really enjoy anymore. It's okay, where are your superchargers at? Where are your cup fillers? We need to have some of them.

Alan 10:39

A lot of people think oh well, you love movies and so you R&R too. Yes, but you've got to understand my R&R is strategic. I have an hour of R&R. I try a minimum per day and I always do food and film not always, but a lot of the time why it's cheap. I need to eat anyway and I'm actually relaxing my body because I'm constantly doing stuff and I work out every day. So your R&R needs to be fulfilling whatever. You have to go to your superchargers otherwise, like imagine an iPhone I always use this metaphor the iPhone chargers that suck from Amazon, the knockoffs they don't work. You wake up, you got 20. You're like uh-oh, so sleep is a supercharger, r and r is a supercharger. And then the cup fillers you need. I told this, shout out to matt. I said, matt, you got to start doing some of the things that fulfill you. Yeah, you have to now. Don't spend your whole day doing them. You have some goals to achieve, sir, but got to do at least at least a few hours a week.

Kevin 11:40

Well, fulfillment I think fulfillment doesn't feel productive, but it can be. But if you only do fulfillment, then you're going to end up. That's not a recipe for success and that's why it's so hard. Again, this is why the advice you take is so challenging. There are some people that have so much results financially in life that they can just focus on hyper-fulfillment and they can travel and spend time with family, but that's because the finances are taken care of. If I didn't have to worry about finances, I could just podcast all day, every day, or I could rap all day, or I could go to the gym all I could just do all of the things that I think are fulfilling and I the truth is, I wouldn't be as fulfilled because I wouldn't be growing and contributing towards something necessarily exactly, and that's more than you're doing it now I could.

Kevin 12:25

Yeah, I think one of the challenging things is when you start to get a and when I say financial success, I'm not saying that you're a millionaire, I'm not saying you're making six figures a new when it feels like you've reached a new level, say financial success, I'm not saying that you're a millionaire, I'm not saying you're making six figures A new when it feels like you've reached a new level of financial success, whatever that means. Maybe you're making $1,000 a month in your dream chasing and now you're making $2,000. Awesome, great, awesome. Or zero to 50. Whatever, it creates the opportunity for you to explore potentially new, fulfilling things. As an example for me you don't hear me talk about jiu-jitsu anymore because I'm not going to jiu-jitsu. I canceled my membership. It was $160 a month and I just it was a little I don't want to say arrogant, because I don't think it was arrogant. It was a little naive to think that, yeah, I'll be able to go to a class every three or four days a week at 10 am.

Kevin 13:18

No, not going to happen Doesn't work that way. If they had a 7 am class, maybe, but would it work with the flow of work? Probably not. But that became an opportunity because of business success, that I could then test out. And then I had to choose Would?

Alan 13:37

you rather go Sorry?

Kevin 13:39

Yeah, you should be. You should be, continue, and I'm just about done. Would you be If you had to choose Kev? Let's say you had to choose in this situation Jiu-jitsu, weightlifting what would you choose? I would choose weightlifting. Okay, cool. I'm not saying you have to choose between financial success and fulfillment. What I am saying is you might have to choose between five things that fulfill you and then prioritize those accordingly, and one might get squished out. For this season. That's what I ended up doing. And now I go to the gym five days a week minimum and I spend 45 minutes there and it's awesome, and I'm meal prepping and I'm tracking my macros and I'm weighing myself and all that stuff. I'm loosely tracking my macros, not as much as I was when I was dieting, but I would rather do that than go to jiu-jitsu and sometimes there are gives and takes with that.

Alan 14:37

I realized in hindsight that when you had said, do you think it's time for jujitsu, I didn't realize it's not just okay, 160 a month, whatever, that's fine, it's the fact that your whole morning is going to be unproductive.

Kevin 14:54

Completely different. Yeah, because you have to drive there.

Alan 14:56

You have to shower because you sweat up a storm.

Kevin 14:58

So you have to shower more than you normally do. No same, that's the same. Okay, the drive is five minutes longer. Okay, literally my gym's six minutes away. This gym was 11 minutes away.

Alan 15:08

But you can't go anytime you want. That's the issue. You can, can't go anytime you want. Can't go anytime you want. Yeah, and if there was a 5 am class, it probably could work.

Kevin 15:16

It wouldn't work now with my schedule, no. Or 6. 6 would work. No, the way I have it now, I like it. I like waking up, doing mobility, doing self-improvement, making sure everything's good. Then I go to the gym at 7.30. It's good, I guess. If there was a 730 class, maybe that would work.

Alan 15:35

So a lot of people might be thinking well, you've got to live. You've got to live a little. Here's the deal. Kevin and I are in our 30s. This is build years. You're supposed to build in your 30s. I'm not trying to say you're supposed to.

Kevin 15:49

I don't want to project, I don't want to come off as we have to, we have to, we have to, we have to build in our 30s, because Alan's going to have a family soon-ish, in the next five years.

Kevin 16:00

I'm not, I'm not going to have a family in the next five years. Most likely, I think we'll maybe adopt at some point. I don't know, but this is the time where the priority is grow the business and we are secondary to that 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.

Kevin 16:32

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. 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 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 build yourself, build your family, build your business.

Alan 17:04

Whatever order you want to do it in, it depends. I was telling kev this is a video game analogy, but we both loved call of duty back in the day. Kev's like I still do, so I'm gonna say yeah, and I was saying how way back I used to play call of duty ghosts. I was on a podcast recently with someone who loved anthony. He loves ghosts, call of duty ghosts. That was the og back in 2015, I think 2014, and I had a 3.4 kill to death ratio and and basically there's stats and there's rankings and there's team death match and all these different categories.

Alan 17:35

Whatever the point is is the way that you whatever you track, changes the way you play the game. So if you're tracking fulfillment, you're going to optimize for that. If you're tracking profitability, you're going to optimize for that. Like, I have a client right now who does shout out to you brother, he works in education, he works at the bank, he does uber, eats deliveries on the side, he tutors on the side and he just started coaching. Okay, here's the deal. He expects himself to not be as fulfilled. This is a growth phase where he's anticipating potential burnout and trying to mitigate it, and he's anticipating not being as fulfilled. In some ways he's more fulfilled than sitting around you know that kind of thing, but he knows this is a profitable goal. So he's focused on buying a home and he's on his way and he's coaching with me twice a week. So holy crap. But the idea here is listen, this is the chapter that you're in, and what is he optimizing for? He's optimizing for growth and profitability. He's not optimizing for funsies, and that's okay for a season.

Alan 18:41

All of us have different core values. All of us have different things Like what do you want to optimize for? If you have $500,000 sitting in a bank account, then you don't have to optimize for profitability as much as we do, because we have expenses, we have a team, right. So we have a business. We have to build it. A lot of people don't understand. Okay, you build a half million dollar business and you earn $500,000 a year, but you have to spend $400,000 to keep that snowball rolling and then it goes. You know it was $300,000 and $200,000, and then it was, you know, 300 gross 200 expenses. Then it was 400 gross 300 expenses, then 500 gross 400 expenses. When it gets to a million, it'll be 800 expenses Kev. Can you explain that? Because I think I think that's important not only in career too, because even though that's business in your career, if you make a hundred thousand dollars a year, you don't actually make a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Kevin 19:33

Well, you get taxed more, right, if you made $50,000 and then you make $100,000, you get taxed more than you did.

Alan 19:37

Exactly, and so you make $100,000, that's great, but you actually spend $80,000 to make that $100,000. I just wonder if that's a principle we should.

The Cost of Success and Fulfillment

Kevin 19:44

I don't, I mean, I think it's I. Let's say how do I even explain it? Let's say the reason we're able to make $500,000 is because we have $500,000 worth of demand. But we cannot service all of that demand ourselves. That's not just Alan and I. There's a team required and tools.

Alan 20:10

And tools and software, apps and lifestyle and cars and mortgages and rent and taxes.

Kevin 20:17

Yeah, I pay $210 a month for the fastest internet I can possibly get, same. That adds up that we pay $50, I don't know how much. It is $40 a month for StreamYard. We have. I don't even know how many Zoom accounts and Canva Canva accounts. There's a bunch Google Drive, apple Storage. There is thousands and thousands of dollars a month of stuff that's going out.

Kevin 20:48

But that's the requirement when you go to your favorite restaurant. They have to keep the lights on. They have to have Wi-Fi. They have to get everything serviced. They have to do marketing. They have to keep the lights on. They have to have wi-fi. They have to get everything serviced. They have to do marketing. They have to do branding. They probably do social media. They got to pay everybody. You got to pay everybody's insurance, like all that stuff.

Kevin 21:03

But you don't necessarily understandably like why would you? You wouldn't think about it. But you don't think about that when the prices go up, like well, the prices kind of have to go up because their expenses went up and they'll go out of business if they don't. They're not just because I saw some people stream yards the service that we use and I have no affiliation to it, so it sucks that the price went up. I understand, but people were saying, oh, they're greedy, they raise their price. It's like I don't think that's what it was. They probably have been trying to create the most affordable competitive pricing since they began and they're realizing if they keep doing that they're going to go out of freaking business yeah and now they're they have to raise their prices.

Kevin 21:42

I don't think a lot of it comes, some of it comes from a place of greed, for sure, but not I don't think most of the time it's that, so that's probably the best I could add to that.

Alan 21:52

Well, they probably invested in some new engineers and some new technologies and some new IT systems and now they need to raise the price to sustain that. And they also probably have a competitive advantage that now they can charge more. And, by the way, if you charge more, you earn more. If you earn more, you can invest more in the company and make the product or service even better. Right, so the competitive aspect of careers in business. I would love to again careers more than business, because this isn't a business podcast. But I would love to pick your brain at some point, kev, about what you didn't understand about finances in the past, because this is health, wealth, life and love, and when it comes to the wealth, I don't think and I I need to.

Alan 22:29

I'm not trying to pick on kev, so just pick on me son, you were cfo and I didn't know what you didn't know and you said I shouldn't be cfo and that's all fine in hindsight. I just I don't think that you understood how it all worked and now you do, so you have an opportunity to share that in a way that it's like me with. I didn't understand how the inner child worked and I didn't understand humility, courage, vulnerability. I didn't understand abandonment, challenges and defective, unlovable, unwanted and all the stuff Amelia has taught me. I didn't know any of that. So to me there's so much that we can that you can transcode for people, because you've been on both ends of this, because some stuff I said this on a podcast earlier some of this stuff is so natural to some of us we don't even give good advice, we don't even know.

Alan 23:22

I've never not thought about. Like when I walk into a Panera Bread, I'm literally contemplating the profit and loss statement, like in real time, and I'm asking myself, okay, why is this soup this much, and what's the bread cost and how much I? And then what's that person make? And oh, kiosks. That's smart, I'm doing that all the time. Bottomless coffee makes perfect sense. That's why people come. But then they spend more on the salads that are overpriced because right. So I'm doing all that in my head.

Alan 23:47

So you don't know what you don't know and you don't know what you do know, unfortunately, and so hopefully we can do an episode on that.

Kevin 23:52

I think, real quick, the real flex is not how much money you make. The real flex is how little money you spend. If we, if, instead of saying how much money do you make, imagine a world where you didn't ask somebody that you said, hey, how much money do you spend a month, you get a really quick understanding of how much money that person would actually have to make in order to afford that lifestyle. Or if they're not actually affording that lifestyle, you, it'd become abundantly clear.

Kevin 24:19

That's the that's, yeah, that's something that I would just start with well, it's the trend line.

Alan 24:25

Is it going up? I think overall, are you earning more over time and spending less than you earn more, which is hard to explain, but but like if your revenue or your income increases by a hundred grand, can you keep your expenses only increasing at 70? Yes, yeah.

Kevin 24:41

Yeah, right, if you, if you increase the amount of money you made by 50% and you increase your expenses by 60%, you didn't make any more money.

Alan 24:48

You actually lost 10% of your income. It just doesn't. You're on your way downhill.

Kevin 24:52

It just doesn't seem like it and it's really easy. Well, yeah, I know I'm good, I can re-up my lease, I'll get a 2026. Now I'm good I can get a 2026 vehicle because I got a pay increase. This was something that I didn't realize because I had never done this before. Car payment is one thing, insurance is another thing. When you register a brand new vehicle, it costs me $1,000 to register my car and then it costs $700 the next year. Like that's $100. I mean, essentially that's $100 a month. That's $90 a month if you were to. So that adds up, so that comes right off. So it's very easy to spend money. Spending money is really easy.

Alan 25:33

I know we get a jump. It's fun as hell. Well, it's way easier to spend than it is to earn. And that's just a fact. Click of a button you spend money, earning money, not just a click of a button.

Kevin 25:44

If you're really good at gambling.

Alan 25:46

You know, no one's really good at gambling, man I counted cards in my past, sir, I was actually really good. We get a jump Fulfillment.

Kevin 25:54

We get a jump?

Alan 25:59

What are you statistically great at? What fulfills you, meaningful work for you, and what will the economy actually pay you for? What do they consider valuable? And if you can find the epicenter of that and really focus there, just make sure that you're not burning hot and burning out, but you're also not only focused on what's fulfilling, because if you are only focused on what's fulfilling, you might end up, ironically, not fulfilled.

Kevin 26:17

And ask yourself this is a good question that I would ask myself. That would definitely raise my awareness which one do you find comes really easy to you? One, and which one do you find that comes really easy to you? If I said, hey, could you?

Alan 26:34

get 10 out of 10, the most fun could you get my funnest?

Kevin 26:38

could you get 10 out of 10 fulfilled this month versus could you become 10 out of 10, financially free? Which one, would you say, comes easier to you?

Alan 26:46

how dare you? I'm so sorry.

Kevin 26:48

That was a good one I'm gonna start shitting on you when you make mistakes. You got to man. It is what it is.

Alan 26:55

No.

Kevin 26:56

I don't like to.

Alan 26:57

No, no, playfully, we're fun with it.

Kevin 27:00

Yeah, it depends, it depends. Sometimes it's like a timing thing, because I know you can't.

Alan 27:09

Then we go off the rails a little bit, so it depends. I have to be very strategic with my Jeff pokings. Well, I don't want us to come off like we have. I think it's important to we have fun. Yeah, and we're having fun.

Kevin 27:19

We're not trying to be perfect.

Alan 27:20

No, yeah, I think that was hilarious, I don't know.

Kevin 27:23

Sometimes you start saying something and you want to change what you say, but it's too late. So that's all that was. That was just me glitching.

Alan 27:30

I want to say something different, but I've already committed and I can't. And then I stop myself, as I was saying it.

Kevin 27:36

There's a lot that goes into it, but that would be what I would say. Which one statistically comes easier to you Fulfillment or external success and you probably need to work on the other one Strong work. Yeah, you strong work. All right, next up Nation. If you are looking for a group of like-minded humans who are into self-improvement, into next levelness, into self-awareness, all of that stuff, we have a private facebook group. It's called next level nation. We'll have the link in the show notes. We would love to have you there.

Alan 28:04

I'll be doing a shout out some point this week maybe tomorrow's episode of all the new amazing members if you want to reverse, engineer your goals, metrics, habits, skills and identity and really get on track with an upward trend line toward external success and internal fulfillment. It's my favorite work in the world. I have, like I said, one client, matt we're focused on fulfillment right now, another client focused on success and everything in between. So if you want success and fulfillment kev called me the goal engineer uh, emilia said you're more of a fulfillment engineer and uh, I really appreciated that on the walk yesterday because I do think when you are in a career you adore, you end up more successful long term. Anyway, long term is the key there you didn't appreciate that.

Kevin 28:47

I brought it up and then she innovated on it?

Alan 28:50

no, no, I did. I just think it's interesting because I do both. But I wonder what she thinks I do fulfillment more than success, which might be the problem. Uh, it's fair I love them both so much. But I do think fulfillment is the long-term focus and I think success, short term is, is necessary in certain chapters also depends on what somebody defines fulfillment as versus.

Kevin 29:11

There's a lot of context that's important on who's hearing it.

Alan 29:16

They're super hard to do both. That's what I would say, but I'm getting. I would say that's what I'm focused on most is helping my clients achieve external success and internal fulfillment well, and even that is holistic.

Kevin 29:27

Holistic means both, it means all. It means well-rounded. It doesn't mean you're all in on one thing and none on the other. That's what holistic means.

Alan 29:35

Are you the most successful externally you've ever been?

Kevin 29:38

Yes.

Alan 29:39

Are you the most fulfilled internally you've ever been? Yes, well, I would say we're doing our job well.

Building a Strong Community Bond

Kevin 29:44

I can say the same. Yeah, I would concur, and that's what it's all about, and that's why I love doing episodes like this, because it's I'm not saying don't be fulfilled. I want you to be fulfilled 100%. If you're on that end where you're grinding your face off and you hate your life, we've got to find some fulfillment. That's important because that's going to help you do more of the stuff that's going to help you become more externally successful. If you're only fulfilled and you're struggling financially, maybe one of the reasons is you're not doing the external stuff that would bring. That's all, and it might suck, it might not be. I don't really want to do that today. I understand. I understand Sometimes fulfillment is something that is not super productive, but other times it is All right, cool, 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.

Alan 30:33

Keep after it Next Level Nation.

Kevin 30:37

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

Alan 30:43

Level family. 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.

Kevin 30:52

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.