The Future Is A Different Place (1947)

In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan share how balancing big-picture thinking with action leads to success. Discover practical ways to overcome procrastination, leverage your strengths, and build momentum toward your goals. Whether you’re a dreamer, a doer, or somewhere in between, this episode will inspire you to take that next step today.

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Show notes:
(3:35) Turning inspiration into action
(5:04) Momentum Vs. Procrastination
(8:27) Strategic thinking Vs. Immediate action
(11:50) Kevin’s journey: from dirt to clouds
(12:24) 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.
(14:12) Tethering big dreams into reality
(19:32) Which are you: Clouds or dirt?
(20:41) 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

Kevin Palmieri 0:00

this isn't that big of a deal. In the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world, and the more you make it feel like the end of the world, the more it's going to feel like it is. So we have to make sure that we understand this is the short term. This doesn't have to be forever. It's not going to be forever. I think it's a very unique juggling act. I think it's a skill worth developing.

Alan Lazaros 0:22

When you do believe in your ability to manifest the decade, sometimes you can get lost in the decade and you forget about the now. And that's why you and I drove to five together and you were really good at tethering me to reality, and every time I had a bold idea you'd say, yeah, but it could snow or whatever Insert seemingly pessimistic thing. And now that I coach couples and I have been for the last four years there's almost always an overly optimistic partner and an overly pessimistic partner.

Kevin Palmieri 0:47

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

Alan Lazaros 0:52

And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri 0:55

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

Alan Lazaros 1:01

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

Kevin Palmieri 1:08

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.

Alan Lazaros 1:24

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

Kevin Palmieri 1:33

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 1947, the future is a dangerous place, potentially. And maybe it's a little bit of a different perspective than you would guess from seeing that title. I had a call today with an amazing client, and this client is somebody who is very intuitive, very spiritual, very connected, and my fear and I said this to this person today is I think that's that's a potentially dangerous thing for your future. And let me explain why. So this client is somebody who has very big goals, has very big dreams, has very big aspirations and is very clear on what they want them to be. And I kept redirecting this client during the call because I would say okay, so what's the next step between now and the next time we talk? What do you think is one reasonable, sustainable thing we can do? And they say, all right, let me think about it for a sec. And then they would jump to the future again and they'd say, well, this is really the vision I see for the next few years, and I'd let them go, go, go, go, let's dream together I love it. And then we get to the end and I say, love that, love that, and. And we keep falling off when we're trying to figure out what the next step is. Same thing would happen. It happened probably four or five times and at the end I said I love all that and I have to hop in a couple minutes. I want to make sure we get some tactics here. What is the one, what are the two, what are the three things that we can do between now and the next time? You and I talk, because my fear is all of this fire, all of this passion, all of this purpose you're feeling right now is going to die if you don't do something in the next week.

Kevin Palmieri 3:35

I know I was the kid who wanted to be a, or the guy who wanted to be a professional, full-time podcaster. I know, but that all happened after I was on Alan's YouTube channel and then the next day I went and ordered all the equipment. If I waited a week, this might not be a thing. If I waited a month, this might not be a thing. And maybe you're thinking yourself well, kev, if that's, if that's the case, maybe you didn't want it bad enough. I can understand how you might get to that conclusion. I don't think that's what it is. I think when you have momentum, when you have inspiration, when you have motivation, the resistance is a little bit lower. Does anybody ever have inspiration to do their taxes? I don't know. I never have it sucks it sucks.

Momentum Vs. Procrastination

Kevin Palmieri 4:25

That's something you just put it on your calendar and you just gotta sit down and you gotta do it. But have you ever gone for a run? I remember this happened back in the day when I would run. I'd go for a run around the town loop in Uxbridge, where we grew up, and I think the town loop's like three miles, and I'd get to the end of the first loop and I'd say I feel good, I'm gonna keep going, I'm already there, I'm already doing it, I'm already, I'm in momentum, I'm in motion, I feel good already. There's something to be said about that. Now, if I went back home and I said, well, tomorrow I'll come run, tomorrow I'll do six miles instead of three probably not gonna happen. So there's something to be said about.

Kevin Palmieri 5:04

Yes, yes, planning for the future is super important and having a time perspective around the future is super important, and being intentional and strategic is super important. But the future starts now and there's got to be something that happens today. Last thing, before I kick it to you, alan, I shared a quote the other day If you want to accomplish something really big this year, do something really small today. It's the best way to start. It's the best way to start. I love the fact that this person has a vision for the next five years. I love that, but if we wait a year to start, we have way less time. We could literally do something today that actually makes a dent in that dream. So that was what was on my mind today.

Alan Lazaros 5:51

I have a client who runs a business and we're trying to figure out who's the best role for each part of the business and I'm asking the pros and cons of each person. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses for each part of the business. And I'm asking the pros and cons of each person. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and someone on his crew is extremely action oriented. They take action really, really quickly, but sometimes they don't think that strategically or that long term. So they needed a tool and instead of going and getting the tool, they like postponed doing the thing. And if they thought a little more strategically, they would have been able to go get the tool. They like postponed doing the thing and if they thought a little more strategically, they would have been able to go get the tool, come back and do it in time or whatever. And I was just talking about strengths and weaknesses and this whole clouds and dirt this long-term strategic thinking versus in the moment doing. The problem with achievement, success, fulfillment, is that you need both. When you and I first started working together, you went, you were Kevin was ready. Fire no aim, aside from a simple Google search Ready aim, no, ready fire, ready fire. I was ready. Aim, aim, ready aim. Aim is always planning, never actually doing. Ready fire is doing a lot of stuff at the expense sometimes of progress. We all need to be ready aim fire and it's, I think, the important piece of this episode is which one is your strength and which one it comes with an inherent weakness. If you're really good at clouds, you're not going to be as good at dirt. That's the whole idea between behind white collar, blue collar, blue collar work with their hands but they maybe don't think as long-term. And then white collar thinks long-term but doesn't. Isn't as gritty usually. And again, that that's just a metaphor. I'm not saying white collar, blue collar, as a negative thing, but that's kind of the idea is a lot of times there's laborers who work with their hands, plumbers and all that kind of stuff, and then there's white collar. Is, you know, thinking long term and numbers, and that's how people think of it. And I think the truth is is that they're all skills. You have one skill of thinking long-term, strategic, and then another skill of actually implementing, and I can think of some people and I'm going to keep this, of course, but Emilia and I have this conversation all the time because we're all trying to get our clients results. That's ultimately what we're trying to do. We're trying to have our clients be successful and fulfilled. She does it through the mental health frame, I do it from the business coaching frame. But ultimately we're trying to help people live their goals and dreams, achieve their goals and dreams, and some people get a lot more results than others.

Alan Lazaros 8:27

It's so obvious, especially over a year or two. So I've been reflecting a lot on 2024, and I have certain clients that just crushed and certain clients that maybe didn't get as much out of it. It's always the clients who take immediate action, take action really quickly, who get results. Always they implement so fast. Bianca's a good example of this. She'll just we'll change her system and then she'll just implement immediately. She'll do it that day or the next day. Now here's what I've realized If long-term strategic thinking is my strength, if someone else has the strength of taking immediate action and is very coachable and humble, of course that's a powerful combination. So that's what I've figured out the people who do the best in my coaching are the people who can implement quickly. The people who don't do that well in my coaching are the people who also think they're good at long-term strategic thinking, which means they brainstorm about, brainstorming, about brainstorming.

Alan Lazaros 9:19

Now, trigger warning for everyone out there. I'm going to call this mental masturbation. What I mean by that is talking about talking, talking about concepts. I get caught in this sometimes too. I love deep conversations.

Alan Lazaros 9:32

Understanding is valuable. Deeper understanding is valuable. Deeper understanding might be the most valuable. If you don't know how the plumbing system works, trust me, you cannot fix it when it breaks. I can't. I can now, but I learned from someone. The idea of understanding is so critical. If you understand heat, fuel, oxygen, that's how fire is created. Okay, now you can control the fire. The fire doesn't control you. Now you know how to put out a fire. You went to the fire academy. They taught you all about fire how it works, why it works that way, how to put it out. Okay, don't put that on. Definitely do this. That's awesome. Deeper understanding.

Alan Lazaros 10:06

That said, unless you can take action consistently with the small things, you'll never build momentum. And I am more convinced than ever, and I have some people that I've referred to. With emilia, we were on a walk not long ago and I said this verbatim. I said isn't it so frustrating how that person Thinks they're amazing, and, and they are amazing in their own right in certain regards, but Kevin would run circles around them. Dude, I've said that behind your back many times. Do you want to know what you have that they don't? And these people, people I'm putting in quotes there are people who wouldn't respect you. You're a blue-collar looking dude, you don't have a master's degree, you didn't go to college, you don't have higher education. To them, tattoo, bodybuilder, right. They don't necessarily respect your meritocracy level things. Here's the thing I know some people that wouldn't respect you, kev, who you would run circles around forever. You're going to be way more successful than they are. Why? Because you take action. You take so much action, so much action.

Alan Lazaros 11:10

I just reviewed 2024 and I went through all the things that we accomplished and the impact we had as a team. And it's nuts 52 PGU episodes, 365 NLU episodes, even just that. Those are the two podcasts Kevin produced in 2024. Personally, you showed up for 365 plus 52, 417 episodes, not including the 637 other shows that we went on. Right, so you did 417 episodes last year. That's more than an episode a day on average. That's the ability to consistently show up, even when you don't want to. I guarantee you. There's at least 100 episodes in there where you were like absolutely don't want to do this.

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.

Alan Lazaros 11:50

So that's clouds and dirt. What are you better at? You're better at dirt. You need some clouds. You need to work on your life. You need a redesign. You need someone who thinks long-term, strategically. You need to get more intelligent, for lack of better phrase. You need to study more books, productivity, business success Awesome, but the dirt is there. You can get your hands dirty. For other people, it's the opposite. They're really good at the long-term strategic stuff. They've got ideas on ideas, on ideas, on ideas on ideas, and it becomes this mental masturbation, but they don't actually get to work and really make sure that they're putting in the reps. 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.

Kevin Palmieri 12:47

The link to register will be in the show notes. I think one of the most common misconceptions when it comes to achieving something is you go from not achieving it to achieving it when there's its percentages. So when you're 90 of the way, it's not as surprising as when you get there. And I think that's really what I was talking to this person about today. It's I know what the, I know what the goals are five years but if you don't start, they don't happen. It doesn't work that way. In five years, yes, things will be different, but they're not going to be different enough to go from where you are today to the end goal.

Kevin Palmieri 13:22

It doesn't work that way Because, realistically, the end goal isn't even the end goal, it just looks like it. You're envisioning a result. You're not necessarily understanding and again, I'm not frustrated with this person, I love this person but you're not necessarily understanding all the things that must go into it for that to happen. And those are the things that happen day in and day out, day in and day out. And I've said this on other podcasts and I've said it here too, but I think it's a really good example. The day that we crossed a million dollars in the business and a million listens, I wasn't that excited, Not that I'm not grateful, not that it wasn't a dream come true. The day before I kind of knew it was going to happen. And the two days before that I knew it was going to happen that week.

Alan Lazaros 14:12

But the reason why you knew is because you measure daily. Well, yes, yes, that also tethers you down to reality. When emilia and I were having this conversation, we were talking about how some people are not tethered, and tethering sounds bad. It sounds like I'm trying to hold you back. No, I'm trying to get you to stay in reality. Clouds, if you're up in the clouds talking about how you're going to change the world, I'm all for that. I'm, mr clouds. Let's talk about changing the world, but you better come back and get your hands dirty real quick.

Kevin Palmieri 14:36

I remember one time Tara and I were going for a walk and again this. It sounds so dumb now, but this is what I thought at the time. I didn't have any other understanding. I had just gotten my first thousand dollar plus per month client and I remember telling Taryn I said I only need nine more of those. And then I have a six figure. Like my piece of the business is six figures and maybe you're thinking out there too, like yeah, I mean, that makes sense, I know it makes sense. The numbers make sense. It's not as easy as I thought it was gonna. I was ignorant at that point. I didn't understand what had. I didn't understand, I didn't know how this worked.

Alan Lazaros 15:19

Can you unpack what you didn't understand? All I need is nine more.

Kevin Palmieri 15:24

All I need is nine more.

Alan Lazaros 15:25

And to sustain all the previous ones. No, just nine. Just give me nine. That's all I thought of. All I need is nine more, and that'll do it.

Kevin Palmieri 15:33

That's just one. The first quote, unquote. I think people call that high ticket. I don't really. It's whatever. The first. That first client was introduced to me through someone. I didn't know them, so I had somebody else's co-sign that we could actually help them, and we could. It was good.

Alan Lazaros 15:56

It's a transfer of trust.

Kevin Palmieri 15:57

A transfer of trust. I went above and beyond. I went to this person's house many times. They left me there with their dog. I was trying to figure out how to set up their podcast stuff. So I was just, I remember, walking into Alan's house and we were getting ready to record an episode and the client called me and I said dude, I gotta take this. This is our biggest client, I gotta take this. So so much attention went into it and again, it's a privilege to be able to serve somebody in that way. Sure, I'm not saying it's bad attention, but that for I don't know, every 25 messages you send to a potential client like that, two people answer like just, there's a lot more that has to go into it. But I was. This is the debt. This is also the downside.

Kevin Palmieri 16:42

I was riding so high on the emotions of the win that I assumed the next win would be as easy. Just like when you get kicked in the face and you're taking an l, you assume tomorrow is's gonna be an L too. And neither of those necessarily are true and definitely neither of those have to be true. And I just fell victim Right now. Alan and I were just talking about this. I said I'm due for an L. I'm due. I mean, I had a really good Q4. I'm due to get kicked in the teeth. It's most likely going to happen Now. You might say, kev, you're manifesting that. I'm not trying to do that and I don't think that's what I'm doing.

Alan Lazaros 17:20

I think what I'm doing is You've been on this planet long enough to know.

Kevin Palmieri 17:23

I'm staying tethered. I don't want to just assume that because things have been going well, that's the goal. That's the goal because it's gonna happen and okay, well, maybe I'm, maybe I'm lucky it doesn't happen for the next six weeks. I just want to make sure I'm prepared for it, because it's very easy for me to go from feeling like a winner to feeling like a loser if I get kicked in the face a couple times. That's, that's just self-awareness. I'm very aware of that. I've taken enough L's over the last eight years to know that it can hurt me quickly and I have to be very on top of Kev. This isn't that big of a deal. In the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world, and the more you make it feel like the end of the world, the more it's going to feel like it is. So we have to make sure that we understand this is the short term. This doesn't have to be forever. It's not going to be forever. I think it's a very unique juggling act. I think it's a skill worth developing.

Alan Lazaros 18:18

So because I know we've got to go, unfortunately, short one today. Clouds and Dirt which one is your superpower? Which one are you the best at? For me, I'm better at clouds than I am at dirt, and I've had to work really hard to stay in the dirt, and what I mean by that is stay humble. So kev didn't believe in himself, so he wasn't thinking 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ahead so his dirt was easier, it came easier.

Alan Lazaros 18:47

It's not hard to think about the now when you don't believe in your ability to manifest the decade.

Alan Lazaros 18:54

When you do believe in your ability to manifest the decade, sometimes you can get lost in the decade and you forget about the now, and that's why you and I drove to five together, and you were really good at tethering me to reality, and every time I had a bold idea, you'd say, yeah, but it could snow or whatever Insert seemingly pessimistic thing, and now that I coach couples and I have been for the last four years there's almost always an overly optimistic partner and an overly pessimistic partner, and what happens is fortunately, this is the first time in my life where I've ever been the more pessimistic one, because Emilia will have, like these big ideas and I'll say, yeah, absolutely.

Alan Lazaros 19:32

And what about this, though, whereas normally I was the far pie in the sky guy? So, clouds and dirt, which one is your superpower, and what's the one that you need to work on? For me? I'm clouds, I need to work on dirt, and I need to stay humble, especially when I'm winning Kev you're dirt. You need to stay optimistic, especially when you're losing Listener. You're dirt, you need to stay optimistic, especially when you're losing Listener, which are you, and make sure you're focusing on the other one.

Kevin Palmieri 19:56

The other one doesn't need work.

Alan Lazaros 19:57

You're naturally doing that. I'm a natural strategist. I don't have to set aside time to strategize. I have to make sure we get this episode done. That's why we had an hour and a half to do this, but we were strategizing about 2024, 2025, earlier, so you don't need to schedule the one. That's automatic for me. The strategy is automatic, the clouds are automatic. I need to make sure I get the dirt done pie in the sky guy.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri 20:20

That could be another band name. I'm on a band name kick pie in the sky guy. That is something special. Next level nation. If you never want to miss an opportunity to get to the next level, make sure you are subscribed. On whatever platform you are watching or listening on, you get that little bing ding ring in the morning that says nlu just dropped an episode. Maybe that'll be the gentle kick in the butt. You need to get a little bit better that day. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at nlu we do not have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow stay next level, next level nation family.

Kevin Palmieri 20:52

We will talk to you all tomorrow. Stay Next Level, next Level Nation.

Alan Lazaros 20:58

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next 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 Palmieri 21:08

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.