Next Level University

February Check-in (1968)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Share episode

Are you on track with your goals, or does it feel like the year is slipping away? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros take a step back to check progress, priorities, and the balance between the present and the future. They break down what’s working, what’s not, and how to stay consistent without feeling overwhelmed. Whether you’re crushing it or need a reset, this episode will help you refocus and confidently move forward.

Join us:
Monthly Meet-up #38: “How to Uncover, Define, and Live Your Most Important Core Values” - https://bit.ly/3Ec6ad9

_____________________

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:
(2:49) How far into the year are we?
(4:46) Reflecting on January’s wins and losses
(6:30) Why you can’t master everything at once
(9:46) Health, relationships, and business priorities
(11:30) 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. https://bit.ly/3Ec6ad9
(13:54) Present Vs. Future focus in goal setting
(16:45) Self-belief, humility, and growth
(19:09) Choosing between lifestyle and achievement
(21:47) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

We as a business have gone in a very interesting place where we've expanded and then locked it in and maybe contracted and expanded and locked it in, and right now we are in a very simple but deep time, Like there are very few things I'm doing, there's very few things you're doing in terms of within the business, but we're trying to make sure we just do those things really well and I think we are more focused on the present than we have been.

Alan Lazaros:

You've got to go and reevaluate the map and see where you're at and say, okay, well, I took a detour here, well, I decided that wasn't that important. Well, I ended up breaking up with my girlfriend because of blah, blah, blah. So now we're not going to get married. So now I'm going to have to move when we have kids because I need to meet some, whatever it is. So it's constantly both, and that's why life is so hard and that's why you have me. You know, every couple months I usually have a sort of little identity crisis.

Kevin Palmieri:

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 Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

we bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits in defining your own unique version of success, self-improvement in your pocket every day, from anywhere, 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 1,968, we're going to do a quick February February, is that how you pronounce it technically?

Alan Lazaros:

I don't know man, I just know it's spelled really funky.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I'm going to go February because that's how it's spelled.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, we're going to do a quick February check-in. So at this point, can you do some math for me and figure out how much through the year we are? Oh, yeah, man, and as you do that, I will set the frame. So I don't know about you whether you're watching or listening. I would say one month has probably felt like six months. It maybe was the longest month ever of all time. Really good. A lot of good stuff happened, a lot of stressful stuff. I was sick multiple times. There was a lot going on. Are you ready for it? Yes, I'm going to hold on. Let me guess. I'm going to guess it's 10% would be 20. I'm going to say it's 8.6%.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice Very close, it's 9.04% through the year.

Kevin Palmieri:

So we're 9% through the year.

Alan Lazaros:

If my mathematics is correct, it's 31 days in January plus two more days in Feb, so you're looking at 33 divided by 365.

Kevin Palmieri:

So the math is sound. It sounds sound to me. The reason I wanted to do this episode is because I know that when we hit february as it is perfectly pronounced, I guess pronounced you might be feeling all over the place. Maybe you have already given up on some of your beginning of the year goals, maybe you feel like a loser, maybe you feel like you're the best and you're crushing it. And I think, realistically, none of that is true and all of that is true at the same time, and I think sometimes we just need to zoom out. We need to zoom out. Alan and I were talking before this about how we're dealing with some different stuff behind the scenes. Alan more than I. Now I seem to be in a good phase. That means it's coming for me, because the good phases don't stay super long.

Alan Lazaros:

But any time, Enjoy it sir.

Kevin Palmieri:

Any time we're going through it, we try to zoom out, and sometimes zooming out means looking at the future. Sometimes zooming out means looking at the present from a different angle, and sometimes zooming out means looking at the future. Sometimes, zooming out means looking at the present from a different angle, and sometimes zooming out means looking at the past, and oftentimes it means all of those. This is my intention for today's episode is for all of us to be able to zoom out a little bit and just take a pause. Zoom out. What happened in January. Was it good? Was it successful? Did we do more than we wanted? Did we do less? What did in January? Was it good? Was it successful? Did we do more than we wanted? Did we do less? What did we learn? What did we?

Alan Lazaros:

forget All of that. I think it's just a good way to start a new month. One of the hardest things about this is when you ask how did January go? So let's ask that to all listeners, all viewers, and let's answer it, lead by example here. How did January go?

Alan Lazaros:

My brain goes to a couple places Number one huge month for business Great work, strong work, awesome work. So, winning in business, okay, great. Excellent Progress. Fitness meh, not terrible. I didn't let it ride, but meh, I'd say give it maybe an eight Okay, which for me is wildly unacceptable, quite frankly, because it's one of my most important things. And then sleep was pretty good, but not great. Now here's the problem, and this is what I really hope lands.

Alan Lazaros:

The most important priority in my personal life right now my Alan's world for a second is business success, growing Next Level University as a company. That's my number one most important priority in my world right now in this chapter. Okay, so I did that. Great job, awesome, strong, fucking work. Now, this might be unique to me, it probably is, but I don't know. I know some people feel this way. In order to achieve that, you almost have to kind of suck a little bit in some of the other shit, and it's very hard for me to be okay with that. It's very like I get it intellectually, I get it right. You're not going to win in everything all the time. You can't. It's dumb. You can't be a professional gamer and a professional athlete and a professional business owner. No one does that. This is a good thought.

Kevin Palmieri:

You're most likely not going to be an Olympic sprinter, an Olympic wrestler, an Olympic high diver, an Olympic swimmer, an Olympic long distance runner shot put javelin. You're most likely not, because what is required for one of those actually goes against what it would be to be good in another one 100%.

Alan Lazaros:

So if you were trying to be, I did a 5K last year and the lead time was something crazy like 14.38 or something. If Kev is trying to get jacked and build muscle and simultaneously win that 5k this year, no way yeah, because more muscle equals less, like if you were to. So just to put this in perspective 1438 5k, that's 3.1 miles, that's sub five minute miles the entire time. Basically that sounds terrible.

Kevin Palmieri:

It doesn't even sound humanly possible. I don't understand how people do it.

Alan Lazaros:

I can't even do one sub five minute mile, right, not even one. I don't know if I can do a sub six minute mile.

Kevin Palmieri:

I can't Okay.

Alan Lazaros:

So everyone picture that person, do they? What do you think they look like? Kev? Kev describe that human. I would guess you, but skinnier, tall long legs skinny skinny, lanky, skinny. Okay, now you imagine yourself I'm a bowling ball.

Kevin Palmieri:

Bowling ball, just roll you down the hill if I can get rolling, I might be able to do it.

Alan Lazaros:

But you're trying to build a lot of muscle, right? You weigh what? 185 right now.

Kevin Palmieri:

First of all, how dare you Second?

Alan Lazaros:

of all 182. I was off by three pounds Three pounds is a lot.

Alan Lazaros:

But okay, if Kev is saying, hey, I'm, I'm building strength, I'm building muscle, I'm I just got off a bulk and I built a ton of muscle and I feel jacked, Okay, now everyone, imagine what Kevin looks like. See how different those two are. The point that I'm going to try to bring into this episode for myself and as well as the listeners is holistic is so difficult. The listeners is holistic is so difficult. It's very hard to do well at sleep and be present in my relationship with Emilia and crush it in business and be a world-class coach and make sure that I'm on time for my training and that that's well prepped for and the in trainings. The standard for professional trainings is three hours of prep for every one hour on stage or in front of the class, so to speak. Yeah, good luck, I mean, with the way we have our life set up. So trying to be really, really, really, really world class at several things is extremely difficult.

Alan Lazaros:

And for the nLU listeners health, wealth and love. And then break those into categories okay. So health, sleep, hydration, training okay, good boom. Love, okay, quality time boom, boom, boom. We break this down in relationship talks, coaching recently. And then wealth when am I making my money? How much am I making? I have one client that's doing five different jobs, that is frozen and part-time.

Kevin Palmieri:

Alan's Wi-Fi has been jeffing, uh-oh. Is this gonna stay in the episode? I don't know, but he has frozen.

Alan Lazaros:

My internet went down.

Kevin Palmieri:

He's back. No, no, you're good. I was holding space just talking shit to myself. Where did you miss me? You stopped at you did health relationships? Those are the two that you did.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, nice, so we're going to roll with it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, of course.

Alan Lazaros:

So health and love, and then wealth is. I have a client who's part-time at five different jobs. One of them is semi-full-time with benefits. Awesome, Crushing it Proud of you. You know who you are.

Alan Lazaros:

How are you supposed to crush it and all three of those all the time? And if you're out there watching or listening and you look at january, to the point of this episode, and you say, okay, I did really well at the most important thing, how do you and I'm asking this for myself as well how do you feel really good about that, knowing that that took away from some other things you value deeply?

Kevin Palmieri:

I have a question. This is my question, because I had this popped up for me when you were talking. Do you think so, if you had to start from a place, you could either start from A or B. Those are the only two options in this scenario. Would you rather start as somebody who is hyper-focused on the present or hyper-focused on the future? And here's why I ask I don't know. I feel like for many of us, so for me, I think if I really focused on the present in the beginning and just getting good, not just like be present, I mean lock in my habits, lock in the things that I need to lock in Then I could focus on the future Versus. Right now it's the end of February and you're saying well, I'm worried about January of next year already.

Alan Lazaros:

It's like I don't know if that's good, depending.

Alan Lazaros:

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. I love this conversation. I'm so grateful you asked. I really appreciate it.

Alan Lazaros:

This is something I've contemplated my entire life because I'm very future oriented. I think your way of being hyper-p, present and focused on getting better in the present is optimal if it's reverse engineered. But you can't reverse engineer the present. So if you have your quarter, if you have your dream 10 years plus reverse engineered into and I do this, this is a dream mapping. I do this with clients, emile and I just did it with relationship docs, coaching clients. What you do is you take the year. You expand that out, so from 2025 to 2026, boom. You break it into four quarters. Then you take another scale and you break the next decade, so 2025 to 2035, boom. And then you write out 12 things you want to achieve and then you put those 12 into the proper syntax and what you realize is oh wait, a minute, I'm. I want to get married and buy this home before I have these kids. Okay, well, I need to get this certification before I do that, because I want to be able to afford having children and being present. But so it's. It's called dream mapping. I do it with clients all the time. Shout out to the clients that have done it. If any other client does want to do it, just let me know Dream mapping.

Alan Lazaros:

But the reason why that's so powerful is because once you have that done and assuming you did it well, now being hyper focused on getting better on the day-to-day and being present is actually optimal. But, brother, without that first step, if you're just focused on today, your struggle, your future is going to suck because you're not achieving anything. You don't, you don't have it, you don't have it reverse engineered, and so that's why life is so hard. It has to be both and the moment.

Alan Lazaros:

Brother, let's say it's a quarter later and you crushed the quarter, guess what? You got to go and reevaluate the map and see where you're at and say, okay, well, I took a detour here, well, I decided that wasn't that important. Well, I ended up breaking up with my girlfriend because of so now I'm not, we're not going to get married, so now I'm going to have to move when we have kids, because I need to meet some, whatever it is. So it's constantly both, and that's why life is so hard and that's why you have me. You know, every couple months I usually have a sort of little identity crisis.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's what we're dealing with right now. Not even a couple months it's only been one month into the year it's already happening. Well, I think we as a business have gone in a very interesting place where we've expanded and then locked it in and maybe contracted and expanded and locked it in and right now we are in a very simple but deep time, like there are very few things I'm doing, there's very few things you're doing in terms of within the business, but we're trying to make sure we just do those things really well and I think we are more focused on the present than we have been. Yeah, agreed, probably because we were super, super focused on the future. That's why I asked that question. Not that I don't think, trust me, I know the value of the long-term thinking, but I do think you can Jeff yourself Definitely, but you can also Jeff yourself on the other end.

Alan Lazaros:

You're always going to Jeff yourself and it completely depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to buy a house in three years, you can break that down and what you have to do tomorrow actually isn't that bad. Maybe you have to save $10 tomorrow, depending on the home. But okay, half million dollar home versus $50 million home. Good luck doing that in three years.

Alan Lazaros:

I mean, everything has to be reverse engineered, however. You have to do the behaviors and the process in the present, and it's very difficult because all of us myself included, kevin included we are either more long-term or more short-term. There's no one I know who isn't, who's exactly perfectly centered in this. There's no one. I mean some people who are overly present. They their futures. I can look and go. I don't know. Like, if you keep doing what you're doing now, I know you say like you're going to achieve X, y, z, it's. That's a little delusional, it's not tethered to reality. You're not doing the process now. And then there's other people that are in the present doing the stuff and they're actually going to end up way farther than they think.

Alan Lazaros:

I had a client recently asked me where do you do you really think that's possible for me Like seriously. I said you're underestimating what 20 years will do. Of course, 100 possible, assuming that you continue improving. I said you need to look at your calendar. Three years ago you were not dialed in. You didn't know what the hell you were doing. What you need to understand is the compound effect, like if you keep doing what you're doing, 34 therapy calls per week. But you will. I mean, the math will. Yeah, absolutely. I actually think you'll go farther than you thought. But the problem is is the people that are most future oriented usually have the most belief but the least humility, and the people like you, who have higher humility, who are like I need to make sure today goes well.

Kevin Palmieri:

That actually usually comes with low self-belief, which doesn't allow you to look into the future as much well, I'm blessed because we have each other and it kind of allows me to think very short term, because that's when I operate the best.

Alan Lazaros:

I feel blessed in that too, actually, because you're very focused on the now, so you plug the holes in the ship much quicker I don't want the ship to sink, you know ship sinks, we don't get to the destination, and I wonder if that's why I would say I have felt like I've had a pretty great year so far.

Kevin Palmieri:

I mean, I've been sick, but I looked, I've. I exercised 21 out of the 31 days. Nice, Even being sick Like that's. I'm happy with that. It's not as well as I wanted to do, but I had some good workouts. I've been dieting, I've been tracking calories. The business has grown. We have the most recurring clients we've ever had. We have the most clients we've ever had. I feel good about that. But to your point, I couldn't tell you the last time Tara and I went on a date. I have no, it's been.

Alan Lazaros:

That's what I'm saying Long, long, long long.

Kevin Palmieri:

And it's been winter too, so that makes it harder, winter makes it harder, and it's not just because of that, it's because she's been doing her own. She's in her own grind season Nice when you know she's working a bunch, and so it's not. There are other priorities right now. There are other goals. I won't say there are other priorities, but there are other goals that dictate other priorities, and that's a season. That is a season and so far the season has been a month and it's been a successful month so far.

Kevin Palmieri:

But this is the thing I'll end with, because we've got to pop off here. If you feel like you've made no progress, that most likely isn't true, and there's still a lot of freaking time left. If you feel like you're crushing it and nothing can go wrong, that also isn't true, because there's a lot of freaking time left. Yeah, you might have a 20-point lead, but we're only 10 minutes into the game. There's a lot of game left. You might be losing by 20. There's still a lot of game left. It doesn't mean you can't turn it around and really make something of it. Last question Sure.

Alan Lazaros:

How do you choose between the quality of life that you want and the goals you want to achieve, because those are in conflict often.

Kevin Palmieri:

How do I choose between the two?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think I've just been more honest with the fact that, yeah, it's kind of like could I go buy? I was looking. The other day I went to Target to get something I was looking at, like the 85-inch TVs. I was like, whew, and they're not. I mean 700 bucks, 800 bucks, like that's not that bad. 85-inch TV 10 years ago would have set you back a car. It's like that would have been thousands of dollars. But it's like that would have been thousands of dollars. But it's. It's the. Yeah, you know what.

Kevin Palmieri:

Would that break the bank? No, would that break this? No. Would that break that? No, but it would slow down momentum. It would slow down momentum. And is that slowing down of momentum worth the little lifestyle upgrade that I'll get? Probably not.

Kevin Palmieri:

So I think I'm just trying to weigh it better. Even like we have more money in the bank than we have in a long time You'd think that it would make me want to ball out. I have been cooking, I'm not ordering out. So, if anything, it's reinforced the fact that it's actually working. Being a little bit stingy and being disciplined has actually created the opportunity. Being a little bit stingy and being disciplined has actually created the opportunity to be disciplined at a higher level. So I'm trying to lock that in. I'm trying to Nice. Yeah, I'm trying to lock that in. That's probably the best answer I could give. Currently Fire, I just have a more positive relationship than I used to. I'm not taking away from myself answer I could give currently Fire, I just have a more positive relationship than I used to. It's not, I'm not taking away from myself, I'm actually creating a bigger opportunity in the future. That is what I would say.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice, you dig, I do.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, yeah, that's a constant dance for everybody. It is a constant dance Future versus the present.

Alan Lazaros:

You're not alone in that. And Future versus the present You're not alone in that. And goal achievement requires you to sacrifice in the present. That's a mathematical, scientific fact.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, we're always talking about it because this is one of those unsexy fundamentals that I don't think is ever going to go out of style. If anything, it's only going to get more valuable over time. So we will talk about this forever and ever. Ever. Okay, as always. We love you. So, first of all, hold on real quick. There is a meetup on Thursday, so if you're listening to this, it might be Tuesday. If not, no worries.

Alan Lazaros:

How to align with your core values.

Kevin Palmieri:

How to align with your core values. It's a meetup. It's totally free. It's from 5 pm to 6 pm Eastern time. It's on Zoom. Reach out to us, oh, actually, the information you need. It'll give you the Zoom link, so we would love to see you there. Continue the year. I know we're only a month in, but don't let your progress stop. If you're making it. Don't let your progress just stop because you don't feel like you've been making any. Either way, there's a lot of growth. So we'll have the link in the show notes for that. As always, we love you, each and every one of you, and at NLU, we do not have fans, we have family.

Alan Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

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

Alan Lazaros:

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:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host