Next Level University

The 5 S's Of Success (1974)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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What if success isn’t just about hard work but five key steps you may miss? In this episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros break down the Five S’s of Success: Self, Story, State, Strategy, and System. They share how mindset, habits, and consistency shape your results and their own self—doubt and growth experiences. These principles will keep you on track whether you’re aiming for fitness, career, or personal goals.

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

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

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

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Show notes:
(3:04) Understanding Self: How identity shapes success
(6:10) The power of Story: Changing your mindset
(7:34) Managing your State: Energy, emotions, and focus
(8:01) Creating a Winning Strategy for your goals
(9:57) Building a consistent System to sustain progress
(16:21) What happens when one of the five S’s falls apart
(19:29) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://bit.ly/4eE5RF5
(28:06) Why dreams matter (and how to achieve them)
(34:30) The importance of long-term consistency in success
(37:11) Ou

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

Having any outline is a really good place to start, even if you're not practicing it perfectly. It doesn't exist anyway. It's just a really good place to start. Yeah, would you rather walk through a dark cave with a rope, like you get to hang on to the rope, or would you just want to freestyle it? I'm willing to bet you'll be more successful when you hang on to the rope.

Alan Lazaros:

Everyone has these dreams, whether it be a dream car or a dream body or a dream home. One client horsey farm, one client mansion on the beach, villa in Spain, you name it. Dreams are not easy to achieve. They're actually alarmingly difficult to achieve. And while it does sound really cool to say everyone can achieve their goals and dreams if they set their mind to it, statistically that's wildly fucking untrue.

Kevin Palmieri:

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

Alan Lazaros:

I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri:

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 and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

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. I am still wearing the smallest sweatshirt known to man from Scotland Today for episode number 1,974, we are talking about the five S's of success. We used to talk about the four S's of success. Screw them, throw them in the trash. They're garbage. The five S's of success are where it's at, lock in, because we're getting ready to do it get your notebooks out.

Alan Lazaros:

The floor is yours. Forget if you're in your car.

Kevin Palmieri:

Stop everything you're doing what you learned, everything you've learned before this. This is where it's at no, no, we're kidding. But if you do, want to write it down. I think it'll be helpful. I'm serious, I'm serious.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, you're not, you're not. Why not which one's your favorite. Oh, the five S's of success. The fourth one's my favorite.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, no, the fifth one. The fifth one, you gotta stick around. Hey, make sure you stick around, very, very very very, very, very end of this video.

Alan Lazaros:

So the algorithm pushes it. And the fifth one is my favorite. I think that's what we should do. We should just lean into, okay. So some people in this space, they really play the game. Kevin and I are trying. Really, we're not, we're not, we're doing our own thing. I think we should just lean into it. Man, I love it. Okay, first s of success. Did this recently with a client. Shout out to you, you know who you are and I'm going to be doing this with all my clients. Fyi, because we want to assess this. First one self, self-concept, self-acceptance, self-love, self-respect, self-discipline. Its identity, the self, kev Ellen, what about? Your self-concept has changed? Make this land.

Kevin Palmieri:

What about my self-concept? What is the definition of self-concept? What is the definition for those listening how you?

Alan Lazaros:

view yourself, how you see yourself. It's like I'm a winner versus I'm a loser.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would say that's pretty accurate. I would say I Excuse me. I said this on a podcast recently. Never felt smart. Grew up, broke, went from not having a job to working at a gas station. Then literally every job after that was like what, what can I get? Not, let me reach for something, not what do I want, what can I get, what is available to me? Did that for most of my life. Never thought I'd be any level of successful. Always felt like I was an outsider. Looking in my self-concept was I am a loser. People will most likely feel bad for me for most of my life and I'm probably not going to amount to almost anything.

Alan Lazaros:

The self is a lot of things Self-acceptance, self-love, all that stuff. But to really round this out, because we have five to get through, it's the unconscious record that's playing Apparently between two and five. A child starts to notice themselves in the mirror and they start to go oh, this is me. You ever see your cats doing that, cats just looking in the mirror going am I ace, am I fudge?

Kevin Palmieri:

They don't care.

Alan Lazaros:

Tal Riel does that. She's like Hmm, I think this is me Interesting. Okay, I move my paw, it's very bright, but anyways. So children do that. That's the self. That's you when you first start to identify. Am I a winner or am I a loser? Where do I fit in this whole? Okay, that's the self. One more thing I want to say about the self what was it?

Kevin Palmieri:

Are we thinking of a pyramid with this Upside down pyramid pyramid? I would prefer a cycle.

Alan Lazaros:

You would prefer a cycle If you were to draw a star. This is the star of success.

Kevin Palmieri:

Oh gosh. Also, the reason I said F, what you heard is because there's the four S's of success.

Alan Lazaros:

There are five. Remember sustain.

Kevin Palmieri:

You made them the five. There's the five. So what are we? This is like external, this is internal, the other one's external.

Alan Lazaros:

No, this is internal and external.

Kevin Palmieri:

I need you to organize this shit. Now we have two. I know.

Alan Lazaros:

I like two different frameworks that are the five S's.

Kevin Palmieri:

We can't have two Five S's of success. I know, I know I need you to lock it up.

Alan Lazaros:

The old one. Throw that out for now.

Kevin Palmieri:

Oh no, I like the old one. I know it's good, it's good, but right now, Kev, right now we're just going to do the new one. I'm sorry.

Alan Lazaros:

This is the five S's of success 2.0, okay, so the self is the first one. Boom, we're going to move on. Next story this is the similar to the self, but here's the difference the story you tell yourself about yourself is your ego versus. One of them is unconscious. Okay, so kev might unconsciously have a record playing of I'm not a winner, I'm gonna lose. It's the expectation of self. So kevin, growing up, didn't have a high expectations of himself. Is that fair? Oh, yeah, okay, the hyper conscious podcast when we started that eight years ago, you started it. It I came on, Changed the way you think, changed the way you act, changed the way you live. What you did is you re-evaluated the story you told yourself about yourself, which then eventually started to take root in your unconscious. Okay, so the second one is story. Kevin's old record was I'm not great, I'm not going to be that great. I'm not great, I'm not going to be that great, I'm not going to be successful. I don't have high expectations of myself. I'm not going to be an astronaut in NASA. Okay, then, eventually I'm just saying then eventually, kev had a new story of himself in the Hyperconscious podcast which is maybe I can be successful, maybe I can be, maybe I'm smarter than I thought, maybe I'm harder working than most people, maybe I have grit that other people don't. And that's when he started changing the story about himself consciously and then that started to download unconsciously, okay.

Alan Lazaros:

Third state state is I'm hungry, I'm tired. I had protein pancakes this morning, so I'm kind of tired. I'm tired. I had protein pancakes this morning, so I'm kind of tired, protein pancakes. Right now it's Saturday morning. You and I are pretty In a pretty good place, not only individually, but Together in our relationship. So this episode Is going to be a higher Energy episode. We're in a good spot. We're laughing, we're having fun, you're making jokes. That's when things are good. I'm hammered, hammered, drunk, hammered drunk, but he's not.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's when you know you're off the rails when I have to keep giving these disclaimers. Just assume everything I say is not true. No, but they can't do that because then they won't'm gonna make a whole production about it.

Alan Lazaros:

you'll know it's not, it's never gonna happen.

Kevin Palmieri:

Once hungover, very hungover yeah and I did one podcast after I smoked my pen, but that never saw the light of day it was about relationships I remember, and we didn't know anything, and we disagree.

Alan Lazaros:

Well yeah, we didn't really know it's like, yeah, let us teach you.

Kevin Palmieri:

And it was in a dark basement on a pool table.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, 100% you were. That's how every great story starts.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yes.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, so state we were not in a great state. Kevin and I did an episode Never saw the light of day because it was hot garbage.

Kevin Palmieri:

It was hot garbage.

Alan Lazaros:

All right, so self story state. Next is strategy. You thought I was going to forget.

Alan Lazaros:

I almost did get. I almost did. I almost did. Strategy is the how. What are you going to do? Are you going to start a podcast? Okay, you're going to buy a mic. You're going to buy a camera. You're going to use StreamYard versus Riverside. You're going to start a podcast? Awesome. How are you going to do it? Buzzsprout online YouTube Strategy Love it Chess game Awesome. Last one, System. Once you have the right self-concept self, Once you have the right self-concept self, once you have the right story about yourself, mindset, once you have the right state and you're healthy, happy, productive, fulfilled, feeling good in your physical body, once you have the right strategy, now it's time to make a system. What's the difference between a strategy and a system? A system is something you do consistently, Okay, and you iterate upon it and you improve it. So a system might be. We do an episode a day for anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. Kevin makes jokes while Alan says intelligent things.

Kevin Palmieri:

Put that right in the intro.

Alan Lazaros:

Put that right in the intro. I'm obviously joking. He's nodding his head, but he's not giving any audio feedback. So for all of our audio listeners, they think I've offended you.

Kevin Palmieri:

I like to make Alan feel insecure and I know how to do it, so it's fun.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice work, but that's the system. So metrics, habits, system. Kevin's been eating a lot of rice and he had the wrong system. He was putting double the amount of rice on accident for the longest time. So his system was off and probably his state considering he was eating enough to kill a small horse.

Kevin Palmieri:

Now let me ask you a question. It's going to sound stupid, but it will be the most profound thing you hear today, for sure, mr Alan Lazarus. Why does any of that matter? Why, why, why should?

Alan Lazaros:

I care about any of that shit. The only way you can achieve success is if you have all five of those in alignment. What's something you want to succeed at?

Kevin Palmieri:

I would like to be the best podcaster who's ever walked this green earth.

Alan Lazaros:

Can we use a more simple goal? What are you trying to get to for fitness?

Kevin Palmieri:

One Trying to be the best natural physique there's ever been, that's ever walked the green earth no definitely not 170 right now.

Alan Lazaros:

You're what? 182 or something.

Kevin Palmieri:

Today I was 180.1.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice, okay, so you have 10 more pounds. Yes, okay, 10.1 to be exact. All right, here we go. The self what is your self concept when it comes to fitness?

Kevin Palmieri:

I can achieve it. I got it. I'm in control. I'm a bodybuilder yes, got it, I'm in control. I'm a bodybuilder yes.

Alan Lazaros:

That too, also that I'm also a bodybuilder. Nice, okay, cool, all right. What is the state I'm going to go? State cause I put them out of order before state. What's your current state Meaning? How do you feel physically right now? I?

Kevin Palmieri:

feel well, didn't get a lot of sleep. I'm running on a 55 sleep score, 63.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I saw you.

Alan Lazaros:

You liked one of my Facebook, my Instagram messages at three o'clock in the morning I was up as well. Yeah, I was going to text you and be like hey man, what's happening? How's it going?

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, so honestly, state is probably like slightly below average all things considered, just cause I didn't sleep well Okay.

Alan Lazaros:

Story. What's the story? What's your mindset about achieving 10 pounds in 10 weeks?

Kevin Palmieri:

Right now it is actually surprisingly harder than I expected and it is going slower than expected. So my story is.

Alan Lazaros:

This is probably going to be a little bit harder than I had expected. Okay, is that affecting your belief in it, in your ability to achieve? No, okay, good, all right. And then the next one is strategy. What's your strategy? Exercise 10 pounds in the next 10 weeks, or how long are you going?

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, 10 pounds in the next. But that's the strategy. Wouldn't the strategy be like a more, a less specific system?

Alan Lazaros:

Strategy, the Strategy, the strategy is like the deeper understanding. The system is what you actually do.

Kevin Palmieri:

So I need to exercise and track my calories.

Alan Lazaros:

No, no, no. The strategy is Eat less, burn more. You always go to what you do and I like that about you Because you're a doer, I doer.

Kevin Palmieri:

I didn't mean it like that I am a doer. I didn't mean it like that I am a doer. I didn't mean it like that.

Alan Lazaros:

You remember a few episodes ago you said I'm not trying to sex to you. It was funny, yeah, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's from again. Don't watch it because it's fairly graphic, but I used to love it back in the day. There's a show called Eastbound and Down and he says make sex to you. It's like it's so weird to hear that might be the funniest thing I've ever heard. It is really funny.

Alan Lazaros:

All right, so last one system. What's your system Meaning? What do you?

Kevin Palmieri:

do consistently. I think the strategy and the system are confusing and I think you should explain them. You should separate them more, because even for me it's like the strategy is exercise more and track calories and then the system is very specific, like I exercise five.

Alan Lazaros:

You know what I mean that that again, they're a little blurry. Right, they're very similar, but the system is what you're iterating upon. There's something in corporate called an sop standard operating procedure so it's what you're iterating upon. There's something in corporate called an SOP standard operating procedure. So it's what you're doing on a day-to-day basis, and what you're iterating upon, versus the strategy, is a high-level understanding of why.

Kevin Palmieri:

Would the strategy be a mission statement?

Alan Lazaros:

The strategy is like let's say, you and I have an army and we're going to go into battle, okay, we're going to use the cannons over here, we're going to have the infantry here and then we're going to have the cavalry flank. Then the system is how you put the cannonballs in the cannons and what angle do you put the cannons at in order to hit the you know, I don't know, I'm not some, I don't know warfare man, the cannon.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, but go ahead. What I don't know? Warfare man, the cannon yeah. But go ahead. What's your?

Alan Lazaros:

system. This is the the intricate details of Okay, I'm eating rice every day. Yeah, every day.

Kevin Palmieri:

I wake up, I weigh myself, I try to exercise for 45 minutes. I track my calories, I track my macros. I make sure, I try to make sure I'm getting enough sleep, which didn't happen last night, but yeah, I'm very how sleep, which didn't happen last night, but yeah, I'm very. How much water a day.

Alan Lazaros:

All those.

Kevin Palmieri:

Two of these at least. So, whatever, this is 36, 72, probably 100 ounces, I would say Probably 100 ounces Of liquid a day.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice, anything else Mobility, you do mobility.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do. Mobility, yeah, 20 minutes of mobility, nice Per day. 15 per day 15 to 20, depends on the day.

Alan Lazaros:

That's a hell of a system. It's a great system, so you will be successful. If I had to bet, you would be successful if you kept all that up.

Kevin Palmieri:

This is why it gets weird. Think about, in my mind that's not that much Because I've been doing this for a long time, but that system started with one of those things, not all of those things. Yeah, exactly, I wasn't doing 20 minutes of mobility and eight hours of sleep. That is new. That's like a newer thing for me, like last couple years I've been focused on that since I got my aura right.

Kevin Palmieri:

So I don't want anybody to hear that and say, well, that's a lot. It is depending on where you are in the journey. It's not really a lot for me because it flows nicely with my day and a lot of it's unconscious. I just weigh myself, I don't really think about it and I remember the number and then I write it down after the gym, right, but yeah, I just want to throw that other very last thing.

Alan Lazaros:

So if kev were to have one of those five fall, he'd be in trouble because they have to fall. Like if you had had a poor self concept, if you didn't consider yourself a bodybuilder and you didn't think you could do any of this, you wouldn't do the other ones. You would never even get to the strategy point Right. So at the end of the day, success is about external achievement and you want to achieve 10 pounds in 10 weeks. I think that that's a noble goal and I think a lot of people want that. A lot of people want to lose 10 pounds. One of the things that I why I come off so fucking arrogant is because if I wanted to lose 10 pounds, I would just do it, and that sounds so damn arrogant, but when you break it down, it's actually not that arrogant. I just know exactly what the recipe is that's like saying I know how to make.

Alan Lazaros:

I know how to make eggs. It's the same exact thing same exact mathematical thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, contextually it sounds arrogant. Depends on the people you're around, though. Yeah, because if you're hanging out with seven other bodybuilders, everybody thinks that exactly, so it's different.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, really. Yeah, it's unfortunate that it's like that for everyone context, or so yeah it's like that for everyone.

Kevin Palmieri:

Everyone has their thing that they're. If you're up ahead of the people around you in something and you talk about how easy it is for you, it's going to sound arrogant. Speaking is not hard for me, it's not hard anymore but if I go hang out with somebody who's terrified of speaking and I talk about I've done X amount of blah, blah, blah, it's going to come off as arrogant as hell when I don't mean it that way. It's just. This is my current level of understanding. I had another thought oh to your. This is my current level of understanding. I had another thought oh to your point. When I stopped identifying as a bodybuilder, I started going to the gym less and I started to do different workouts. I had a moment yesterday where I forgot my belt. So I wear a belt when I lift. It's a weightlifting belt. Tighten the gut Sometimes, yeah, but honestly, a big piece of it for me is it's I popped a rib once doing that, you can't Rule of thumb.

Kevin Palmieri:

Don't wear a belt while you do leg presses. I did that.

Alan Lazaros:

That ain't Rib.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, your body doesn't bend that way Dumb. It's weird. One of the reasons I use it honestly maybe the biggest reason I use it has nothing to do with functionality, other than when I do squats, when I do chest day, I don't need my belt necessarily. I'm not going to hurt myself, I'm not worried about that. I like it because it puts me in the mindset of a bodybuilder.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I invested in new stringers that I have hanging up on the wall over there. Same with the hoodie.

Alan Lazaros:

Ooh, hat down hoodie.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's all it's game time. It's all the music you choose. It's all the identity.

Alan Lazaros:

It's all. The brands come with an identity too. So Nike is athletes, so when you wear Nike you feel like an athlete, more of maybe a basketball player or a runner, and then for bodybuilding it would be what Gymshark or whatever, I don't know. The point is is that there's a certain identity associated with every product the someone who uses a Apple, a Mac, is different than someone who uses a PC, that kind of thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

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. 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.

Alan Lazaros:

At the end of the day, these five self state, story, strategy and system if those are in alignment, you will achieve success. Now it's just a matter of time and consistency, and that's the part that really blows, because you just have to do it for a really long time, like kev needs to do this for the next 10 weeks maybe we could add a sixth s which is what sustained power yeah now we have the 11 s's oh, baby staying so important. Did you see my post today?

Kevin Palmieri:

I have a life outside of this, so, no, I did not wake up immediately and say what did Alan Lazarus post today?

Alan Lazaros:

No.

Kevin Palmieri:

I did Very good.

Alan Lazaros:

Thank you, brother, and shout out to the team for that clip. That was fire.

Kevin Palmieri:

But I can see you're back to writing novels in your I'm working on it.

Alan Lazaros:

Captions I'm working on it. I'm working on it. But it breaks down how amazing you can, the amazing things you can achieve if you are consistent over a long period of time. So, anyways, if anyone wants to see that post production team, can you please link that post in the show notes?

Kevin Palmieri:

I will send it to you via WhatsApp now.

Kevin Palmieri:

Nice, nice, why are these? We'll get out of here? I will send it to you via WhatsApp now. Nice, nice, why are these? We'll get out of here? I've lost track of time. Just for behind the scenes. We did yesterday's episode and today's episode and we did them back to back. So we just we did the first episode, just kept the recording going. So the timer in the top left that tells you how long you've been recording for is essentially useless, because I don't know how long the first episode was. Are these five s's better than the other five s's or are they just different, different?

Kevin Palmieri:

so the other five s's are, uh, struggle, no sacrifice sacrifice, struggle, struggle, suffer, suffer, succeed, sustain, sustain yep, I like those better.

Alan Lazaros:

We're going to put both in the show notes, both digital assets of both pairs of S's in the show notes, and then Kevin and I are probably going to end up coming up with a combination of all of them, and I do like the idea of staying power. I think that's really powerful. So we'll come up with something and we'll iterate like we do, and for now, those digital assets will be in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's going to be the 75 S's of success, and then eventually it'll be the 365 S's of success, and every day you can flip the page and there'll be a new one. What do you think about that?

Alan Lazaros:

That's a terrible idea, that what?

Kevin Palmieri:

do you think about that? That's a terrible idea. That's a fucking terrible idea.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, I can see it Today stool. Test your stool for the proper markers.

Kevin Palmieri:

Are we talking about poop now? Okay, cool, I didn't expect that. I didn't think that was the first S you would draw From the random cards of S. But stool it is.

Alan Lazaros:

The 365 S's. Day 362, have you checked your stool?

Kevin Palmieri:

You'd have to get creative. You'd run out of probably constructive ones.

Alan Lazaros:

How's your sex life?

Kevin Palmieri:

Sex would be one for sure, yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't know. There's no way. Somatic expression.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's a good one. I feel like you're gonna take my job.

Alan Lazaros:

I usually name stuff around here well, you only got a 55 sleep score, so I'll take it easy on you well, I mean I'm I don't know, I'm ready, I think I'm ready to retire and kind of kind of sail around the world.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's an excellent state 8 years, it's been a good run. 1974 episodes like why do we have to get to 2000? It's close enough, you know, let's call it a day, alright. What is your wrap up before we let everybody go on a boot their day?

Alan Lazaros:

external success is really, really hard to achieve. Everyone has these dreams, whether it be a dream car or a dream body or a dream home, one client horsey farm, one client mansion on the beach, villa in Spain, you name it. Dreams are not easy to achieve. They're actually alarmingly difficult to achieve, and while it does sound really cool to say everyone can achieve their goals and dreams if they set their mind to it, statistically that's wildly fucking untrue, and so what I'm trying to say here is these five S's will help you, and if you check in with them consistently, like I do with my clients, you're going to increase your chances of actual success by such a significant margin. You can't wing it and win. You can, you can wing it and win, but but very, very, very few people do that, and even if you do do that, it's very hard to sustain something that you didn't design. So I'm grateful you're here, I'm grateful you're listening, and success is a lot harder than I think people let on.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would say getting to a result by accident just increases imposter syndrome, because you know, you don't know how you did it and it's just not a good place to be. Not a good place to be. I don't know if I've ever really well, I guess in the past kind of, but most of the time I was unsuccessful.

Alan Lazaros:

Relationships, though, and fitness kind of winging it. Relationships, though and fitness Kind of winging it. Relationships more.

Kevin Palmieri:

I was going to say. I feel like you think I was out here Jeffing fitness. I've been tracking calories since before. It was a thing.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, but you never pulled, you never did muscle building phases.

Kevin Palmieri:

I didn't need to. I just wanted to beat abs, just abs, can you?

Alan Lazaros:

imagine if you did Dude, your old coach would have told you dude, you've got to do an off-season bulk.

Kevin Palmieri:

You've got to build this muscle here. I wanted to be lean all the time. It's dumb.

Alan Lazaros:

It's a dumb idea, terrible idea.

Kevin Palmieri:

It wasn't great. It wasn't great, but I was more dialed in than you probably think I was more dialed in than you probably think I was more dialed in.

Alan Lazaros:

That assumes you know what I think. I know you think less. What if you were exactly?

Kevin Palmieri:

dialed in as much as I think the statistical, the statistical probability of that is just off the charts astronomical it's astronomical at best. Anything else you'd want to say to the?

Alan Lazaros:

people here. No, what's your wrap up? Oh, shoot, okay, what's your?

Kevin Palmieri:

wrap up. Oh shoot, okay, what is my wrap up? Having any outline is a really good place to start, even if you're not practicing it perfectly. It doesn't exist anyway. It's just a really good place to start. Would you rather walk through a dark cave with a rope, like you get to hang on to the rope, or would you just want to freestyle it? I'm willing to bet you're you'll be more successful when you hang on to the rope For some reason. I've been watching these really anxiety provoking people who do like cave spurlunking and when I tell you anxiety, I mean there's barely enough room to get by and they're having the time of their lives. These people are built different, but in a lot of these caves they have ropes to follow up. There's a reason, because when you lose the rope you die. Now life isn't that serious, but it kind of is.

Alan Lazaros:

It kind of is.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's a good metaphor dreams your dreams die, and it's really hard when you lose the rope. It can be really hard to get back to it. So I would much rather the rope be sustainable. I'd rather you, let's just cool, start with self. Awesome, love it. Start there. That's something to follow, that's something constructive, that's something that leads you in a direction that you want to go. I think that's a great place. That's where I started. I started with self. I didn't have any of the other stuff and then eventually, I figured out on my own and then I had the privilege of teaching millions of people how to do that.

Kevin Palmieri:

And here we are Now. I'm a self-made man. Self self-made no no I I think to to the point of this. Sometimes strategy is finding someone who knows how to do it better than you do.

Alan Lazaros:

Oftentimes that strategy I just want to say lately I've enjoyed the show a lot because we're back. I think we're talking a lot about achieving dreams again. We used to be all about dreams back in the day, remember we have there's.

Kevin Palmieri:

I mean, it's so hard. I said this to Taron the other day. I said you'd think after 2000 episodes I'd like know what I was doing. I feel like I know less. I don't know. It's weird. It's like I'm too in it now.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't so yeah, we're talking about dreams again. Man, when we first started, we were big dreamers, you and I. We were naive as shit.

Kevin Palmieri:

But we were dreamers. We're still big dreamers, but I also think that now we know what matters more and what matters less, and this definitely matters. So, so, so, so, so much, so much. I don't want to take away from that. I just didn't. I don't know if I understood how much the internal game really mattered. Well, you.

Alan Lazaros:

I know we got to jump. You have. I don't think. I think people, when they think of dreams, they think of astronaut or no. I'm talking. What car do you want to drive? I'm talking. What do you want your lifestyle to look like? I'm talking where do you want to live? What kind of home Do you want? Cathedral ceilings? Well, I think that's a good. That's a good. I mean, whenever I say dreams, it doesn't mean you have to want to be an olympic gold medalist. That can be the case and if that is the case, reach out please. But I want to eventually coach olympians.

Kevin Palmieri:

That would be awesome but, you need to do like a side. You need to do a side quest and go get a gold medal in something archery or something that way you can say you're an Olympic gold medalist.

Alan Lazaros:

Sidequest, I want to stick to business coaching. That's my jam.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'll give you a gold medal in that.

Alan Lazaros:

Thank you, you're welcome. Immediately after I did my marathon, she took an Oreo box.

Kevin Palmieri:

I respect that. I kid you not.

Alan Lazaros:

She taped yellow tape and she said number one something and she gave me a gold oreo metal. It wasn't even circle. It's brutal, it's awesome. I have it in my drawer right over here, man.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, and I wore it.

Alan Lazaros:

I wore that shit on my last lap. I looked like a 90 year old man. I haven't posted that video. It's not good. I think you should I'm not a huge fan of it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, yeah but like what would you tell someone listening?

Alan Lazaros:

it was like a a jaunt, a very painful jaunt at the end.

Alan Lazaros:

But anyways, dreams man dreams I had a dream to run 25 miles without stopping at some point, and I did that, but walking at the end, I mean barely walking, but it was a dream. Right, I did a triathlon. That was a dream. These right, I did a triathlon. That was a dream. These are dreams, they don't have to be. I wanted to be a fitness model. That was a fucking dream. I did it right. I wanted to win a fitness show. I, fucking I did it. That felt so good to achieve my dreams. I just think we need dreams and, yeah, we need to be realistic and honest with ourselves and self-awareness, but you got to have dreams. I'm very grateful. We're talking a lot more about that lately. Same Same Life without dreams is not as fulfilling.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's definitely not as fulfilling, and I don't think it's as exciting, I don't think it's as meaningful, I think it's easy to. Anytime I've ever said, like what the hell is the point of all this? I didn't have dreams and or my circumstances were terrible. I'd say that too. At the beginning of this. I thought it was all worth it, but it was like what if those two are connected? What if? What two are connected?

Alan Lazaros:

Not having dreams and having terrible circumstances I would they're not you, I was gonna yeah, I was gonna say I would, that's how I'm willing to die on. They are not. They are fucking.

Alan Lazaros:

They're not always some of the worst circumstances I've had are because of this dream son, they're not always connected they're never yeah, but they're never yeah, they're never connected Wanting to start a family, wanting to get married, wanting to have pets, wanting to have a home, wanting to have a career in a certain industry, like all of those are dreams. I just think it's important to realize that when we're kids, we had all these dreams. You achieved a bunch of your dreams.

Kevin Palmieri:

I did.

Alan Lazaros:

I did.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think that's a really good thing to talk about and again we're going to go. We're just going to keep running this on because we like talking about this. But dreams are personal and just because maybe your dream I think that's the beauty of what Alan said Maybe your dream is not to have a horse farm with 100 acres in the middle of the US, somewhere in the lands Cool, that's okay. Maybe your dream is to have a certain amount of money in the bank awesome. Maybe it's to marry someone or have a great family awesome. Maybe it's whatever, but it's personal to you and don't let anybody.

Kevin Palmieri:

I hate when people say like, oh, dream bigger, dream bigger. I I understand, I think that's good to for some people, but let's start with. Let's start with recognizing the fact that you had the courage to dream in the first place. Let's start with that strong work for dreaming. And maybe you are more capable than you think, but I'm not going to shit on you for having a dream in the first place. Shout out to you. I respect it. And again, I think in the beginning I probably didn't understand that. I didn't understand that dreams are personal and who am I to tell you that your dream isn't big enough. Who am I? Who am I to tell you Now if you accomplish it and it feels empty and all. Maybe there's, maybe there's something on the other side of that, but I think it's important.

Alan Lazaros:

Dreams are personal yeah, the only thing I would say is if you don't have dreams, I would check in on that because I think that dreams are something that to look forward to in the future, that you can become more in pursuit of, and I think that that's what makes life extra special and it can be like I said. I said it can be anything, any number of things. I've had vision boards where I wrote down a bunch of stuff and some of them came true. Some of them I'm like fuck that. Some of them I'm still going for, but I've achieved a lot of them and I think that's awesome. I do. There's no better feeling in the world than achieving a dream that was once just in your imagination 100.

Kevin Palmieri:

speaking of dreams, let's get out of here so I can go back to bed and dream. No, I'm not going back. We have a meeting after this. Uh, next little nation, april 5th 2025. Next little live 2025 totally virtual.

Kevin Palmieri:

So we've hosted many in-person events. I can say that at this point, we've hosted and or co-hosted and done most of the work for the ones that we co-hosted. And also fairness, this year we're going purely virtual. Six In six events. That's a good amount of events.

Kevin Palmieri:

We're going purely virtual because we have a global audience and if you live in Europe or you live in Alaska or wherever you live, it might not make financial sense to take a flight across the world and or country for a one-day event. It's expensive, not super sustainable and not accessible to most people. So we're doing it totally virtual, from 10 am until 5 pm, so a full-day event. Tickets are only $47. And with that ticket, with that purchase, you get access to the replay. It's going to be awesome. You get access to the replay.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's going to be awesome, alan and I having the time of our lives. Amy's going to be there, amy's flying in. So, yeah, we want it to be a really positive event for you. There's going to be breakout sessions. You're going to meet other people. I can't imagine it wouldn't be a really transformational day. And 47 bucks. I know times are rough right now. Money's tight, things are expensive AF. We didn't want this event to be expensive AF, because we want you to be able to come and transform with us, so we'll have the link in the show notes for it.

Alan Lazaros:

People don't pay the price unless the promise is clear, kevin and I promise it'll be worth the money. It's not 47 bucks because it's less valuable. It's 47 bucks so that it's affordable, so that we can provide value to more people. Speaking of dreams if you're out there and you feel alone in pursuit of your dreams, I had a client reach out to me this morning and talk about how much she's struggling because every time she goes out with friends, she feels like they're trying to convince her to live like they do and she can't not with her dreams. She's not gonna convince her to live like they do and she can't Not with her dreams. She's not going to be able to live like they do Bar hopping and she feels alone.

Alan Lazaros:

If you feel alone in pursuit of your dreams, reach out. I can promise you this. I will increase the probability that you achieve your goals and dreams. I can't promise it'll be easy. I can't promise it'll all be fun it definitely fucking won't but I can promise you will have a higher chance of achieving your dreams. It's a good way to put it. Thanks man.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, you're welcome. No, no joke. I know you're waiting for me to drop something, that's it. That was it. Just a compliment, not backhanded, just a regular compliment.

Alan Lazaros:

Fronthanded compliment. I was going to say fronthanded.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, that's not good either. All right, cool, as always. We love you, we appreciate you, we are grateful, grateful, grateful for each and every one of you at NLU. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow, keep it Next Level, Next Level Nation. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next.

Alan Lazaros:

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:

Thank, you again and we will talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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