Next Level University

A New Habit That We’re Loving (So Far) (1985)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Are you making the most of your time? In this Freestyle Friday episode, Kevin and Alan reveal how tracking time can boost focus, productivity, and success. Kevin shares his initial resistance and surprising benefits, while Alan explains how minor adjustments in time, money, and effort lead to significant results. Whether chasing a dream or just wanting to use your time more wisely, this episode will shift your perspective.

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

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Show notes:
(2:27) The unexpected benefits of tracking time
(5:14) The Pareto principle & productivity
(7:32) The importance of measuring progress
(15:16) Why do we resist tracking & growth
(20:34) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(24:52) Becoming more valuable over time
(30:03) Achieving success by managing time wisely
(35:37) Why tracking your time is a game changer
(37:52) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

How much do you think control plays into that? Because I imagine tracking something every day that you don't feel like you have control over is probably really hard. The reason I say that is because when I wake up in the morning, I'm super excited to weigh myself. Every day, every single day, I'm super excited to weigh myself Because I believe that I know what to do in order to get to the weight I want on the day-to-day. If I didn't, I wouldn't want to weigh myself.

Alan Lazaros:

You have to learn how to become the type of man or woman who can attract that, who can achieve that. You now know how to work your way and earn your way to have a multi-million dollar home. You know how to do that. You are on track toward that. But if you step off the gas and you don't want to work on yourself anymore, well, there goes that dream.

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

Alan Lazaros:

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 was adjusting my microphone. I'm in a very strange mood today. I'll just throw that out there right now. Today, for episode number 1985, it's Freestyle Friday. This was my thought and you're going to love this. So we have instituted something new at NLU that I hate but I'm learning to love, and what we're doing is we are tracking our time, Not like punch in at 7 o'clock, punch out at 5 o'clock. I've been doing this as I've gone Right. So right now, as of today, at this moment of recording, I've worked 335 minutes today and I have it broken down. Took five minutes to set up my time sheet, 30 minute WhatsApp batch in the morning and, you know, 60 minute coaching call. Blah, blah, blah. I saw you in there earlier, yeah, so here's the thing. I copied it from yours. I saw.

Kevin Palmieri:

And then I was like hmm, what if I do something wrong here and delete all of Alan's data? I don't know if that is redeemable. That would be an issue. I made sure I didn't, though, so we're all good.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, we do backups every week so it wouldn't be the worst Well.

Kevin Palmieri:

I wanted to make sure I didn't do it. The point of this is number one. I didn't think I was going to like it and, honestly, it's pretty cool. The other thing that I think is probably the benefit of this is when you're tracking something, you want to do good. So there's a piece of me that's like I want to scroll social media, but I can't put that on my time sheet. Nice. So there is like now, how much will this stick? I mean, obviously, right now I'm in the honeymoon phase with this. I've literally done it for seven hours. How much will it stick? I think it will stick in a very positive way, but I have gotten more done today because of this than I would have without it. I won't say than I have all week, because I don't think that's true. It's been a very good week.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't know what that means for you, whether you're watching or listening, I don't know. Maybe you have suggestions. I don't know if you should do this. I think it would probably be pretty beneficial. Again, is it one of those things that might feel constricting? Maybe, if anything? Again, is it one of those things that might feel constricting? Maybe, if anything, it's helped me stay super focused. So I thought it would be a cool, interesting thing to talk about, because this would definitely if you're a dream chaser who has some sort of idea for a potential business, or maybe you're already doing something in that realm this would help you stay super focused, which most likely is going to make you way more successful.

Alan Lazaros:

So the floor is yours, sir I love it, man, you, you were right. The only resources any of us have, I think, is time, effort and money, and where you put those dictates the results that you get. And time is the most important because it's the one that you can never get any more of, although you could argue that because longevity well, if you take really good care of yourself, then you can extend your life so you can get more of it. So, whatever, but ultimately, depending on what you believe about time and fate and all that the point is is where you're investing your time. So time management that's kind of the old term but where you invest your time. And so there's four columns in this little timesheet. We keep things as simple as possible at NLU. The first column is the date. Today is the 20th of February 2025.

Alan Lazaros:

As of the recording of this episode yes, yes, the third column is what you accomplished and the fourth column is the department. So everyone on the NLU team has to look at okay, what's today? Okay, what amount of minutes did I invest? What did I accomplish with those minutes? And then how can I tie those to a specific department? And the reason we're doing this is because of systems thinking, which is and then how can I tie those to a specific department?

Alan Lazaros:

And the reason we're doing this is because of systems thinking, which is at the end of every month, I'll be able to do a chat GPT analysis of where all of our time, effort and money is going as CFO and CEO, and really dial in what matters and what doesn't. So the Pareto principle is 20% of effort creates 80% of results. So there's a thing where you can do 20% of 20%, of 20%, of 20% of 20% that I've talked about before the 0.04% essentials, in other words, this podcast. What is the most essential aspect of podcasting? Okay? Well, the titles matter a lot, the thumbnails matter a lot. The topic that we pick matters a lot.

Alan Lazaros:

Whether or not kevin gets to talk matters a lot, maybe more than anything, maybe more than anything, but ultimately this will help anyone out there watching or listening.

Alan Lazaros:

If you do this, even for a week, it will give you such a fascinating understanding of where your time is going, because all of us have used the excuse of I don't have the time. One thing that's been really big for me to realize I was last night after I clocked out, I was at 24 hours for the week Monday, tuesday, wednesday so 24 hours of work in three days. And so if you break that down and you go to the week, that means that if you double that up six day work week, you're looking at 48 hours, but I also work on Sunday, so most likely I'm looking at like a 55 hour week. Ok, cool, now I know. Ok, where are those hours going and is my time being used optimally? We're all born and we all have goals and dreams. Anyone listening to this show certainly does. Otherwise you'd have turned us off a long time ago, and where you put your time is going to dictate whether or not you achieve those things.

Kevin Palmieri:

Every time you say you're born naked, scared and afraid, I always want to say I had a tuxedo on, naked, scared and ignorant. Naked, scared, ignorant and afraid. And with a tuxedo on, that was my experience Very small, ignorant and afraid. And with a tuxedo on, that was my experience very small tuxedo, infant sized. Yeah, I, I don't know, I, I didn't want to do it did you come out, jacked?

Kevin Palmieri:

look, I you also heard the same thing, so I'm pretty sure every doctor maybe says this. But the doctor that I went to his name was dr faber said I had the best muscle tone of any infant he ever tested. But you also said that I think so. Did they say that about you? Yeah, they were lying about you, they were too serious about me, I guess.

Alan Lazaros:

They asked is your husband big like a big guy? She said no, not really yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think they were lying to you specifically.

Alan Lazaros:

But not you. I think they were lying to you specifically, but not you.

Kevin Palmieri:

Nope. I was the case where they say it to everybody, but they meant it to me that helps me sleep at night, but no, no, I don't think I was a pudgy-faced little dude back in the day.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think another thing this is an example of is sometimes there is a resistance to growth. It just there is a lot of growth on the other side of resistance. Okay, why? Okay, if you're out there and you're thinking to yourself this is fucking terrible, this episode sucks and this is the worst thing you guys have ever talked about. Oh, whoa, First of all, you haven't been listening for that long. If you think this is the worst thing we've ever talked about, go back about 500 to 1,000.

Kevin Palmieri:

Oh, whoa yeah is creating the most resistance is it the fact that it feels cagey and it feels too concrete? I can definitely respect that and I can understand and I'm excited to do it. It's like this is really what it is. It's like micro ppt. It's like peak performance tracking on a micro, minute to minute level. Okay, cool, you like checking off the box that said you did your mobility? Imagine doing that 40 times a day. Yeah, that I get a lot.

Kevin Palmieri:

I have a lot of good vibes now again, today's a really good day and it's been a very productive day. But I'm willing to bet one of the reasons my mood is in as good of a place as it is is because I told alan I keep looking at him, sorry if I'm looking away. I told alan recently I kind of feel like shit because I'm so used to being on back-to-back-to-back-to-back meetings and lately I've been averaging like three calls a day and honestly, I feel kind of shitty about myself when I can see this. I did a lot today and, yeah, when it comes to building belief, state-proof self-assign this is literally me self-assigning all the work I did that would have gone potentially unnoticed by myself. I think that's a big W. That's why we have lists and stuff.

Alan Lazaros:

When you're about to go away, you write out a list of all the things. Emilia and I do this on the whiteboard what are all the things that need to get done, and we start hammering stuff off that thing. It feels really good. It feels great and, I think, accomplishment. And there's a book called the molecule of more that talks about dopamine that you get when you accomplish things. I've noticed too and I do have a lot of back-to-backs, but I've noticed, oh wow. So social media is taking me a lot longer than I realized, but I also have felt okay, I'm getting a lot done, I'm doing a lot, I'm not wasting any time, and so whenever you measure something, it's going to make you one of two. I said this on I gave a fitness speech at an event that we hosted. So Kevin and I the first one what year was it? First one we ever co-hosted.

Kevin Palmieri:

Co-host or host Co-hosted? Oh, I guess we co-hosted a co-host, their host co-hosted? Oh, I guess we co-host 2018? No, I was with tarot. 2019, I was with tarot, it was the beginning the middle of 2019. No, no confident women's I think I was with harrod but we did. 2019 was your role within live yeah, wasn't that the end of the year?

Alan Lazaros:

oh, so we did two in one year I think we might have oh, that makes sense. I think I'm not. I'm not certain that that would make sense, because I think back then I thought that was a good idea.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, you, you wanted to do them quarterly, you want to do them every three months, like yeah, no, okay that was back before covid, when everything went virtual. We I you know, we thought in person was was gonna be a thing I can check, but yeah, I think it was 2019 so, for the sake of this, let's call it late 2018, early 2019.

Alan Lazaros:

So that's one, and then you're looking at another one in 2019, to 2019, to 2020 here you go three confident women consortium thursday, july 25th 2019.

Kevin Palmieri:

No kidding.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, so two in 2019. Then you had one in 2020. One in 2020. One in 2021. 2021. One in 2022, 2023, and 2024. So that's seven. So we've co-hosted, slash, hosted seven live events. Our next one is coming up April 5th. By the way, it's fully virtual. The link will be in the show notes. However, what was my point of that? Oh, I was giving a speech on fitness at the Confident Woman's Consortium that we co-hosted and one of my clients actually I met at that.

Alan Lazaros:

That's wild Shout out to you Mo, we you mo, we met you there. Oh yeah, isn't that wild. Yeah, it's crazy. So that said, in my fitness speech I essentially said I've completely lost it time, effort, money you're talking about will fredo? Pareto, no. What did I say in my fitness speech?

Alan Lazaros:

oh yeah, okay, when you track your weight. When you track your weight, you're gonna feel one of two ways. This was actually at top notch live. This wasn't at confident women's at top notch live.

Alan Lazaros:

I said this on stage. I said, when you track your weight, you're gonna feel one of two ways. You're either gonna be one, pumped, that you're making progress, or two, pissed off, that you're not. Either way, if you're pissed off, you're going to get motivated. Hopefully, some people don't get motivated by that. I understand that. So I said this.

Alan Lazaros:

I said if you want to make progress in fitness, you have to track your weight, because when you track your weight, you're going to either be frustrated that you're not making progress, which then gives you the ability to tweak something exercise more, eat less, sleep, whatever it is or you're going to be like hell, yeah, cool, that's what coaching does too. And so if you're measuring your time, you're either going to be pumped You're going to look at anytime you measure anything. This was my ultimate point. Anytime you measure anything, you're going to look at anytime you measure anything. This was my ultimate point. Anytime you measure anything, you're going to be pumped because oh my god, I'm more productive than I thought or it's going to feel oh shit, I'm spending four hours on social media a day how much?

Kevin Palmieri:

how much do you think control plays into that? Because I imagine tracking something every day that you don't feel like you have control over is probably really hard definitely I think that's maybe a. We should maybe dive down that rabbit hole, agreed?

Kevin Palmieri:

The reason I say that is because this is and I've never thought about this until this moment when I wake up in the morning, I'm super excited to weigh myself. Every day, Every single day, I'm super excited to weigh myself Because I believe that I know what to do in order to get to the weight I want on the data I want. If I didn't, I wouldn't want to weigh myself. It's like it's just rolling the dice. What are the? What are the three numbers, say today, or four numbers?

Alan Lazaros:

I guess because it's important. Well, we track listens. That's been hard over the years because it's very hard to understand.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, what's?

Alan Lazaros:

what? Itunes changed something, okay. So. Apple Podcast, okay. So that's different now. So yeah, the more in control you are of the measurement, the more excited you'll be to track it. Probably. You're very in control of your time where your time is going, all of us are very in control of that. However, if you don't have self-discipl, it might be hard to look at what do you think's the easiest?

Kevin Palmieri:

if we were to say health? Well, if we were to say time, money, weight, what's the easiest to control statistically? Do you think time?

Alan Lazaros:

let's say so right yeah, time and where you invest your time is going to dictate how much money you make long term and how much you weigh and it's less connected to well, one of them's an input, the other one's an output, fair, so I'm getting engineering here.

Alan Lazaros:

So systems thinking is that that box that I talked about a couple episodes ago, which is inputs, outputs. So upper left is inputs, upper right is outputs, bottom right is measure, upper left is inputs, upper right is outputs, bottom right is measure, bottom left is adjust. So the input is time, the output is what listens, weight, finances, how much you made. And this is what I do in coaching all the time. I don't know why I'm looking at the camera.

Kevin Palmieri:

I was. I've been doing it too. Who knows what's happening.

Alan Lazaros:

Hey. So for those of you on YouTube, this is what we're doing. We're just you tell me the goals, the outputs you want, Then we measure the right things and do the right habits. And habits are just where you're investing your time. And, Kev, this is important for me to ask you, brother, because as a math thinker, I've always sort of done this in my head, even when I wasn't.

Kevin Palmieri:

A bit of a mathematician myself over here, so let's see if I can add some value you.

Alan Lazaros:

You used to wing it, and I always come back to this because now you have a lot of certainty that you're going to achieve your goals. It's it's a pain in the butt and sometimes you got to do things that you don't want to do a lot of the time. But eight year ago kev would never have been pumped to track his time strange.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, become a strange person for sure you have.

Alan Lazaros:

I think that and I we can't lose what it was like to not be like this, because we need you to well, here's the thing I think a lot of people have a negative.

Kevin Palmieri:

So back when I was a foreman for a weatherization company, right so it was our job to go into buildings and make them more energy efficient, and my bosses were very, very, very intelligent, very, very smart humans.

Alan Lazaros:

What do you mean? By that, and I'm not disagreeing.

Kevin Palmieri:

They were focused on saving seconds. They were just ahead of their time in that industry when it came to almost everything that they did.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice In retrospect, so more effective in less time. Yeah, at the time I was like fuck you guys.

Kevin Palmieri:

Come on, let me take my sweet time here Making bank, making 80 bucks an hour.

Alan Lazaros:

Let's stretch this thing out. Let's stretch this thing out, let's stretch this job out, but there's a client paying for that, don't care.

Kevin Palmieri:

Didn't care at the time, I just wanted to make as much money as I could.

Kevin Palmieri:

Didn't understand, but I remember when they instituted a system similar to this when we would get to the end of the day and it would be how many feet of it's called roof wall intersection did you block and you would literally have to use either a tape measure or a laser measurement to figure out. We did 270 linear feet and it took us three hours. We were doing 90 feet per hour. That is above recommendation, cool. And it was at the end of the day. Since I was the foreman, I would literally go to the van like 15 minutes before everybody else and I would do our numbers. Nice, and it kind of sucked, because if we were under, we were getting to talking to. If we were over, we were getting to talking to.

Kevin Palmieri:

If we were over, you don't get anything Like congrats, you're making us more money, it's like okay, now I understand it's a little bit different, but yeah, so I can imagine anybody who's ever punched a clock or been tracked on time might have a negative association.

Alan Lazaros:

That's all 100%. But for anyone out there watching or listening, imagine you're the business owner in this metaphor. It's different yeah, because your life benefits when you invest your time better. So imagine same thing, but you're the foreman of your own life.

Kevin Palmieri:

Same same but different. Well that, yeah, it can be scary to know where all your time is going, but isn't that what we want anyway? I know it sucks to get that moment where you're like shit. I spent four hours on social media today, jesus, oh my God. And then you regret it. But don't you want it? Don't you want that truth? At some point you kind of need it.

Alan Lazaros:

You don't want to get to the end of your life and realize you wasted all your time.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, Something has to happen in the interim.

Alan Lazaros:

Hello, hello, hello. Nlu listener. Thank you, as always, for listening to Next Level University. Real quick. I just want to jump in and let you know about the Next Level Dreamliner. This is a journal that I use every single day. Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. It breaks down your dreams into goals, milestones and daily habits. We hope you enjoy it. The link will be in the show notes. We did an episode where you interviewed me about productivity and I study productivity first thing, every morning, lately, and I've been studying productivity for a decade, probably more than that and really what it comes down to is how can I accomplish more with the same resources? So all of us I'm Alan, version 3.6, next level. You, all of you. Amy, version 3.7, she's 37. Kevin, version 3.5. This Kevin is more capable in less time than Kevin 10 years ago by a significant margin. It's not close, so you're worth more.

Kevin Palmieri:

Am I 35 or am I 36?

Alan Lazaros:

35.

Kevin Palmieri:

How old are you?

Alan Lazaros:

36.

Kevin Palmieri:

36. I'm 35. Cool Didn'm 35. Cool Didn't know.

Alan Lazaros:

Knows every minute he spent today, but doesn't know his age. I love it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Here's the problem. Yeah, I have another two months to mess this up. Birthday's in August, we're only in February. That's only September, october, november, December, january, february. At the end of this month I'll have to get it right, but it's only been like six months, five and a half months. So it takes six months before I get it right. Why Just the way? Because I've been 35 for 34. How old am I? 35. I've been 34 for a whole year, but I thought I was 33 for six months of it.

Alan Lazaros:

It's just the way it works for me is it kind of the year you were born?

Kevin Palmieri:

no, no, it has nothing to do with that. It's just when you're so used to saying something for a year, oh yeah, okay, yeah, you know, it's like how long you guys been together. It's like five years, oh no, no, it was five years last year. Six years, yeah, or I'm an idiot, whatever, either one, either one what do I want to make land here?

Alan Lazaros:

oh you, version 3.5. This is something that's very hard to explain, and I want to make sure that everyone out there watching or listening gets this. If you're out there and you are earning more than you've ever earned before, it's because you've become more valuable with the same resources. So you don't get paid for the hour, you get paid for the value you put into the hour, and I wonder if that I know a lot of people have negative associations with that.

Kevin Palmieri:

So there is kind of a push for anti-productivity in some corners of the internet and I think it's because, I don't know, maybe it's because people feel taken advantage of by employers or bosses or whatever it is. I think that's how I felt back then. I think I felt like you guys really have to track me by the minute, like why do you have to track me by the minute? But that's because I was used to just freestyling it and going willy-nilly. I feel like if they sat us down and really helped us understand, like hey guys, so this is a $300,000 job. Okay, it should take us X amount of hours. Our projected profit that we might actually make if you guys do a really good job is really only $60,000.

Alan Lazaros:

So we're, not making three.

Kevin Palmieri:

I feel like if I had that information, I would have operated differently. Yeah, so I don't know. Had that information, I would have operated differently. Yeah, so I don't know what that means in this episode.

Alan Lazaros:

Business owners don't do a very good job of explaining all that.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, but in this case you are the business owner of your own time, Exactly. We're not talking about you at work, If you have a side gig, if you have a nine to five this is when you're off the clock and you're doing your dream chasing shit.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, when I say it's not the time, it's the value you put into the time, how do we? Let's unpack that more I'm, I'm more capable in less time than I used to be.

Kevin Palmieri:

So as a coach, for example, I've gotten significantly better at coaching because I think I think a really good example of this is when you start at let's use a fast food restaurant.

Kevin Palmieri:

When you start at a fast food restaurant and the only skills you have at that time at that restaurant are you know how to do the cooking. Then, over the next couple years, not only do you know how to do the cooking, but you know how to do the cooking and the front checkout. You now are capable of adding more value in the same amount of time Exactly. Then you get to the place where you can do all that and you know how to open and close. Okay, cool, that's good. All right, we're going to give you a whatever pay increase. Then you get to the place where you can do all that and you can lead the team. Then you know how to onboard new hire and all that stuff, and then you know how to predict how much product you need and how much product you're going to use and how much you can order in bulk. Then eventually you're running the entire restaurant because you know how the whole thing works and you're kind of the chess master.

Alan Lazaros:

Yes, and then eventually you run, you're a GM of a district with five restaurants, and then eventually you're the regional manager of the East Coast with 5,000 restaurants, and then eventually you're the. So that's why it's called a corporate ladder. You climb it and the climb in your own life. It's the same exact principle, it's the next level you principle, it's the let me become more valuable by getting better, developing skills, awareness, knowledge, inner work capabilities, understanding, boom, boom, boom, and then now I'm more capable. So this is the other thing too that's so interesting too. We, emilia and I, are talking about intimate relationships all the time. We have an event actually tonight that we're doing, and I always am thinking to myself how interesting is it that when we were 19, 18, 17, 20, you remember that picture of you with those Hooters?

Kevin Palmieri:

girls. They were Playboy models first. First of all, get your shit right.

Alan Lazaros:

All right, sorry, yes, you know what I'm talking about of course.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, I have so many pictures with models I let me. I'll have to. Let me just go through the rolodex here. Yeah, no, I think I'm on the right one but I do think it's really important to understand.

Alan Lazaros:

This is again how I think, but I think it's how it works, which is when you're. When you're in that photograph, young Kevin was. Oh my God, it would be so cool to be able to date one of these amazing, beautiful women right For sure, okay, well, that version of Kevin can't be with one of those women because he's not valuable enough yet.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah that's fair.

Alan Lazaros:

And I think a lot of people have a negative relationship with that. I don't mean anything negative, it's just you, he's not valuable enough yet. Yeah, that's fair. And I think a lot of people have a negative relationship with that. I don't mean anything negative, it's just you were 18 or whatever. You don't know anything, you're not, you haven't become valuable enough to be with a woman like that. And not to say that they are necessarily super valuable either. I don't know them, obviously, but I do think that when it comes to intimate relationships, it gets wonky because people will say, well, I want a partner with this, this, this, this and this and this, yeah. And then I say, well, do you have all of those character traits?

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

And if you don't?

Kevin Palmieri:

why would they want to be with you? I understand it's just a super logical Okay, if that doesn't land, you can't just say you want a million dollars unless you have a million dollar house. Unless you have a million dollars, it's like, well, yeah, I would like a five million dollar home as well. I don't have the five million, or I don't have the 20 and the you know whatever 35 000 a month. I need to afford the mortgage.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's just when we, when we introduce the fact that it's personal, because it's us and the way we look and our skill set, I think that's where it gets. But that, I mean that is the truth of it. For I'm not saying you can't get your, you can't get a really awesome, handsome, beautiful partner, but the unfortunate truth is you do have to have the attributes and the things that that type of person values. I mean, again, I can't imagine I would ever get to the place where I'm dating a six foot tall runway model. I just don't think I'm what they're looking for. And, again, very happily married to a very beautiful woman.

Alan Lazaros:

But I'm just saying as an example well, you and taryn are a great example of this too, because when we, when you first met taryn, you said do you think I sort of closed the door on that too?

Kevin Palmieri:

quick and I said yeah, yeah and essentially what happened.

Alan Lazaros:

There is kev didn't feel like he could be with someone like that.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yet I wasn't ready and the truth is I wasn't ready yeah, you weren't ready.

Alan Lazaros:

That is the truth that's okay.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I think at least I knew it agreed. That's the only reason we ever ever reconnected later on is because she said I just appreciated that you were honest. It's like I just I was a bodybuilding bro who had, I just didn't. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for that, I wasn't ready for anything serious. I was going through my own shit. I wasn't ready.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, yeah. I had a therapy call earlier with my therapist Her name's Carol and I was thinking to myself at the very beginning, right before the call, and I had a coaching session right after. So I was kind of priming for all of that and I was sitting there going, okay, time to work on myself. That's what this is. I'm just going to work on myself. Okay, what am I going through? What am I? What don't I understand what? And that's what the whole call was just work on me. And that's. That's the metaphor of you're renovating the basement so that the home is worth more money. It's worth more. Value is a thing you can't. The iPhone is more valuable because it's so incredible. You can't just imagine Kevin's phone 2.0, just, kevin just makeshifts a phone and sells it for $1,500.

Kevin Palmieri:

Everyone would be like this is a piece of garbage compared to the iPhone, or maybe they'd be like this is this is exactly what we need, Maybe it's just new and relevant. No internet connection, no camera, doesn't even turn on.

Alan Lazaros:

Maybe that's exactly what we need honestly, it's like you get one of those toy phones and you sell it for the same amount as the iPhone. And when it comes to self-improvement, when it comes to personal development, when it comes to next level version ofment, when it comes to personal development, when it comes to next level version of yourself, it's the exact same concept it really is. If you want, if you want to achieve something externally, you have to learn how to become the type of man or woman or person who can attract that, who can achieve that. You now know how to eventually work your way and earn your way to have a multimillion dollar home. You know how to do that. You are on track toward that. But if you step off the gas and you don't want to work on yourself anymore, well, there goes that dream and you have to become the type of man who is responsible enough to earn enough money to actually afford that mortgage.

Alan Lazaros:

And I think that we live in a world I was on a podcast earlier last thing. His name's Dan and he loved that interview because he said you're very honest about. He said everyone in the self-improvement space is talking about all this fluffy stuff and he says I love how honest you are about how challenging it is. That's it. I'm not trying to be toxic, I don't want to be negative. I just don't like the idea that we should all have, we should all expect great things for minimal effort. It just it doesn't make any sense. If that was the truth, if that was accurate, if that was real, everyone would live in a mansion. But that's impossible. Not everyone can live on the ocean. There's only so much coastline. It doesn't. So what makes the difference? Where you invest your time? Where you invest your time matters more, in my opinion, than anything else other than maybe building self-belief, which, again again, is directly connected to where you invest your time time.

Kevin Palmieri:

Who knew? Who knew?

Alan Lazaros:

strong work, brother. Who knew I didn't know you'd ever be, the type of man who liked tracking your time same.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't. It's weird. I'm sorry if I've changed I. I'm sorry if I've changed I am. I'm sorry if I've changed, but I've had to and honestly I'm not sorry because the changes have been really good and really positive.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this you gotta be the guy though the 25 year old version of Kev would be beating the shit out of me, right of you have lost it.

Kevin Palmieri:

You're not cool. You used to be super cool. You're not cool anymore at all. You're tracking your time. You don't even smoke weed anymore man Shit.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, If Kevin was friends with old Kevin. What happened to you, man? You've changed. What would you say to young Kevin?

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm sorry you haven't yet. This is a game changer. Yeah, this is a game changer. This is a game changer. Yeah, this is a game changer. This is a game changer. And again, you don't have to start. Maybe you start in a small version of this. It doesn't have to be to this degree, but I literally wanted to do an episode on this on a Freestyle Friday, because I've been doing it today and I feel like it's changed the day. And that's what NLU is all about Level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth.

Alan Lazaros:

I was on with Laura and I was putting timesheets in everyone's spreadsheets and I was like, look at Kev, leading by example, he's already in there right now. He's in there changing it right now.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, that was cool to see. Well, honestly, the other thing was you think I'm going to write it in a fucking journal. What are we doing here? You think physically write it out in a journal? Absolutely not, Zero percent chance.

Alan Lazaros:

Speaking of journals, the next level, dreamliner.

Kevin Palmieri:

I can't talk about it because I haven't been doing it consistently, but we do have a journal. It's called the Next Level Dreamliner. It's sustainable enough where you can do it every day. I haven't been because I'm out here jeffing, but it is really something special. We have a redesign coming. That will be coming what? End of the year, Mm-hmm. So we're going to do a redesign for the end of the year.

Alan Lazaros:

Dreamliner 3.0. It's on its way. This is the 2.0. Top three gratitudes, top three most important tasks. What's your most important win? What's your most important improvement?

Kevin Palmieri:

what? What's your most important improvement? What's your next level lesson? Let me throw something out there, because again, this is I would like for it to be cheaper than it is. But let me tell you, amazon takes like all of the money. So we we, we didn't like wake up and say, hey, this is the price. No, it was like that's the only possible way we can do it sustainably without losing a bunch of money. So I'm going to just be very honest about that. I want the price to be cheaper. Amazon doesn't.

Alan Lazaros:

Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. That's it $29 to achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. I think that's a bargain at half the price, I mean it is a bargain at half the price.

Kevin Palmieri:

That was my goal, again, 90 days. So if you think about it, it's like 10 bucks a month. All things considered, it is affordable, but I don't know. I just feel like you and I. I like to tell the truth about stuff like that.

Alan Lazaros:

I appreciate it, man. I appreciate the honesty in this. There was no other way to do it, yeah for anyone out there listening, Kevin and I are just honest sincerity, Sincerity.

Kevin Palmieri:

I hope sincerity shines through.

Alan Lazaros:

I know you're not supposed to say that, but I just. We sincerely want to see you win, and this is the fundamental stuff that actually will make a huge difference. You start tracking your time, you will notice a huge difference.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's not sexy. Yeah, not sexy. I'm probably not going to write a book on it. On the 65-hour work week Nobody's going to buy that shit. It's the four-hour work week, remember? Have you ever seen there's Something About Mary? Yeah, but it's been a long time. It should remain that way because it's pretty graphic. It's great, great, very funny, funny, but I think it was like the 90s, but he's so. For those of you who haven't seen it, he's ben stiller's character is driving down to florida, I think, and he picks up a hitchhiker and the guy was talking about how. I think. He says have you, have you seen that DVD? Eight Minute Abs. And he said, yeah, yeah, I'm familiar with it. And he said this is my idea. Six Minute Abs, same shit, but in six minutes. And he's like yeah, no, I think those are the numbers. He's like, yeah, that would be really hard to compete with. I mean, you get the same results in two less minutes. He's like yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think they probably did that.

Alan Lazaros:

Like I think there is a six minute abs.

Kevin Palmieri:

I believe it. Let me tell you it doesn't work.

Alan Lazaros:

No, no, nope.

Kevin Palmieri:

For the other 23 hours and 54 minutes, you have to monitor your diet and that's how you're going to get abs. Nice, cool, all right. As always, 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. Stay next level. Next level nation. Thanks for joining us for another episode of next level university.

Alan Lazaros:

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:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

Host