Next Level University

How Do You Stay Grateful While Struggling? (2017)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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“Don’t forget how bad you wanted it before you had it all.” In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan unpack what it means to stay grateful when life gets hard—even when you’re achieving everything you once dreamed of. They open up about the pressure that comes with growth, why gratitude isn’t about slowing down, and how to hold on to perspective in the middle of chaos. If you’ve ever felt torn between being thankful and being tired, this conversation will give you a real-world reset.

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

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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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:
(3:14) When success starts to overwhelm
(5:13) Reflecting on how far you’ve come
(7:33) Balancing gratitude and ambition
(11:25) Clients, pressure, and performance
(17:01) Self-esteem, standards & reality
(19:13) Join Next Level Live: A virtual, immersive event for those committed to growth, meaningful relationships, and a life they love. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-live/
(22:30) The unseen cost of success
(29:19) The real talk no one tells you
(35:52) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

Don't forget how bad you wanted it before you had it all is a line from a song that I used to like a lot, and I think that's a really good way to describe gratitude. While you're struggling, there's hopefully a lot of really good things going on, and hopefully the struggle is a productive one, a privileged one, one that you created. But if you do lose sight of gratitude, unfortunately you may lose all of the results that you have worked so hard to get. So gratitude is so important, but it's very easy to forget when you are going through the crap.

Alan Lazaros:

On this dream chasing journey, kevin and I talked a lot about the five S's. It's sacrifice, struggle, suffer and then success that's the one everybody likes and then sustain, suffer and then success that's the one everybody likes and then sustain. My question becomes how can you sacrifice, struggle and suffer, and during those first three phases those are the hard phases, those are the climb phases, those are the challenge phases how can you stay grateful during the struggle? And that's what we're going to talk about today.

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. Our goal with every episode is to help you level 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.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation, today for episode number 2017. How do you stay grateful while struggling? We're all working really hard to accomplish something, whether that's the relationship we want, the body we want the bank account we want whatever it is. And I think it's really easy to lose sight of the gratitude, lose sight of the hunger, lose sight of the desire when it shows up on your doorstep, so to speak. I was talking to a client today and she is very good at what she does and it's important to throw that out there because the numbers obviously change things. But she has a program. She's in the therapy space. She has a program where she flies out to a client, spends three days with them, does this deep, intensive work and it costs lots of money. We're talking. The initial down payment for her package is $15,000. Strong work, good for you. She just got a client and I said how does it feel? How did it feel? And she said, eh, different than I thought, for sure. And I said why? And she said because, now that the money's in, I still have to go do all the work. Like now it's real and I think, if anything, it puts more pressure on me. And I said, I completely understand we have to be grateful for the opportunity, but we also have to be ambitious enough to continue doing the things that we had to do in order to get us here, and I think I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do think it's really easy to lose sight of opportunity. It's really easy to lose the gratitude around overwhelm, even when it's aligned overwhelm. Alan and I are very overwhelmed right now, and there would be a lot of people out there that would say well, you know, you got to give yourself a break, take your foot off the gas. I think that would be me not being grateful for what we've been able to create. Gratitude is a practice of thankfulness, it is a practice of appreciation. It doesn't necessarily mean you take it easy, though. So that's my perspective to start the episode. We'll see where we end up, but it is. It's hard when you're suffering and when you're struggling and when maybe it doesn't feel like things are going well. I think it's important to realize how far you've come, because maybe your struggle today is what you dreamed of at one point. It's just very easy to forget that when you're in the midst of the shit, so to speak.

Alan Lazaros:

You remember how I told you five last week, probably last week, I was watching Black Hawk Down the movie. Yes, last week, probably last week, I was watching black hawk down the movie. Uh, yes. So there's certain films that I'll watch that are a good perspective reset and that one takes place in the 90s, early 90s, in somalia, during civil war, and it's a hell of a perspective. I Somalia I don't know what it looks like now, but in the film it's. I mean there's no running water. I mean it's very hard to wake up after that film and not feel super grateful. Running water, clothes on my back, food in my fridge, great team get to podcast for a living, dozens of clients I calculated this earlier, this earlier, kev, you and I work with 105 podcasters and business owners total showed up between the two of us, 12 of you.

Alan Lazaros:

Now, here's the cool thing so grateful, grateful, grateful, 105. We have the privilege to work with 105 podcasters and business owners. And take us back to eight years ago a couple bodybuilder bros starting a podcast. I mean we were not working with anyone but ourselves and we were just grateful to have any guests, nevermind world-class guests that we were able to, olympic athletes, blah, blah, blah. So it's cool to go back and see, holy crap. I mean we, we get the privilege of working with 105 podcasters and business owners consistently, and it's not easy to serve 105 podcasters and business owners. That's a lot of pressure, it's a lot of responsibility. 17-person team amazing, so grateful. Also comes with payroll and a lot of responsibility.

Alan Lazaros:

And so it's that duality and I wanted to talk about that today because I was on a podcast earlier with a man named Rory Awesome interview and he was so grateful to have me there. He did his research, he has you coming on in a couple weeks and his focus is helping men who feel stuck and he was unbelievably grateful and I was super, super grateful too because I did my research. I mean he's 180 episodes in, he's got his heart in the right place and I can tell After eight years of doing this. I could just tell. So I knew this would be great, humble, grateful guy and I'm sitting there going. I'm grateful. So thank you so much for thanking me for being here. But I'm also grateful to be here and this is what I said in the interview. I said I remember there was a time in my life where I wanted to help people with self-improvement, personal growth and personal development, when no one wanted to listen to me. So I'm very grateful to be here and be able to speak into the lives of your viewers and listeners. And I said this, I said anyone out there watching or listening. I don't take it lightly that I'm in your ears because what you feed your mind is dictating a large part, influencing a large part of your future. So I won't waste a second of anyone's time. Let's rock and roll, and I just think that it's hard when you're struggling to be grateful for the very thing that is feeling like a struggle. I told Kevin this this morning.

Alan Lazaros:

I woke up this morning feeling pretty tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, because Kevin and I worked all day yesterday preparing for our event next level live, by the way, the amount of value that we're I mean the hours we're putting into this. If you're out there watching or listening, please, 47 bucks. I'm not saying this because I want your 47. I'm saying this because if we don't charge 47, we're going to lose money on this event. We're flying emio it's a whole thing but the point is is you're going to get a ton of value. I mean, kevin and I are pouring hours and hours and hours and hours into this content to make it as valuable as humanly possible. Please, please, please, let us pour into you. Give us the privilege of doing that. So I woke up this morning and we made more in our business last week than pretty much ever, and I'm very, very proud of us.

Alan Lazaros:

But I had this weird moment of I feel like a failure right now, kind of, because I'm overwhelmed and I'm failing at so many things. I have clients I haven't gotten back to. I haven't updated my stats. Okay, this, that and the other thing I'm averaging right now. I looked at my stats I'm averaging 46 for the entire quarter. So in 2025, I'm averaging 46. Coaching, training and podcasting my PR is 53. So, again, again. This is the moment I had when I woke up and this is for anyone watching or listening. I was sitting there feeling like a failure, not on the macro, but in the moment definitely like shit. How am I gonna do this today? We just we ended work at nine o'clock last night yeah, nine, it was 9, 30 I think 9, 30 how am

Alan Lazaros:

I gonna do this today? How am I gonna show up? And I was like you know what? Alan and I went over to the board and I saw how we're doing. I saw that we had the biggest week, a big week I'll just say a big week.

Alan Lazaros:

Last week, I said how interesting is it that we're more successful than we've ever been you and I, collectively, next level university, the company, and I feel like shit about myself. What is that about? Now, I don't actually feel terrible about myself. Let me rephrase I have high self-esteem. I feel good.

Alan Lazaros:

What I mean, though, is that how do you hold the, the duality of struggle, because we're struggling, not because we suck, not because we're bad, but because we're overwhelmed, because we're squatting a lot of weight in this metaphor and and and? How do I wake up and be grateful for a full calendar? How do I wake up and be grateful to coach my clients today? How do I wake up and be grateful to show up for Kev? How do I wake up and be grateful to show up for the team? How do I wake up and be grateful to show up to Rory's podcast, because, in the beginning, it would have been amazing to even want anyone to hear me. So it's just, it's that, it's that duality of climbing this mountain for all you dream chasers out. There is a effing struggle. It is brutal, it is unrelenting. It's a struggle and and when you achieve levels of success which you will if you stick with it you've got to hold on to that gratitude. You've got to hold on to that gratitude because the attitude of gratitude, that's one thing I can analyze upside down and sideways. I can't think of a single downside.

Kevin Palmieri:

Of gratitude? Yeah, same, unless you lose your hunger. Yeah, I think that's.

Alan Lazaros:

I think complacency and gratitude, but I don't. I don't think gratitude means complacency.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would use complacency for that I agree, yeah, yeah, I think it's. It's the juggling act of gratitude and grind whatever. I like putting words together that have the same letters. I like alliteration, but you could say gratitude and hunger, it's the same thing of okay. When you do get so many of the results you wanted, how do you stay hungry too? How do you continue? How do you? Everything goes away if I don't. It's really easy to get a really big client and then forget how much work it's going to be and then, when the work starts, it's like, oh, this kind of sucks.

Alan Lazaros:

And if you don't do the work, there goes the client, of course Of course, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

Things have to get better after you get the client, not worse. That's the. If things don't trend upwards after you get the client, the client does not stick around for very long, understandably, so they should go find somebody who can get them better results. That's the. That's why they're working with you. So I think it's just a reminder of.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of the things that works really well for me is environmental reminders. So I usually go to the gym in the morning. When I'm driving back from the gym, there is a company that I don't know exactly where their headquarters is, but it's down one of the streets off the intersection I have to sit at on my way home from the gym and I'll see them, the whole fleet of their vehicles. So I used to do weatherization, so think insulation and that type of stuff. I'll see the whole fleet of their trucks driving down the highway or getting ready to get on the highway at seven o'clock when I'm coming home from the gym or 7.30 or 8, depending on what day it is. They work different hours and I always think to myself it could be me doing that still Now. Again, if you're out there and you do that and you love it, awesome, shout out to you.

Kevin Palmieri:

I did not love it. I loved the money. I didn't like what I was doing. That, okay, you have a bunch of calls today, kev brother, you get to work in your pajamas from your home. You don't have to leave. You don't ever really have to leave the house if you don't want to. That's pretty freaking cool and that is quite a privilege. So do not bitch about the privilege that you've been able emotionally or I'm really low emotionally, you've heard me say this. Before I go, look at old content. To Alan's point, we were creating the Next Level Live presentation and I was going through old photos to find stories and it just always brings me back to oh, my goodness, it was. This was all a dream, this whole thing was a freaking dream this is.

Alan Lazaros:

Did you also used to read a word up magazine?

Kevin Palmieri:

Always yeah, and heavy D up in the limousine. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course that was it sorry, no, no, you're good, I don't. If I knew the rest was hanging pictures on the wall, I don't know the.

Alan Lazaros:

It's a song by biggie smalls, alan's old I love it when they call me big Papa. Nice Did you see.

Kevin Palmieri:

Hardball. Remember Hardball with Keanu Reeves? I think that song was in there. I went and saw that with some friends when I was young and I bawled my eyes out when I don't remember his G-Baby. Maybe Was it good Sad. Yeah, it's a good movie, hardball. I believe it's Keanu Reeves. I believe it's a good movie, hardball. I believe it's Keanu Reeves. I believe I'm on it. Very sad, so I'm not going to give any more spoilers. But yeah, I think it's. Maybe you're wired one way. Are you wired for gratitude or are you wired for ambition? Hypothetically, we'll say and then you always check in on the opposite front what do you got?

Alan Lazaros:

6.4 on IMDb yeah, that is a potentially so. There's a sweet spot on IMDb that I think there's like underdog movies. Yeah 6.4 means I'm probably gonna like it.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's.

Alan Lazaros:

Keanu right. Yeah, he's awesome.

Kevin Palmieri:

And it's good, it's a really good story. I don't wanna give from what I remember, whatever. And it's good, it's a really good story.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't want to give From what I remember 2001,.

Kevin Palmieri:

Man, I mean you were 13 years old, that's when I saw it, so I don't remember much about the movie. But yeah, last thing, and I'll kick it back to Alan, I think we're all kind of wired in one direction. Maybe you're wired for ambition and you forget to appreciate the things that you've created. Or maybe you are wired for gratitude and you are so grateful for everything that you have that you're not trying to create more of it. Right again, I think the goal is always to move closer to the to five, which is the unique center for each, every one of us well, yesterday you were here for this kev.

Alan Lazaros:

I, kevin and I were in the office, I don't know from noon 1?

Kevin Palmieri:

12.30 to 9.30 on a.

Alan Lazaros:

Sunday Okay, 12.30 to 9.30 on a Sunday and Emilia stormed the keep playfully, she and my little dog Tucker, and Tauriel and Tilly girl, they all barged in and said, okay, we're done. Now, like that's enough, come downstairs. You know, she was obviously being playful, she. She literally said that if I had said I know I really have to work, she would have just got out. But it was so cute. It was so cute.

Alan Lazaros:

She came in, she brought me dinner while Kevin and I were working and all three of them came in because, apparently all of yesterday, because Sunday is usually family day all of yesterday, apparently they were looking up at her like what the hell? Like where is dad right? And that was just a really cool grateful moment for me of years ago. I didn't have any of that, you know, and so that was really special, really really special. And whatever you value, what do you value most?

Alan Lazaros:

I've been doing this with my clients a lot lately, I think I've been talking about it, but I think this is really important for everybody to do. What do you tie your self-esteem to? What do you value most? Because one of the reasons why I felt like a failure this morning isn't because I'm failing. I'm actually succeeding at a really big level, but my goals far exceed my current capabilities. So I'm setting goals that are currently beyond what I'm currently capable of, which is so that I can grow. But if I'm not careful and grateful along the way, sometimes that can get to me, and so I try really hard to win at a couple things, otherwise I'll just feel like a failure all the time.

Alan Lazaros:

If you're trying to be the best at fitness, the best husband or wife, the best pet owner, the best parent, the best business owner, the best coach, the best trainer, the best podcaster, the best at running and sprinting and jogging and hit training and weight training. I mean, you're gonna feel terrible about yourself. I've done that that. It's very hard to have level 10 standards in everything. I think that's one of the things that's most hard on me, to be completely honest, because this is the duality of high standards. Right by anyone else's measure, I'm considered successful, and Rory was very kind to this other podcaster. He said he was blown away because I told him my story, where I came from and all that. He was like holy crap, I mean whoa, good for you. And I had that moment of yeah, yeah, we've done okay, but in the day-to-day I don't. I don't live in that, I live in what else can we do and how do we?

Kevin Palmieri:

I think that's the way you're wired?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, I'm definitely wired that way. I'm much more wired for future orientation and achievement, and so gratitude for me needs to be a practice, and lately I've been so overwhelmed I haven't been doing the dreamliner. So, achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. We've got this next level dreamliner Link will be in the show notes, by the way, but there's gratitude. It's start your day with gratitude, every day, top three gratitudes. And I haven't been doing it because I've been so damn busy, which is why we haven't been selling it, by the way. We haven't been talking about it because we don't talk about what we're not doing. That's just innovation happens. That's where you improve. If you're not trying to improve, if you're not frustrated with not going to the gym, you're not going to get your butt to the gym. You have to have that fire. You do and not or, and you have to be grateful along the way, and that's a practice. That's with actions, and I'm trying really hard to walk that line.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well you gotta it is. I think it's like a daily reminder. I think it's a daily reminder. Next Level Nation. We are very, very excited to announce that we are doing our first purely virtual Next Level Live. On April 5th 2025, from 10 am to 4 pm Eastern Standard Time, alan and myself will be live streaming from Worcester, massachusetts.

Alan Lazaros:

Next Level, Live 2025. Be there. It's only $47 for a full day of personal development, self-improvement, holistic health, wealth, life and love.

Kevin Palmieri:

We have a global audience. Obviously, if you live somewhere else in the world, it's hard to come across the country or across the world for a one-day event, so we wanted to make sure it was accessible to everyone.

Alan Lazaros:

You're not going to get to the next level of your life. By default, you're going to get there by design. Join us, design that next level.

Kevin Palmieri:

I've said this a lot. I say this to clients. I say this when I get on other podcasts and people say how are you doing? And some days I'll say I'm living the dream. Other days like, ah, it's okay, I'm all right, I'm surviving, and I say I much prefer the overwhelm of abundance to the overwhelm of scarcity. I much prefer having too much to do rather than too many crickets. I mean one is far, it's far more progress than the other one is. It's far more productive, it's far more constructive. But I do have to remind myself of that. I mean there's a lot going.

Kevin Palmieri:

I had a client call me today, went to voicemail. I got to find a way to respond to that. I mean there's a lot going. I had a client call me today, went to voicemail. I got to find a way to respond to that. I have a meeting after this. I got to hop on a phone call with someone to make sure something goes right, like there is always something going on. But in the old days it was. There was always a thought of how do I make something happen? And that sucks worse. Yeah, it does, it's, you can decide okay. Okay, if the faucet isn't on and there's nothing coming out of the faucet. That is a very rough place to be. If the faucet is cranking and there's too much water coming out, you can turn off the water to go get another bucket and then turn the faucet back on when you have the bucket, if you want right. I wouldn't suggest it because the the faucet has a weird way of getting stuck closed when you close it for too long.

Alan Lazaros:

So be very, very cautious when it comes to that.

Kevin Palmieri:

But that's up to you. That's you and your prerogative. Which would you prefer? I would much prefer a stream of water that I can't handle, that I can filter and I can slow down, depending on if I want to kink the hose a little bit, as opposed to sitting there with a bunch of buckets and having no water.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'd much prefer the other one, and I think it's easy to talk about oh, what's it going to be like when? And then, eventually, when happens? And there are downsides. Alan says this all the time success makes life harder, not easier, and I 100% agree with that. And there are downsides of success that you just don't see yet, and that is a really big piece of it. Again, I'm a business owner and I own my own business. I'm an entrepreneur, I work for my clients. That is just the way it works. Somebody said, hey, do you have time to hop on a call today? I don't want to do it. I don't really want to do it, I'd rather do something else. But yes, I do.

Alan Lazaros:

Do you also want clients? Great.

Kevin Palmieri:

What time works for you. Why don't you think that is?

Alan Lazaros:

more common understanding, because from the outside in versus the inside out, that's the base problem.

Kevin Palmieri:

Because people always say that too.

Alan Lazaros:

What's it like being your own boss? It's like well, it's the best. And I'm technically employed by 105 podcasters and business owners that we work with, because if it wasn't for them, I couldn't pay my goddamn bills. So it's not sexy I think it's because it's it's not, you don't.

Kevin Palmieri:

You don't sell the non-sexy things, you don't. You don't sell the like. I'm sure being a movie star is amazing, but they work like 16 hours a day pretty much all the time when they're shooting a movie and they gotta travel and they gotta do press, they gotta be away.

Alan Lazaros:

They got to be away from their family.

Kevin Palmieri:

They got to be away from their family, lose weight, gain weight, put on this costume, do this, memorize these lines. Oh you know what? That didn't work. We got to do the shoot another 50 times, take, another take Ah, that wasn't it. Another take that I'm sure, being one of the main actors or actresses in Titanic was amazing. The water was cold as shit. People were getting close to frostbite. Somebody put acid, I think, or LSD in the food or something.

Alan Lazaros:

Seriously.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, I don't know if it was food poisoning or somebody drugged. I think it was on Titanic. James Cameron is a really hard dude to work for, evidently because he has very high standards. Yeah, it's probably awesome to be in one of the highest grossing films of all time, but there's also a lot of stuff behind the scenes that you just don't see. I'm sure that's awesome until you have to do the things that you have to spend all night in the booth recording songs that you can't figure out, like it's just, yeah, there is a downside to everything.

Kevin Palmieri:

And I think most people don't want to talk about the downside because then it, if I tell you I'm living the dream and then I say like, yeah, and there's like a lot of nightmares that come with it, I think people are afraid that people are going to look at them and think like a lot of nightmares that come with it. I think people are afraid that people are going to look at them and think less of them.

Alan Lazaros:

It's like, oh okay, you're not as happy as you think or as happy as I think you are yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's important I I think that we I aspire to be that I think that's really important because I see so many people who want to build a business and that's not shared. That part's not shared. It's very important to understand both sides of the coin. If you were going to sign up, that's like me saying, hey, sign up for this for life and it's going to be fucking awesome and not have any of the fine print, be like. And, by the way, you're going to have to work at least a little bit each day. You're going to have to be there for your clients basically whenever they need you. For the most part, you're going to have to track these metrics and priorities and habits every day, forever. You're gonna have to look at your bank account every day and track that you're gonna have to. I feel like a lot of people are unintentionally signing something and they're not actually signing it right. But I had someone tell me hey, I want to be you, and he didn't say it exactly. He did kind of say it like that. Actually, he said I want to be the CEO of my own company and I want to. I want to be you, I want to be in your position, like I want everything that comes with that and I tried my best to explain what that actually means. And in my honest opinion and again, I'll keep this anonymous but this person I don't think will be successful. I've kept tabs over the years and there's no way Certainly not as successful as you and I are. And I'm not trying to be unkind, I'm not trying to be mean. I want to see him win. I've always been in this person's corner trying to see them win. Seriously, the only reason I'm making you have the wrong idea about what this is and this person is not a strong leader of people. He's not the pace setter. He doesn't have the pull to climb the highest mountain and to rally people and communicate effectively. He's not that strong of a communicator. He's not someone who has a lot of influence, and that's okay. I'm not making him wrong. I really adore this person in many regards. That's why this makes me so sad.

Alan Lazaros:

You don't want to sign your name on a dotted line. I'll use a credit card as an example. Credit card is the best example of this. We'll go back to gratitude in a second Credit card. You have a $10,000 limit. Everybody's been there.

Alan Lazaros:

Credit card companies have grown tremendously over the years and I have a mentor who said they are lining their pockets with your ignorance. They are lining their pockets with your ignorance. That is what they are doing. Okay, you get a credit card? Oh, 3% cash back. Interesting, 5% on groceries Cool, okay, nice. Oh, you have 10 grand Sweet, I guess I'm getting that new TV Dotted line Boom, boom, boom. Interest rate 29%. You're paying that minimum. For how long? 20 years. Look at how much you end up paying for that 10 grand. It's insane when you look at the numbers.

Alan Lazaros:

I think that that's what happens when someone isn't upfront about the truth of beneath the iceberg of their dreams, and Kevin and I aspire to do that. We're not saying not to chase your dreams. We're not saying not to build a company. We're not saying not to start a podcast. We actually think you should do all those things if they're aligned for you. We just want you to do them informed and I don't want you and I pretending that all of this is fucking sunshine and rainbows.

Alan Lazaros:

Man, I'm grateful and it's certainly better than what it was, and I'm with you all day on the crickets thing. I say that all the time. People always ask how are you? That's the first thing they always say when you come on their podcast how are you? I said it today. I said I'm great, I'm overwhelmed, but I'm great because I remember what it was like when it was crickets in the beginning and no one cared what I had to say. So, but success is earned every day. It's earned every day, and the moment you get arrogant and entitled and you think it's going to just flow like the salmon of the Capistrano, you are going to lose your success, you're going to lose your edge, you're going to lose your humility and you're going to get hit in the head with a fucking brick. And I just don't want to see that happen to any more people who lose sight of what it really takes to build success and to achieve your dreams.

Kevin Palmieri:

Here's an analogy or an example or metaphor or simile or whatever it is, I don't know. And then I'll kick it to Alan for a next level lesson. This is my next level lesson. When you get the sex talk the birds and the bees what is the person saying to you? They're saying this is I know, I know You're being exposed to this thing. That seems really really really good, really really really fun, and it is cool, cool.

Kevin Palmieri:

And there also are some things that you need to know, because right now you're just not aware of the downsides. You're only looking at the upsides. Because, I don't know, you watch movies and they only really sell the upsides. And you watch music videos and they only it's just sexualized, right, you don't really. They're not explaining anything in these movies or these music videos or whatever. Here are the downsides. Now you're informed, now you go, do your thing, you be safe and you make sure you don't make any mistakes, and now you get to decide whether or not. Now is the time that you want to do this.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think it's the same thing with dream chasing, the same exact thing of I. I wonder if we would do it differently if we only did one episode a week because we would feel like we have to. I don't I think we would do it the same. Honestly, I really do, but there's so much in between. Yeah and and I think that's the, if I wrote a book, how much of that would I want to be like success, principles and how to actually get there? And then maybe there'd be a chapter of like okay, if you made it this far, strong work. Also, here's all the sucky things that I didn't put in the beginning, because I actually wanted you to get value.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when we both have books, which we will in the future, I think that it'll probably be here's what we achieved, here's how we did it, here's what you can do and here's the downside, and I think that that's what we do. That's what Next Level U is all about. It's not about being Kevin or Alan, it's about being the best version of yourself and understanding what that means, and I think that's what maturity is, too right. I mean, I told the kids that I spoke to last week and I got a message from the professor that said everyone loved your talk except for one person. He said long story. I'm assuming this person was not a fan of me.

Kevin Palmieri:

Hard judge, yeah, tough cookie to crack.

Alan Lazaros:

You can't get them all, can't get them all, and I think I know who it is. But he asked a very attacky question. I triggered him a lot. I didn't mean to, but it is what it is. So you give a speech in front of 50 people, you're going to get 50 opinions right, 50 perspectives, but anyways. So my next level lesson how can you stay grateful? Yeah, life is a struggle a lot of the time, particularly if you're climbing toward and building something meaningful. Okay, if that's true, how can you try your best to stay grateful along the way and then, when the springtime comes and it's whoa, this is fucking awesome, then you're still grateful and you stay humble so that the next time around you can keep increasing, increasing, increasing. For me, anytime I've ever gotten entitled, it always fucked up my life. It really did. Whenever I lost gratitude, things always went downhill.

Kevin Palmieri:

Makes sense. What is gratitude? It's you appreciating what you have. That's all it is. And when you stop appreciating what you have, that's all it is. And when you stop appreciating what you have. I saw something the other day. It was Next time you, next time, you look at your partner and you see every single one of their flaws and all that blah, blah, blah, blah. And you wish this was different about them. You wish that was different about them, and I'm not saying to do this, it's just an example. Take their picture and make a dating profile and see many people out there that would reach out to them with the utmost excitement and the utmost appreciation the utmost gratitude, again dangerous dangerous game.

Kevin Palmieri:

For sure your partner finds out you did that, she'd get more messages than I would.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm certain of that. You're gonna have to find gratitude somewhere else, a different person maybe, but but that's all that is is a perspective shift right, it's like I'm certain of that.

Kevin Palmieri:

You're gonna have to find gratitude somewhere else, a different person maybe, but but that's all that is is a perspective shift. Right, it's like I'm grateful for alan and sometimes I have to perspective shift when he's late or whatever, just like he has to perspective shift when I say, hey, I want to do this dumb shit maybe eventually.

Alan Lazaros:

But kev says hey, did you know that a 95 inchinch TV is only $775? It's a bargain.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's a bargain at half the price or twice the price. It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of that offer.

Alan Lazaros:

You're funny, you're funny.

Kevin Palmieri:

But yeah, I think, if you have a gratitude practice every day and you have an ambition practice every day, I think you're going to be in a pretty good spot and one of those probably comes more naturally to you. So that's a self-awareness thing. Boom, all right, april 5th 2025. As Alan mentioned, I feel really, really, really good about Next Level Live. So we spent nine and a half hours oh, we probably spent seven of those hours on the presentation and we have more hours to put in, but this is easily the best thing we've ever created, and we don't talk about stuff unless we, unless we believe in it. So I very, very much believe in this.

Kevin Palmieri:

Tickets are only 47 bucks. We want to make sure it's affordable. We want to make sure that, no matter where you are in your personal development journey, you can attend, and everybody who buys a ticket has access to the replay, so you can pop in and out. I know Saturday can be a challenge, but we wanted to make sure that you would have the opportunity if you're interested. So we'll have the link in the show notes. We'd love to have you come join us. Let's party.

Alan Lazaros:

We're having a meetup that was scheduled the week before next level live. It's going to be a next level live primer. I'm going to put the link in the show notes here for anyone who is attending next level live. So this is totally free. You can come to this even if you're not coming to next level live. So this is totally free. You can come to this even if you're not coming to next level live. But it's primarily going to be a primer to create.

Alan Lazaros:

So aura ring has a readiness score and it basically says hey, go get a kick-ass lift in because you are ready to rock. Or hey, alan, you need to take it fucking easy because you are burning yourself to the ground. So if you have a high readiness score, what we're basically trying to do is monthly meetup will basically be a ready. It'll increase the readiness score open heart, open mind, open hands, people ready to do the work, humility, courage, vulnerability. We're going to it's going to be a primer to prepare everyone for next level live. So next level live six hours, pop in and out, totally virtual. The monthly meetup will be the Thursday before it. I'll put the link in the show notes. If you meetup will be the thursday before it. I'll put the link in the show notes if you want to register. To be as clear as possible, the monthly meetup is free. You can register for free right now. Always, we do them every month. Next level live is 47. That link will also be in the show notes. We hope to see you there at both.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, we'd love to have you at both. As always, we love you, we appreciate you. Grateful for each and every one of you. Nlu, we don't have fans't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Alan Lazaros:

Keep it 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

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host