Next Level University

Social Media Is Ruining Your Life (2026)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In today’s episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros break down how social media can quietly take over our days, skew our self-esteem, and distract us from living a life we’re truly proud of. They talk about the emotional cost of constant comparison, the hidden time sink of scrolling, and why we often feel empty even after hours of “relaxing.” You’ll also hear practical ways to shift from being a consumer to becoming a contributor—so you can build real confidence, live with purpose, and actually enjoy your rest.

Learn more about:
Next Level Live 2025 - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-live/
Saturday, April 5th, 2024 (10:00 am to 4:00 pm EST)

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

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

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
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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.

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

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(4:55) 870 hours a year lost to scrolling
(7:34) Entitlement Vs. Responsibility
(10:28) The hidden work behind the scenes
(14:48) You can’t scroll for hours and expect a good life
(18:45) How daily choices shape fulfillment
(20:53) 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/
(22:50) The myth of carefree living
(27:00) High-quality R&R comes from discipline
(33:08) What fills you Vs. What drains you
(37:30) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

What if I told you that social media was ruining your life? You might think, ah, that's a little aggressive. I feel like that's probably not entirely true, but I think many of us that would say that also don't remember what it's like not to be on social media or, even potentially worse, have never had a life without social media, and it's really hard to know the difference between what life was like before and what life is today.

Alan Lazaros:

And I know it's a bold statement, but I do think social media is ruining our lives so three weeks ago now, I was speaking to a group of engineers who were the average age age was 20 years old and I had a moment I'm only 16 years older than these people and I felt like I was 87. And the reason why is because in technology years doggy years one year equals seven years. In technology years, I think the same thing applies. Technology, the amount of devices that we have. I think I have 24 devices in this house alone, just with Emilia and I. 24 devices in this house alone, just with Emilia and I Smart devices, smart TVs, phones, cameras, laptops, ipads, ipods, all these different things.

Kevin Palmieri:

You still have an iPod.

Alan Lazaros:

It is wild to me.

Kevin Palmieri:

Do you have an iPod? Still no.

Alan Lazaros:

Emilia has an iPad Cool.

Kevin Palmieri:

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

Alan Lazaros:

Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan.

Kevin Palmieri:

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

Alan Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success 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 2026, social media is ruining your life Again. I know it's bold, I know maybe it's triggering. Maybe the initial thought is, kev, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. And it might be, and we're going to figure that out in today's episode.

Kevin Palmieri:

I was talking to somebody the other day, one of our amazing clients, and I've spoken about this client before because she's a really good human and she's super intelligent, she's very successful and she's really good at what she does. And she said you know, I have many awards and many accolades that say I'm one of the best in the world that do this. But when I go on social media, I feel like everybody is as good, if not better, than I am. And I said isn't it interesting how your silo of people are just people that are like you essentially and in the quote unquote real world. When you go out and you go grocery shopping and you go to the movies and you go to the mall and you go to the gym and whatever, you most likely will never run into somebody who has the same exact degrees that you do. It most likely will never happen.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I said I posted a video of me squatting 335, and after, like when I left the gym that day, I was like I am so fucking weak, like this is absolutely terrible, because on social media everybody in the bodybuilding strength training spot they all lift that. That's nothing. They wouldn't even post a video about that, because that's just not impressive in social media land.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't know if I've ever seen anybody in my gym squat more than me at the time of me being there. I know there's people that go there that do that is what social media is doing. It's fucking with us me being there. I know there's people that go there that do that is what social media is doing. It's fucking with us. Social media is designed to show the top 1% results Because that is what is desirable, that is what creates envy, that is what creates jealousy, that is what gets clicks. That is why it is designed that way.

Kevin Palmieri:

And unfortunately, I think we're getting to the point where we spend more time in social media land than we do out in the world. So go to your local grocery store, go to your local mall. The odds of you seeing somebody as attractive, as in shape, as successful, as wealthy as somebody on social media are just so astronomically low. But I don't know if we think about that when we go out. So, yeah, that is my tirade on social media. Now last thing, and then I'll kick it to Alan there are a lot of upsides too. We would not be able to do what we do in the way we do it without social media, but it's going back to the consumer versus investor mindset. The consumer mindset is I'm going to mindlessly scroll and I'm just going to waste my day away. The average person globally spends two hours and 23 minutes a day on social media. It's a long.

Kevin Palmieri:

I mean that's several workouts, Whoa. You could listen to a lot of audio book. You could read a lot of books in that. What was the number Two hours and 23 minutes per day. So that's what? 16 hours a week, something like that. Hold on Two hours and 23 minutes.

Alan Lazaros:

So that's 143 minutes 60 times 2 plus 23. So 143 minutes. Yes, okay, yep Times 365 days a year, if you want to do it that way. Okay, divide that by 60. That's 870 hours a year. That's a lot. Let's do that in terms of 16 hour days, assuming you sleep 8. Okay 870.

Kevin Palmieri:

I still don't get why you do six. You've got to do eight-hour days, because that's what people work eight-hour days. No man, okay, I'm right on this one we work 16 hours a day sometimes, but 16-hour waking hours, 16 hours.

Alan Lazaros:

We all have 16 waking hours a day. That's why I do that.

Kevin Palmieri:

Okay, I'm have 16 waking hours a day. That's why I do that. Okay it's, I'm telling you it's not as good as eight hours, I'm certain really people work eight hour shifts, okay, all right.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, it's 15, uh, 54, I'm sorry. 54 full 16 hour days, assuming you sleep eight. So take 54 days off the calendar that is and imagine someone for 54 days straight only scrolling. They sleep and they scroll. That's all they do. All right, now let's do the eight-hour thing. All right, it's going to be twice that 60 times 2 plus 23 is 143 minutes.

Alan Lazaros:

143 minutes a day is the average. Yes, two hours and 23 minutes, okay. Yes, I'm going to multiply that by 365. Days, hours and 23 minutes. Okay, I'm going to multiply that by 365 days it's 52,195. Now I'm going to divide that by 60. To put it in hours Math with Jeff and Jeff, you know it, it's 870 hours. 870 hours a year is the average. That's insane. Okay, you want me to divide that by eight hours?

Kevin Palmieri:

That's insane.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, you want me to divide that by eight hours. Yeah, it's 108, 109. I'll round up 109 eight-hour shifts. Yeah, per year. Yeah, that's messing us up way more than I ever thought.

Kevin Palmieri:

So 108 eight-hour shifts. You work five eight-hour shifts a week. That's 20 weeks of work. 22. That's like 22 weeks of work.

Alan Lazaros:

One thing that's really hard for me. I'm going to share this and I am scared to share it. But one thing that's really hard for me and I try to hold a duality with this it's very hard for me to listen to someone complain about their life not working out well, while they don't do anything about it. Let me explain. If you're scrolling on social media for four hours a day and then complaining that your life isn't working out well, it's very hard for me because if you put those four hours into meaningful, productive activities, your life would work a million times better. It would it would just a million times as an exaggeration, but it's, it is. It's tough, it's. I mean, that's 22 weeks Of eight hour work days. If you're complaining about not having money while scrolling three hours a day, there's an issue there and at the end of the day, I I don't want to. If you stand for one thing, you're against something else. So I guess what I'm against is entitlement, and I do think I'm against laziness as well. I think laziness is really bad. I think that productivity is important and I think that if you want to have a great life, you're going to have to find a way to be a productive, contributing member to society.

Alan Lazaros:

I remember Emilia's parents when she was very young member to society. I remember Emilia's parents when she was very young they're on the very high end of great parents, honestly and they taught some very valuable lessons to her when she was a kid, lessons that I kind of wasn't taught, to be honest. One of them was you eat shit, you hang out with shit, you smell like shit, so don't hang out with the wrong people. That was like lesson one you hang out with shit, you smell like shit. That's a good one, aka do not hang out with the wrong people. I got that one wrong so horribly. Number two was try to become a productive and contributing member of society. You need to work really hard to become a contributor to society, not someone who just siphons and I grew up with some people that were very much siphoning and not contributing. And this comes down to a basic principle. I know this wasn't the point of the episode, but if you give a lot to society and to your community and to your company and to your career, you're going to get a lot back. That's how it works.

Alan Lazaros:

I have one person I'm thinking of showed up to Christina, the chief operations officer of our company and she's going to win. In my opinion, she's going to be very successful for the rest of her life because she's a contributing member of society. She's always figuring out how she can help and she's always trying. She's good at a lot of stuff and she's always contributing and she's always figuring out how she can add value. Now that can go too far and if she's not careful in knowing her value, she can be taken advantage of, which I think is the risk. But her career is going to be great. I know it because she's thinking about how she can serve first, profit second, and I do think a lot of us get that backwards, and I think social media is part of the problem. To tie this in a bow Everyone on social media.

Kevin Palmieri:

You're not seeing the behind the scenes work that creates the results, or lack of results. Some of these results just aren't real.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, exactly. I wonder to myself how much of it actually isn't real. Because, okay, this past weekend I went to the lake, emilia and I. We had a wonderful weekend but a lot of it was working. I worked all day Saturday. I mean, we had a great time and we had walks in nature and it was a wonderful little weekend. But don't get it twisted. I grinded through most of it and there's a picture of us and little Tucker on the couch, little weekend getaway, check out to check back in, and that's what I posted on social media. But of that 48 hour period I was working. I slept 16 of it. I worked another 16 at least, and you see the one photograph that looks cute and that's okay. That's what social media is for.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm not going to share what I'm doing behind the scenes. Maybe I'll do that more when I'm doing business growth, university. We'll see. But it is. It is a skewed reality. It's like a sitcom. One of my favorite sitcoms growing up was friends, very famous show. They never work and it's insane. It used to bother me like this show is making me lazy. Friends will make you lazy. I'm not even kidding I I would get lazier because it it almost.

Kevin Palmieri:

It almost, uh, romanticizes laziness well the thing your TV you can't take with you everywhere. So back then when you went out of the house, that kind of left you.

Kevin Palmieri:

Now the TV is with you all the time. It never leaves I know, never leaves Never, ever, ever, ever. And I think now it's way harder to just sit in silence. We're always looking for some because, I've said this before, I like to bet on UFC fights, but the problem is my phone is right there, so in between fights it's easy for me to pick it up and just start scrolling. It's like well, I'm not refilling my cup if I'm doing that. If I'm watching five hours of fights and there's 10 minutes in between each fight, I'm spending an hour on my phone at least right, and that's not. That's not what I want to do. That's not refilling my cup. I think the comparison thing is the maybe one of the worst pieces of it yeah because it's not.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's not the real world. So essentially, we're spending two hours and 23 minutes a day On average, on average In what is essentially a movie, because everything is reverse engineered. Yes, there are some people who are super authentic that have put up certain content. Yes, but that's not the majority of it. At least that's not the majority of what I see, and maybe it's just because that's the way my algorithm is set up, but it's like we're not really living in a real place with real results. Everybody's kind of playing a character.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

And it's a very, very strange thing, and I was thinking of that the other day. Now, essentially, social media is about making money. I remember when I first started social media, it was you posted pictures, just like oh yeah, you have a cool picture, you post it. Now it's part of business and it's part of a brand. Again, it's part of our business, it's part of our brand.

Alan Lazaros:

But money makes people do things differently than they would do if they were just doing it for fun yeah that's social media is a really good example of that well, and this, this becomes the the point of this podcast personal development success how to create your own unique version of success, one of the things that I'm. I said this to a client behind the scenes. I'm going to bring it here and I'm going to say it a lot more hardcore than than what I think is just this client I've been working with for a long time. She wants me to be this direct and I said you will never. Okay, I told her a story. I said Emilia and I one time we were watching a movie on Amazon prime it was Amazon prime or Apple TV plus or whatever One of the platforms, I forget which one and all of a sudden a commercial came on. I stopped the film, I went upstairs and I rented the movie and I made sure that we will never, ever, ever, hear an advertisement. You cannot get into my consciousness. And I told this person. I said you can't scroll on tiktok for hours and then live a rich, dynamic, positive life. You can't, because you're putting crap in. You might as well make a cake out of cement. That's a jim rohn quote. There is no version of you.

Alan Lazaros:

I remember when gladiator 2 came out. I loved that movie and I watched like an hour and a half Of these fucking behind the scenes interviews and videos and all this stuff. I spent my whole goddamn morning doing this and I felt so terrible that day. What a bad way to start your day, holy crap. Now here's the deal right At the end of the day, what you feed your mind, what you feed your brain, what you allow into your world is is affecting you. It's influencing your every thought.

Alan Lazaros:

What you say, think, do, feel and believe NLU. I can see a huge uptick when my I have a client I was just on with earlier Shout out to you if you're listening I know you are because we track your stuff. She was not listening for a while and then she started listening again. I can see an uptick in intensity. I can see an uptick in motivation. I can see an uptick in discipline. I can see a drastic difference when someone stops listening to our show. What does that mean? We are me more than Kev. We are intensely focused on helping you. Stay focused. What is the point of NLU? Every single day, we're going to talk about something meaningful that matters, that can actually help you. So my point of thisU Every single day, we're going to talk about something meaningful that matters, that can actually help you. So my point of this and I said this to my client you can't, you have to stand guard at the door of your mind. You cannot let nonsense in and then live a magnificent life. You can't. You have to protect your fucking brain. You have to.

Alan Lazaros:

And one of the reasons why I love this show and I love what we do is because that's what we're doing. Yeah, social media. We have to use it. Yeah, it's curated content. Yeah, it's me and my cats and my home and fitness and Emilia and I and loving and Lake, boom, boom, boom.

Alan Lazaros:

Of course, however, I try really, really, really hard to make it aligned and integrous and to be as honest as humanly possible and to be good at marketing. Of course, I'm so grateful we get to work from home. I'm so grateful we have people coming to our event this weekend that are from all over the freaking world. That's so cool. Without social media, that wouldn't even be possible.

Alan Lazaros:

So I'm grateful for the upside, however, if you are the person out there listening, you probably aren't, because you wouldn't be listening to us, most likely if you're scrolling for three hours a day. But if you are out there and you're scrolling for two, three, four, five hours a day. It is messing your brain up, it's messing your perception up. It's messing up your ability to do well. You're not going to succeed. The most productive and effective people I know You're not going to succeed. The most productive and effective people I know and I know a lot of them do not scroll. They avoid it like the plague. You'll never hear me listen to an advertisement. You'll never hear me have something on in the background. You'll never hear my phone ring. And again, I'm excessive with this, I know, but you've got to protect your consciousness if you want to succeed.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, if we were to paint a picture, let's just imagine two days. Person a, person b, person a wakes up and the first thing they do is go on social media, scroll for 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Then they get out of bed, then they go. They're listening to netflix while they get ready for their day, right, or they're watching netflix, like while they get ready for their day, or they're watching Netflix while they get ready for their day, and that's kind of the way that their day goes. They've already tapped into entertainment and it's really hard to get off that train when you start it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Oh, it's brutal. That's why the morning is so important because you're starting the morning. By the end of the day, they're most likely going to come home. They're going to continue watching their show, they're going to watch TV in bed. That's going to be the flow of it. Person B wakes up, gets out of bed, listens to an audio book or reads a book or whatever whatever it is does do their mobility, whatever they go, exercise awesome. Towards the end of the day, you're going to feel like you earned watching an hour of your favorite Netflix show or whatever it is, and I think it's way more cup-filling because you feel like you actually earned it.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

There's not as much guilt around it, because it's like I've been watching TV all day the same thing, like I enjoy pizza right now because I'm not having any of it. So when I do get the opportunity to have it, I savor it and I enjoy it so very much. If I was having pizza every night, I wouldn't appreciate it and I wouldn't look forward to it and I wouldn't appreciate the difference and I wouldn't appreciate how unique it is and it wouldn't be pleasurable, it wouldn't be quote unquote fulfilling. But I think it's just discipline. I think it is. This is one of those discipline things where there's nobody.

Kevin Palmieri:

I mean, yeah, there's apps and there's there's products and services that you can use and buy and pay for. That will help you with this, but it has to start with the understanding of one I'm spending more time. I think the question is and this would be my next level lesson ask yourself are you spending more time than you want to on social media? That's question one. Two, how much of it is completely unintentional or not unintentional, unconscious, it just happens. You just find yourself opening your phone, you get the poll, you do it and the next thing you know it's been 25 minutes. I think awareness is the first step, and then admitting that you're kind of Jeffing, and again I'm guilty of this way less now than ever, which is great.

Kevin Palmieri:

Can we talk about?

Alan Lazaros:

that journey.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, of course.

Alan Lazaros:

Because, when we first met, instagram was definitely something you spent too much time on.

Kevin Palmieri:

For sure.

Alan Lazaros:

From your own perspective.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yes, yes. And this is something in the early days you and I had to really work on. Well, it didn't seem like there was that I mean. Okay, I think of it this way Back when I worked my job at lunch, everybody was on their phones the entire time, essentially.

Alan Lazaros:

Remember Snapchat too. Yeah, All the Snapchat, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was on-demand entertainment all the time and it never it was. It's really hard to turn that off Because it feels good in the moment it's like, oh okay, cool, I'm hanging out.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, then you feel empty, though you do. You feel so empty after, For sure.

Kevin Palmieri:

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. I remember the hour and a half interviews of Gladiator 2. And again, I love film. I'm not saying not to treat yourself every now and then. I watched some of the movie Thurgood Marshall it's called Marshall. It's actually really good. I watched some of that last night because we worked late, but after about an hour or so it's okay. I ate my food, I got my R&R in, I'm ready to.

Alan Lazaros:

I just hope everyone's creating a meaningful life and for me the problem is scrolling entertainment. If you overdo, it is so empty, it's so fucking empty. Do it is so empty, it's so fucking empty. I said this yesterday and I do think this will become one of the things that I just say often the people who are grinding and growing toward their goals and dreams will always be the envy of people sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. And the reason I say this is because I got on a session yesterday with a client of mine and she's grinding and I said how are you? She said overwhelmed. And I said I know, I know Same, hey, same, but it's better than the alternative. And she said I know what is the alternative.

Alan Lazaros:

The alternative is sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. The alternative is no demand. The alternative is no clients. The alternative is no calendar. The alternative is no responsibilities. The alternative is no calendar. The alternative is no responsibilities. The alternative is an empty bank account. Demand Kev. Our life is not romanticized. I get it okay. You and I grind Six days a week. Not everyone wants this life. I get it okay, I do. However, it's better than being fucking broke.

Kevin Palmieri:

But there is an in-between, though I know that. I do know that that's the thing.

Alan Lazaros:

But the thing is, is the moment that you this is something that, again, I'm really passionate about but is the purpose of your life to R&R Some people? Two different buckets. Bucket one is the goal is to R&R. The goal is to have fun. The goal is to hang out. The goal is to only enjoy yourself. Okay, the problem is you're going to overdo that and then most likely feel like you're not achieving your goals. That's a choice. It's your choice. I've been there. I went down that road for a while and I regretted it deeply. Okay, I'm not saying you will, but I did. The other bucket is R, and R is a necessity. It's not the fucking goal. It's a necessity to get rest and relaxation. The goal is productivity. The goal is meaningful life. The goal is service and impact and profitability. The goal is to build something of meaning.

Alan Lazaros:

I think the world craves a meaningful life. I do, and I think most people romanticize carefree wandering and they romanticize the frolicking when in reality, behind the scenes, I've got enough people I've coached over the years to realize that the people who have those phases and I've had them too I had my frolicking phases, I had my let it ride phases, I had my drinking days and all that. I am not making you guys wrong for this, I'm just saying carefree wandering and frolicking and all that stuff that is being constantly bombarded on our devices from social media. It's romanticized way too much. It's not real. I think living a meaningful, responsible, productive life is so much better than people give it credit for. It's so good, I love. I can't wait to get married. I love I had my single days where I was off the rails and I had this person and that like I get it. I would much rather have a meaningful marriage with Emilia than talk to all these people, blah, blah, blah. All this party barbecue, all this stuff. For me it's, it's. It seems less sexy, it seems less badass, it seems less cool.

Alan Lazaros:

But I think a responsible, meaningful life, I think it's underrated and I think it's undervalued and I think it's not as shiny so it doesn't get as much attention. But what happened to the good old-fashioned wake up in the morning, have a hard day's work and earn your meal and, and you know, have a family and and be a responsible adult? I feel like being a responsible adult, contributing member of society has been so wildly under exciting and I don't know if it's rap or what to blame. But there is, there is, there's this, there's this thing in the world where it's like going off the rails is somehow funny and fun and awesome. But I'm telling you, the other end of that road I've done it too is nothing but darkness. And I feel like you can. You can build a meaningful, aligned life and just be very careful of the social media romanticizing, of all this stuff, because ultimately, what really matters, I think, is core values and work ethic and humility and personal development.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of the things we talked about this I don't remember what episode it was, but one of the things that helps me work hard and be consistent and continue doing stuff, even though oftentimes it's like I don't really want to do this today is I realize that I would like to have a higher quality of R&R. As we grow, I'm probably going to have less of it. It's not going to be more necessarily, but okay, I'll have a nicer TV to watch UFC on. Awesome, I love that. I will have less stress when I order $20 worth of pizza. Awesome, I love that. Vacations will be different. Awesome, I love that Vacations will be different. Awesome, I love that.

Alan Lazaros:

But it's kind of Every time you get in your car will be different.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, it's higher quality discipline, it's higher quality commitment, it's higher quality consistency that leads to higher quality R&R. That's the correlation. My R&R today is better than it's ever been, why? Well, I work harder than I ever have, which is a really big piece of it. So, I agree, I think it's really Sundays for me are usually heavy R&R days and by the end of the day I'm like all right, cool, I'm ready to get back after it. Yep, I'm ready. This is good. I'm good, like I've rested, my brain is good, my brain is calm. I'm not super overwhelmed right now, in this moment. Cool, tomorrow's Monday, I'm ready to get back after it. If I did that every day, remember when you were maybe it wasn't like this for you. I remember when I was a kid, I was so excited for summer to come and it was awesome for like two weeks yeah and then it was like, oh, this person's away, they're on vacation.

Kevin Palmieri:

What the I can't play golden eye on nintendo 64 anymore. I'm like so sick of it. What am I gonna do? I've watched all the movies sports center's not on until tonight, like what the hell am I gonna do? I think that's what. Yeah, no, I don't think that was my experience I think I always found that was my experience.

Alan Lazaros:

I was always obsessed with a certain game or some something.

Kevin Palmieri:

I got bored, I got bored and I think to alan's point when you're living a deeply meaningful, fulfilling, challenging life, there is very, very little boredom. Yeah, man, and that's something.

Alan Lazaros:

That's something I don't know what it is necessarily, but it's something I never thought in a million years I'd miss being bored. I know, uh, we got to get out of here. But the next level lesson that I would give is I've been doing this new thing with clients immediately go into r&r and I don't get anything done For the household, for the pets, for emilia, for me, for building the business, whatever it is brand clients. I know I'm not going to feel good about myself. I think a lot of winning at life is doing the things, keeping the promises to yourself that that meeting your own standards, meeting your own standards, is the only way to feel good about yourself. That's the only way I've been able to figure it out. I feel really good about me lately because I'm on point. We're doing it. We're challenged. We're in the challenge skill sweet spot. We're doing it. We're making an impact. We got a community, we got momentum right now.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, it's brutal. I was up till 10 o'clock last night. I stayed up till freaking one, probably, or some midnight or one, because we were working until 1030 or 11 or something. I get that. That's not ideal. That's a little too far, I get it. We can't sustain that. However, it's much better than scrolling three hours a day.

Alan Lazaros:

I remember there was a time in my life where I was depressed and I was. I saw people living their dreams and chasing their dreams and I remember thinking like fuck this, you know, I'm so miserable, especially when I was hung over. I was just such a miserable, I was just miserable. There's nothing worse than feeling terrible about yourself because you just keep making terrible choices. And I'm not saying I've been there, kevin's definitely been there. I don't mean that in a negative way, we've been there. There is another way. There's a next level staircase that you can build and I know a lot of people out there, despite what social media shows, are struggling with self-esteem the self-esteem deficit in the world. Right now I have a therapist named Carol, emilia and Bianca. They're doing evolved therapy. The amount of people that are behind the scenes suffering is wildly high, even though our overall quality of life globally has come up in terms of food and shelter and different things.

Alan Lazaros:

So if you're out there and you're feeling terrible about yourself, I guarantee you social media is at least part of it and there's way to to. If you have humility and work ethic and you want help, please reach out to us because dm me, dm kev, we want to see you flourish, and it doesn't have to be overnight. Kev is night and day different than he was eight years ago and I'm night and day different than I was 10 years ago, and personal development changed my whole freaking world. And now I I finally have become a man that I can be proud of, and it's really fucking awesome, honestly, to to feel on top of things and still be struggling. But to feel good about yourself, I think, is step one. I think that's where you got to start and I think all the other amazing things come as a byproduct of that. So you got to figure out what what that is, and I'll tell you what. Netflix is awesome and I love it too, but it's never going to make you feel good about yourself.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, maybe that's it. What are the things that make you feel good? What are the things that make you feel bad? If it was as simple as that, if that was the simplest self-improvement, self-personal development, self-help, evolution thing, what are the five things that make you feel the best? Not feel, but like fulfilled. Right, I could say weed makes me feel good. It's like no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying what makes you feel purposeful.

Alan Lazaros:

What makes you feel whole.

Kevin Palmieri:

What makes you feel full and then what just drains you, and you know it, and you know it drains you. You know social media is draining you. It's just a pain in the ass to stop. It's a pain. It's hard, it's hard to stop. It's a. It's set up to keep you coming back for more and more is dopamine. Oh, what is this new shiny thing? Oh, wow, that's. Oh, this is cool, right, and I think it is the simplest, the simplest thing in the world. Again, simple, not necessarily easy, or easy not necessarily simple. Whatever. The freaking thing is List the five things that feed you, list the five things that bleed you, and you could do that every year for the rest of your life. And those things are going to change Because as you level up and you grow, you'll most likely have less bleeding behaviors, but you'll have higher standards. So you'll notice, likely have less bleeding behaviors, but you'll have higher standards. So you'll notice things faster and you'll realize that maybe there's only five things that really, really, really, really, really move the needle for you.

Alan Lazaros:

How do you feel about Kev now versus in the beginning? Self-esteem-wise, Self-esteem-wise.

Kevin Palmieri:

Overall, I feel a lot better about Kev on the day to day. It depends on the day to day. It depends depends on what's going on. Some days I feel like shit because things aren't going super well and I feel like it's my fault. Because it is, it's my responsibility, so that affects me, like today we had something going on with a client and it was like it was just.

Alan Lazaros:

I was just sad, I felt bad about me, I felt bad like I was failing right but you feel overall, yes, on the on the macro, you feel self-worth, and self-esteem, I think, is a powerful thing and I know we gotta go, but self-esteem, I think, is the day-to-day version of self-worth, yeah, and so self-esteem you can build on the daily ups and downs, rejection, failure, success, wins, and then it builds self-worth. So I think self-worth, I think, is built through consistent self-esteem builders keeping the promises you make to yourself, setting goals, having clear priorities, doing the right thing, taking the high road yeah, it's taking care of your partner, taking care of yourself, cleaning your car, cleaning your house. I'm so grateful for where we live and I also often think about how grateful we are to have running water. I think gratitude is a big part of it too. Are you letting you down every day or are you proud of you inside? I don't give a shit.

Alan Lazaros:

Who else knows it inside? Right there, I mean from the outside people oh, I'm so proud of you, and you can feel like crap on the inside. And then from the outside people can say, oh, you're not doing a great job. But on the inside you feel really good about yourself, and so I think the inner game of self-esteem is where I think you can never really lose sight of that. That needs to be the main thing. Keep the main thing, the main thing, I think your own personal standards and your own inner self-esteem if you can keep that center point, everything else, I think, will eventually be a byproduct.

Kevin Palmieri:

Assuming you strategize and stay consistent Well, if you want to strategize and stay consistent, product, assuming you strategize and stay consistent. Well, if you want to strategize and stay consistent, this is the second to last call for tickets for Next Level Live 2025. It is this Saturday from 10 am till 4 pm and tickets are $47. It's a full day event, totally virtual. So Alan and I have a nice room in a hotel, a nice conference room. We got in a hotel. We're going to be live streaming from there.

Kevin Palmieri:

You can log on from the comfort of your own home and everybody who buys a ticket gets lifetime access to the replay. So if you can only stay for an hour and then you've got to bounce, no worries, you'll get access to the replay and then you can finish it. If you're somebody who's into self-improvement and you want to go deeper, or you know it's time. We have had a lot of new people come into our lives and Alan and I are like it's just, it's time for them. They're ready. They're ready to grow, they're ready to evolve. Something must have happened behind the scenes, Most likely. If you're going through that right now, this is a great opportunity for you to to ride the wave of that momentum. So we'll have the link in the show notes.

Alan Lazaros:

Shout outs here. First names only Jacqueline Bedro, stephanie Sopan, elizabeth BJ, richard, moe, stephanie Christina, emilia, luam, mike, andrew Heather, nicole, charlie, amy Brandon, latifa, kevin hey.

Kevin Palmieri:

Kev's coming. Hey, is that me?

Alan Lazaros:

What's happening? Nicole, alexandra, michael, ella, justine Sawani and Bianca and Mark, my man, mark. These are awesome people. The coolest part about this event, in my opinion, is getting around the best people. These people are heart-driven, humble, work, ethic people who have a sincere interest to get better. And you and I I think sometimes we forget, brother we are grateful and blessed to be surrounded by next level people constantly. We built our whole world around success and holistic and personal development and if you feel like I said this earlier in Next Level Nation, I said welcome to the place because you did the welcome post. Welcome to the place where being into personal development is actually cool and accepted and you're not going to get made fun of, you know, and so just if you come to Next Level Live. That's the reason Meet these awesome people.

Kevin Palmieri:

Boom, as always, we love you, we appreciate you, 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.

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, 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