You Will Be Ahead Of 99% Of People If You Track These 3 Things (2124)

Are you tracking the right things to get ahead? In this episode, Kevin and Alan reveal three simple things you can track daily to stay focused, feel more in control, and see real results in your life. If you're overwhelmed by too much advice or not sure what actually works, this conversation brings it back to basics. Learn why tracking can help you stay on track with your goals and how to keep it all simple and stress-free. Whether you’re new to self-improvement or looking for a fresh approach, this episode is packed with practical wisdom (and some laughs) to help you level up.

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Show notes:
(2:14) The three habits that matter most
(6:12) Data builds confidence and awareness
(10:19) Keep tracking simple and consistent
(11:31) Meet your people. Chase your dreams. Level up your life with Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group
(13:00) Use data to drive decisions
(17:26) You can’t improve what you don’t know
(18:10) Set goals that raise your standards
(20:36) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Chapters

• 2:14 The three habits that matter most
• 6:12 Data builds confidence and awareness
• 10:19 Keep tracking simple and consistent
• 11:31 Meet your people. Chase your dreams. Level up your life with Next Level Group Coaching.
• 13:00 Use data to drive decisions
• 17:26 You can’t improve what you don’t know
• 18:10 Set goals that raise your standards
• 20:36 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) We love habit tracking, although when Alan first suggested I start tracking habits, I had some very unkind words for him. (0:10) I don't think it has to be super complicated. (0:12) I think we overcomplicate it.(0:13) Today we're going to talk about three simple things that you can track that will literally help you be ahead of 99% of people.

Alan Lazaros

(0:19) The only way to stay on track is to track. (0:22) I've been joking a lot lately about imagine Michael Phelps's coach saying, ah, just jump in the pool and swim around, man. (0:30) That's never going to work.(0:32) You have to track in order to stay on track.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:34) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:37) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:39) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:42) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:48) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:55) We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits, and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros

(1:11) Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:17) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:23) Next Level Nation, today for episode number 2124, you will be ahead of 99% of people if you track these three things. (1:31) We did group coaching last night.(1:33) Shout out to group 19. (1:35) Started a new group. (1:36) Awesome.(1:36) Love it. (1:37) And at the end, Alan had to go because he had a coaching call and I was talking about how the beauty of it went well. (1:45) Yeah, it went well.(1:46) It's weird. (1:47) Yeah, it's always weird when you leave early because that's the section you usually teach. (1:50) So it's like, oh, let's see what I know.(1:53) Let's see if I can do this. (1:56) I said, we are habit trackers and the reason we are quote-unquote successful is because we track the same things every day and we try to make sure we're tracking the things that are most important. (2:07) We're going to help you figure out what are the most important habits and then what are the most important things based on your goals, but then what do you track?(2:14) How do we help you track that so you feel like you're making progress? (2:17) It was very interesting because somebody said, they wrote in the chat, they said, I've been podcasting for two or three years and I still only track one thing and I have no idea why I haven't started tracking more yet. (2:30) And it was like, ah, interesting.(2:32) Okay. (2:33) I wonder why that is. (2:35) Is it because you don't know exactly what to track yet?(2:38) Maybe the first thing feels overwhelming. (2:40) I don't know, but it made me think of this episode because I don't know, in 10 minutes, if you have 10 minutes, you can do the three things we're going to talk about today. (2:52) And I'm telling you, most people aren't doing these because being consistent as a human being is really hard.

Alan Lazaros

(2:57) Imagine just running around with a soccer ball, but no goals, no boundaries, no out of bounds, no players, no defense, no offense. (3:06) You're just running around with the soccer ball. (3:09) That's what a lot of people do in business and they wonder why they don't win.(3:12) You haven't even defined the rules of the game. (3:15) It's one of those things that seems so obvious, but it's so overlooked. (3:24) You could do the same with basketball.(3:26) You can do the same with tennis. (3:27) Imagine no net, just hitting a ball off a wall. (3:31) There's no out of bounds.(3:33) You can't win a game without any rules. (3:37) It's like a Superbowl without tracking the score, without an offense and a defense, without rules of how many players on the field. (3:46) Okay, we're going to put 50 people on.(3:53) It's always been alarming to me how we have all these rules for basketball or for tennis or for school. (4:03) You and I did. (4:05) I did.(4:06) You did most of these, but not all of them. (4:09) Preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, corporate, there's rules, there's guidelines, there's standard practices for every single one of those. (4:19) And then you get out into life.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:21) Well, good luck. (4:23) Well, then you kind of make your own rules, but the problem is we don't know what rules to make. (4:28) Exactly.(4:29) Unfortunately. (4:30) Unfortunately.

Alan Lazaros

(4:32) I would go as far as to say this, even if you are winning in fitness, if you don't track anything, you don't really know that you're winning. (4:39) Everything's subjective. (4:41) Everything's qualitative.(4:43) It's not quantitative. (4:43) It's not concrete. (4:44) It's not strict.(4:46) How much money did you make last month? (4:49) How much money did you spend last month? (4:52) How much did you weigh last month?(4:53) How much do you weigh now? (4:57) You remember before the Oura Ring? (5:00) My Oura Ring broke.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:02) My charger broke. (5:05) Oh, no. (5:05) No, I don't know.(5:07) No, not the charger. (5:07) The battery. (5:08) The battery broke.(5:10) It's replacement. (5:11) It's free replacement. (5:12) Nice.(5:12) Within a certain amount of years, but I was on there with them today. (5:15) It's devastating. (5:17) I don't know what my sleep score is.(5:18) I have no idea.

Alan Lazaros

(5:20) No clue. (5:20) You lived, what, 20? (5:23) No, 34 years without that?(5:25) At least, yeah. (5:26) So, 34 years of your life, you didn't track your sleep score. (5:31) And now, going back is devastating.(5:34) You use the word devastating. (5:36) It's weird, isn't it? (5:37) Dude.(5:38) Yeah. (5:39) Not knowing is way worse than knowing. (5:42) I think a lot of people think I'm very confident and I'm grateful, but it's mostly just awareness.(5:48) When you check the weather and it says sunny tomorrow and then it's sunny, you're not shocked. (5:55) And I feel like most of my life is just tracked and it's based on predictions. (5:59) And back in the day when I used to count cards in blackjack, you can predict with high probability of statistical success that you're going to win the hand based on how many cards are out and whether they're face cards or not.(6:10) And I think that most of life is that way. (6:12) So, the three things is weight, sleep score, and finances.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:18) Yeah. (6:18) If it's not weight, I would say probably calories and or macros. (6:22) I think weight's probably the best, but something that keeps you on track, something that builds awareness.(6:29) The other thing too is, so I got my five pounds in five weeks. (6:34) It was actually seven pounds in five weeks because I did a little water cut. (6:39) But I had a moment where it was the day after I made my weight and I didn't want to track.(6:48) I was like, oh, I did it. (6:49) I don't want to track. (6:50) No, this is when it's most important to track because you made the progress and now you can build on that foundation of progress or you can fuck this whole thing up.(6:59) You can fuck this whole thing up. (7:00) So, last night I tracked and then I got to the end of the night and I was like, oh, I'm out of calories. (7:04) That kind of sucks.(7:05) And I was like, oh shit, I forgot. (7:06) Those are the calories I was cutting on. (7:08) I can add, I'll probably add 300 to see what happens.(7:12) So, try to dial in where maintenance is. (7:16) If it's not going to be weighing yourself, I would say probably calories and or macros. (7:21) Yeah.(7:21) But if you want to add a fourth, you can have one under love. (7:25) But I think these, it's easier to do three, three just flows better than four. (7:30) Right?(7:30) So yeah, I would say these three are probably, do you have any, would you change any of them? (7:35) No, I think those are solid.

Alan Lazaros

(7:37) A lot of people don't like the scale. (7:39) It is the most important. (7:41) If you had to pick one, it would be for health.(7:44) It'd be weight on the scale. (7:46) It'd be body fat percentage. (7:49) And people say, well, my scale tells body fat percentage.(7:51) I don't care if it's accurate or not. (7:54) It's not accurate. (7:55) Definitely not.(7:56) But it can create a trend. (7:58) You can create a trend. (7:59) Yeah.(8:00) So apples to apples, meaning inaccurate, inaccurate, inaccurate, but it's a trend still. (8:04) That's a hole in the rabbit hole. (8:06) But weight, body fat percentage or body comp, what else?(8:10) Probably macros or calories.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:13) But you have to try something. (8:15) It's gotta be easy too. (8:16) That's the hard part.(8:17) You could do body fat percentage and depending on how you want to do it. (8:22) I remember when I was a personal trainer, there was a thing you would squeeze and it would give you your body fat percentage. (8:27) And I was like, you want to know how I know this is wrong?(8:29) It said I was at like 3%. (8:30) And that's no, no, never.

Alan Lazaros

(8:34) That's how the gym makes their money, baby.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:36) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(8:36) Come on in here. (8:37) And then you go around telling your friends I'm 3% body fat. (8:40) So you're dead then.(8:41) You're dead. (8:42) You're dead. (8:43) You're dead.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:44) It's gotta be easy. (8:45) So wake up in the morning, use the bathroom, weigh yourself, write it down. (8:48) Boom.(8:49) Or they have scales. (8:50) I think you have a scale that literally it'll weigh you and then it shoots the information over to an app. (8:55) Awesome.(8:55) You don't have to worry about it. (8:56) It probably will not take you that long to track your bank account because you're, you're probably not making a ton of money from different places and spending a ton of money from different places.

Alan Lazaros

(9:07) Like how many, a lot of bank accounts though. (9:09) That's one thing I've found coaching fair. (9:11) A lot of people have multiple banks, multiple bank accounts.(9:13) I think it's a fear-based thing of just don't put all your eggs in one basket type of thing. (9:19) Uh, I have a lot of people, all my clients, except for one tracks every day. (9:26) And sometimes it's actually hard to get the number for cash on hand because they have three, they have savings and checking and three different banks.(9:35) And it's I would just say for everyone out there, make it as simple as possible. (9:40) Life is so complex. (9:41) You're never going to be consistent with things that are complex.(9:44) That's one of our superpowers. (9:46) You and I are very simple creatures. (9:49) I don't, I don't have seven computers.(9:51) I have two and that's one more than I want to be honest. (9:56) I wish that this space station is awesome, but it's, it's too fucking clunky. (10:00) So when I travel, I use this other one, but I have one phone.(10:04) I don't want five phones. (10:06) I don't want an iPad and an iPhone and a whatever Zen book and a Kindle. (10:13) And I want one thing for everything because I want my life to be simple.(10:19) And so yeah, track, keep your tracking simple weight, body fat percentage macros or calories would be health. (10:32) Wealth would be cash on hand or gross income. (10:35) Probably.(10:37) Yeah. (10:38) I always say, track the thing that you are trying to grow, track the thing that you're trying to change. (10:46) So if you want to lose weight, track weight.(10:49) If you want to build muscle, track food calories in, try to try to track the thing that you can change and that changing that thing means equals progress. (11:01) Cause that's the point of tracking. (11:02) It's supposed to, you're supposed to get a dopamine hit of, Hey, I'm it's fucking working.(11:06) This is great. (11:07) That's all. (11:07) That's all it's supposed to be.(11:09) And then what was the other one finances? (11:11) No sleep, sleep, sleep. (11:16) Are you trying to get higher quality sleep or more sleep?(11:19) Yeah. (11:19) So track the sleep score is pretty, pretty in depth. (11:22) It gives you REM.(11:23) It gives you deep sleep. (11:24) It gives you, well, whatever you're using, right?

Kevin Palmieri

(11:26) It might not be whatever. (11:27) So it might not Fitbit, Apple watch, whatever. (11:32) Next level nation.(11:34) What is happening? (11:35) If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start. (11:40) Group coaching would be a wonderful place for you.(11:42) That's really why we created it in the first place. (11:45) We start a new round every 90 days. (11:47) So if you're hearing this, go to the website, next level universe.com.(11:52) And we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. (11:56) Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. (12:01) The biggest thing that we've seen is as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing.(12:07) The group fills up and they can't do it. (12:09) And then they end up regretting that. (12:10) So please head over to the website.(12:12) The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there. (12:16) Whatever it is. (12:17) I just feel like now so many of us have access to, there's so many apps that will literally, they'll help you track your bank account.(12:27) Like there's apps out there that will put all of your subscriptions together and tell you exactly how much it is every month. (12:33) Awesome. (12:34) And it will literally help you get rid of the ones you don't need.(12:36) Awesome. (12:36) There's a lot of access to stuff that can help you with these three things, but you're the, you have to be the one to do it.

Alan Lazaros

(12:43) How this is called data-driven decision-making. (12:46) I always tell my clients, I don't want you to just track data. (12:48) I want you to make changes based on it.(12:50) So as someone who didn't use to have data, one of my specializations in my master's program was data-driven decision-making. (13:00) Long-term strategic thinking based on data-driven analysis. (13:04) That is like, Emilie and I just had a discussion today during our walk of, hey, we need to do better at the weather.(13:14) And I said, what do you think the probability is that the weather's accurate a week out? (13:17) She said, I don't know, 3%. (13:19) I said, no, it's probably a fifth, probably about 20%.(13:21) So you can't make a decision based on the weather a week out because of chaos theory that the weather apps are not that accurate. (13:28) They can predict tomorrow, but they can't predict four years from now. (13:32) Right.(13:32) And so there's an exponential decrease in effective predictions based on the timeline for someone who didn't use to make data-driven decisions and used to just go off how he feels. (13:43) I was on a podcast earlier and the guy said, I know you're going to hate this, but I kind of just do what I feel like doing. (13:49) And my brain was, dude, dude, I feel like eating Cheetos on the fucking couch.(13:55) Like, don't just go with how you feel. (13:58) That's a terrible idea. (13:59) That's a way to destroy your life.(14:02) And we were playful. (14:03) He says, no, no, no. (14:04) Well, and we had a little playful moment.(14:07) Going with your gut, that's smart in certain circumstances, but that's really unintelligent in business. (14:13) And what if your gut is completely inaccurate? (14:16) It's like, oh, I think it's going to rain tomorrow.(14:19) Like you have to go on data. (14:22) Imagine meteorologists, like, I think it's going to rain tomorrow. (14:26) Instead of track, they didn't track anything.(14:27) They didn't have any data, nothing. (14:29) So at the end of the day, I'm an engineer and people hate me for this, but what is it like for you to live your whole world? (14:37) Dude, if you went a month without tracking anything, you would have a full on panic attack.(14:41) That would be fascinating for me.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:44) I don't know. (14:45) It's, it doesn't really, you feel out of control, but you don't know what it's like to feel in control. (14:49) So I don't, I didn't have anything to compare it to.(14:52) I think that's the hard thing is I didn't, I looked at how much money I had in my account. (14:58) I looked at how much money I was making and then that dictated whether or not I bought, I bought the thing. (15:02) That was, that was pretty much it for that.(15:05) I've always been pretty in depth. (15:07) I've always been fairly dialed in with fitness. (15:09) I I'm eating X amount of calories and the scales going this way.(15:13) Is it good or bad? (15:15) I've always been pretty good at that. (15:16) Like that was always something that, but again, I've been practicing that a long time and then sleep.(15:21) I didn't fucking care. (15:22) Whatever. (15:23) Don't even worry about that.(15:24) Did you not that bother you? (15:25) Cause I would always feel like shit when I didn't get good sleep. (15:28) Yeah, but I'm used to it.(15:29) It doesn't matter. (15:30) I don't care. (15:30) I never knew what it was like not to feel like shit.(15:32) That's, that's the problem. (15:33) I know, but that's what I'm saying is you don't, you don't know. (15:37) You can't tell me how far off I was when I didn't know what it was like to ever be on.(15:42) It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't land. (15:48) It doesn't land. (15:49) That's why you'll, you'll be like, Oh man, I got like a 75 sleep score.(15:51) It's like, dude, yeah, it's good. (15:56) Decent. (15:57) That's like a decent number.(15:58) 75. (15:58) Not bad. (15:59) That's not that bad.(16:00) It's all based on standards. (16:02) Well, I know that's what I'm saying.

Alan Lazaros

(16:04) Well, when you say not that bad, what are you, what are you comparing to?

Kevin Palmieri

(16:08) Statistical norm.

Alan Lazaros

(16:10) You've had more restorative time than usual today. (16:13) That's surprising. (16:14) Nice.(16:15) I got an 80 last night. (16:18) Emilia and I decided in advance, we consider, I do green, yellow, red. (16:22) 90 plus is green.(16:24) 80 plus is yellow. (16:25) Anything lower than 80 is red and unfucking acceptable. (16:28) Well, speaking of unacceptable, we have to go in two minutes because we're over here.(16:32) I know. (16:33) Kev, the, the thing that's hard and I hope lands, if nothing else, only caring about people's potential. (16:43) How does someone who gets bad sleep, they don't know how awesome life's going to be when they get great sleep.(16:52) I used to say this when I was a fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach, being in shape is the fucking best. (16:58) You want to know how I know? (16:59) Cause I was out of shape before.(17:01) It's not even close. (17:02) It's a people knew how fucking awesome it is to be in shape. (17:08) I'm telling you, they would, they would try to do it more.(17:11) It doesn't mean everyone would do it, but I'm telling you, like, if you knew how good life was when you get great sleep and you're in great shape and you have energy and you wake up excited and you have meaningful work, like you, you would do anything to keep that. (17:26) The problem is most people don't have it to begin with so that, so they're not fighting to keep it. (17:31) And I think that that's something I haven't figured out how to explain.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:34) I think it's either pain perspective or purpose. (17:37) One of those three things happens. (17:38) You get perspective like, wow, I was in really good shape in high school and I'm not anymore.(17:41) That usually creates pain and perspective, but I don't know. (17:45) I don't have an answer to that yet. (17:47) I goals.(17:48) You've set a goal that forces you to do something you'd ever done before, but I don't know how that comes up. (17:54) Haven't uncovered that quite yet.

Alan Lazaros

(17:57) Yeah. (17:57) Set a goal that forces you to get great sleep and track your finances and track your, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:03) Set a goal that makes you focus on the things that are going to help the rest of your life as a byproduct, I guess, but I don't easier said than done. (18:10) That would be my next little lesson. (18:11) What is your next little lesson?

Alan Lazaros

(18:12) Set a goal that requires you to increase your standards in the present and then increasing your standards in the present. (18:20) You have to track it because a standard is based on a measurement. (18:24) Like if you want to be a better partner, you have to measure something.(18:32) Thoughtful moments. (18:33) What is yours? (18:33) Thoughtful, proactive thoughtfulness, proactive thoughtfulness, right?(18:36) You're measuring that so you know whether or not you're winning or losing it. (18:40) Being a better partner. (18:41) Yeah, you have to track it.(18:43) I just can't even imagine. (18:44) No, you have to. (18:46) You cannot succeed in life without measuring.(18:49) It's impossible. (18:50) A sports team is just like, I don't know what I'm saying.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:52) You can't. (18:53) I'm telling you can. (18:54) You just can't it predictably.(18:56) I'm certain you can sustainably. (18:58) I don't know. (19:00) No, because I feel like you get that person you were talking about today is a professional comedian who gets paid to do comedy.(19:08) Like a professional comedian, full time income off of comedy. (19:14) Now, is this person the best in the world? (19:16) No, no, but they're more successful than 99% of comedians.(19:22) But not nearly as successful as he could be.

Alan Lazaros

(19:25) Yeah, but that's not what we're talking about.

Kevin Palmieri

(19:27) That's not where it's unfair.

Alan Lazaros

(19:28) Okay, you cannot create repeatable, sustainable, incremental improving success without tracking.

Kevin Palmieri

(19:38) I would agree with that. (19:40) Yeah, it's like if you throw the ball at the target enough, eventually you'll hit it. (19:44) But if you don't know like, well, I threw it with this at this speed with from this angle, and I took the step here, and it was this weight ball.(19:52) And then no, you can't do it over and over and over again. (19:57) But people get lucky all the time. (19:58) It's just luck runs out.(20:00) And you can't compound on it.

Alan Lazaros

(20:03) Last thing you were in baseball, you play baseball for years, they track everything, dude, every stat, every fucking batting average, every error, they track everything. (20:12) How do you know who to pay more? (20:15) You track who's the best player?(20:16) How do you know who's the best player? (20:17) You fucking track like, I can't even not even gonna go there. (20:22) I can't.(20:23) He can't even I can't even he can't have to track.

Kevin Palmieri

(20:26) I know it seems like this is an abrupt ending. (20:29) We have to batch record five episodes over a very short amount of time because I'm going away for a couple days and I'm freaking the F out. (20:36) As always, we love you.(20:37) We appreciate you grateful for each and every one of you and NLU fans. (20:41) We have family. (20:41) We'll talk to you all tomorrow.(20:43) Keep it next level. (20:44) Next level nation. (20:47) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University.(20:51) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(20:53) We mean it when we say family. (20:55) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (20:59) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:02) Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.