What’s It ACTUALLY Take To Grow By .1% Everyday? (2181)

In this episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros break down how getting just 0.1% better every day can transform your life, health, and success. From workouts to nutrition choices, daily habits to long-term goals, they share real stories and practical examples that prove small wins compound into big results. You’ll hear how intention, consistency, and utility-driven choices create sustainable growth even when progress feels invisible. Don’t wait for a big breakthrough; start stacking small wins today and see how far they take you.

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Show notes:
(2:26) Why small daily wins compound
(5:00) How to improve habits on weekends
(6:46) Tiny upgrades that save big time
(9:51) If you want to start, grow, scale, or monetize your podcast? Join our "The Next Level Podcast Accelerator" - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
(13:04) Pain and discomfort as signs of growth
(16:19) Feedback that accelerates improvement
(18:53) 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

• 2:26 Why small daily wins compound
• 5:00 How to improve habits on weekends
• 6:46 Tiny upgrades that save big time
• 9:51 If you want to start, grow, scale, or monetize your podcast? Join our "The Next Level Podcast Accelerator"
• 13:04 Pain and discomfort as signs of growth
• 16:19 Feedback that accelerates improvement
• 18:53 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) Super easy for us to say, you can get a little bit better every day. (0:04) You can grow by 1% or in this case 0.1%. What does that actually look like in practice? (0:09) I'm excited to talk about that today.(0:11) I was at the gym earlier today and my brain wanted me to quit at 10. (0:15) I got to 25. (0:16) I feel like that's a good metaphor for all of us.(0:18) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:21) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:23) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:26) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers. (0:33) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth. (0:39) 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.(0:55) Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. (1:01) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:07) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,181.(1:11) What's it actually take to grow by 1% every day? (1:16) Alan, I was thinking of you in the shower today. (1:18) Oh, geez.(1:19) Yeah, it is bland, isn't it? (1:21) This is what I was thinking. (1:23) That's how every good story starts.(1:25) Most of them. (1:26) I was going to use a bench press as an analogy. (1:31) Let's say right now you go to the gym and you're able to bench press 100 pounds.(1:34) Love that. (1:35) You want to grow your bench press by 1%. (1:38) Love that.(1:39) 1% of 100 is 1. (1:41) So as long as you add 1 pound to the bar, you're theoretically growing your bench press by 1%. (1:47) It's easy in the beginning.(1:50) Let's say someone like me right now, I could probably squat 365 on a good day, okay? (1:57) Mm-hmm. (1:57) You want me to crunch the numbers here?(1:58) If I want to grow that by 1%, what do I have to do? (2:03) That's probably 3.65 pounds, right? (2:05) Correct.(2:07) So even that's not a great... (2:08) So that's 369 if you round up. (2:12) So you got to squat 365.(2:13) And then every time, it gets harder and harder and harder and harder and harder. (2:17) Yeah. (2:17) The reason I want to do an episode like this is because if you're one year, two years, four years, eight years into your growth journey, it's not as easy to get 0.1% better as it used to be. (2:28) That is what I want to talk about today. (2:30) And I would love if you can give us some tangible, tactical... (2:38) The first thing is what's your intention?(2:40) So let's pitch back and forth, you and me. (2:43) So when I'm in the gym, and again, I think the gym is the best metaphor for this. (2:49) Obviously, we're doing a lot of gym examples here.(2:52) I am always trying to make it as hard as possible in the allocated time without getting injured. (3:00) That is my intention every time I walk into that gym. (3:05) Regardless of my state, regardless of my circumstances, I'm Alan Lazarus, you are putting in your AirPods, you're setting a fucking timer.(3:13) And you are going to do everything you can to make this workout as hard as possible until that timer goes off without getting injured. (3:21) That's the key. (3:23) What is your intention when you walk in the gym?(3:28) Not as specific as that. (3:30) It depends. (3:30) Right now I'm in a strength phase.(3:32) So I would say to lift, to either lift heavier weight or heavier weight more times than I did last time. (3:39) It's simplest form. (3:41) That is my goal.(3:44) A 0.1% improvement is an intention that we need to tangibilize. (3:51) So if you squat 365, my throat, excuse me, everyone. (3:59) It's been a long day.(4:00) 0.0001 is what you multiply 365 by, which is 0.0365. So that's why I like the 0.1%. Because you can do that. (4:12) Yes. (4:12) And it's actually, so if you grow by 0.1%, you have to multiply, let's do 100 to make it easy. (4:18) 100 times 0.001. That's 0.1%. Which means you do 100.1 the next time. (4:27) I don't want people to get caught up in the math. (4:29) What I do want you to know is that 0.1% is sustainable long-term. (4:34) Whereas 1% is not. (4:37) What is an example? (4:38) Like, so if, let's say hypothetically, I'm tracking six habits right now.(4:43) I wake up, I weigh myself. (4:46) Let's say I'm doing 200 health, 200 wealth, 200 love. (4:51) Saturday comes around.(4:55) Shit to do in the afternoon. (4:57) How do I ensure that I get 1% better on Saturday? (5:00) And how do I ensure, because I know we've talked a lot about when you take weekends off, it does not, the numbers get small quick.(5:09) How do I get 0.1% better on the weekends? (5:12) Okay. (5:13) I think that's a good place to start.(5:16) The other night, Emilia asked if I wanted a kale salad and I did not want a kale salad. (5:24) And then I said, yes, please. (5:27) I will have said kale salad.(5:29) Now the kale salad has kale in it. (5:31) It has nuts. (5:32) It has all great micronutrients.(5:34) She does it up, beats the whole nine. (5:37) That is 0.1% better. (5:40) My nutrition got 0.1% better for that day. (5:44) Then what do you do the next day? (5:46) You are constantly improving the kale salad. (5:50) So a little less dressing, or maybe this time it has less fat in the dressing, or you add, uh, cashews.(6:00) We, it's, it's that, but in everything.

Alan Lazaros

(6:03) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:04) That's why this is so exhausting. (6:06) So at the risk of sounding like a fucking nerd here, there is nothing in my life that I'm not doing that process with. (6:15) I had an old razor written razor.(6:18) Wow. (6:19) Razor. (6:20) I'm obviously getting 0.1% better on speaking today, baby. (6:23) I'm hoping to get my throat one, 0.1% better. (6:26) I had a shitty ass razor. (6:29) Okay.(6:30) And I bought one that has all the fixings. (6:33) It's not super expensive. (6:34) I think it was 20 bucks.(6:35) It's so much faster. (6:37) It's a good deal. (6:38) That's what I thought.(6:39) It has all, it has the nose hair clipper. (6:41) It's got it all dude. (6:44) This thing is, it saves me.(6:46) I'm not fucking with you. (6:47) I think this saves me like three minutes a day. (6:50) Dude, let me crunch the numbers on this.(6:52) All right. (6:52) Really quickly. (6:54) Three times three 65 divided by 60.(6:57) It saves me 18 hours this year, 18 hours every year. (7:00) It's wild. (7:01) That's one full day.(7:04) Imagine if someone was just sitting down for an entire waking 16 hour day. (7:09) That is the principle. (7:11) Every dude, how did Amazon get to the point where they can do one day shipping blows my mind.(7:17) It's the 0.1% improvements in everything. (7:19) I used to work in automation. (7:20) They always do this.(7:23) I sold industrial automation equipment. (7:24) They were down to the millisecond dude, the millisecond. (7:29) We are always our entire household.(7:32) Everything is this, and that's the compound effect. (7:36) But how do you know if you're not a math person, how do you know what is the field? (7:40) Does it have a feeling?(7:42) I know dangerous question, but no, because that's actually the problem is you actually don't ever feel more productive until you look back. (7:51) I felt really good when I listened to my book when I was cooking. (7:54) Yeah.(7:55) You weren't listening to books. (7:57) No, I was still listening to books. (7:59) I was still getting my 20 minutes a day.

Alan Lazaros

(8:00) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:01) Listening to books while cooking. (8:02) So you get the uptick of feeling progress. (8:06) I wouldn't feel that because I'm always, I will not do the kitty litter without a book.(8:12) I will not shower without a book. (8:14) I will not, I don't do anything with my hands without my mind. (8:19) I have almost ever, I never listened to music unless it's specifically for the gym, or sometimes I'll listen to a certain playlist while I'm productive.(8:31) And again, I just got off of a monthly meetup. (8:34) Thank you to everyone who came. (8:35) It was awesome.(8:37) I said, everything needs to be hashtag fit for purpose. (8:40) I tried to make it fun fit for purpose. (8:43) Every app on my phone is for a specific purpose.(8:47) Every, everything, there is nothing superfluous in my bathroom. (8:53) There's specific things. (8:54) I only have one hairspray.(8:56) I have one hair gel. (8:57) I have one nail clipper. (9:00) I have one shaver.(9:02) I have one computer for the podcast, one travel computer. (9:07) I try, I have one mug. (9:08) Have you ever seen me with a different coffee mug ever?(9:11) No, you usually have, you have one vessel at all times from what I've noticed now.

Alan Lazaros

(9:16) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:16) That's on purpose because it's the most effective. (9:20) If I had a more aesthetic, more effective, it's fit for purpose. (9:24) I think it's cute.(9:27) If you're on YouTube, you got to see my reaction. (9:29) I don't know why I said cute. (9:30) I do.(9:31) I like it. (9:31) I like the mug. (9:32) I think it's a good looking fucking mug.(9:34) Also, I just, to me, it's surprising. (9:36) I wasn't expecting that. (9:37) So it's a cute mug.(9:38) It's a good looking mug. (9:40) Look at this. (9:40) Boom.(9:41) Same water bottle. (9:42) Yeah. (9:42) Same water bottle every single day at all times.(9:44) I, this little handle, game changer. (9:47) Sell it. (9:48) Game changer.(9:49) Sell it to us right now. (9:51) Next level nation. (9:53) What is happening?(9:54) If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start. (9:59) Group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. (10:02) That's really why we created it in the first place.(10:04) We start a new round every 90 days. (10:07) So if you're hearing this, go to the website, next level universe.com. (10:11) And we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now.(10:15) Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. (10:20) The biggest thing that we've seen is as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing the group fills up and they can't do it. (10:28) And then they end up regretting that.(10:29) So please head over to the website. (10:31) The link will be in the show notes. (10:32) And we would love to see you there, dude.(10:36) I've been doing vita coca every now and then they have these big vitamin, uh, coconut waters, terrible for carrying in the gym. (10:46) No, he brought one of those lugging it around in the gym. (10:48) Not you, not of utility.(10:50) Okay. (10:50) So again, I'll get off the soapbox, but I want to share this. (10:54) Utility is something that everyone can look up.(10:55) Let's look up utility real quick. (10:57) 10, four, you got it. (10:59) And you, yeah, I start burning define, define utility.(11:08) All right. (11:09) Utility can mean different things depending on the context. (11:11) Thank you so much.(11:12) General meaning, the quality of being useful, beneficial, or practical example, the utility of a smartphone lies in its ability to combine communication, navigation, and entertainment. (11:24) I am optimizing at all times for utility. (11:28) That's why I have trouble with certain things that don't have utility.(11:31) So, oh, your fucking Beamer dude, that old car was so impractical. (11:37) It drove me fucking crazy. (11:38) I'm six foot two.(11:39) We would drive. (11:40) And it's like, this is so stupid. (11:43) I with love, but it's, it's for your emotions.(11:47) It's not of utility. (11:49) You know what I mean? (11:50) There's someone I know who has a portion of Ferrari and it's the, it's the most impractical car ever.(11:57) It's a 12 cylinder engine. (11:59) You would like, what, why would you even consider, like, you're not going to drive 300 miles an hour. (12:05) What are we doing here?(12:06) The model Y Tesla. (12:07) I, I think Emilia, this car is the most practical vehicle I have ever seen. (12:15) Everything in it is the design in engineering is nothing superfluous.(12:21) Apple is so good at this dude. (12:23) Apple, nothing on this iPhone is superfluous. (12:26) Nothing.(12:26) It's elegant. (12:27) It's fucking beautiful. (12:28) Apple products are world-class.(12:30) That's why you love your Mac book. (12:31) Huge fan. (12:32) Unbelievable, right?(12:33) There's never going on that thing. (12:35) You could never go back. (12:36) That is Apple is the best at utility plus experience.(12:44) And that's why they're one of the most successful brands in the world. (12:46) So I digress. (12:47) 0.1% improvement. (12:48) Now let's hear your take. (12:49) Well, no, we got to go micro. (12:50) I need to fucking tactics.(12:52) How do I know? (12:54) Okay. (12:55) If I woke up today, I'm doing two habits under health, two habits under wealth, two habits under love.(12:59) How do I, what is my morning plan to make sure I get 1% better? (13:04) Point 1% better. (13:04) You hit failure.(13:07) You got to the point where, yeah, pain is an indicator of progress. (13:14) Okay. (13:15) Okay.(13:17) So my throat hit failure on this. (13:19) I will do something about that next time. (13:22) And that's your 0.1%. That's my 0.1%. Yep. (13:25) How often are you getting way more than 0.1% all the time? (13:30) 0.1% is the minimum. (13:33) I got more than 0.1% today in the gym for sure. (13:36) But there's days where I probably don't today was like, fuck. (13:41) I, you know, those days in leg day, when you're walking into the car and you're worse, you, you, I look like I'm walking with a strut when in reality, I just have jello legs. (13:50) You're just waddling.(13:50) Yeah. (13:51) Yeah. (13:52) Okay.(13:53) We're going to do a part two, obviously, because we're the part two NLU part two. (13:56) That's the new name. (13:57) You've been getting better for eight years now.(14:00) You answer. (14:02) I do appreciate it. (14:03) I appreciate the question, but this is, this is how I've always been wired.(14:07) I want to know what you do. (14:09) The simplest answer I can give, sleepy in my eye. (14:13) The simplest answer I can give is you do the thing you don't want to do because you know you should.(14:18) That, that, that's, I didn't, I didn't want to listen to, uh, thinking of bets when I was cooking. (14:27) I didn't want to. (14:28) Yeah.(14:28) It was a long ass day. (14:29) I want to divide the, the windows were open. (14:32) The slider was let's party.(14:34) But I knew I should that. (14:37) I don't want to put my AirPods in first thing in the morning when I'm getting ready for the gym and making my pre-workout and petting the cats. (14:44) I don't want to that.(14:46) So I think that's a really good, because naturally I would say most people aren't naturally going to be focused on getting 0.1% better every day. (14:53) That's not, that's just not a natural thing for most people, myself included. (14:56) So it is going to require you to do the thing that is going to feel like a sacrifice, even though it's not necessarily a sacrifice.(15:06) That's why I said it pain is the indicator that you're making progress. (15:09) Yeah. (15:10) Because if it's not painful at all, you know, you're not outside.(15:14) I'll use resistance. (15:15) Yeah. (15:16) Cause it wasn't painful.(15:17) Comfort zone. (15:18) You have to get a little outside your comfort zone. (15:21) I know we got to jump here in a minute.(15:26) You have tools for success. (15:28) You have every room that you're in. (15:31) You have the people you spend time with.(15:33) You have the, the content you listen to the books, the podcasts, you have the, your career, you have your social media. (15:48) Everything should be getting a little bit better. (15:50) That's why when you look back Facebook memory of the day or Instagram memory of the day or Snapchat memory of the day, I have a lot of people doing that now.(15:57) And it's, it's been really fruitful. (15:59) Best habit ever, because you see the progress, dude, I watch us on 115 inch projector. (16:04) You and me, I get to see when I'm getting fat.(16:07) I get to see, I get to see me on 115 inches. (16:10) I can tell, I get feedback all the time on my speaking, the mic being in my fucking face. (16:16) Like there's, but it's painful.(16:19) Every time I see something that I don't like, it's, it's a little bit of pain, but that's the feedback that's necessary for the 0.1% improvement. (16:28) Why do you think I'm brought up wanting a new camera? (16:30) I want a new camera, a new microphone.(16:32) I want all this stuff. (16:34) Why? (16:34) Because I'm watching our show on 115 inch and it's way better than it used to be.(16:39) It's unbelievable. (16:40) I went back and watched my first YouTube video recently. (16:42) So it's, it's almost, this is the problem with 0.1% improvement. (16:46) You're asking me to, and I appreciate it. (16:48) You're asking me to make the invisible visible. (16:51) It is invisible on the day to day invisible.(16:54) The progress is invisible, but the behavior isn't agreed that I'm just looking for the behavior. (17:00) Oh yeah. (17:01) It's not invisible.(17:02) I just want reading, reading a book instead of listening to music, getting on the yoga mat instead of not going to the gym instead of not, I think we're not quantifying to the level that we could. (17:13) And that's what we're going to do in part two. (17:15) I'm going to do that.(17:16) We're going to do that in part two. (17:17) Yeah. (17:19) Maybe this one, this one's actually gonna be a part seven series.(17:21) So really strap in because we're going to go deep over the next six. (17:25) That's a joke. (17:26) You want to say something?(17:27) I just, anyone out there who wants help in this, this is, this is what I do with every client. (17:34) Every, every single client, every time we get on the phone, that is our only focus. (17:39) How do we help you achieve your goals?(17:41) How do we get better? (17:42) How do we help you achieve your goals? (17:44) How do we get better environment, people, places, things, ideas, philosophies, beliefs, mindset, everything.(17:49) It's always, it's probably, I mean, it's always it's I did it twice today. (17:55) So if you want a coach, please reach out. (17:59) I have a coaching session myself personally on Saturday.(18:02) Not a big deal, but I personally have a coaching session with the Alan Lazarus. (18:05) I got on the roster. (18:06) I made it.(18:06) I made it on the roster, baby. (18:08) Here we go. (18:09) Also, we have the next level podcast accelerator starting in a month or a month and a half.(18:13) If you're a podcaster who is looking to grow, scale, monetize your podcast, you want to turn your podcast into a business and you don't know how we can help you with that. (18:20) We'll have the link in the show notes. (18:21) If you use the discount NLU listener, it takes 30% off the price and ends up being $24 per call.(18:28) And there's 12 calls. (18:29) We go super deep. (18:31) It's amazing.(18:32) Three coaches for $24 per call.

Alan Lazaros

(18:35) It's a bargain.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:35) You will not find more affordable coaching. (18:37) Please sign up. (18:39) We are filling it.(18:40) We've done 19 groups in a row. (18:42) Let's rock and roll. (18:42) I am ready to get to the next level.(18:44) As am I. (18:45) So tomorrow we're going to do part two on this and we'll do more tactics, more micro, more habits. (18:50) We'll try to really quantify it.(18:52) That will be the goal for tomorrow. (18:53) As always, we love you. (18:54) We appreciate you.(18:55) Grateful for each and every one of you. (18:56) And if you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow because we will literally be here every single day to help you get there. (19:05) Keep reaching for your full potential.(19:07) Next level nation. (19:10) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (19:14) We love connecting with the next level family.(19:17) We mean it when we say family. (19:19) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (19:22) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.(19:26) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.