Paranoia Isn’t As Bad As People Say… (2272)

Accuracy grows where confidence meets concern. Kevin and Alan break down how productive paranoia improves accuracy, strengthens long-term results, and keeps you aligned with the actions your goals require. After thousands of episodes and coaching sessions, one truth is clear: high performers succeed because they prepare, not because they hope. You’ll learn how humility, preparation, and clear thinking create dependable progress, and why the right amount of concern is a skill that drives real growth.

If you’re serious about consistent self-improvement and smarter decision-making, raise the standard for the person you are becoming.

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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, check out our website and socials using the links below. 👇

Website: http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(1:13) Kevin’s airport story and the value of built-in margin
(5:05) Strengths, weaknesses, and the Drive to Five
(6:28) Productive paranoia in leadership and long-term success
(9:36) Accurate decision-making and financial discernment
(12:04) Constructive anxiety as a performance tool
(14:30) Why concern increases results
(19:36) Preparation, systems, and designing a better future
(24:46) Certainty, adaptability, and figuring things out
(26:11) Confidence, humility, and finding your end of the spectrum
(30:15) 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

• 1:13 Kevin’s airport story and the value of built-in margin
• 5:05 Strengths, weaknesses, and the Drive to Five
• 6:28 Productive paranoia in leadership and long-term success
• 9:36 Accurate decision-making and financial discernment
• 12:04 Constructive anxiety as a performance tool
• 14:30 Why concern increases results
• 19:36 Preparation, systems, and designing a better future
• 24:11 Confidence, humility, and finding your end of the spectrum
• 24:46 Certainty, adaptability, and figuring things out
• 30:15 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) Any trip to the airport is the worst trip to the airport. (0:05) I went to the airport today at, I got there at four o'clock a.m. and I would have been much later if I was not paranoid about not knowing what I was doing.

Alan Lazaros

(0:16) There's a term called productive paranoia. (0:19) I actually think it's just being extremely inwardly humble. (0:23) We're going to talk about that.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:25) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:27) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:29) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:32) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:39) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:45) 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

(1:01) Self-improvement, in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. (1:08) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:13) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,272. (1:17) Your boy is on the road. (1:20) Paranoia isn't as bad as people say.(1:25) When I fly or when I go to the airport, usually, there's a bus station that's like 15 minutes from, not even, 10 minutes from my house, and it'll take you right to Logan Airport, which is the airport in Boston. (1:40) That's the one I fly out of. (1:41) This is the one we took that time?(1:42) The one we took. (1:44) Problem is the flight I booked was for 6.15 AM, and they don't have it that early, understandably so, nor should they. (1:51) I was like, all right, it's comparable enough where I'll just park at the airport.(1:55) It's not the end of the world. (1:56) It's going to be fine. (1:57) All right, cool.(2:00) Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed, and I had to wake up at 2.45, which is just atrocious. (2:06) I'm running on four hours of sleep right now. (2:09) If I don't say anything that makes sense, that's why.(2:12) Smooth ride in. (2:14) I got seven inches of snow in New Hampshire. (2:15) Nobody's on the road at that time.(2:18) I get towards the airport, and I was like, this is great. (2:21) This is going great. (2:22) How's the Beamer doing this now?(2:24) World-class. (2:25) All-wheel drive, baby. (2:26) All-wheel drive, nice.(2:27) All-wheel drive. (2:28) Yeah, world-class. (2:29) I went from B, what's the thing?(2:38) What's the word I'm looking for? (2:39) Terminal B. (2:40) I was like, yeah, pull right over to terminal B.(2:41) The parking will be right there. (2:43) Great. (2:43) No, that's not it.(2:44) I went through terminal B, had to go all the way back out, come back in. (2:48) Here we go. (2:49) I said, I must have missed it.(2:50) I'll do it again. (2:51) Nope, same shit. (2:52) Ran through terminal B again.(2:54) All the way back out. (2:56) Then I was like, okay, I saw where it said parking. (2:58) I'll go down there.(3:00) It says parking, and then there's an off-ramp. (3:03) I was like, it's got to be that off-ramp. (3:04) Wrong.(3:05) Wrong-o again. (3:06) Had to go all the way back out, come back in. (3:08) Fourth time I found it.(3:11) Here's the thing. (3:12) Then, oh, I forgot. (3:13) I didn't even tell you this.(3:14) Eventually, I find it. (3:16) Cool. (3:17) The lady, she's like, open your trunk.(3:21) I was like, what? (3:22) Just pop your trunk? (3:23) I don't know how to.(3:25) I don't think I've ever popped my trunk while sitting in my car. (3:28) I said, it's a new car. (3:29) I don't know how to do it.(3:30) Somehow, she just opened it. (3:33) I don't know why. (3:35) There could be a body.(3:36) There's probably a button under there, man. (3:37) There is, but I didn't know. (3:38) There could be a body in my trunk.(3:40) I wouldn't even know, because I don't know what she was doing back there. (3:43) Then I go and park my car, and then it's like, all right, cool. (3:47) Now we're good.(3:48) Go down to get my boarding pass, because for some reason it wouldn't work online. (3:55) I'm in the wrong place. (3:56) I asked somebody.(3:57) She said, oh yeah, you've got to go across the street. (3:59) Of course I do. (3:59) Thank you so much.(4:00) I appreciate it. (4:00) Go across the street, get my boarding pass. (4:03) Here we go.(4:04) Plenty of time, getting ready to go through security. (4:08) Paging passenger Kevin Palmieri, please come back to the desk for your lost items. (4:14) Thinking, I got my wallet.(4:17) Seriously, man? (4:17) I got my passport. (4:19) I got my boarding pass.(4:20) Left my phone. (4:20) Left my phone on the desk. (4:23) I go back, and I said, it's been one of those days.(4:28) It's been one of those days.

Alan Lazaros

(4:29) Thank you so much.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:30) One of those days. (4:31) All that to be said, eventually I made it. (4:32) I got on my flight, and everything was good.(4:35) All that to be said, how much more stressed out, how much more negative, and how much worse would the day have been if I didn't plan to make all of those mistakes? (4:47) I'm always planning on making mistakes, because that's the way it works. (4:50) I think a lot of people would look at that and be like, dude, you're paranoid.(4:55) You're too emotional when it comes to that. (4:57) You shouldn't be so anxious. (4:59) What if I'm just really prepared more than the average person is?

Alan Lazaros

(5:05) I think that both are, they have truth. (5:10) I have, over time, Kevin and I working together for nine years, coming up on nine years in March. (5:16) There are certain things that I used to believe about you that I've gotten closer, and closer, and closer to accurate, and vice versa.(5:26) There's certain things that you respected about me, and you realized the downside, and vice versa. (5:32) Then the opposite, certain things that annoyed me about you that I've now seen the merit of. (5:38) For example, you thinking short-term and being paranoid used to annoy me.(5:44) It's like, brother, it's going to be fine. (5:47) You're like, dude, we got to go right now. (5:48) It's like, brother, we have three fucking hours.(5:50) We're going to be fine. (5:52) I was always grateful in hindsight that we were more prepared, and that we always were early, because there was always something that came up. (6:03) There always is.(6:04) There always is. (6:05) This is where the theory versus practice piece comes in, and whether or not you're optimistic or pessimistic. (6:11) There's a book called Good to Great, Kevin and I are reading.(6:13) Jim Collins, love perpetuating great work in the world. (6:16) Great book. (6:17) If you plan on buying, selling, owning, starting a business, got to read Good to Great.(6:24) Got to. (6:25) Got to read Good to Great. (6:26) Okay.(6:28) In that book, there's something called level five leadership. (6:31) In level five leadership, there's certain character traits. (6:34) One of them is undying belief in a vision with no yielding to your commitment toward it, and productive paranoia.(6:46) I think in hindsight, one of the reasons Kevin and I have become successful is because his weakness was my strength, and my strength was his weakness. (6:55) I was always super future-oriented. (6:58) I was always super strategic.(7:00) Kevin was always short-term focused and always extremely productively paranoid. (7:04) I was undying self-belief toward the vision. (7:07) He was make sure we don't die along the way, metaphorically and literally.(7:14) I think that every great human being needs to have both. (7:22) You've become more optimistic, for sure, and less paranoid. (7:27) I've become more paranoid and less optimistic.(7:30) Because we're growing up, I was overly optimistic and not paranoid enough, and I didn't have any anxiety whatsoever. (7:38) You were so paranoid that it crippled your ability to create a vision and to shoot your shot and actually try and fail forward. (7:47) You needed more fail forward.(7:49) I needed more preparation. (7:51) You needed more self-belief. (7:52) I needed more humility.(7:55) We've really got it going on now with the drive to five. (7:59) That's what we're helping our listeners with. (8:01) We in group coaching, group 20, I think this was two weeks ago, not this past Tuesday, the Tuesday before, connection session, I said, everyone here who identifies more with Kevin or who identifies more with Alan, I think everybody was saying, I feel like one of our group coaching members, I forget who this was.(8:21) Let me think. (8:23) I was with shout out first names only, Kristen and Louisa, shout out to you too, if you're listening. (8:29) They both said, I used to think I was more like Kevin.(8:32) Now I realize I'm more like Alan. (8:33) And the other one said, I used to think I was more like Alan. (8:36) Now I think I'm more like Kevin.(8:37) And this has nothing to do with Kevin and Alan. (8:39) I could care less about that. (8:40) What this has to do with is optimism versus pessimism, optimism versus paranoia, undying self-belief versus humility.(8:51) You need both. (8:53) The reason I'm convinced of it, life is so damn hard is because you need both. (8:57) You can't be confident without humility and you can't be humble without confidence.(9:04) You need both. (9:06) And it's so every freaking episode of NLU might as well be, Hey, here's the two sides, find your own drive to five.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:13) I think it's a juggling act of do the thing, but also know the thing is not going to go the way you think. (9:20) I had somebody messaged me today, somebody from group coaching and they said, Hey, I'd love to, I'd love to get your opinion on whether or not I should go to this podcasting conference. (9:31) And I sent them a message back and I was like, no, probably not.(9:36) I think you'd find value in it. (9:38) I just don't think it's worth the money and I don't want you to regret it. (9:41) You can use your money in a bunch of different ways that would add value.

Alan Lazaros

(9:44) Nice.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:45) What would old Kevin have said?

Alan Lazaros

(9:47) Because I feel like old Kevin wouldn't have, you would have said that in your head, but then not wanted to hold them back. (9:53) You'd say, well, you should probably go, but I probably wouldn't. (9:58) And then let them make their own decision.(9:59) I feel like now we're much more courageous of, honestly, that's probably going to be a waste of your fucking time.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:03) I, I think I probably would have just, I don't think I would have understood what I was saying, but I probably would have said like, it'll, you'll make your money back eventually. (10:15) I probably would have said that as a way to justify it. (10:18) Think that's not true.

Alan Lazaros

(10:20) No, I don't think you're going to learn you unpack it without giving who this person is. (10:25) Like what is their business? (10:25) What is their podcast?

Kevin Palmieri

(10:26) What are, why won't they make their money back? (10:29) I should say don't have a business yet. (10:31) And they're in a very, very niche space where they should be going and talking to people in their niche space, not necessarily learning about podcasting.(10:39) That's part one, part two. (10:41) We've had people take the next level podcast accelerator while they're at conferences. (10:44) And they're saying they're learning way more from the accelerator than they are there.(10:48) So shout out to Keegan, shout out to Keegan. (10:50) What we're talking about is very specialized. (10:55) So it's just, yeah, it's, it's not apples to apples.(10:59) It's not apples to apples. (11:00) And I said, if you, if you came to me and said, look, I have two grand burning a hole in my pocket, which obviously it never is. (11:07) And it's fine.(11:08) Like if I I'm okay, if I just get lessons and I get perspective fine, that's different. (11:14) But if you're somebody who doesn't have extra money to throw around, it's something like that, then it's not going to be worth it. (11:20) It's not gonna be worth it to you.(11:21) But some people might say, well, that's it's paranoid of that person to go asking around. (11:25) Sorry. (11:26) It's, it's, it's paranoid of that person to go asking around.(11:30) I think certainty creates action. (11:35) And I also think certainty controls reaction. (11:41) Today, I felt good about everything.(11:43) I had everything planned out. (11:45) Everything like by the minute, it always is by the minute. (11:47) Here we go.(11:48) Boom, boom, boom. (11:49) Things went off the rails, but I still had that time built in. (11:53) So my proactivity, my paranoia allowed me to build in reaction time.(11:59) And I think that's, I don't know, that's super helpful for me. (12:01) I just had this moment in my head.

Alan Lazaros

(12:04) Let's share it with everybody. (12:06) Over the loud speaker in the airport. (12:09) Would Mr. Kevin Palmieri please get his head out of his ass?

Kevin Palmieri

(12:14) They pronounced my name right. (12:15) I was like, okay, cool.

Alan Lazaros

(12:18) I'm honestly kidding.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:19) It was fully up there this morning. (12:21) It was, it was fully up there.

Alan Lazaros

(12:23) Well, you're, you're, you're out here doing it, man. (12:25) I appreciate all you do for us.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:26) I appreciate all you do for us as well.

Alan Lazaros

(12:28) Hell yeah. (12:29) So this is what's come up. (12:33) Anxiety gets a bad rep.(12:35) Paranoia gets a bad rep. (12:38) That's why I like the term productive paranoia or constructive paranoia or constructive anxiety. (12:44) Not all anxiety is bad.(12:46) Anxiety is you worrying about something in the future. (12:51) You worrying about something. (12:52) And I saw a clip by a man named Ray Dalio.(12:54) He wrote the book principles. (12:56) It's behind me. (12:57) It's boring as hell, but extremely valuable.(13:00) And he said, if you aren't worried about money, it's immediately time to start worrying about money. (13:05) Because if you're not worried about money, you desperately need to worry about money. (13:08) He said, if you're worried about money, don't worry.(13:10) You're going to be fine. (13:12) It's a paradox. (13:14) There was like a year there where I was talking about paradox every episode.(13:18) The people who think they're smart are in trouble because you're not going to work on getting smarter. (13:26) So I was on with a client earlier. (13:28) Shout out to you, brother.(13:32) He's like, I feel like I'm terrible in these videos. (13:36) And I said, honestly, I actually want you to think that. (13:40) And let me explain.(13:42) I said, no one else thinks that. (13:44) I've actually had people tell me that you're actually really good and that you have a great voice and that you were stern and confident and that you actually did a really good job, all things considered. (13:54) I'm going to be real with you.(13:55) Don't think you did a very good job. (13:56) That's my truth. (13:57) But I also think I'm not a great communicator.(14:00) So there's two things at all times we all have to understand. (14:06) You are either comparing to the statistical norm or you are comparing to what you need to be in order to achieve your goal. (14:14) Now, if it didn't matter for you being on time and you didn't have a huge, important client to get to and you didn't have a big opportunity in front of you, if you took away your goals, all of them, it wouldn't be that big a deal if you missed your flight.(14:30) But since you have huge goals, guess what? (14:33) You better be paranoid every single day because you're either going to have anxiety and paranoia along the way of worrying about money, worrying about your goals, worrying about tracking, worrying about your weight, worrying about your diet. (14:45) The person worried about their diet doesn't have to worry about their diet.(14:50) And that's what I find this fascinating paradox of. (14:54) This client of mine who thinks he sucks at communicating is actually a very strong communicator. (15:00) And the reason he's a very strong communicator is because he thinks he sucks.(15:05) And he's asking me how to get better. (15:06) It's like, that's why you're good is because you think you suck. (15:10) And I think that that's very hard for us to grasp is, Alan, how in the hell am I supposed to wake up in the morning?(15:20) Well, I know I'm a world-class communicator personally. (15:25) I'm going to get fucking worse. (15:28) I'm not going to be concerned about my pauses.(15:31) I'm not going to be concerned about my vocabulary. (15:33) I'm not going to be concerned of slurring my goddamn words like I just did. (15:36) You're supposed to be concerned.(15:38) What is the right amount of concern? (15:40) If you have a goal, your circle of concern immediately has to increase in that area. (15:45) And a circle of concern means a little bit of anxiety.(15:48) I'm pro-anxiety. (15:49) Not crippling anxiety. (15:52) It's detrimental.(15:53) I'm never going to try anxiety. (15:55) It's the right amount. (15:57) And I think we label these things like paranoia or anxiety as these terrible things when in reality, everyone is a little bit concerned.(16:05) The moment you stop being concerned about how you treat your intimate partner, they might leave you. (16:10) The moment you stop being concerned about your bank account, it's probably going in the wrong direction. (16:14) The moment you stop being concerned about your diet or your weight training, you're heading in the wrong direction.(16:19) I'm in better shape than I was last year. (16:21) I'm more concerned this year. (16:23) More.(16:24) More concerned. (16:26) Concern comes first. (16:27) Results come second.(16:28) As long as it's not crippling concern.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:31) I set six alarms this morning. (16:36) Six. (16:37) Maybe you are paranoid.(16:39) 245, 246, 247.

Alan Lazaros

(16:41) What are the right amount of alarms to set?

Kevin Palmieri

(16:43) I didn't want to miss. (16:45) That's the thing to me is if you're going to miss, I'd rather miss. (16:54) What's a good...(16:55) People always make fun of people who when they're going to get a foot of snow, they go get bread and groceries and fill their car up. (17:01) I understand. (17:02) I get it.(17:03) I get it. (17:04) But I would rather, and I don't do that because look, it's going to be fine. (17:09) All things considered, it's going to be fine.(17:11) I'm not going to get snowed in, most likely. (17:13) But I am that way with a lot of things. (17:16) I would rather set seven alarms and turn six of them off than set one alarm and miss it.(17:21) That is the way I operate. (17:24) Agreed. (17:25) Can we drive to five and set three?(17:27) We could. (17:29) The amount of alarms I set are directly connected to the level of jeffing if I miss them. (17:38) Let me ask you this.

Alan Lazaros

(17:39) Why not set 14? (17:41) Why seven? (17:42) Because you know me.(17:43) I just want the optimal stopping problem. (17:45) I do think you're overly paranoid, but not by much. (17:48) And most people are underly paranoid.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:50) Underly is not a word.

Alan Lazaros

(17:51) I'm not going to sleep through seven. (17:54) Okay, but you might sleep through four. (17:56) I might sleep through two.(17:58) Okay, so wouldn't four be more optimal?

Kevin Palmieri

(18:05) Yesterday was such a long day. (18:09) It was 6 a.m. till 9.30, not stopping. (18:15) I packed bags last night at 9.30, went to bed at 10 to get up at 2.45. I didn't fall asleep till 11. (18:25) I knew that if there was a day where I was going to sleep through a handful of alarms, it was yesterday. (18:31) So I think that was a piece of it.

Alan Lazaros

(18:33) Next level listeners, if you have not yet, we have something called the Next Level Dreamliner that will help you be more prepared every single day. (18:42) I've been doing it every day as well. (18:45) It says achieve your dreams 90 days at a time.(18:49) It helps you reverse engineer your dreams, your goals into daily habits. (18:54) But most importantly, you can do it every day for 10 minutes. (18:58) It starts out with your top three gratitudes.(19:00) Then it has your top three most important tasks. (19:02) Then it has your most important win for the day, your most important improvement, and then your next level lesson. (19:07) And then there's one prompt, one question.(19:09) What seeds are you planting for a more fruitful future? (19:11) That's one example. (19:12) I'm on page, there's no page numbers.(19:15) Okay, that's just one of the pages. (19:18) We're talking about productive paranoia, constructive paranoia, anxiety. (19:22) One of the things that I think is important is if you are winging it, if you're waking up in the morning and winging it, no metrics, no habits, no journaling, no system of success, you are being arrogant.(19:36) I'm going to call you out. (19:37) Your future is not going to get better by default. (19:41) It's going to get better by design.(19:42) This is how you design your future. (19:44) Every single day, one simple habit, give me 10 minutes a day. (19:48) Give me 10 minutes a day, and I promise you, your future will be better.(19:54) We'll be in the show notes. (19:55) Amazon.com, the link will be in the show notes. (19:57) I like the hardcover.(19:59) They're the same price, hardcover, softcover. (20:02) The hardcover is better, I think.

Kevin Palmieri

(20:04) He thinks. (20:04) I had a breakthrough while you were talking. (20:08) So I got to the hotel at like nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, nine o'clock, too early, too early to check in.(20:14) And I was like, I know this is an unreasonable ask. (20:18) What do you got? (20:18) You got anything?(20:19) Got any early checkouts I can check in? (20:21) And they're like, no. (20:22) We were fully booked all week.(20:24) We'll get you in early, we just don't know how early. (20:26) It's like, all right, cool. (20:28) I should have known that there wasn't a really good place to work at this hotel.

Alan Lazaros

(20:34) I should have known that. (20:35) Nice.

Kevin Palmieri

(20:36) I wasn't paranoid enough. (20:37) I assumed it's a nice hotel. (20:39) They have to have a freaking lobby with a restaurant that I can work at.(20:45) Not really. (20:46) Nope. (20:47) There's breakfast going on and it's full.(20:48) So I went to Starbucks. (20:50) I think when you're over, so let's just say when you're paranoid, you learn what not to stress about as much. (21:00) When you're not paranoid, you learn what to stress about more.(21:03) That, that. (21:05) Now I know, I know exactly where the parking is at the airport. (21:08) Good.(21:09) Cool. (21:10) I know I like to get places early. (21:13) Getting to a place early is not necessarily advantageous unless I can work.(21:18) It doesn't, it doesn't do me any good to be sitting here for five hours.

Alan Lazaros

(21:22) That is so big because in the past you used to always get there early and I would try to explain like, brother, we could use that time more wisely than sitting there waiting in line.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:31) You'd be, you'd be very proud. (21:33) I, unfortunately, this, this is like a, maybe this would be an episode about growing up. (21:37) Maybe I used to be the guy who would go to the airport and just like, hang out.(21:43) Remember you, Alan ran his laptop out and I just be like chilling. (21:46) Like, all right, man, I'm going to go get dunks. (21:47) I'm going to go get donuts.(21:48) No idea why you're unsuccessful. (21:51) Yeah. (21:51) Why am I not successful today?(21:52) I worked, I did, I did client stuff. (21:57) I tried to sleep on the plane. (21:58) It didn't work.(21:59) So it was very much like a growing up of, okay, I, I'm batching WhatsApp at four o'clock in the morning at the airport. (22:06) Like, this is, this is a whole different level, but it felt really good and it felt really good. (22:10) Good man.(22:10) I appreciate that. (22:11) And I, and I fucking hated it also. (22:13) I also hated it.

Alan Lazaros

(22:14) Yeah. (22:14) Well, uh, just metaphorically, right? (22:17) We, we have, I, I use the right shoulder, left shoulder.(22:20) So on my left shoulder is little Alan who wants to watch a movie and eat cereal. (22:26) And then adult grown ass man, Alan is knows that that's not optimal. (22:35) And I really do believe that while you have to feed both, you have to let the adult win.(22:44) If you have goals, if you have goals, kids don't have goals, there are no seven year olds that are concerned about their finances. (22:53) As a matter of fact, I have a client who coaches Amy's kids. (22:57) So Amy has a 13 year old and 11 year old, and they are setting goals and learning about finance.(23:02) It's really cool that he's tutoring them and they have financial goals. (23:06) And I think they're learning how to use a credit card and all kinds of cool stuff, uh, intelligently, responsibly.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:12) I could use that. (23:13) I could use that course.

Alan Lazaros

(23:15) No, well, yeah, but that early, that early development, I'm telling you, I know you for kids is coming at some point, not right now, but at some point it's got to, and we got to find a way to appeal. (23:26) Like, imagine if you could teach finance to kids, how much that I already got the name neck next level youth.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:35) Oh my God. (23:36) Oh my God. (23:37) Am I the best in the world at this?(23:39) Especially without sleep.

Alan Lazaros

(23:41) I'm good. (23:42) We had a freaking episode. (23:43) I know we're going to go in six minutes, but we're doing all right.(23:45) We had an episode, not three episodes ago about the importance of sleep. (23:49) And you come on here and tell our listeners that you got four hours of sleep.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:54) It wasn't the, it wasn't the plan. (23:56) It was, there was too much to do and not enough time. (23:58) That was it.(24:00) It wasn't by design. (24:01) It wasn't, it wasn't by design. (24:04) It was that there was just too many, there's too many things going on.(24:08) And so many of them are timestamped. (24:09) Like Tyrone and I went to see a place and I wanted to see it before I left. (24:13) And it was like, well, I guess.(24:15) And there was like, again, we got like seven inches of snow. (24:18) So that was potentially a little reckless going to see a place in the middle. (24:22) I mean, there was, we probably saw seven car accidents on the way.

Alan Lazaros

(24:25) Yeah. (24:26) Yeah. (24:26) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(24:26) It's like, probably, probably should have put that off honestly. (24:29) But what do we wrap this up with? (24:38) I don't know.(24:39) Do what you have to do to get the most certainty and then understand that you're never going to have all the certainty you need. (24:46) I didn't know exactly how to get to where I wanted to get to, but I knew I had enough time to figure it out. (24:51) I think that's the, that's the sweet spot.(24:53) The certainty is not always a guarantee of, I know exactly how I'm going to get there. (24:58) I think it's more if, and when the circumstances don't align to the way I think they will, I'll figure it out. (25:04) It's figureoutable.(25:05) I think that everything's figureoutable. (25:06) If you give yourself enough time, if you don't, it might not be.

Alan Lazaros

(25:11) Drive to five. (25:12) This is my takeaway. (25:13) If, if you're on Kevin's end, you err on the side of caution and you prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, and you probably need more self-belief or a little more optimism or a little less paranoia or anxiety because that can be crippling.(25:35) It can be. (25:36) If you're on my end and you tend to think things are going to go better than they do, you need to consciously say, humble, stay humble. (25:46) Because when I was younger, I had a lot of self-efficacy and they've done studies about self-efficacy.(25:52) Self-efficacy is a fancy word for self-belief, but it's, it's your belief in your ability to figure things out. (25:56) It's your belief in your ability to achieve something externally. (25:59) And I've come to realize too, one of my clients believes in her ability to do the actions 10 out of 10, but she doesn't believe in her ability to create the outcome.(26:10) I want to do an episode at some point about this. (26:13) Cause and effect. (26:14) If I say, go get this effect five years from now, she has no belief in her ability to create the causes to get that outcome in the future, but she has 10 out of 10 belief in her ability to execute what I say will create it.(26:27) And so I've realized my coaching has become a little bit of a crutch, even though she's awesome. (26:31) And I know you're listening by the way, but I'm like, you got to build that on your own though. (26:36) Cause if you can't reverse engineer the outcomes you want, anyone can do inputs.(26:41) And I think this is why you always talk about tactics. (26:44) It's like, give me the tactic. (26:45) Give me the thing to do.(26:46) Cause you believe in your ability to do things 10 out of 10. (26:49) You don't believe in your ability to figure out what to do.

Kevin Palmieri

(26:53) I would argue that oftentimes the reason people get stuck is because they don't know what to do. (26:58) Even though there's so many tactics out there, they don't know which one is the right one. (27:04) All right.(27:05) So yeah, a hundred percent. (27:05) I'd like to be told what to do.

Alan Lazaros

(27:11) You don't know how to figure out what's the most optimal next move.

Kevin Palmieri

(27:19) Not for everything. (27:20) I think the more, the more I do something, the better I feel about it.

Alan Lazaros

(27:24) But yeah, no, it's so your self-efficacy is 10 out of 10 on your ability to execute something, but not 10 out of 10 about it creating the outcome you want.

Kevin Palmieri

(27:36) I would say it's very, I don't know if it's 10. (27:38) I feel like it's probably not 10. (27:40) I think it's high.

Alan Lazaros

(27:41) I would say it's statistically very high, but I don't know if we should do an episode on inputs versus outputs, meaning causes versus effects. (27:52) So results that people want are effects, not causes. (27:56) Meaning if you're in great shape, that's an effect.(27:58) It's not a cause. (27:59) A cause is sleep, hydration, nutrition, right? (28:01) You get it.(28:02) So that's been, as an engineer, for me, it's very obvious what causes create what effects. (28:09) And I wake up in the morning and I think about the future and I go, okay, these are the causes that I need to do now in order to have the effects I want in the future. (28:18) And that's definitely something that I just always do.(28:22) Always. (28:23) 24-7, 365. (28:24) And we did a relationship talks coaching session with someone earlier.(28:26) Emilie and I were sitting there going, oh, we're always doing that. (28:35) Always. (28:36) Like in one, 10, one, two, five, 10.(28:40) And again, I know this might come off as braggy. (28:42) That's not my point. (28:44) When NLU achieves these certain milestones, it's not going to be surprising to me because everything I'm doing today is predicated on those happening.(28:59) And I do think to the optimism point, they're going to take longer than I thought, right? (29:05) So I'm overly optimistic and I know that, but it's better than being overly pessimistic. (29:10) However, accuracy, accuracy.(29:14) I think as we've both become more accurate. (29:16) And I think that's ultimately the goal. (29:19) You have to figure out which end you're on.(29:21) And then if you have high self-belief, you need to increase your humility. (29:25) If you have high humility, you need to try to work on self-advocacy.

Kevin Palmieri

(29:29) And whatever end you're on, you just can't let the opposite stop you. (29:33) That you can't let the fact that you're so confident it's going to work, stop you from saying like, I don't have to try. (29:38) I know it'll work.(29:39) It's like, well, that's not going to work. (29:40) And on the other end, well, I don't think that's going to work. (29:43) Well, it can't stop you from trying to figure out how to make it work.(29:46) Yeah, exactly. (29:47) That. (29:47) All right.(29:48) Cool. (29:48) All right. (29:48) Shout out to each and every one of you who has donated to the Next Level Hope Foundation annual holiday event.(29:54) We appreciate it. (29:55) We're roughly halfway to our goal. (29:57) We appreciate you all so very much.(29:59) If you want to donate, we will have the link below. (30:02) Again, just super grateful, super grateful that so many of you believe in this wonderful mission that we are on with these families and these children. (30:11) So very, very grateful.(30:12) It means the world to us. (30:13) As always, we love you. (30:14) We appreciate you.(30:15) Grateful for each and every one of you. (30:16) 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 be here every single day to help you get there.

Alan Lazaros

(30:25) Keep leveling up to reach your full potential. (30:28) Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(30:29) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (30:33) We love connecting with Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(30:36) We mean it when we say family. (30:38) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (30:41) Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.(30:45) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.