¶ Intro / Opening
Next level nation . Welcome back to another episode of next level university , where we help you level up your life , your love of your health and your wealth . I see you smirking over there already . We hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode . Is your vision , or are your vision and your goals aligned again grammatically ? I don't know what's correct .
So you heard us giggling at the end of the last episode . That's why we're giggling today's episode , because it's a funny title what ball are you dropping ? It's not that funny , but my inner child wanted to have a giggle about it . Yesterday's episode .
One of the most common questions I get , alan , and I'm sure you probably do too when I go on other podcasts , is how do you balance business in life ? Or how do you balance this and this and this ? And Usually I say and I try to say it as kindly as possible I don't really know if there is any such thing as balance .
I Don't really think of it that way . I think of it as a juggling act , and it's a juggling act for me of health , wealth and love . Health , physical , mental , emotional , spiritual . But let's just say in this analogy we're talking physical health me going to the gym or me going to Brazilian jujitsu .
Wealth is the business , the day-to-day activities , alan and I doing the episodes , coaching clients , getting clients , all that stuff , business meetings , cool . And then love is family . So , specifically for me , taryn , since I live with Taryn at all times one of those is Probably doing really well .
One of those is probably kind of in Potential maintenance mode and then one of those is most likely trending down . If I had to imagine and I would say right now , and the reason I wanted to do this episode right now I'm coming off of the shingles , so I wasn't in the gym , that was hard , but right now I would say NLU is One ,
¶ The juggling act
fitness so health is two , and then my relationship is probably the thing that's dropping . I Would say right now . When I had the shingles , I was sleeping in our guest bedroom . I slept in the guest bedroom for like two weeks because I just couldn't fall asleep at a reasonable time . I was tossing and turning , I was waking up through the night .
So I haven't slept in the same bed as Taryn in almost two weeks . Last night was the first night , so that , obviously , when we're used to sleeping next to your partner every night , for however many years , that can create some distance .
So yeah , which of the three do you feel like you're doing I don't want to say the worst in , but which of the three do you feel like you're losing momentum in ?
And I think we all Intuitively know I've been crushing the gym , I've been prepping my meals , I haven't been having fast food , but I Haven't been as focused on work as I need to be or whatever it may be . So , yeah , which of the three you feel are dropping ?
So this is what you million , I do , kevin and I do clients and I do zero to ten . Ten is the best it's ever been , zero is the worst it's ever been . Simple , simple , simple . Health , zero to ten . Wealth , zero to ten . Love , zero to ten . And then , once you rate them , then you ask yourself which way is it headed ? Is it headed up ?
Is it headed neutral ? So it's green , yellow , red . So zero to ten . Green , yellow , red , simple , simple , simple . So you can size someone's entire life up Very , very quickly and then you can go to work on what needs work . So let's say your health . Well , I'll use myself for as an example . Try to lead by example here .
Health , if Best I've ever been , is a ten , probably seven . Wealth ten , best it's ever been , love , probably nine . And I actually asked you , me the last night Where's the we ? Yet we call the relationship the week and she said nine . I said where's it headed up or down ? She said up . That gave me the reassurance that I needed .
So my fitness is seven , probably neutral . So seven and yellow , meaning not going down or up . Hopefully tonight , leg day , it's gonna go up . Wealth , I would say , is 10 ,
¶ Visualize and strategize to harmonize
up , headed up , green , and then love is probably 9 also headed up . As a matter of fact , emilia sent me a really cute text today thanking me . I made it into her gratitudes for her journal and I don't think that's uncommon . She told me last night that I'm basically in every single one . She's in mind as well .
But the point is , is that To Kevin's point , are you gonna be able to be 10 out of 10 in all of them and green in all of them all the time ? Like on what planet is that gonna be doable ? So what you can try to do is this juggling act , or what I call harmony . How do you harmonize these things ?
So , for example , we have something that Emilia calls the quantum chasm in the corner corner of our bedroom , because a lot of times I would leave the bedroom and do my morning routine either up in my office or Out in the living room , and Emilia really likes to wake up together .
So now I do my writing in the quantum chasm , which is in the quarter of our bedroom , so that when she wakes up we're together . So I'm doing my writing , which is wealth with future , wealth , nothing , nothing short term , but wealth , career and Mixing that with love .
And so that's what I mean by harmony is you can stack these so that they feed each other and and contribute to each other as Strategically as possible , knowing and getting them as perfect as they can be , knowing they'll never actually be perfect and Perfect is probably the wrong word but progress .
You're progressing and improving each one health , wealth and love Toward the life of your dreams , knowing that none of them are always gonna be 10 or all of them will never be 10 , but they can all be incrementally growing and then , every now and then , you're gonna have one that's falling , and then you just have to kind of be aware of that and and pivot
over time or ask for grace in advance .
We'll do that a lot . We have next level live coming up in March . That's gonna be heavy . Live events are always heavy and We've never done a live event with the size of the business we have , so it's gonna be the heaviest . It'll be the most challenging live event We've ever done .
I will ask for grace before that , say , hey , same , just an FYI , the next month is gonna be a little bit crazy . That's how I'm trying to operate . And then it's itself grace to have you just had shingles . You couldn't go to the gym . Of course your health is down . Could I have gone for walks ? Probably yes , but I was in a lot of pain .
I don't want to do it . I kind of shut down when I'm , when I'm going down in health , I just let it kind of go . You go for walks and stuff . During COVID you were doing exercises in your closet . I was doing exercises on the couch , so I kind of just folded my cards . So , yeah , could I have done stuff ?
I don't want to make the excuse and say I couldn't have . Yes , I could have . I could have walked on the treadmill , but I didn't . The wealth one I'm usually very focused on that . I'm always trying to stay focused on that .
But there have been times when I travel I'm not working as much on the business as I usually am , so that takes a little bit of a hit .
¶ Grace and self-grace
And it's just how fast can you identify ? And then how fast can you get back and figure out ? Okay , how do I make up for this ? Might be a conversation with your partner . Hey , it's the busy season it's coming up . I just want to make sure you and I are good . I know I might not be present . I know I might not be at dinner every night .
I know maybe I won't be as present with the kids , I won't be able to tuck them in , but I promise when we get through busy season I'll be back . That might be a conversation .
Or maybe you're renovating your house right now and you're not gonna be able to get to the gym or hot yoga or spin cycle if that's spin , whatever it's called as often as you want . That might be the cost of doing business right now . Well , at least you're moving your body when you're renovating your house . That's exercise .
It might not be the same level as you want , but I just think having those inner conversations with yourself or having those conversations with your partner is very , very , very important because you can be proactive versus reactive . You and I have definitely made our mistakes in the reactivity with our relationships . I know that for certain .
I remember some tough conversations early on in the relationship with Taryn . My goal is to avoid that now with the new knowledge I have and then hopefully . But don't
¶ Identify, get back, and figure out
feel like to Alan's point , don't feel like it's ever gonna get to the level where you're 10 , 10 , 10 . Maybe that's a disempowering or a limiting belief to have . I don't think it's possible . I don't think there's enough time . We did an episode on priorities recently .
You're most likely gonna have to prioritize one over the other two , but if you do harmonize them together , you go work out with your partner Health and love . Alan has a business with Emilia wealth and love . So there are ways to do it . It just depends on your unique circumstances .
Well , even if I just wanna break the math down quick . If you wanna be one out of 100 in health , one out of 100 in wealth , one out of 100 in love meaning 100 random people in a room you wanna be the healthiest , the wealthiest and the most in love , which is definitely a goal I think we should all strive for .
Again , 100 random people , you can do it . You listen to NLU , it's possible . But if you look at that statistically , that's one in a million . One 100th times one , 100th times one 100th . That's how probabilities work . It's one in a million , and so I hope everyone's shooting to be one in a million .
I hope that you believe in yourself and obviously we're trying to help you become one in a million , but you better believe it . It's very difficult , super , super difficult , and that's why most people aren't holistic . A lot of people you know I've coached . I do say you know a lot so interesting . Sorry about that .
I coach a lot of people in all these different industries and everyone is one in a thousand in something . Everyone's maybe even one in 10,000 in something . I've never met someone who's not unbelievably good at something . But very , very , very few people , understandably , are really really , really , really strong in health , wealth and love simultaneously .
It feels impossible .
It does , doesn't it ? It feels impossible . I had a moment today I was at the gym crushing
¶ The probability
it and it was just I don't wanna be here and I don't wanna do this and I should be home . In my emails and I said that's Taren . I said it was so weird for me you and I had a conversation about this today I'm really working through being busy versus being productive .
That's the season I'm in and I told Taren I said it felt so weird for me to be at the gym at nine o'clock or eight thirty because I've been getting up early , working and then going to the gym , because my body , when I first wake up , it's not ready for the day , it's .
I'm all , I'm stiff as a board when I get there Shingies , but well , the shingies as well .
But I feel I feel it's hard to do that because I feel like the business is losing when I'm at the gym , when in reality , I woke up and did all the things I needed to do for the business so I could go to the gym , and then , when I get back from the gym , I go back to business . So it's just figuring out how your emotions connect to it .
There's so many different layers to this and again , yours is gonna be different than ours , because maybe you're not a business owner , maybe you don't work from home , whatever the details are , but you have an opportunity for health , physical , mental , emotional , spiritual wealth , how you make your money , how much money you save , where you invested all that stuff .
And then love , whatever level of relationship you have , whether you're married or you're single , family , extended family but with yourself you can always have self love . We all have opportunities to practice these , which means we all have opportunities for some to get really , really good , and they're 10 out of 10 .
And other times there might be the laggard , that's a six out of 10 , and then we have to level that one up . But as we're leveling that one up , unfortunately one of the other ones is most likely coming down at a similar rate , potentially .
And this all depends on your standards . If you have really really high standards in every area , you're gonna feel like it's impossible . I told my executive admin , jerry Ann shout out to Jerry Ann , she's probably listening . I said don't compare your productivity to mine . I don't have four children . Compare your productivity to other mothers of four . It's not fair .
Otherwise we're reading a book by Brendan Burchard . I talked about this high performance habits . We just finished it in book club and it's called high performance habits and I had to keep reminding everyone in book club listen , brendan Burchard does not have kids and he is climbing a different mountain than all of you , and that's okay .
Just because you're not as successful as Brendan Burchard doesn't mean you can't be more successful than you are now . And it's not like Brendan Burchard's a bodybuilder . You and I have been in a room with him . There's just Kevin and I . It's not fair for me to compare myself .
I saw some old fitness photos of me recently when I was in my bodybuilding days fitness model , fitness competitor , fitness coach my whole world was fitness . It's not fair to me to compare to that . I didn't have a home then . I didn't have a relationship then .
For some of it I didn't have three pets , I didn't have a 21 person team , I didn't have one 10th of the responsibility that I have now , and so it's not fair to compare that level of fitness to this level of fitness . It's not apples to apples , and that's a quick way to crush yourself . Worth
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is to constantly compare yourself unfairly , and so what I've tried to do is compare my level of fitness to not only number one my best , my current best , not my past best but also other business owners .
If I compare my fitness level to other business owners , I'm gonna feel a lot better than if I compare to me in my mid-20s , when I had quit corporate and everything in my entire world was fitness related .
Yeah , if you compare to the people you competed with on stage versus you today , you're not gonna feel very good . No , no , yeah , there's no way .
Which is gonna what Help or hurt my fitness ?
journey With you . I never know , it might help it in a weird way it depends .
Sometimes it motivates the hell out of me .
For most people , I would say that's probably a one-way trip to the disappointment tone .
Yeah 100% , 100% . So harmonize , juggle and realize that balance is BS . You're not gonna 50-50 anything . And I also think work and life are becoming more and more integrated . I mean ,
¶ Challenges, comparison, and just trying a little better each day
I'm very , very grateful . I thought about this earlier . My commute is 30 seconds . I'm so pumped about that . That's awesome . But there's not a lot of separation between this and my home life .
Yeah you shut the door behind you when you leave the office .
Yeah , that's it . And then you need to take a minute before you go downstairs and bring all that stress into your relationship or into your home life or whatever . It's tough , it can be difficult , but you're not alone in this , this 21st century pros and cons .
Maybe you have a commute to work , maybe you don't , maybe you work from home , maybe you don't , but no matter what , there is no 50-50 perfect balance . Harmonizing it's almost like try to harmonize and juggle the best you can , knowing you're never gonna be perfect juggler . You're never gonna be a perfect harmonizer .
And especially the moms and dads I can only imagine . I have several clients of mine . Some of them have four children . Jerry and I already mentioned it has four children . What they go through and grow through is tremendous . I mean , I don't have that . So it's just important to realize that sometimes I'll tell this story privately .
One of my clients earlier today she's like I'm so sorry , I'm late , my bad . She's in the car , she's on Zoom , and she's like I had to bring my kids to school and I got a call from the teacher saying that one of my kids forgot their boots and the boots are sitting in the back of the car . And she's like I'm so sorry .
I'm like I didn't say dude , she's a female , you're good , you're good , that's totally fine . All good , no worries , five minutes , we're gonna make up the time . It's all gonna be fine . The point is is stuff happens and life can feel chaotic .
And as long as you're getting a little better , a little better , a little better in each of the things that matters and not having 10 out of 10 standards and everything , I think you're gonna be good . But I think health , wealth and love is the way At least that's our formula and just try to get a little better each day .
This is my next love of Nugget . I'm understanding that really all we're trying to do is create advice that will help you . Whether you're watching or listening , drive to five . If you have low self-belief , we try to lift you up so you have more self-belief .
If you're over with self-belief and you're not taking action , we try to give advice based on okay , take action and it'll humble you and then you'll be more accurate , realistically . My next level nugget for this is as much as I'd like to say circumstances don't matter . For the vast majority of us they do .
So don't allow your circumstances that create a lack of results to affect your identity too much . Now , again , you could go the other way with that . My shingles are still . They hurt a little bit , but I'm ready to go back to the gym . I've rested enough . It's time . I know it intuitively . I'm going to be fine . Let me go back to the gym .
The circumstances are no longer going to affect me , but when I had shingles , I was still trying to get up early and work . It might have affected fitness in a really negative way , but my goal was for it not to affect business as much . So just understand that Circumstances are going to affect us .
I think it's not a real world to say no matter what happens , keep going and circumstances shouldn't affect you . I don't think that's real . I don't think that's real . I think that's terrible advice that's given by people who are just way too disconnected . So that's my long , long , long next level nugget .
You can't have 50 non-negotiables . You can't have 50 non-negotiables . I have a couple non-negotiables and it's been really hard to stack those . My next level , nugget Kev , mentioned earlier . I don't know if it's a disempowering or empowering belief to say you can't have 10 out of 10s in health , wealth and love .
I often ask a question it's one of my favorite questions for clients , emilia Kev what is the disempowering belief that has disguised itself as empowering ? And I am convinced that you believing that you can have 10 out of 10 in health , wealth and love all at the same time and sustain that and grow that .
I am convinced that's a limiting belief , not an empowering one . And the reason why is because if you really do believe that's possible , you're going to keep thinking something's wrong when it's not happening .
In a rich , dynamic , positive world where you have all these different things going on kids , pets , homes , weather , economy , job , boss , team , whatever no way .
I think it's practical and tangible to say you know what sometimes life's messy and that's okay and I'm going to improve in health , wealth and love either way , knowing full well that they're never going to be 10 out of 10 forever and they're
¶ Circumstances are going to affect us
certainly not going to be 10 out of 10 at the same time every time , and I think that's super empowering and I think it's super practical . And I used to be the guy who didn't understand and used to want to understand what I call a super growth mindset . You can totally do it , you can shoot for it , 10 out of 10 and everything . As I've matured .
That's just BS , it's not real , it's not true . And if it was true , it was back when I had no home , no family , no pets , no responsibilities . I could be 10 out of 10 fitness , 10 out of 10 health right , when I had no business , no team , all that stuff .
So as you get older and older and you mature , you start to realize that even those people that are barking that stuff in those motivational videos , they're not in great shape . Sometimes their marriages are a mess . Sometimes it's important and it's empowering to realize that these authors , kevin and myself included , are not perfect .
They're so much farther You're going to be one day .
You're not going to consider an author now . No , no , no , nice , I'm going to say it . I don't even have to write the book .
I'm an author , I've written works , the podcast playbook by Kevin Paul Mary . It's the mythical creature that will one day exist . But these people that we've interviewed , I'm telling you 10 out of 10 and something , never 10 out of 10 and everything . Please remember that I was in the bookstore very last story .
I promise I had a really cool moment in the bookstore . You know , I went into our skydiving and we went up to New Hampshire and it's really kind of the border of mass , but we had this beautiful day and we love the bookstore . So we went to Barnes Noble it's actually near Kevin's place and this place is awesome bookstore , Love it .
And I had this really cool moment in the business section and in the personal development section where I was like , oh my God , I met that person . I met that person , we interviewed that person , we interviewed that person . I had this really cool moment of wow , we really are earning our stripes in this industry . A lot of these people I'm like friends with .
It's just a really cool , weird moment of whoa . That's really awesome . But the point is is I've met these people , Kevin's met these people and they are just as imperfect as you are , just maybe in different ways . And so just just please know that the goal is not to be better or worse than anyone else .
The goal is to be better than you used to be , and in health , wealth and love , knowing that you'll never be perfect in any of those areas ever , because perfection is not real or they're just further along and perfectly .
Yeah , I think we think . Oh , once I get to a mythical result , everything will be perfect .
It's the same thing .
It's just you just have different struggles , that's all . Different struggles and different circumstances . If you have not yet joined our private Facebook group , appropriately named Next Level Nation , please do so .
If you're looking for peak performance partners , if you're looking for perspective , if you're looking for a positive place to start your morning , next Level Nation is the place . Amy is in there posting every single day . The team is in there commenting every single day , so we want to help you get a little bit better every day .
We can do that with a community as well . Link will be in the show notes , as always .
Also also also Meetup number 26, . February 1st 2024 , 6pm Eastern time . Be there Three words you need to remember if you want a Next Level relationship .
So I have something called the Triad of Transformation that is built on these three words , and I do not believe anyone can have a magnificent relationship without these three words , including myself , because my past relationships would have flourished had I known this . So it's the Love Month , it's February . I hope you join us .
You can keep your camera off and participate not at all , no worries , or you can participate a ton . It's entirely up to you . The link to register will be in the show notes .
Please participate a ton if you want . We love it we love it when you do . We love it when you do , but you don't have to . But you don't have to . And it's not recorded . This is one of those rare things where we don't record it . It's totally private .
So you'll see a different I don't want to say a different side of us , but there's certain things we won't say on the podcast just due to whatever it may be privacy , family . We don't want to offend anybody .
Deeper dive .
Tomorrow , deeper dive . Remember scratching the surface . I do , oh yeah , shout out .
Back in my hyper-conscious days .
I miss those . We had scratching the surface , five minute clinic Five . Uh , what small talks . Small talks . Yeah , we had a thing . We had something going . We did , we had something going back in the day Today .
legacy , Legacy . What does it mean to you ? You know .
We're going to hit you with another episode of small talks . Today , for small talks , we're going to talk about legacy . Alan , you have the definition and Alan would read the definition we just go off . Weird times , but nostalgic times . Tomorrow , for episode number 1,594 , is your success sabotaging you ? I don't know if we mentioned this recently .
Getting your unique level of success , getting the results you want , is only one piece of the equation . You have to maintain and sustain them in order to continue to get the results you want . And oftentimes we get a certain level of quote unquote success Again , whatever that means to you , and it stops us from continuing the pursuit .
So we're going to talk about a story that showcases that tomorrow , as always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you , and an NLU . We don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow .
Hit them with a talk to you soon .
Next up on nation .
