#1541 - One Reason You Don't Feel Like You're Making Progress

Welcome back to another episode of next level university , where we help you level up your life , your love , your health and your wealth . We hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode , episode number 1540 . What does it mean about you if you disappoint someone ? It probably should be . What does it mean about you when you disappoint someone ?

Because it's probably gonna happen , unfortunately , but we can grow through it . Today . For episode number 1541 , one reason you don't feel like you're making progress I got an aura ring from from Taren . Taren got me an aura ring for a Christmas present almost a year ago , which is mind-blowing , and it's been a year .

Nice , for those who don't know , an aura ring tracks your sleep , it tracks your heart rate , all sorts of different stuff , stuff that I do not even comprehend . I'm sure this is not an ad or a sponsor or a plug for a ring , but it does help . It does go with my story this episode brought to you by aura cut to the sponsorship .

I recently , when I was talking to Tara and I said I don't know , I don't really feel like I've been sleeping well lately . I just don't feel like I've been sleeping well . And she said well , what's the aura ring say ? And I said well , it depends . I mean , some days it's 60 , some days it's 70 , some days it's 80 , some days

it's 89 . The highest I think I've ever gotten is 89 . I said , but just overall I don't really feel like I've been sleeping that well .

And recently I started tracking my sleep score , because you were tracking your sleep score , nice , and what that revealed to me is my sleep has actually gotten far better over the last few months . Why am I telling you that ? One reason you don't feel like you're making progress because you are not measuring what you're trying to make progress in .

So even the fit tracker , yeah , before I might have an idea of . Well , today I weighed 175 pounds and yesterday I weighed 176 . Awesome , I feel like I probably ate 2,000 calories yesterday . So 2,000 calories , I'm losing weight . All right , cool , that's good , versus having way more specific numbers . Where yesterday I ate 1,850 calories , today I was 179.1 .

Okay , I'm down X amount over the last seven days . That might be a little bit more intense than you wanna get into , but the point of it is , when you're measuring something , you actually know whether or not you're making progress . We've talked many times about the difference between logic and emotion . Emotion is what you're feeling .

I don't really feel like I'm making progress . I've said that so many times . Logic is based on the numbers and based on the facts , and usually those are gonna be based on the things that you're tracking .

So that is what we're gonna talk about today Another episode that's not necessarily sexy in terms of tracking things , but it is one of those fundamentals that , if you can do it for a long enough period of time , I am willing to bet you will be drastically more successful than you would have been if you didn't do it .

always ask you're coming up on 5,000 coaching sessions ? Because I'll often say that , because that's another thing I measure . By the way , I measure coaching sessions because I wanna get better at coaching . How do you do that ? You practice , and so they say what are you doing with your clients ? That's making the biggest difference .

And I always I say listen , this is not just a plug for my app , but habit tracking . We do have a habit tracking app and if you want it , email me , alan at nextleveluniversecom . But even if you start with just three things green , yellow , red Green light means you did it , yellow means you kinda did it .

So for me , yesterday I foam rolled a little bit in the gym so I got 0.5 , aka a yellow light for mobility . The things that you track keep you on track . And to Kevin's point , this is not a sexy episode . I , emilia , introduced a book to me two years ago or so and it's called Measure what Matters .

I do not remember the author's name and the whole idea is exactly like the title it's if something matters to you , you'll be measuring it . So Emilia and I do three gratitudes for each other before bed every single night . We missed two nights ago , so we did six last night .

But at the end of the day , if something matters to you and you start measuring it , you're gonna focus on it . And when you focus on it , it's gonna improve . And so there's a bunch of different examples we can give and you don't wanna over-measure because if everything's important , nothing's important .

So I track my sleep , I track number of gratitudes for Emilia each night , I track my habits , I track what I do on my calendar and when I track number of coaching sessions I also have a love score . So Emilia and I have her top three cup fillers . We talk about this on the Conscious Couples podcast different podcast and you can go check that out .

Just type in cup fillers . But I have her top three cup fillers and I track how often I do that . So each week I have these three columns and did I do that or did I not do that ? And at the end of the day the idea is two things . Number one I like the analogy of the inner tube at the beach .

So if you're just falling asleep for 10 minutes at the beach and you're on an inner tube just relaxing in the sun . You're gonna wake up a mile down the beach and you're gonna be like whoa , where's my towels , where is everybody ? And I feel like that's what happens in life we just drift .

But if you had a little , somehow an inner tube alarm system that when you drifted too far , it started going beep , beep and then beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep like the farther you got away , the more it beeped , the more it annoyed you . You just stay on track much more .

And so number one is tracking keeps you on track . I just thought of something , kev , that I think is actually really funny Tracking keeps you on track . I was at the track how many times can I say track in this episode ?

And I was trying to do a marathon , and so , for those of you who don't know , I think most people know this , but four revolutions around a standard track and field is a mile , and so I had to do 26 miles . So 26 times four . And I swear to you , kev , I was holding my phone clicking the button .

So I had a little tracker app where you would add a check every mile , and I was holding it the whole time . It's gotta be a better way .

I remember we had a team member where he was like wait a minute , you did a marathon holding your phone and you like manually tracked it and you did it on a track where you ran around the same track a hundred and what's four times 26 ? It's like 104 . 104 . I think it was 104 laps . He's like you did 104 laps on the same track . I said it was awful .

He can zoom out and go , oh , I am making progress . Or you can zoom out and go , uh-oh , I'm really not , even though I feel like I am , because maybe you lose a pound , feel good , gain a half pound , gain a half pound , lose another pound , feel good . You might not be making any progress , you might be completely stagnant and not even know it .

And so this episode , as unsexy as it might be , I'm not saying to track 50 things . I genuinely don't think you should . I had a client once who was tracking 42 things . I'm like , listen , man , you gotta cool it . If 42 things are important , nothing's important . And again , that's just my perspective . I was his coach . I'm supposed to give him my truth .

But if you're tracking nothing , you've gotta track some things that really matter . Maybe it's finances for this quarter , maybe it's your weight for this quarter , maybe it's sleep , maybe you wanna focus on sleep this quarter , whatever it is , I use 90 days , I use quarters , so 2024 is coming up . What do you wanna track for the first quarter of 2024 ?

And what do you wanna focus on ? Cause , whatever you track , you're gonna focus on .

I think those are probably the best places to start , because that's what well-rounded , holistic tracking looks like Health , wealth and love , health , wealth and love .

If you can track , if you can wake up and again , I understand maybe there's community members out there that are going through a rebuilding stage of their relationship with the scale or calories or food , whatever it may be . So take this and insert it to the degree that you're ready to use it . But how long does it take to weigh

yourself every day ? 15 seconds , depending on the scale ? If the scale's in the bathroom and you just jump on it , cool , and it takes another five seconds to write down that number or put in a spreadsheet or whatever it is . How long does it take to track your bank balance ?

That depends if you're gonna go through and okay , I got a cheeseburger , I got a coffee . Okay , I spent this , this , this . It can take some time . I know when I was . You're doing the finances now , but there's days where it would take , let's just say , 10 minutes .

brutal . Yeah , you have to go through . And Bank of America sucks Shots fired at Bank of America . This episode brought to you by Bank of America , not brought to you by Bank of America .

If I've found that we usually run away from the thing that we should be tracking the most , the thing that we're not getting results in is usually the thing that we're not tracking , and it's usually the thing we try to run away from the most because we have so much uncertainty or we have so much fear around it , or we're embarrassed , or it's probably for me

at least , I'll say in the past it's been anxiety . There's that anxious moment when you hit the button that opens your bank account on your online banking platform of choice and you're waiting and it has the swirly thing . It's swirling and you're thinking I hope it's positive , I hope this number is positive .

I've been there , I know , I know , I know , I know , I know . But those are the times where you need to track even more the growth that I've had in health , wealth and love . Most of those opportunities for growth came when I was losing , not when I was winning , and I started tracking all of this stuff when I was losing , not when I was winning .

Now , is it coincidental that that's when I partnered with you and I was losing ? Maybe , maybe , maybe not , I don't know . Maybe , maybe . Yeah , that's up for grabs .

Or why should someone track anything ? Let's , let's do that . Why should anyone track anything ?

in numbers necessarily . I think you think in words . So , as someone who's not a naturally numbers oriented person , what , what advice would you give if ?

The only way to turn not the only way the best way the most replicable replicable , my goodness the most In-control way to do it is to track it . Yeah , you can hope that your job changes or you make more money or you spend less money , but the only way really to To have influence on it is to track it .

I was laughing at you earlier in the episode because you said I Was foam rolling when I was in and I thought for sure . You're gonna say in the shower , I thought for sure the next thing that was coming out of your mouth was I was foam rolling when I was in the shower .

No , no , I have yet to get a shower foam , or I was doing yoga the other day in the shower . I was Painting that we're gonna be putting up on the wall in the shower , and then I really like to have it stack man , you got a habit stack . I brush my teeth in there . I floss in there .

I like to learn in the shower too , because I know I'm gonna shower every day , so now I know I'm gonna learn every day . Simple . You know I respect it . Thank you appreciate it . I was foam rolling the other day .

I don't have a great answer because I don't know what I would have said to him back then , because he was Stubborn , he probably wouldn't have listened . But I would say , the things that you're running from are probably the things that you should be tracking , because you're probably running from them , because you have anxiety or uncertainty around them .

What if More certainty would actually bring more empowerment ? I'm not saying it would immediately , because it probably won't , but what it will do is it will create the necessity for you to learn how to rebuild your relationship with it . That's , that would be what I would , what I would say to Kevin that I'd punch him in his throat . Gently .

Get it together , kev , sir , gently , not a bad , just I just to wake him up a bit .

But then you'll get control back right , and so that sense of control is really good for our well-being . There's a lot of studies underneath that . And then the second thing is get a tracking buddy . So Emilia is my tracking buddy . We send each other our sleep score every single day . We do a little screenshot and and what was it she sent ?

Today , yeah sorry , so hold on , hold on , let me go find it , because we text it a lot today . So mine is a , hers is a , mine's an 88 . I think I won yesterday and hers is a 85 85 decent numbers pretty good , yeah , but we went to bed a little late . So timing , I just want you to know . The aura algorithms I do not agree .

So if no one from or is listening , but let's say they were , hey , get it together with your timing algorithm , because Just because I went to bed at midnight does not mean my sleep score should take such a big hit Well the old circadian rhythm that they say yeah , but they overweigh it definitely .

I Maybe I have a big meal on the weekends and my weight spikes . But if I start to understand that I Don't have to be emotional about the fact that the scale says a different number , maybe I get to the point where I say , oh yeah , I had a big , I had a big meal .

I'm sure it's gonna flatten out in the next few days because of sodium intake and water holding and all that stuff . So , yeah , that's what I would say . Well said , I appreciate that very much . I have a little giggly episode today for you .

That is exactly why we created the Facebook group . Alan and myself are in there every day , amy's in there every day , the team's in there every day . There's always something going on , so we would love for you to be a part of it . If you have not yet joined , link will be in the show notes .

Or you can reach out to me and I can set you up in a Google sheet . We have a next-level fit tracker . We have a next-level finance tracker . We have a peak performance tracker . We are trackers at NLU . In case you did not know , I will help you . I'm happy to help you . It's totally free . Please reach out Alan at next-level universe calm .

Google sheets is free , so you can use it on your phone , right ? I have a lot of clients doing this . Really good , okay , and then the second piece is our next-level Hope Foundation holiday event is Sunday . This Sunday , december 10th , at from 1 to 4 pm Eastern Standard Time .

We Rented out the entire Gym at the YMCA Greendale YMCA and Worcester mass and we have an arts and crafts room . We're gonna get pizza , there's gonna be basketball , football , photo booth , there's gonna be frisbee . It's gonna be awesome . If you want to attend . If you're a single parent or once we're a single parent with your littles , please attend .

Rsvp at the link in the show notes . We love to meet our listeners and we would love to have you . And everybody's gonna get a book , everybody's gonna get a gift to open and everybody's gonna get a beanie baby as well . My not the kids will get .

We've talked many times about the challenges Underneath vulnerability expressing not just in an intimate relationship but any relationship . So we'll talk a little bit about that tomorrow in a very easy way for you to improve that . As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you and NLU . We've run of fans . We have family .

We will talk to you all tomorrow .