¶ Intro / Opening
I think there's two types of people One person who just pushes it too far and red lines over and , over , and , over and over again , but probably gets way further than the type two person who is always testing the ice and saying I'll slow down , I'll slow down , I'll slow down , and they never really get to red line .
I'm willing to bet that if the first person can survive long enough , they're just going to get way ahead of the second person .
There's a famous quote only those willing to go too far will ever know how far one can go . The person I heard that from did a commercial where they tried to jump in front of a train and do their own stunts and was killed . So he was reckless . He was reckless . Stay centered , stay humble and , yeah , push it , baby , but do not be reckless .
Welcome to Next Level University . I'm your host , kevin Palmieri , and I'm your co-host Alan Lazarus At . Nlu , we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers .
Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth .
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 .
Self-improvement in your pocket , every day , from anywhere , completely free .
Welcome to Next Level University , next Level Nation today for episode number 2091 , can you maximize your potential without burnout 991 can you maximize your potential without burnout ? I was thinking today because you and I are very different in this in many ways , but similar in other ways . I feel like I am more proactive with knowing burnout is coming .
At least I used to be , I'm not saying that anymore and I would be the type of person that would say I got to slow down , because I can tell that if I keep going at the rate I'm going at , things are going to crash and burn .
You underestimated yourself . I probably did . Yeah , I would say , that's
¶ Finding your personal performance limit
fair .
Well , I overestimated myself . I think that is the question is , what is the sweet spot for each and every one of us ? Because if you're only given 50% all the time , okay , you're probably not going to get as far as you want , but if you're giving 120% and then you have to take a week off every two months , that's probably not ideal either .
So how do we figure out what the optimal place is for each of us ? Drive to five baby ? How do we figure that out , sir ? How do we ?
figure out that . One thing was read the obvious signs Monday of this week . The second I was feeling not so good when I woke up . Yeah , I was like oh no . And Emilia , and in the center of our table , our kitchen table , we have what we call a care package and it has everything you could possibly need if or when you may or may not be getting ill .
Not everything , but you know what I'm saying and I have a certain potions all the stuff that I made and I immediately take corrective action . I remember all the stuff that I made and I immediately take corrective action . As a podcaster , trainer , coach , you need your voice and when your voice starts to go , you get a sore throat .
It's okay , I'm not getting good enough sleep . I'm spreading it too thin , I need to hydrate a little better . I got to get this going . So you have to read the obvious signs and you have to learn how to anticipate when the engine is going to blow . I've been saying to you a lot lately too much .
Every time we get on a meeting I say too much , for sure , too much , same , same , because I know that I can't sustain this yet . But if you pull back too quick , you won't get to the next level and learn how to sustain the next level . So when I say too much , I don't mean this is what I'm really saying to .
So when I say too much , I don't mean this is what I'm really saying to Kevin when I say too much , because every time for the last week that we've gotten into a meeting together , I basically said too much . Just here's what I'm actually saying . We've reached a new level and I'm proud of us . It's not sustainable yet and I can't add more right now .
I have to learn how to play at this level before we get to the next level . So I always think of you go to the next level and then you ratchet it in , and then you go to the next level , and then you ratchet it in , and then you go to the next level and you ratchet it in .
If you go next level , next level , next level and you don't give enough time to ratchet it in , you're going to collapse . The whole Jenga tower is going to fall and you're going to burn out , and then you're basically going to waste three days or a week or whatever it is . I mean , you got shingles at the beginning of 2024 . I don't remember .
It was because we were redlining too much .
¶ Growth isn’t sustainable without rest
I forgot about that . Yeah , I forgot about that . It seems like . Doesn't it seem like that was so long ago ? It wasn't like that long ago . No , it was this time last year . I'm having the pings now because it's harder for me to fall asleep and again , this has just come with time and awareness .
It's harder for me to fall asleep and I wake up in the middle of the night and I can't fall back asleep . That usually is directly connected to the amount of stress I'm going through Same . I sent you something at three o'clock in the morning . Yeah , I was probably up . I just never . Obviously my phone is not in the bedroom , but I was probably .
There's a chance . I was up just lying in bed like oh cool yeah same .
That's definitely an indicator what what end would you rat ?
I know what end you'd rather be on . What end do you think is best for most people under doing it , or ?
over as long as you're not reckless . So over emily and I talk about this a lot we're both over . We both overestimate what we are capable of in the short term , in the long term , I don't think so in the short term and in the long term , I don't think so In the short term and in the past you used to underestimate what you were capable of .
I don't think eight years ago Kev would have imagined you being this version of you and I always knew that you were capable of this and that's kind of neuroplasticity and the subconscious and unconscious mind and personal development and the 1% improvement over time and how that all works .
So human beings are capable of so much more than we can possibly fucking fathom . The problem is , in the short term we're actually capable of very little .
I'm not even kidding , like , if you and I wanted to okay , I showed you some photos of these people , these rock climbers , hanging off cliffs with tents , and no , if you and I wanted to start tomorrow , we could go and become professional cliff climbers . We could . That's just . That's a mathematically doable thing .
We're a little old , so we might not be the best in the world because of a lot of neurological reasons and our health and stuff . But we could be world-class in 10 , 20 , 30 years . For sure we're not going to do that , but we would be fucking terrible tomorrow .
Like bad you and I would be atrociously bad tomorrow and I think that's one of the things that really bothers me . I think everyone's under in the short term . Everyone's under in the long term . In the short term , I think they're probably accurate . Like tomorrow , if we went and rock climbed , you're going to suck .
So you're accurate , but you're very inaccurate with what you could do . Long term of impossible by stephen collar .
We interviewed him very little is actually impossible given a decade , do you think ? Okay , why do you think most people have such a bad relationship with being being burnt out or achieving burnout or whatever it is ? You think it's because they're doing stuff that they don't like doing ? That's part of it ? For sure you think it's part of it . What percentage ?
I think , dude , a lot of it is just they don't have their pillars dialed in , seriously , oh and again , how am I supposed to explain this without yeah , I guess so my sleep score ? Two days ago I shared on social media and someone reached out my average resting heart rate during sleep was 39 beats per minute , which basically means I was near death .
I'm joking , but that athletes have really good cardiovascular health . I have a very good cardiovascular health . We did a 45 minute adventure race earlier .
I think it was like three miles and I was just I mean , it's 82 degrees and I was just hammering hill sprints I but I've also worked out every day for 1,192 days and I was just hammering hill sprints , but I've also worked out every day for 1,192 days and I've always been pretty good at cardio stuff .
At the end of the day , I'm not a marathon runner or anything , but my point is is what people don't really know is all the other stuff I'm doing to be able to do that , like there's nothing that goes in my body . That isn't calculated ever . I eat corn dogs and I do all kinds of stuff .
They're vegan corn dogs Like these are really the micros and macros on these things are fucking amazing . So everything's by design . And when you see someone who doesn't burn out because people think like how the fuck does this dude not burn out ?
I know they think that my clients have asked it's my sleep , hydration , nutrition , training , mobility , breath work and supplementation I joke and I say I can't do mobility . I still do mobility more than most people . So at the end of the day , I'm not going to Right now .
I'm resourcing with coconut water Right now , during this set to make sure that I'm good for tonight , like I'm optimizing for two coaching sessions later that I need to be on point for .
¶ Daily systems that prevent burnout
So 24-7 , 365 , I'm always optimizing for longevity and for peak performance and all of that is everything that I'm doing and not doing . I used to say in the gym is just the during .
If you see us crushing it in the gym , kevin and I , what you're not seeing is everything before everything , the night before everything , the day before everything , the week before everything , the year before everything , the decade before to lead up to that one workout .
It's not like one workout , it's an accumulated compound effect of that and mostly the other stuff's harder agreed we were talking to stick with it's .
We were talking about dieting yesterday and and we're so we're doing the 10 pound in 10 week challenge again . Whatever pound in 10 weeks you want , I'm aiming for five to six or seven , I don't know , we'll see , but I'm not there's no , I'm gonna get 10 , but it's just . That is the hard part . The hard the going to the gym .
It sucks and my workouts suck and I don't want to go , but it's , it's the other 19 hours , or however many hours I'm up , depending on the day . That's like the the really hard thing . Okay , make that land for somebody , though , because that seems extremely yeah unfathomable .
Are you under or are you over ? I think most people underestimate what they're capable of long term and are on the wrong end of this .
They overestimate what they're capable of in the short run . And underestimate what they're capable of yeah which is why they're burning out .
That's a good way to , and I would ask you too , because you've been on both ends . I think that's one of the reasons why a lot of the things you say are more valuable .
I have my R&R dialed in . That's why I don't burn out . So Alan and I were going to meet this morning and something came up and Alan said hey , I got to push it and I was like dude , I can't do this other Cause I have a call that's going to run into that and honestly I'm I'm burning out pretty bad .
I'm running on like three days of 60 sleep scores Like not good .
Yeah .
And really dieting hard and I've weight trained every day Free , yeah , no , no , no , we trained , but I I'm 94% this quarter , nice year . I've gone to the gym 94% this quarter , nice , this quarter of the time and , like it's just , there's a lot of stuff that's catching up . I've been fucking up mobility . I haven't been doing mobility at all .
I need to figure that out . 94% .
But it's good . Alan said do you want to ? Why do you want to measure that ? And I was like I need to know how often I'm going to the gym , like I need , I just need to know it helps me .
But I'm trying to be proactive , of like , could I do if you said , hey , man , I the only time I have from my schedule currently is eight to nine tonight like of course I could do it . I just don't think it's optimal based on the way I'm feeling .
And but again , that's also like not everybody gets that opportunity right , not not everybody can say well , I'm just going to move my calendar around . So I think this is , this is the weird thing where I think segments of personal development cross into each other or cross over . This is one of the reasons boundaries are so important .
If you're burnt out , you have to set boundaries around doing the shit that you don't want to do . But you have the option not to do . Oh , you have a family reunion that you don't want to go to because your family fucking stresses you out and drains you . Don't go yeah set a boundary and don't go . I what you're doing at your nine to five .
I can't help you with that and that is what it is . You got to pay the bills , right , but . But I think I am just somebody who's very proactive with it .
I think that comes naturally to me is I'll do the all-out sprint , sprint , sprint , sprint , sprint , sprint , but I know that there's like a bench in X amount of feet where I'll be able to sit down and catch my breath . That's something I've had when I used to travel for work .
It was literally an all-out sprint for five days , six days , and then I would get one day of rest , and that one day of rest I did nothing . I ordered pizza . Every single , every single time I ordered pizza , I watched ufc or I watched movies , and then I prepared for sunday to leave again . That was it pretty much for years .
For years I did that now you're thinking more like a marathoner trying . Yeah , there's a bunch of metaphors . It's like the nascar you gotta get the pit stop . The longer you're at the pit stop , the more time .
¶ Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy:
Hello , hello , hello . Nlu listener , thank you , as always , for listening to Next Level University . Real quick , I just want to jump in and let you know about the Next Level Dreamliner . This is a journal that I use every single day . Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time . It breaks down your dreams into goals , milestones and daily habits .
We hope you enjoy it . The link will be in the show notes . All right , picture a NASCAR race if you've ever seen one Formula One whatever , when they pull over to redo the tires or whatever they do . I don't know man .
Nothing like using an analogy . You can't explain , you know it .
I always used to think when I was a kid , we used to play , you got this grand turismo oh , let's play grand turismo , great game yeah , it was far and whenever .
I would watch races wasn't often , but I would think what is the optimal amount of time that you do the pit stop to where that doesn't fuck up the race , and I think that's a good metaphor for productivity . I'm not . I never R&R to R&R . I R&R out of a necessity . You recharge your iPhone to make sure that it functions the next day .
To me , it's about and again , I know that this isn't normal , but if you do start thinking this way , your life will be much better statistically . When you R&R , when I buy a movie that I really want to see , that's higher quality R&R so that I can crush it more tomorrow , I'll be more fulfilled . So I'm thinking about filling my cup .
There's certain things that fill your cup and there's certain things that fill your cup quicker Getting great sleep . Whatever your core values are For me film and food I will not eat the same shit every day . I can't stand it .
How do I recharge my batteries , my batteries , my batteries faster , more effectively , more efficiently , so that I can crush it more tomorrow ? Now here's the difference in the metaphor your battery gets bigger . I would love to see Kevin now versus Kevin eight years ago . It would be ridiculous , dude . You'd be running circles around that fucking guy .
¶ Quality of life starts with discipline
For sure , and you'd R&R smarter , you'd work smarter , you'd work harder . I mean , I remember you used to shut down in the middle of a conversation . Brain was done .
now you can go for fucking nine hours straight question easily when you , when you look at your calendar on sunday , what do you think ? Are you thinking like , okay , I'm gonna maximize my potential here ? Are you thinking I gotta survive ? What are you thinking like , okay , I'm going to maximize my potential here , are you thinking I got to survive ?
What are you thinking ?
It depends . That's great , great question . I appreciate it . Every Sunday I look at my calendar and I go . There's one of three reactions . One is going to be I got to fill that fucker Like . This is what are we doing here ? Right , that's very rare these days , luckily .
right , that's very rare these days , luckily the second one is okay , yeah , pretty good . And then the third one is I'm fucked , yeah well , we , I've had a lot of conversations .
I tell emilia too , because we talk every sunday about our calendar and it's part of our check-in . I'm fucked and and when I say that she knows , okay , I'm gonna have to pick up all the fucking pieces this week .
Do you do anything on sunday to prepare for that , or is that just see for me ? This is the thing there for you . There is no finish line no really for me , there is sunday saturday night is the finish line saturday night is what we call our fuck off night . Yeah , and it's same , it's okay .
So if I get to Saturday night alive and like , still good , not sick .
So far , so good .
Yeah , so far . Well , I meant not ill not sick . The goal in life is to be the healthiest version of yourself and to get sick the least amount of time . I went nine years without getting sick and then I got sick twice in 2024 . I was like fuck , I got to change my life .
I was aging terribly , but when I get , I'm trying to get to Saturday night without getting sick and without I need to , without hurting my family , like get to Saturday night as effectively as possible without getting sick and without , while building my health , wealth and love , while building my relationship , building the business , building the family , and make sure
Emilia doesn't have to take care of everything because she sometimes that we have there's something called fair play , so sometimes she's 80% and I'm 20% . Next Level Live is a good example of that . She takes 80% of the responsibilities and I'm just I suck , and then other times it's the opposite and I'm doing more . So I'm always balancing that who's doing more ?
And we have a relationship where there's a book called 80-80 , where both partners are trying to do more for the other partner than the other person . We're like competing to see who can be the better partner . It's much better than what I've done in the past , not what I've done , but what I've had . It's not good .
It doesn't work well when only one partner is competing for that .
I'll give 100 . You give zero . I've been there , man .
It lasted for too long . But back to what you were going to say . What ?
was I going to say ? For me , I think it's more . I see my calendar and then it's like , okay , I have to survive until Saturday and then I try anywhere I can find like a little extra pocket . Not , it's not really , because it's not like a pocket in the day . I don't know if I have a good example . I'm trying to get way more dialed in .
So last night when we recorded we recorded from 7 to 8 . And I knew we were recording late last night , so I ate dinner . I had an hour in between calls . I ate dinner then .
Lunch , but yeah .
No dinner Dinner for me . Four to five is dinner oh word Right . Lunch , but yeah , no dinner dinner for me . Four or five . Four to five is dinner oh word right . Because I knew that when we finished , at whatever time , if I eat and then I try to go to bed , it always fucks my sleep up . Nice , always , always , always .
So that to me that is an example of . I know one way for me to get burnt out is not getting enough sleep , which I'm dealing with right now . But one way to make sure , or at least increase the chances , that I get good sleep , is to not eat a couple hours before I sleep , especially when I'm only having one meal a day .
So I'm firing down a cup of rice and 10 ounces of meat and whatever , whatever else I'm having . Not ideal to eat that right before you go to bed . For me it just doesn't work .
So I think that's a piece of it too , is how do you proactively just the understanding of how all things connect , I think , is that would be my next level lesson for this episode .
I know we're gonna jump back in the day when you , if you heard an episode like this , would you say what's the point ? Yeah , for sure , fuck , that sounds terrible okay what I would say to that younger Kev is you're not going to be successful .
Well , I do think this is one of the reasons that success is not as desired as people think , and we're going to talk about that in next episode .
But I can't have a higher quality life . It's almost like you can't have a higher quality of life unless you have higher quality effectiveness .
Well , I think most people want higher quality and higher quantity , and you don't you don't really get both no , eventually you can I mean you do this 25 years in 25 years if I can't have a higher quality and quantity .
Yeah , I know you will , for sure it'll always be higher quality and quantity to some extent , I don't know , I think , the quantity , if anything , I work .
You work more than you ever have . I work more than I ever have .
Yeah , but see , this is why this is so messed up . This doesn't work . We're building a future . We're building a company . I know , I know that doesn't have to be the way it is for everyone .
No , it is what we have to do mathematically to build a .
I don't want to say this because I'm scared , but I have to now because I'm going to lose self-respect if I don't . Kevin and I want to build a future billion dollar company . That is the goal . That is the goal . So we have to .
Yes , and mathematically you most likely are going to have to , for some season at least You're going to have to for some season at least you're gonna have to do it for the first year , or you're gonna have to do it for the first however long it's .
Work hard , then work smarter . Yeah , then work hard , then work smarter . Then work hard , then work smarter . I do think everyone's gonna have to max out , but eventually you and I like when I have children , I'm not gonna be able to do 11 to 8 every day . I'll have .
I can't I'll have to do noon to 7 , wait right what will Right . What will I do ? I'll do 4 to 5 pm , eastern Standard , once on Wednesdays .
Absolutely not . You'll have to work more . You know I'm fucking with you .
No , you're probably not .
I'll have the mornings and the evenings with the kids . But I'm going to definitely do at least noon to 7 . Or noon to 6 , worst case scenario , but that has to be be by then hopefully we have enough demand to where it can be more higher . It's going to be higher quality because you have more demand in the beginning of business .
You don't really no one knows you , no one cares .
Yeah well , those are , those are the hard yards , and I mean there's , I think it's always hard yards really , but those are the hard yards because nobody knows and nobody cares . Now , the hard yards are a lot of people know and a lot of people care .
Great , it's better problem to have for sure , I have a new goal on this podcast . Yeah , convince old kev I don't know convince old kev ?
I think we can convince , I don't think you can , because the consciousness I had I was not willing to trade in . How long did it take me to trade in a lot of the things that I traded in ? It took . Could we speed that up ? Yeah , but I'm not gonna go from where I was to where I am . No way .
But if old kev heard from this kev and this kev was assertive and said I know but this kev would be why do you work so much ?
but I would be honest . Yeah , but my life's way better than you ? Yeah , it is , but I also have way less time to enjoy that . That's true . It is what that is 100 , you have all the time to enjoy this is super fucking enjoyable .
Well , this is enjoyable , but you know what I mean . Yeah , I do , I do it's just that's .
That's . That is what I would . That is what I would give to old kevin honestly , like it's awesome and you have way more opportunity and things are great .
And you're also gonna have to be extremely disciplined with your time , because the second you start fucking off I know investing all your time into fun , you know that you're gonna lose all the momentum you've built
¶ Success is built on trade-offs
. It's an equation that you always have to have your finger on , and I think it's really easy to lose sight of the equation . All right , what's your next little lesson ? We gotta get out of here .
Uh , mother goose my next level lesson is if you want a higher quality life , you have to have higher quality effectiveness on the day to day and productivity . Kevin made the sunflower analogy . You plant a sunflower and it grows , and then you take some of the seeds to replant new sunflowers .
Now you go from one sunflower to 10 next season , then 10 to 20 , then 20 to 40 , 40 to 80 . And eventually you have a sunflower company . But you can't eat all the seeds . You've got to reinvest . You can eat more each time , Each time .
But in the beginning you kind of give them all back .
And that's how money works . That's how everything works , and I don't think we were ever taught it . It's unfortunate .
I was taught how to balance a checkbook and that has essentially become fucking useless , so unfortunately , I didn't learn anything from that . 100% All right . Next Level Nation . If you are looking to what's your next level lesson . I gave several of them .
I would say , if you have to be very honest about whether the quality and quantity of your life and the time you have available is going to increase , I Of your life and the time you have available is going to increase . I don't think it . I think it's a very dangerous game to assume it's like one One affects the other so much . It's Okay , I'm dieting .
Could I Download a book that is all about macro friendly recipes and blah blah blah ? Yes , I could . Is that ever going to be as good as blah blah blah ? Yes , I could . Is that ever going to be as good as the cheesecake factory ? Fuck , no , it's not . It's good because I'm dieting . No , it's . It's probably not a meal .
You're going to wake up one day and be like oh , I can't wait to have this thing that I ate when I was dieting . It's good because of the circumstances . I think it's the same with this . Nice , this is what I'm saying . All right , cool , all right . Next Level Nation . If you want to balance your checkbook , we have the Next Level Dreamliner .
You can do it right in this bad Larry . No , if you're looking to build a habit of journaling and retrospection , we have the Dreamliner , it'll take you like five minutes a day . I did it today .
It took me maybe three , so it's a really good way to sustainably build in this new habit , especially if it's something that you've fallen off track on or you're trying to get on track for the first time . I just realized that we had a monthly meetup last night .
Didn't even talk about it .
I don't have the other one chosen . 18 people attended . Thank you all so much . It was awesome .
I'm going to pick our next one next time and I'm gonna have a link available , but it won't be on the next episode , it'll be four episodes from now perfect that was the worst promotion I think I've ever done in my entire life , some things you're better off not saying .
That was an example of that , if you want to join our next meetup , dm me seriously name and email and I will make sure that you get registered to the next one .
And it might be good . It'll probably be good Dealer's Choice . Mystery Box Could be anything . It'll be fire man .
It's going to be fire man , those trainings are legit , now that Kevin's not there .
Yeah , I'm not invited . That's the thing . If you want to go , I'm not there
¶ Outro
anymore . We love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you in NLU . We don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow .
Keep it next level , next level nation .
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University . We love connecting with the Next Level family .
We mean it when we say family . If you ever need anything , please reach out to us directly . Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes .
Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow .