The One You Feed with Eric Zimmer

0:02John Lee Dumas:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down the One You Feed. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Eric Zimmer and the EO Fire Studios. Eric is the author of How a Little Becomes a Lot and host of the One You Feed podcast, where he explores how intentional choices practice daily lead to meaningful change. And today we talk about why breakthroughs don't last. Is willpower a myth now versus most? Playing the tape forward and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Eric and our sponsors.

0:40John Lee Dumas:If you're an entrepreneur, you probably know the feeling. Nonstop meetings, constant conversations, and too much information to keep track of. That's why I've been using Plod, an AI-powered wearable that helps capture meetings, discussions, and key details throughout the day so nothing important slips through the cracks. Plod, the world's number one AI note-taking brand. Check out plod.ai slash EOF and use code EOF for 10 % off. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:17John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com. Eric, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, John, and hello, Fire Nation. I'm glad to be here again. Yeah. You know, I'm going to answer that question slightly different because I think that a lot of us haven't spent enough time thinking about what success for us looks like. And it's impossible for us to be successful if we're unclear as to what that actually means for us versus the generic success that's often put right in front of us.

2:03John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, it's a great start to what's going to be a great episode around the one you feed. And of course, how a little becomes a lot. And I want to talk about why, Eric, why do breakthroughs just not last? I mean, why does real lasting change seem to rarely come from these big breakthroughs? And instead, how can tiny, sometimes even these low resistant actions, but repeated daily, actually transform our life? Well, even in a breakthrough, we still have to live our way into it. I tell a story in the book of me walking into a treatment center at 24. I was a homeless heroin addict. I weighed a hundred pounds.

2:46I was looking at going to jail for a long time. And they said, you need to go to treatment. And I said, no, thank you. And then a few minutes later I came to my senses and I said, okay, I'll go. And that would be like the big moment, right? That's the, that's the pivotal moment. And it's important, but it's only important because of the thousands of choices I made afterwards that kept me moving towards recovery and sobriety. And so for all of us, that is the way it is. Even if we have an insight, an epiphany, a big moment, we still have to live our way into it. And that's why the small changes that we're able to actually keep doing, that we're able to do consistently over time, are what add up so that a little does become a lot.

3:33John Lee Dumas:A little does become a lot, Fire Nation. In fact, there's two great books that I I love The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. And it really seems, Eric, like your book is of the same vein as those, which I really do love. And thank you for sending it to me. It looks beautiful. I definitely plan on diving into this book because I'm a big believer in these tiny, massive, repeated actions. I mean, by massive, I mean tiny but massive potential on the end results, repeated daily actions. So willpower is a big thing for people. Is it a myth or not? I mean, you say willpower isn't the real problem.

4:14John Lee Dumas:So what is the real problem? And how can change become a learnable skill? Yeah, I think that's the key. I think willpower, it is important. There is an element of which we face a choice and we have to make the decision that aligns with what we want most versus what we want now. There is an element of willpower in that moment, but there are a ton of things that we can do beforehand to make that choice easier. I call them all the structural things. And we, the more we do that, the better chance we have in that choice point of making the right choice. And then once we've got all that done, we come to this choice point and it's like, okay, I know exactly what I should do.

4:58I know you like to walk your dogs first thing in the morning. Oh, yeah. And, you know, but let's say that for some reason you just really don't feel like it. It's hard to get out the door that morning. So it's time to walk out the door with the dogs and you're having the resistance moment. Right. We all face resistance moments. Willpower, I think, is less an innate thing that we have. And it's more a skill where we know how to try to negotiate those moments. What do I say to myself that gets me out the door? What am I feeling that I'm unwilling to feel that I need to just be able to work with in order to get myself to sit down and start writing or whatever the thing is?

5:36So in that way, yes, willpower is important, but it is not the whole story by a long shot. And it is something that is a more developable skill than we think.

5:48John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, I really love the path that Eric's taking here because to me, this is something that you can implement not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. How about maybe even today? And that's kind of what moves us into the segue of now versus most because this is a powerful question. What do I want now versus what do I want most? Well, right now I want a pint of Haagen-Dazs dulce de leche ice cream, Eric, but what I want most is a six pack. So how does that help people make better decisions in those tough moments? Well, I think the first is to bring that question to mind because even when you hear that question, you get it a little bit.

6:29You go, oh, I see. Because mostly what we think is I want the ice cream. I want the ice cream. I want the ice cream. I want the ice cream. but what we also need to bring to mind is oh i also want this other thing that's important to me and that matters so that's the first step that question makes it it's sort of like we recognize what we're trading and oftentimes we make the trade without recognizing what we're trading so the that brings us there and then the next step is to really then once we've identified those two things is how do we make that thing that we want most that's a little bit further down the line it's almost always a little bit further out in the future how do we make it feel as real to us as the current moment and that's something as humans we're not good at but we can get better at by really as a technique i learned very early in my recovery like play the tape all the way through don't just think about getting high think about what's next oh i know what comes next uh despair and shame and even worse craving.

7:34I have to feel that. If I can get myself to feel it or to see it, then I'm making the future more real, more present to me. And that's the key thing to be able to do here. And it's something we can get better at doing.

7:49John Lee Dumas:We can absolutely get better at doing this stuff, Fire Nation. And the exciting thing is it can go back to the small repeatable actions that we were talking about that really make an impact. And we're going to talk about playing the tape forward, the stories we tell, changing inner language, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. One thing I've realized over the years interviewing more than 5 ,000 entrepreneurs is this. Some of the best ideas disappear fast. A conversation ends, a meeting wraps up, you're walking between appointments, and suddenly the key insight is gone. That's why I've been using Plod.

8:24John Lee Dumas:Plod creates AI-powered wearable devices that help capture, organize, and retrieve important conversations and ideas in real life, not just virtual meetings. I've especially liked how frictionless it feels. Instead of constantly typing notes or pulling out my phone, I can stay fully present in the conversation while Plod handles the capture side in the background. Their Note Pro is great for discussions, meeting, interviews, and deeper work sessions. While the Notes Pin S is perfect if you want hands-free capture throughout the day. Honestly, it's one of those tools that quietly removes mental overload and helps you focus on what actually matters, the conversation itself.

8:58John Lee Dumas:Check out plaud.ai.iof. That's P-L-A-U-D.ai.iof and use code E-O-F for 10 % off. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most.

9:37John Lee Dumas:When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Eric, we're back, and I want to talk about playing the tape forward. I mean, First off, what does it mean to play the tape forward? And how can it help someone overcome temptation in real time? Yeah. Well, you know, as I said, it's imagining the next moment.

10:21So for example, let's say you have a tendency to scroll Instagram in the morning when you should be getting ready for work. And you might think to yourself, well, I don't really want to be late, but then you're back to scrolling. But if you give yourself a moment and you imagine, oh, yeah, okay, what comes next? Oh, yeah, that wild scramble out the door where I'm trying to throw everything together. Then I'm driving to work and I'm angry because nobody's going fast enough. Then I have to do that awkward shuffle past my boss's office and hope they don't see me coming in late. And then there's that feeling all morning of like, oh, God, did I screw up again?

10:57If you can make that real to yourself, then you are going to have a lot better chance of saying, okay, I think I want to set the phone down now. But we don't tend to do that. So that's what playing the tape forward through. It's making that more real to us. The consequences, what comes next in the choices we make.

11:20John Lee Dumas:One thing I've always loved about what you do, Eric, is the stories that you tell. So I want to talk about the stories that we tell. I mean, how do the stories that we actually tell ourselves shape our reality? And then, of course, I want to know a few simple questions that we can maybe ask to shift perspective and, of course, reduce suffering. Yeah, well, I think one of the, you know, a very foundational human insight, it's the one that I probably has been the most important to me. And if I could just gift to everybody, I probably would, which is to recognize the extent that We are creating meaning out of things that happen to us.

11:59We think the meaning is inherent in the thing itself, but it's not. It's almost always something we're creating on top of it. There is no view that we can have of any situation that isn't from a certain perspective. We are meaning-making machines. We can't turn it off. But we can say, huh, okay, this is what I'm making it mean. And then we can look for other options. So the three questions to work with this is first, like, what am I making this mean? Because that catches us kind of in the act and we go, oh yeah, all right. Well, I am making it mean the fact that my boss after the meeting rushed off without asking me about my weekend.

12:39That's the fact. The meaning I'm making is that my boss is mad at me because I said something in the meeting they didn't like. That's the meaning I'm making. Well, what else could it mean? Oh, it could mean they had another meeting right afterwards. It could mean that they got a call from the school and their kid is sick. It could mean a lot of things. And then the next question is a really important one. Which of those meanings is most useful? Since we don't know, we're making it up to a certain degree. Let's pick ones that give us the best chance to become the people we want to be and the best chance to reduce suffering.

13:17and one where we go, well, I don't, even if we get to like, I don't really know what it means. I'm just going to have to wait till I get more information. That's a lot better than walking around all day thinking my boss is mad at me because I said something in a meeting that you don't know to be true at all.

13:31John Lee Dumas:See, this is a good segue to changing inner language, because I feel like that is something that we're always doing every day, all day. And how specifically, Eric, does our internal dialogue intensify emotions? And then what are some simple language shifts that can create calmer, wiser responses? Because at the end of the day, man, we look back and smile when we gave that calm, wise response. And we always kind of cringe when we give that like quick emotional kind of snapback response. So changing inner language, talk to us about it. Yeah. I mean, we certainly want to learn to do this in our external conversations, but a lot of it starts internally.

14:12The example I always give is I've had a lower back and hip pain on and off for, for a bunch of years. Now it comes, it goes, it gets better. It's gets worse. It's not, I mean, it's pretty well managed, but I wake up in the morning and this is what my brain says. My back is killing me. That's what it says. And then I'll walk around and I'll, I mean, I'll be repeating that in my mind, you know, as I go through my morning, when I actually pause and I check in and I'm like, oh no, my, my left hip is a little bit tight this morning, right? That's a totally different thing than my back is killing me.

14:46And we do this a lot. We describe things in really sort of more extreme language. Like if you want to start a fight with someone, just accuse them of always or never doing anything. It works like a charm. John, you never do X. You're immediately going to say, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Right. But we say that sort of thing inside our head. She never does that. She always does that. Probably not true. Makes us, causes an extreme emotion or the adjectives that we use. The one I often tease my mom about is my mom says, it's horrible. You know, everything is horrible. I'm like, no, it's probably not right.

15:24Like you went to the doctor today and you had to wait in the waiting room for 15 minutes more than you wanted to. And, you know, he wasn't quite as friendly as you would have preferred, but it wasn't horrible. but when we describe it that way, life starts to become that way. So we want to look for how do we just change the channel? This is not to pretend that difficult things aren't difficult. I'm not going to say, my back feels great, right? But I could be a lot more accurate. Oh yeah, my back does have a slight ache this morning. That's different. My mom could say, yeah, I wish my doctor had been a little bit more friendly today versus he was horrible.

16:05Or I might say, you know, sometimes I feel like you don't listen to me instead of saying like, you never listen to me. All of those things, those changes in our wording will change our emotional experience and the emotional experience of people around us.

16:20John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, that's a powerful way to go about the day, to be very intentional about the words you're using to yourself, to others. Just think about that. Now, if someone's trying to create real change in their life, Eric, what would you say is one small habit or one small mindset shift they should start practicing today? Well, the mindset shift, I would say, is to begin to think of change as a skill that you can learn instead of something about your character. When we try and change something that doesn't work, we tend to conclude we're unmotivated, we're lazy, we're undisciplined. We make it a character judgment.

17:03It's a lot more useful to go, oh, I don't know how to make that change. I haven't figured it out yet. And I think of it, and I would work with clients on behavior change, and I would always say to them, look, this is a puzzle. we're going to figure this puzzle out. We're going to get the right pieces in the right order that's going to get you to make the change you need to make. And that's a very helpful mindset shift because it takes it from being a character issue into simply a skills issue. And we all know that we can learn new skills.

17:34John Lee Dumas:So your book, How a Little Becomes a Lot, give us the breakdown, give us like the 30 to 60 second overview. And then of course, where can Fire Nation go to pick this up, to read this book, to learn more? Yeah, it's called, as you said, How a Little Becomes a Lot, The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life. And the simplest way I would describe it, it's a book about what stands between us and our best intentions, between the people we are and the people we want to be, and how to bridge that gap. And you can go to oneyoufeed.net slash book, or you can find it anywhere that books are sold.

18:13Barnes & Noble, Amazon, your local bookstore, and ask for it because it is out there.

18:19John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with EZ and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Eric, E-R-I-C in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Eric, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. Always a pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Eric for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world?

18:56John Lee Dumas:If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, just visit EOfire.com slash guest and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. If you're an entrepreneur, you probably know the feeling. Nonstop meetings, constant conversations, and too much information to keep track of. That's why I've been using Plod, an AI-powered wearable that helps capture meetings, discussions, and key details throughout the day so nothing important slips through the cracks. Plod, the world's number one AI note-taking brand. Check out plod.ai slash EOF and use code EOF for 10 % off.

19:31John Lee Dumas:If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com.