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The Talk

My guest this week is Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed podcast, named Best iTunes Podcast in 2014 and called “one of the best health podcasts of all time” by The Huffington Post. The One You Feed has been listened to over 10 million times.

Growing up in Ohio, Eric’s life took a hard turn and began to spin out of control. He eventually found himself at 24 addicted to heroin and alcohol, living in a van and struggling to make sense of the world. After years living in an ever-darkening place, though, he was able to tap into a hidden well of strength, get help, get clean and rebuild his life.

His journey into addiction was not yet over. Believing he could go from clean and sober to casual use, he found himself spiralling back into that place of despair. But this time realized he’d have to make bigger, longer-lasting change, accept certain truths about who he was and create a way to perpetually “feed his good wolf, not his bad one.”

Along the way, he rebuilt his life, relationships, and career and found solace and fulfilment in, believe it or not, podcasting.

Eric has also spent the last 20 years coaching others how to make positive and lasting behaviour change in their lives. In this conversation we tried to sift through all of the personal development tools and advice out there to get into:

• How Eric realised the parable of the two wolves was the guiding philosophy for life
• What got him sober the first time and what it made it the second
• What are the core principles of real, lasting behaviour change
• What are the common pitfalls + how you can avoid them
• What to know upfront about yourself before starting
• How to befriend your ego through a change process
• The difference between willpower and emotional accountability
• What tools are most effective for lasting change
• How to get started today

Enjoy!