The One You Feed - Mini Episode: One Day at a Time

Episode Date: March 30, 2015

One Day at a Time is a cliche but under the surface there is an enormous amount of wisdom.  Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy:Kino MacGregorStrand of OaksMike Scott of the WaterboysTodd Henry- author of Die EmptyRandy Scott HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallyknowreally.com

and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The Really Know Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, it is Eric from The One You Feed with this week's mini episode. Before we get started, a quick message from our sponsor, who happens to be me in this case. We say on the show often that you can't think your way into right action, you have to act your way into right thinking. If you're struggling with those day-to-day actions, having trouble making the changes you want in your life,

send me a note to eric at oneufeed.net and we can talk about some of the one-on-one work I'm doing. For the mini episode today, what I want to talk about is one giant cliche, which is one day at a time. One of our earlier guests, Jessica Lamb Shapiro, we talked a lot about cliches and how silly they become. And yet, if you can get underneath the silliness or you can hear them fresh you realize how much power is really in them and one day at a time is one of those cliches that can be very very useful. I first came across it in recovery programs where one day at a time is used often it's really used in the sense of don't drink one day at a time it's very difficult to

make a commitment to never drink again and people people get very overwhelmed by that. So the commitment is just don't drink today. And sometimes we have to deconstruct that further. Don't drink this hour. Don't drink this minute. And you just keep stringing one more minute that you don't drink together. So this can be useful in anything that we're trying to do by breaking it down to just not today. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by a lot of things in the future. So for example, if we're talking about not drinking, people will start getting way ahead of themselves like, well, what about at my wedding? Am I not going to drink at my wedding? And they don't even have a girlfriend yet. So by focusing on one day at a time, we can come back to the moment and try and only solve the problems we have to solve.

The same is true of trying to accomplish a goal. I find it very often that I find myself going, I don't see how on earth I'm going to keep going to the gym every day. Well, I don't have to keep going to the gym every day right now. I just have to go to the gym today. And this always brings us back to the fundamental idea that all we can really do anything about is this current moment. And so if there is something that needs done in the moment and we do it, we feel better and we are setting the stage for all those things in the future. Worrying is the spending the time over and over worrying about the future, but not doing anything about it. And so one of the rules I have for myself is if I'm worried

about something, then I ask myself, is there anything I can do about it right now in this moment? And I try and do that. So if it's a situation that needs figured out, then I ask myself, is there anything I can do about it right now in this moment? And I try and do that. So if it's a situation that needs figured out, then I think about it in that moment and I come up with a plan. If I'm worried about getting everything done that needs to get done for the podcast this week, then obviously the obvious answer, obviously the obvious answer is to do the work on what needs done right then. So the idea is not to get, it's very easy to get caught up in the future. How am I going to do this? How am I going to do that?

But coming back to one day at a time, back to this moment, what's in front of me right now that I can do something with? What action can I take today that's going to set the stage for those future days? What we're trying to do is bring ourselves out of that realm of rumination, that place where

our thoughts spin and spin and spin on the same thing, not producing any new results, and bring them back to the present moment where we can either A, take some action on it, or B, we can come back to where we are and focus on where are we? And sometimes this is a very physical thing. Where am I sitting? How do my feet feel on the ground? What do I hear around me? What colors do I see? It's about getting out of the theoretical world, which for a lot of us is a world of a lot of anxiety and worry, and back to the real world, which is sitting right here today. Hopefully that was helpful for you. If you are interested in working with me again, eric at oneufeed.net. Have a great week. Another episode

out on Tuesday. Thanks as always. Bye. you