What Does It Mean To Be the Prize?
Twenty-five episodes gave us twenty-five different answers.
We had a really good time making this first season of You Are The Prize.
We started this podcast because we wanted to talk to people we admire and find out how they’ve built lives that feel true to them.
I sometimes described it as “kinda like How I Built This if the angle were What I Had To Believe About Myself To Build This.” Thank god that’s not what we called it.
Our hope was that these conversations might inspire someone else to live a little closer to their own truth. Not necessarily a bigger or more impressive life. Just one that feels more aligned.
In twenty-five episodes, many of the same themes kept coming up. And not just because we kept asking everyone what was making them feel like the prize!
The first reminder was surprisingly simple: your worth isn’t something you earn.
It’s amazing how many of us are still secretly negotiating with life. If I can just get the job…find the partner...write the book...lose the weight...then I’ll finally feel enough.
Guess what? None of our guests endorsed that strategy.
Instead, they reminded us that achievements can change your opportunities, but they can’t create your value.
Another lesson surfaced in conversation after conversation: healing is about becoming more yourself. Less armor. Less performing. Less trying to be anyone else. More remembering who you were before you started collecting all those “shoulds.” And obviously, more dancing.
We also learned that your body is a lot wiser than most of us give it credit for. It has ways of nudging us toward what’s right and waving us away from what isn’t. We just have to be willing to listen.
One of my favorite surprises was that nobody seemed particularly interested in arriving. No one talked about finally having life all figured out. Every single one of these wonderful people are still changing their minds, asking questions, and evolving. Becoming is the whole point.
And finally, maybe most importantly, we’re always learning that life is going to do what life is going to do. You can spend a lot of energy arguing with reality. Or you can spend that energy deciding what comes next. One tends to work a lot better.
That’s what Season One was really about. That’s what this whole podcast is about. Life is going to do its thing, and in answer to that, you must do yours.
Create a life where your worth isn't up for debate. One where healing looks like coming home. Where you trust your inner compass. Where you're allowed to keep changing. And where you stop wasting precious energy wishing reality were different.
Because this is it. This is your life. YOU are the prize.
While our mics are off, the conversation will be here — on Substack. Essays on joy, purpose, maybe some things we’re reading. Who knows? That’s the beauty of it. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments.
Thank you for being here!