Reborn at Midlife: How Ricky Williams Became Errick Miron

What happens when one of the NFL’s most celebrated athletes walks away from fame, fortune, and the life everyone else wanted for him? In this powerful episode, Ricky Williams, now known as Errick Miron, opens up about his transformation from Heisman Trophy winner to healer, teacher, and astrologer. He shares how depression, self-discovery, and spirituality reshaped his identity and helped him find peace beyond the game.

If you’ve ever wondered what it truly means to let go and start over, this conversation will change the way you think about success, purpose, and freedom.

🎧 Listen now and discover how Ricky Williams became Errick Miron and found his true self.

Timestamps:

00:42 Early Ambitions and Upbringing

02:19 Choosing the University of Texas

04:54 College Glory and the Heisman Dream

07:37 NFL Reality Check

10:00 Mental Health and Identity Crisis

15:00 Discovering New Passions

16:14 Leaving the NFL & Coming Back

19:47 Journey to Australia and Discovering Ayurveda

22:32 First Encounter with Astrology

24:26 Return to Football with New Purpose

26:31 Preparing for Life After Sports

29:02 Retirement & Going Back to Astrology

38:41 Evolutionary Astrology Explained

42:46 Meeting His Wife & Becoming Errick Miron

47:21 Redefining Masculinity

49:42 Upcoming Workshop: Evolving Identity

52:16 Wisdom Bumper Sticker

Learn more about MEA at ⁠https://www.meawisdom.com/

#RickyWilliams #ErrickMiron #MidlifeChrysalis #EvolvingIdentity #NFLtoAstrology #MentalHealthJourney #SpiritualAwakening #HealingJourney #AthleteTransformation #AstrologyForGrowth #LifeAfterSports #SelfDiscovery #PersonalGrowth #MasculineHealing #MindfulnessInMidlife

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All of my identity had been piled into what I could do on
the football field, and the absence of being able to
contribute that way. It was painful, but it got me
thinking differently. It got me starting to think
about what else do I have to offer other than my athletic
abilities. From our perspective, life is an
evolutionary journey, even if wedon't want to.

(00:21):
And this is the kind of astrology that recognizes,
acknowledges, and, if you like, accelerates that process.
To me, astrology, beyond describing people right it it
helps us describe life. Welcome to the Midlife Chrysalis
Podcast with Chip Conley, where we explore how midlife isn't a
crisis, but a chrysalis, a time of profound transformation that

(00:45):
can lead to the most meaningful chapter of your life.
I'm so excited about this one this episode.
Chip Conley here. Midlife Chrysalis is with
someone who's famous like deeplyfamous, especially in the sports
world. Ricky Williams was Heisman

(01:06):
Trophy winner, he won. He set all kinds of NC 2A
college football records, playedin the NFL for many years in the
NFL, he was sort of misunderstood as he was very
popular. And we'll talk about popularity
in this podcast with him. But in college, he was sort of
like he was the hero in the NFL.He was a little bit of the

(01:29):
rebel. He lost his way at times and
felt under the microscope. And you're going to hear that in
this episode. You're going to hear about how
does someone's identity evolve under the microscope of being a
very public figure. What I think you're going to
enjoy the most about this episode, though, is that Ricky

(01:49):
Williams, now known as Eric Miran.
Eric was his given name at birthand Miran is his wife's name, so
he's taking his wife's last name.
He is a very multi layered humanand incredibly smart and deep.
So put on your seat belt for this one.

(02:10):
I think you're going to enjoy it.
Eric Miran, also known as Ricky Williams.
Welcome to the Midlife Chrysalispodcast.
Glad to be here. Well, my friend, you are, you
are going to be teaching at MEA,at the Santa Fe campus workshop
called evolving identity, learning how to let go.

(02:31):
And that's what we're going to focus on today is the evolving
identity of Ricky Williams into Eric Neuron and into a whole
different set of interests that you have developed over time and
and maybe a level of happiness and joy that you know, was more
elusive when you were younger. So let's talk about just your

(02:53):
upbringing. You grew up in San Diego, the
San Diego area. Did you always knew you wanted
to be a football hero? No, when I was a kid, I always
knew that I, my mom wasn't goingto be able to pay for college
and then I was going to college.So I always knew I was going to
get a, an athletic scholarship to play in college.
But beyond that, you know, I, I didn't give too much thought to

(03:14):
the, the first idea I had of having a career was, was being a
teacher. And then I think as I started to
get into sports and see that I had some talent, then there's a
lot of support from my environment to consider becoming
a professional athlete. And so in my early teenage
years, I started to have the fantasy that I'd be a

(03:35):
professional athlete, and then Iwould retire in my 40s and just
hang out the rest of my life. Along the way it it got really
interesting and you were incredibly talented.
You, by the way, you had two younger sisters, I think.
Are they twins? I have a twin sister.
I have a twin sister and a younger sister.
And you were sort of taking careof them a little bit because
your mom was working and, and soyou had to grow up at a pretty

(03:59):
young age. Yeah, I remember at at five
years old, and I have kids now, so it's crazy to think, but at 5
year old, at five years old, I was cooking for my sisters.
We were all doing our own laundry.
I'm pretty much, you know, we, if we had to, we could take care
of ourselves at a young age. So you're a California kid who
didn't not go to USC or UCLA or Stanford or Berkeley.

(04:23):
You, you went to the University of Texas, UT.
You became a Longhorn, right? It's, it's funny you mention
that because the two of the top schools in my top five were USC
and Stanford. And I took my, I took my first
recruiting trip actually to Cal Berkeley.
And, but, and as I thought aboutthe college football experience,

(04:44):
I wanted it to be a religious experience.
And so first on the list was Notre Dame.
You know, even as a as a young person, having to make a big
decision because, you know, my mom, she wanted me to be the man
of the house and she really acted that way.
She put a lot of responsibility on me and she prepared me to
make big decisions. And so as a 17 year old,

(05:05):
deciding where am I going to spend my next four years, where
am I going to go to college was a big deal.
And I made a checklist. I said, OK, I want the biggest
college football experience I can have.
And to me that means I need to be able to start as a freshman.
It needs to be a program that has a rich tradition and I need
to feel like home or feel family.

(05:27):
And so as I went on my differentrecruiting trips and USC, it's
funny, I did USC Friday, Saturday, went home Sunday and I
did Texas Monday, Tuesday. So my top 2 choices back-to-back
and and I went to USC and big program check.
Starting as a freshman. I wasn't sure if I trusted Coach

(05:48):
Robinson and he would allow me to start as a freshman.
But more importantly, when I hung around the guys on the
team, one of the guys even told me, don't come here, we have too
many running backs. So this, this feeling of being
welcomed, you know, did he? Did he happen to be a running
back? He was a running back, yes.
OK, well, you know, he's a little worried.

(06:09):
He's probably a little nervous about you.
Yeah, and he should have been, Imean, as we see, but yeah.
And so, and then the next day I went to Texas and Rich
tradition, I could tell I was going to have an opportunity to
start as a freshman and being around the guys, it felt like
family. You know, it's funny, there is a
situation where two of the guys on the team got into a fistfight

(06:32):
when we were out out that night.And 20 minutes later we were all
back in the room laughing about it.
And there is something profound about that experience that that
after that, you know, I knew this, this is home.
This is a place where I want to go to school.
So you went to Austin and you had a phenomenal career, you won
the Heisman Trophy and you actually set the record at that

(06:56):
time for the most yards rushing in a single year.
Yes, in a single one in a careeras most total yards rushing in
in NCAA history. Is that still the case or no?
It was broken the next year. Oh yes.
But still, I mean, my God, how did that feel?
And you know you, you were, you must have been popular.

(07:19):
Oh, popular what A that's, that's the key phrase.
Yeah. That that was a motivation for
me to be popular. There is a moment where after my
junior year that I LED in my junior year, I led the NCAA in
rushing in touchdown. So I was #1 running back.
And it was an opportunity for meto go to the NFL and be a first
round draft pick. And I was seriously considering

(07:40):
it. A lot of things have changed.
The Texas and the signs were saying it might be a good time
to to have a change go to the NFL.
And I was looking at one of the the college football almanacs
before I decided and I was flipping through the book and I
got to the page where it showed the all time leading rusher at
the time was Tony Dorsett. And I looked and I think I was

(08:02):
four or five on the list. And I just did the quick math
and I thought if I do slightly better this upcoming year than I
did this past year, I could be the all time leading rusher in
the history of college football.And I, I flipped over a couple
of pages and I saw all time touchdown record and same thing.
I did the math and I said if I have the same amount of
touchdowns I had this past year,I'll have the most rushing

(08:25):
touchdowns ever in college football history.
Then I flipped a couple more pages and all-purpose yards,
same thing. I did the math and I said these
are all within my reach and justhaving immortality, you know,
college football immortality to have an have access to it.
I couldn't pass it up. I could not pass it up until I

(08:45):
said I'm coming back. I'm coming back for my senior
year. So I put all my eggs in the
basket in that one basket to break the record and win the
Heisman Trophy and and I was able to accomplish.
So it found amazing. It's this feeling of when you
you make an intention or you setout for some goal and you prove
to yourself that you have what it takes to achieve it.

(09:06):
Nothing like it. I love this.
So, so different than many of the athletes today.
Who, you know, have a point of view, which is I want to go make
money as quickly as possible. And of course, with football,
there's always the chance of an injury and you know, that's it's
very honorable. Talk about your experience in
the NFL. You came straight in and and
we're immediately pretty successful And and then over

(09:29):
time, you know, there's a run, Ricky run, you know, run, run,
run, Ricky run. There was an element of like,
you were a dominant football player, but you were also an
individual. You run your own life, Ricky.
Do your own thing, Ricky. So talk about what that was like
going from college to the pro pro ball, but also being under
the microscope of, you know, andof the NFL.

(09:53):
You talk about a chrysalis and, and, and I feel like going from
being a kid to being an adult, right, is also a, a, a
transformation. And, and this one, it, it almost
killed me. It crushed me, you know, a whole
lot of diss disillusionment. You know, I came into college as
an 18 year old kid and it was a family environment that saw me

(10:15):
flourish and reach my potential.And you could almost say full
potential. My expectation was that when I
went over to the NFL that it would be the same thing that I'd
find, you know, a nice family environment that would
appreciate me and, and nourish me to become the best football
player I could be. And that's not what I found.

(10:36):
I found an expectation that I was already supposed to be that.
And, and for me, it's just the way I am.
I'm always in process. And I think that's, that's the
beauty of, of who I am is I'm always in process.
And I didn't feel that the NFL really allowed for that process
to to occur. So, so I mean, and it was almost

(10:56):
like almost the day after I leftcollege and entered the
professional world, everything got really, really hard.
Things that were easy all of a sudden got very difficult.
People didn't understand me. I felt didn't feel appreciated.
It was it was bad. And then that first year, in the
first preseason game of my rookie year, I get a bad ankle

(11:18):
injury and I have to miss the whole preseason.
And then I battle injuries that whole first year and the first
time in my life that I'm not theman.
You know, I in sports, this is and I had finally made it to the
NFL where I was finally the man.And so I put all my eggs into
this basket of this is who I am and this is the the mark I'm

(11:38):
going to make in the world. And it was a reality check that
if my body doesn't cooperate, why then who am I?
Not everybody who's watching or listening knows your your
journey during your time in the NFL.
Clearly you've set the table forsaying it was it wasn't easy.
But maybe talk, talk a little bit more about that in terms of

(12:01):
both your point of view, your mental health, your emotional
health, the subject of cannabis and just the subject of Ricky
being Ricky and how you know howand how long.
How long did you, how long were you in the NFL?
How many years? I I was in the NFL.
I played eleven seasons, yeah. But I was in the NFL for 13

(12:21):
years, yeah. So talk, talk a little bit about
that. What was it?
What was were you? Were you unhappy most of that
time? You know, when I, I first got to
the NFNFL, for some reason I hadthis dark cloud come over me and
literally I, I only wanted to wear black.
So I, I think for a year and a half, you know, I'd go to, I'd

(12:42):
go to the nice clothing store and they'd see me come in and
they'd lay out all the black stuff and, and that's how I
felt. That's, that's really how I
felt. And it was difficult because it
was the dream come true, but it,it really felt more for, felt
more like a nightmare. And I feel like I didn't have
myself. I, I felt myself constantly

(13:04):
trying to be what was expected of me as a professional athlete,
you know, And I realized now at that age, I was really trying to
find myself. But I think it was difficult to
find myself when so many people had such powerful opinions and
ideas about who I was and who I was supposed to be.
So pretty quickly, I, I noticed I didn't want to be around my

(13:26):
teammates. And especially after I got hurt,
you know, I felt like I was, felt like I was a walking
disappointment. And, and realizing that that all
of my identity had been piled into what I could do on the
football field and the absence of being able to contribute that
way, it was painful, but it got me thinking differently.

(13:46):
It got me starting to think about, well, what else do I have
to offer other than my athletic ability?
But I, I stuck with it because it, it was what I was supposed
to do. And after a horrible first year,
I worked my butt off to get backin shape and, and perform in the
second year. And the second year I, I was, I
was tearing it up and I got to week 10, right?

(14:09):
And it's a 16 game season. I got to week 10 and on my
thousandth yard. And that that's a a landmark for
for a running back 1000 yard season.
We still have six games to go. Got my thousandth yard and I
broke my ankle. So I had to miss the rest of the
season until the first, the first year, my rookie year was
like, oh man. And then I got back.

(14:30):
I started to get back on top. I was almost back on top.
And then it was all taken away again.
And something in me broke all right after that second injury.
And, and I didn't want to like, I didn't want to be a football
player anymore. I didn't know what I wanted to
be, but I definitely didn't wantto be a football player anymore.
And that's when I was, I startedseeing a therapist to treat the

(14:53):
depression and she diagnosed me with social anxiety disorder.
You know, at the time I was kindof excited to have a diagnosis,
you know, because I had no idea what was going on with me.
And the fact that I had something to call it and
something to, you know, as a, asa warrior, as a football player,

(15:14):
it's like I had something to attack.
I had something to go after, something to improve upon.
And so I started to take my mental health as seriously as I
took football. And strangely, I found that I
enjoyed the mental health journey more than I enjoyed the
football journey. But also the football journey
had prepared me to be extremely successful in the mental health

(15:37):
side of things. It's for me, it was really about
the curiosity of why am I like this?
Where is this coming from? And I wasn't afraid of the
answers. I just hadn't been encouraged to
ask the questions. And once I started to ask the
questions and the information came, it was, it was like
opening a book, you know, but the book was about myself and
just really understanding myself.

(15:59):
Was, was, was a wonderful experience for me.
And it, and it lasted for several years.
It was as if I couldn't get enough.
What did you learn along the way?
I mean, was this when you started to get interested in
astrology or was that later? That was later, you know, it was
later when I, once I got away from football, the first thing I
learned is that I love to travel.

(16:21):
You know, is that, I mean, generally what I learned is
there are parts of myself that have nothing to do with
football. And it was kind of a scary
thought because as I realized the things that I loved, I also
realized that I had the resources to be able to pursue
those things if the only issue was that most of my time and
energy was taken up by football.And so put me in a difficult

(16:42):
situation where I could start tohave a real felt experience that
this football thing, right, It'snot good for me.
And another sense of there are other things that I feel would
be much better for me. And the only thing stopping me
from doing those things, all right, is that I have to play
football. It just built to a point where I
decided I'm not going to play football anymore and and it was

(17:05):
as if I couldn't get away from football and everything it
represented fast enough, couldn't get away fast enough.
And so you left, but then you actually came back at some
point, correct? Is that right?
Yeah. Yeah.
And was that because of financial reasons or because you
there was an identity, there wasa I'm avip and I don't want to

(17:26):
be apipa previously important person.
It's it was kind of a mix. It was kind of a mix of all of
those things. You know, I think the first
thing was I needed to get away because I had realized that I
had created something that wasn't me.
And you mentioned the cannabis piece and there's there's
something that I have just recently been reflecting on that

(17:48):
I'm starting to put the pieces together.
Is, you know, as I asked myself,like what motivated me to stick
in there and and stick with football as long as I did the
first the first go around? And what got me into it in the
word you mentioned earlier was popularity is going back to to
being a kid in a African American boy, right?

(18:09):
Is, is my experience was that, you know, some people were
treated better than others. And I saw that as far as African
Americans go, the athletes, the actors, the singers, they were
worshipped. And so, and, and I, I was like,
I want to be treated like that. And so this as a young kid, this
inner motivation to become popular and the best, the

(18:32):
quickest, best means I had to become popular was to utilize my
athletic ability. But that kind of popularity,
right? It, it, it can only last so long
as long as the physical body canis up to the task.
And so when I got into the NFL and I started to see I finally
had the experience that this popularity, right?
I don't know if I can depend on it because it's so dependent on

(18:54):
my body. And, and then all of the things
that I had to do to maintain that popularity that felt like
they alienated me from myself. And so when the news broke that
I had failed a drug test and it and it was just a little line in
a story, OK. But for me, it was like the
needle had popped, the image that I was trying to create

(19:15):
about who I was, you know, the role model.
And the kids put my poster on their wall, you know, like, that
image was all into it. And then when I failed that
first drug test and it became public, I felt like I had
destroyed my image and the desire to keep playing football.
It was gone. It like left.

(19:35):
And so when I retired, and it's from the moment before I
retired, I was picking up the phone to call the NFL and tell
them that I'm done. My whole life flashed in front
of me. It was like I saw scenes of my
life and all of the scenes were attached to football.
And so the message that I received at the moment was,

(19:57):
you're giving everything up, right?
Nothing is going to be the same.And after I made the phone call,
I felt this huge weight lift offmy shoulders, you know, and
there was a sense of freedom. And, and, you know, I think we
praise freedom, but underneath the freedom was a whole lot of
uncertainty. Right.
I'm not this anymore, but there is a huge question mark about

(20:20):
who am I? And I didn't know, but I did
know that I needed to travel. And so within a few weeks of
retiring, I started, I got on a plane, I went to Samoa, I went
to Fiji and ended up in Australia.
When I got to Australia, you know, and in my mind I was never
coming back to the USI was never, I was just going to start
over my that life was over. I was starting over fresh and I

(20:45):
found this beautiful piece of land in Australia, 185 acres.
And I was going to grow fruits and vegetables and have a hostel
on the land. And so I went to the realtor,
the realtor's office, and I saidI'd like this piece of land.
And the realtor said, obviously you're not an Aussie and in
order to to own that piece of land, you have to become a
citizen. And so I said sure, where do I

(21:08):
sign up? And he gave me the immigration
paperwork and I started to fill out the paperwork and I got to a
section basically asked, what are you going to do when you
come into our what skills do youhave?
I started going down the list ofskills and there's like 150 jobs
and I got to the bottom of the list and I realized I don't have
a skill. I, I don't know.

(21:30):
I don't know how to do anything,you know, and, and something
about that didn't, didn't sit right with me.
I know it didn't sit right and afew months later I, I just stuck
with me and I asked myself like,what am I going to do with my
life? I reflected on the things in my
life that felt best to me and sharing perspective, sharing

(21:51):
insight with people that helped them feel better.
I just had multiple memories of that and, and the, the word that
popped into my mind was a healer, A healer.
And so when I got back to the states, I had met someone that
studied Ayurveda in Australia and they gave me a book that I
was fascinated with. And so I got back home and I

(22:12):
went online and I, and I just searched, is there any place to
study Ayurveda? And there's a place in Northern
California. And the semester was starting in
two weeks. So drove up to Northern
California. I enrolled in school and I and I
started and I started developinga skill and about halfway
through the 1st semester, part of the class work was we had a

(22:35):
yoga, yoga sessions. And there's an ashram 20 minutes
from the school. So one of the yogi's, one of the
swami's from the ashram came to teach a yoga class for US1
morning. And I always thought yoga was
for girls. You know, I was a football
player and and after one yoga class and after the final
relaxation, I went up to, to Swami Om and I said, I said,

(22:58):
where can I get more of this? I said, this is the most
peaceful and relaxed I've ever felt in my life.
And he said, there's a retreat right down the road.
You should come check us out this weekend.
Until that first Saturday, I went to the retreat and someone
had told that the head of the retreat that I was a football
player and she was an astrologer.
So she came to me after brunch and she looked at me and she

(23:19):
said, where's your Mars? And I looked at her and I said,
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
And she said, well, if you're a football player, you must have a
strong Mars. She said Mars is the warrior
energy. She said, I want to, I want to
talk to you, come to my office after you're done.
So I went to her office and I knew my birth time because I
have AI have a twin sister. And I gave her my information
and we had the most amazing 2 hour conversation.

(23:44):
You know, and a lot of people, when they have a good
astrological reading, they say they felt seen at a time in my
life where I was so lost to feelseen by someone.
It was profound. And it was one of those moments
when you meet a teacher and you know, this person has something
to share with you, prioritize sitting at their feet.
I, I got the message. And so I dropped out of Ayurveda

(24:07):
school because Swami Sita was going to India to teach a yoga
teachers training course. And I begged her to take me with
her and, and she did. And so that's, that's, that's
when I, I, I met the idea of Dharma.
I know this idea of purpose, that a larger purpose and
growing up in a, in a Christian family, right?

(24:27):
It was a reminder, but it woke something up in me.
And when I started thinking about what is my big, my larger
purpose in life, it may, it justmade sense that in order to
accomplish more, going back to football and clearing my name
would be necessary. So I found meaning in football
and I think I, I don't know if I, if I had it beyond

(24:49):
popularity, but I found a deeperpurpose to going back to play
football and, and I think, I mean, obviously in hindsight,
that's what I was looking for. If you're enjoying the
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(25:35):
First of all, I just love you. You, the evolving nature of your
your consciousness. Your consciousness about who you
are and why you're here on Earth.
So you went back and played in the NFL for how, how many
seasons after that? I played another 1-2 three, five

(25:58):
seasons. I played another five years.
Were you better state of mind atthat point where you did you
feel better about being there ordid at some point you say like
this is still not, this is stillnot right.
This is not this is not how I'm supposed to make a difference in
the world. I had a purpose and, and
clearing my name and regaining my popularity in the platform

(26:19):
was a big part of my purpose. You know, because I did feel
that I had squandered the platform because I was able to
reach a lot of people and it wasimportant that if I was going to
make a difference that I had to see if I could get rebuild that
platform. The first stint in the NFLI felt
like it was what do I have to dofor the NFL?
And the second stint it was moreof what can this opportunity,

(26:41):
what can the NFL do for me? How can IT support my my goals?
And it was AI was a completely different person.
It was it was strange when I first came back, it was hard to
find that raw like rage that I played on earlier in my life.
I, I had to cultivate more of like a conscious approach to the

(27:02):
way I played the game. And it, it took about a month or
two to make the adjustment, but it was, it was a much better
experience. It was easier to come down after
a game. It was easier to manage my life
off the field. And I feel like the meditation
and the yoga that I did in that year off was hugely
transformational. I mean, not only did it give me

(27:24):
my body back, but it gave me a, a way to approach the game that
I think I could salvage my my mind.
And then you got to a point at age what, 3435 that you said,
I'm done. Is that about right?
Yeah, and so once I came back, Igot rolling again and I kind of
fell back into the football thing.

(27:44):
But I will say I spent all of myfree time taking classes.
You know, I went to massage therapy school.
I, I learned cranial psychotherapy.
I, I started to work on a master's degree.
So I, I was spending all of my free time like feeding my growth
and my development. No, so I kept, I kept more of a

(28:05):
balance and preparing myself forwhat was next.
That was the biggest thing because that first retirement,
it was like a practice run and it, and it, I had the experience
of this is going to end and it'sgoing to turn into something
else. So I started preparing for that
end and turning into something else.
You know, which is such a it shows your self healing.

(28:27):
You do it. You're a shaman for yourself
and, and unfortunately, professional sports doesn't do a
very good job of preparing, whether it's NBANFL, Major
League Baseball, preparing theseplayers to the idea that there's
a next era in life and you're going to have to let go of this
identity. And you know, the, the number of
people who sort of spin out of control, players who spin out of

(28:49):
control during that time is, is remarkable.
So you went back, but in the process of going back, you were
sort of getting prepared for what was going to happen in your
mid 30s and how you were going to embark upon being a healer in
your life. If there was one thing that
people misunderstand about you, not just during that era, but

(29:11):
just in general. And I'm going to call you from
here on, Eric, and we're going to talk about how you how you
adapted your name. What is the thing that people
misunderstand about the Ricky Williams and Eric Myron human
that is with me right now? I think that they don't
appreciate what was driving my motivating Dr. behind all my

(29:36):
behavior, and it really was seeking truth, seeking the right
way. I consider myself very much a
religious person, and I don't mean Orthodox religion, but I
mean someone who has faith and astrong desire to live according
to that. You have a devotion to a belief
system and, and so let's let's move into your later 30s then.

(29:57):
So you leave the NFL, you're sort of excited, you have some
freedom to go even deeper on your healing journey.
At what point did you start exploring astrology even more
deeply? And, and when did you get
introduced to our friend StephenForrest, who happens to be an
MEA faculty member just like you?

(30:18):
So I noticed after I retired andI retired at 34, turned 35 soon
after I retired, life, life got strange because like retirement,
you know, and it's something as I mentioned before, as a kid,
you know, I'd make millions of dollars and then I'd retire and
do nothing. Even though in my last couple

(30:39):
years of playing football, I wasstudying and doing a whole bunch
of stuff. I, I was still a football
player. So I, I retire from, from the
Ravens and my wife and I at the time we moved back to Austin
because, you know, she had this image of go back to Austin and
be the Heisman Trophy runner retired guy in Austin.

(31:02):
And, and I was like, yeah, it's like, we'll buy a big house in
Tarrytown, the nice part of Austin and live out, live out
our years with kids and grandkids.
So we, we do that for a little bit.
And for me on the side, I found this really cool process called
access consciousness. And I started taking a couple
classes and I started facilitating the classes.

(31:24):
And so it was my, like, side gig.
I would travel around the country and facilitate classes,
but I was just hanging out and then at a friend's house and I
get a phone call from the IRS telling me that I hadn't paid
taxes in three years. And I was like, wait a minute.
I was like, of course I have. So I called my financial advisor

(31:45):
and we kind of go back and forthand I kind of can sense, OK,
something funny is going on, right?
And I realized that my financialadvisor had stole like 90% of
our savings. Oh my gosh.
And so, you know, I remember sitting at my desk and like the
reality is hitting me of my, youknow, just hang out and do
nothing. I was like, this obviously is

(32:07):
not going to work anymore. And like, I had AI had a choice
to make and I just looked around, you know, and all this
stuff and I was like, I was like, you know, I got to change
my attitude and I have to like get on it.
So it was like almost immediately, this sense of
purpose and drive like activatedin me and I started to think of,

(32:30):
you know, of all the classes andall the things that I've done,
right, Where do I want to put myenergy?
Because I have to do something. I have to do something.
I thought I could get into coaching.
You know, I've played football. It's it's natural transition to
get into coaching. And so the NFL at the time had a
program so you think you can coach.
And I signed up for that programand I got a coaching job.

(32:51):
I coached for a semester and I loved it.
I love pouring into the kids andseeing them develop.
But in order to go to the next step, I had to go back to
college and get my degree. And so I thought, all right,
well, I told my mom I'd get my degree, so it's a good time to
do it. So I went back to school to get
my degree. And I thought, what I'm going
to, what am I going to study? And I love psychology and I've

(33:12):
done a lot of work on it. So I said I'll study psychology.
And I started going to class andI fell in love with school.
There's a program called the McNair Scholars that prepares
underserved individuals for for careers in academia.
So kind of a PhD prep program. So I entered that program and I
applied to a bunch of programs to get into depth psychology as

(33:34):
I, I really was finding kind of activating that need to be a
healer again, I kind of woke up in me and, and I went the
traditional path and I, I got into a couple of programs and I,
I met with, with one of the PhD professors.
He wrote that he wrote the book on flow.

(33:55):
Doctor. Cheeks in the Eye, Holly.
Cheeks sent me high, Mike. Yes, a friend of mine.
Oh my gosh. Mike and I had lunch and he is
like, he's like, you know, he advised me, he said, don't chase
this academic path. You'll just be fighting an
uphill battle the whole time, getting people to acknowledge
your perspective. You know, he said, he said, he
gave me advice, find your own way, find your own way.

(34:18):
And I started thinking about it and, and I kept thinking about
astrology. It just kept coming up in my
mind over and over again. And I said, you know, maybe I
should take my astrological studies a little bit more
seriously. And my favorite book, the
astrology book that I always go back to Inner Sky by Stephen
Forrest. And so I looked online and I to

(34:38):
see if I could book a reading ormeet Steve.
And I saw that he was speaking at a conference in in Seattle.
So I thought I would just, you know, go meet him, walk up to
him after he spoke and introducemyself and see if I could cut
the line. And so I flew up there and after
he spoke, I walked up to him andI said, hey, I'm Ricky Williams,

(34:59):
professional football player, and I really love your work.
And he kind of joked with me a little bit.
He said, don't hurt me, you know, And we got, we kind of
joked around and he said, yeah, he said, you're not going to cut
the line, but I have an apprenticeship program.
You're more than welcome to Joy.And so I started studying with
him and I took eight classes with him that first year and I

(35:19):
was, I was hooked. I was hooked.
And, and studying with Steve closely, it gave me the
confidence I needed that I couldstart taking the things that I
had learned not only from astrology, but learned through
football. Because, right, people see the
stuff on the, on the, on the TV screen of the football, but
it's, it's like we're trained toturn adversity into victory,

(35:44):
right? That like that's where the
coach's job is to adjust our attitude.
So when bad things happen, we can still stay focused and give
100%, you know, and, and I have applied that same philosophy to
life, you know, and astrology gave me a great tool to be able
to take my experiences and my intelligence and my compassion

(36:06):
and turn it into something that can be helpful for people.
And what did your chart tell you?
I mean, did your chart, was there an element of the readings
you had done along the way that said like, yeah, my chart does
say I'm supposed to be a healer like I have been?
I have had this feeling that I'msupposed to be doing this in my
life and now, you know, my chartis actually giving me some

(36:29):
indication of that. It was that times 10 and it was
exactly that. That was the thing that like
where I couldn't question it is my chart does say I should be a
healer. Like it's like textbook
astrology and, and the, the moment that I realized it, or at
least the moment that I realizedthat being a football player was

(36:50):
not what I was supposed to be doing, you know, and the choice
that I made that that naturally,I didn't even try led me to the
realization I was supposed to bea healer was the moon in my 10th
house, which is what says I'm supposed to be a healer.
So when I learned not about my chart, and it makes this is the

(37:11):
most beautiful thing for me about astrology, it made things
make sense. The most confusing, right,
difficult, challenging time in my life, right?
As soon as I started learning about my career area in
astrology, it made sense that that my inner, it's the deepest
inner experience related to the unconventional choices I made.

(37:35):
And I saw the chart. It was like I got an A plus.
Oh man, that and that was so healing and it gave me
permission to trust myself. You know, it's interesting.
So Stephen, I started seeing Stephen or Steve about 25 years
ago. And it was at a point where he

(37:56):
was giving me some. It was the first time he did the
reading. It was like, Oh my God, how does
he know me so well? He, he and he and he was and
he's got this sort of elf like voice.
And back then you just got a tape.
Yeah, I got a tape from him and like, like cassette tape.
And I was like, OK, I'm going tolisten to this.
And it was this little elf voiceand wizard.

(38:17):
He's a wizard voice, not even anelf or more like a wizard.
And I was like, man, I feel so seen and I feel scared that I'm
so seen. And later he said, you know,
Chip, you're on your path to becoming an elder.
I was like, well, you're making fun of my, my age.
What is this? And he's like, guess what?
You know, later I became the modern elder for the founders of

(38:38):
Airbnb. And then he said, you're going
to be a teacher. And, and later the modern elder
Academy came about. So along the way, he was like a
guide for me and what I love about his work and, and the work
that you're doing is it's calledevolutionary astrology.
It's about evolving your consciousness in this lifetime

(38:58):
and what why you're supposed to be here on Earth.
Can you talk for about that for a moment?
What is evolutionary astrology and how is this different than
what some people see as astrology is like, Oh, it's that
thing. It's like some person who's not
been trained and they don't knowwhat the hell they're doing.
And I look at my horoscope in the paper and it's one line and

(39:20):
I happen to be a Scorpio and it all Scorpios seem to have the
same reading for today. Like astrology sort of got in a
bad rap, but I have found that it's much more scientific and
much more credible when someone's been trained.
Well, it's, it's two things. I think someone's been trained,
but also someone has lived because to me, the like even the

(39:42):
more advanced type of astrology,my critique is it's, it's all
conceptual, it's all theoretical.
It's they're reading what other people have said and then
remember memorizing it and repeating it.
And the one thing that jumped out about about the kind of
astrology that Steve does in theway that he writes is it comes
alive. So it's it's not about these

(40:05):
concepts, it's about the real lived.
Evolutionary processes, or we can call them developmental
processes that we all go through.
And when you understand it that way, it's not something that's
distant in a book. It's something that you can
reflect in your own life and it helps your life make sense
because from our perspective, life is an evolutionary journey.

(40:28):
Even if we don't want to, right?We experience the same thing
over and over again. We can't help but make a slight,
at least slightly better response each time.
If I think is living beings, we can't help but evolve.
And this is the kind of astrology that that recognizes,
acknowledges, and if you like, accelerates that process.

(40:49):
And the the nickname that I givefor evolutionary astrology is
astrology for grown-ups. And I was thinking about it this
this morning. Is that the kind of astrology
that we do and we put out into the world really is astrology
that prepares people for the second-half of life.
I was reading Young last last week and I came across a chapter

(41:13):
that he wrote on, on stages in life, you know, and he really
focused on the first half of life and what he called the
afternoon of life. Exactly.
And it's like when I found astrology and it really started
to speak to me. It was at this, this midlife
point and it was such an amazingtool to help me navigate the

(41:34):
crossover and give clarity about, about how I'm moving in
to the last half. And the one thing that jumped,
jumped out from, from young was that the first half of life is
trying to like be, be something,you know, And he, he talked
about the sun rising to the zenith, right?
Becoming something, you know, And then he, he talked about the

(41:58):
second-half is more of this inner reflection on what you've
become and this ability to offerthat to the world and man,
right? Astrology as a tool to
facilitate that inner reflectionto understand the first half of
life and almost to like take away the essence that needs to
be born and grow in the second-half.

(42:19):
It's priceless. And I find that the people that
appreciate this type of astrology are people that are at
least 35 or or or older, becauseyou have to have certain lived
experience to really appreciate,to at least get a sense of, of
what life is all about. And it's not all.
And Young said it's not just about, you know, raising kids

(42:42):
and a family and making money that there's right that we
wouldn't, we wouldn't live far beyond those years if there
wasn't something meaningful thatwas supposed to happen in our
process. Yeah, preach.
So along the way, Ricky Williamsbecame Eric Miran.
Tell us about that. This is the evolving identity to

(43:05):
the point of having a new name and explain the explain the the
person who came into your life and you took her last name.
The time that I met Steve and the time that I met my wife,
Linnea or a couple two weeks apart, two weeks apart.
And it's like I was ready, you know, I was ready.
And so I, I met my wife, I met Linnea.

(43:27):
And the first time we met, we started talking and I was
sharing my ideas and I was just sharing my ideas.
And what I noticed is that she was interested and capable of
tracking the ideas. And it turned into a
conversation like I'd never had before.
And I, and I recognized that this is something that I need

(43:49):
for the rest of my life. It was this moment where I
recognized something that I didn't have and then something
that had shown up. And when I thought about, you
know, my relationship past is like if I would have met Linnea
6 months earlier, I wouldn't have been mature enough.
I wouldn't have been ready. But I was finally ready and I
could recognize that it was timefor the next step in my

(44:10):
development. And so the conversations turned
into her taking classes with me and turned into us getting
married. So we took, we took Steve's
sinistry and sinistry is relationship astrology.
So we took relationship astrology class with Steve.
And what Steve does is he'll teach the the process for three

(44:30):
days and on the last day he draws the name out of the hat
and he demonstrates the technique.
So he happened to pull my name out of the hat and demonstrated
relationship astrology with Lynnae and myself.
It it just blew our minds, blew our minds to the point that we
decided to start an app to get this information out into the
world. And two, we decided that it was

(44:51):
time for us to get married. And so we get married and after
a year of marriage, we have a conversation.
And Linnea's in her early 40s, never had kids, but says, you
know, she, she's ready to have kids.
And for me, I had five kids, butI was a football player and I
was busy. So I wasn't the kind of parent
that I really wanted to be. So I saw an opportunity in

(45:15):
midlife right to do father the way that I've always wanted to,
but didn't have the opportunity.And so we decided to have a
child together. And it's like the first time
that I was really all in on the family thing.
And the question came up about, you know, what's, what's the
kids name going to be, you know,and first name and last name.

(45:37):
And, and I started thinking about it.
And one of the things that have been bothering me is, you know,
this new face as the astrologer people see the name Ricky
Williams and make the connection.
It was very difficult for them to get over the name and really
be present with who is in front of them.
So I thought about that and I thought about this fight that my

(45:58):
that my dad and my grandma, his mother have because my grandma
hasn't told my dad who his real dad is.
So the name Williams, it's not even my name, you know?
And then I started thinking about right why?
Why? Why when we're born, we're given
our father's name when we don't always know who the father is,

(46:20):
but we always know who the mother is.
And so to me, it just made sensethat that we should take the
mother's name. So all of these thoughts kind of
going through my mind and, and Ijust thought like, why can't I
change my name? So my birth name is Eric.
And this wonderful woman, we're about to start this family

(46:41):
together. You know, it just made sense to
me. It just made sense.
And so I asked what she thought about it and she said yes.
And there's, there's another piece is that my first marriage,
I wasn't a good husband, you know, and I, I was recognizing
that it's a, I'm a different person now and providing extra
security for my wife is going tobe a good thing.

(47:02):
And I think like what, what kindof statement is that?
That I'm willing to take her last name.
And so I just saw it as an opportunity to to get this part
of my life off right on the right, on the right foot.
I love this. I love that.
A Heisman Trophy winner NFL football player has enough

(47:23):
confidence in his masculinity totake his wife's name.
A lot of men wouldn't do that. A lot of men would would be
scared of like, what does it sayabout me that I'm taking my
wife's name? What is what is your point of
view on the the modern perspective on masculinity
today? Because there's a whole lot of
talk going on about how troubledyoung men are and how as a

(47:46):
culture, we have got a whole collection of people in their
early men, in their early adulthood and in their teens who
are really struggling. You're you're sort of, in that
many ways proving to be a new kind of role model for
masculinity. I think for masculinity to get
the most out of itself, it needsfemininity, right?
Is, is we, we, we try to separate them, but we can't

(48:09):
because there's no life without without them coming together.
And, and I've been fortunate andI played football, which is
hyper masculine, but I was raised by, in a, in a house full
of women, which was hyper feminine.
And, and I was made fun of, you know, from my, by the football
players for my sensitivity, you know, and, and somehow I was

(48:32):
able to survive being a footballplayer.
That it allowed me to, to appreciate the best of both, not
only in my, in the outside world, but in myself is in
recognizing the times where I need to be more masculine and
the times where I need to be to bring more of a feminine touch
to things. And I think it is, I think it is
an issue. And I, and I, and I do hope and

(48:54):
the greatest compliment that I've been paid professor at
Stanford a little bit younger than me was talking and he said,
growing up watching you, he saidyou gave us a different way to
be African American mates. And I always thought, right,
that true role models are not the ones that pretend to have it
all figured out, but the ones that we actually see working

(49:14):
through it and eventually figuring it out.
And I always wanted to be a realrole model, not a pretend role.
So we're going to be together inSanta Fe in February, February
8th to the 12th in a workshop called Evolving Identity, and
the subtitle is Learning How to Let Go.
What's that going to be like? You know what, some of it's

(49:38):
going to be you talking about your evolving identity.
But for people who are coming, they need to know this is also
going to we're going to focus onastrology.
Yeah. So talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, it's not going to be too, it's not going to be too
much astrology. But to me, astrology beyond
describing people, right, it, ithelps us describe life.

(49:58):
And there's two main pieces thatI find super relevant to midlife
from an astrological perspective.
One is Saturn and Saturn is the planet of maturity, right?
And, and the midlife is, you know, I think getting us right,
it's moving us to the culmination of what it means to
be in a, a mature human right. And I'd say maturity because I

(50:20):
have a apple tree right outside,you know, and it's a good lesson
for my 4 year old that you have to wait until the apples turn
red before you pluck them because that's when they're
going to be the juiciest is thatthe fruit is juiciest at
maturity. And so the Saturn process, and
if we follow it in our charts, it can help us appreciate our

(50:42):
cycles of maturity, right? It's a beautiful reflection.
And the other planet is, is you're honest.
And you're honest is like what happens after maturity, right?
Because we become mature and then we become, we like
breakthrough and become our individual unique self, right?
It's like the essence, the end result of that maturity and

(51:04):
being able to understand our Saturn and our You're Honest and
our chart and how it's evolved through our lives I think is a
perfect preparation for helping us appreciate what has matured,
what needs to let go, and what needs to keep on going.
For those of you who are listening and and watching, just
know this is going to be an amazing workshop.

(51:25):
So I have one last question for you, Eric.
And that at last question reallyrelates to this idea of wisdom.
We develop wisdom over the course of our our life and based
upon our life experience. My, my definition of wisdom is
metabolized experience, life lessons mindfully shared for the
common good. And so I want you to think about

(51:47):
for a moment if you, if someone came to you and said, Eric,
you've learned some things alongthe way, maybe through the
school of Hard Knocks as well. What's a bumper sticker?
Just a singular bumper sticker that has your wisdom written all
over it. And what's the origin story?

(52:09):
Where did you learn that? What would you say?
Yeah, we we talked about it, butthe bumper sticker would would
be simple. It would say trust yourself, you
know, and the experiences are looking back the times that I
trusted myself. And when I say myself, I'm
talking about the big S, it's like a, a whisper inside and you

(52:31):
feel it, you know, and learning to trust that because it's like
as you learn to trust it, right,it, it starts to communicate
more and you start to trust yourself more.
And that comes from trusting myself, right?
And seeing what happened, not trusting myself and seeing what
happened. OK, well that was that was
listen, I'm I'm thrilled. Part of the reason I just want

(52:55):
to say I want to give a compliment to you and then we'll
we'll sign off. I just want to tell you that to
be on a journey, the human journey, not that not just the
hero's journey, but the human journey and to do it so
publicly, to do it under the microscope, to do it from a

(53:15):
place of curiosity. You have helped so many people
to see that they do need to trust their whisper.
They need to listen to that, that intuition.
And I just want to say thank youto you.
Well. It's it's my pleasure.
And you know, I had this image thinking about talking to you
today, this image that's come upthis past week.

(53:37):
And couple of months ago I was watching The Karate Kid with my
with my little one. And, and whether it's the old
one with Ralph Macchio or the one with Jaden Smith, that
there's a motif where the sensei, Jackie Chan, Mr. Miyagi,
you know, he had them wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off or take
off your jacket, hang it up, right?

(53:58):
These wrote actions that they did over and over and over
again. And finally in both movies,
they're like, ah, I'm sick of this, right?
I thought I was here to learn Kung Fu, right?
And then, right, the sensei comes over and he shows them
that they have been learning Kung Fu and now it's time to get
on with it. OK.
I feel like the first half of life, like going through the

(54:21):
motions, wax on, wax off. As we move into the second-half,
we start to realize what we werelearning, the wax on and the wax
off for, right? And I say the courage that I had
to learn to not be afraid to puton the football helmet and go in
there is the exact same courage that I needed to be able to
learn to trust the whisper and act on it.

(54:41):
Thank you. Thank you, Eric.
We look forward to having you oncampus here in Santa Fe in
February. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it
too. Well, that might have been my
favorite episode yet, and it's for a variety of reasons.
You know, here's a guy who had on on field dominance, but off

(55:02):
field individuality. He was literally the, you know,
when he came back to the NFL, hewas actually starting to learn
what it mean meant to be a healer.
He was studying. I can only imagine that within
the NFL locker rooms, he was he was definitely considered to be
a little bit of an outcast. But during the first half of his

(55:23):
NFL career, he was an outcast and not very happy.
But during the second-half, he was a lot happier because he was
on his path. So my 3 lessons from this
episode with Eric Miran, also known as Ricky Williams.
Number one is trust your gut. Trust that intuition.

(55:44):
His intuition told him early in life that he was a healer.
Later in life he figured that out and his astrological chart
presented that. But this idea of trusting your
intuition, being yourself, one of the things he said at one
point was it made things make sense.

(56:07):
So he had this. He was sort of felt like a
weirdo, I think a little bit. And yet when he finally got his
chart read and saw that his intuition, this voice inside of
himself that he was trusting wasaccurate, he was fascinated by
psychology. He was fascinated by his own
psychology. He was fascinated, fascinated by

(56:28):
the evolution, evolution of consciousness.
They're not a lot of NFL football players who are
fascinated by consciousness. So the at some point everything
clicked. And that's really, I think in
many ways where when he finally started to feel comfortable in
his own skin #2 in terms of the lesson was when he shifted from

(56:55):
the first half of his NFL career.
What can I do for the NFL to thesecond-half saying what can the
NFL do for me? And he didn't mean that in a
selfish way, but I think he meant it in understanding that
in coming back after taking a break from the NFL somewhat in a
controversial way because of hisdrug test testing positive.

(57:16):
There was an element for him that he knew he was supposed to
be there as a role model. But also to actually use this
time to take this God-given skill he had built around being
a phenomenal running back and get the maximum out of that.
But not have to divorce himself from this other part of his life

(57:39):
that was growing this curiosity about personal growth, holistic
healing. And so he was able to do both,
which brings me to my third lesson.
And that is that as we grow old,we grow whole.
Yes, you know, our short term memory is not as good as it used
to be. And our body, just as we get

(58:00):
comfortable in our own skin, it starts to sag.
But one of the things that's really beautiful about growing
older is that we start to integrate our various parts of
ourselves. Eric Miran has integrated his
masculine and his feminine to the point where he's taken his
wife's name to the point where he has no problem being a

(58:21):
sensitive guy. He was, he's probably been
sensitive his whole life, but there was an element that he was
in a habitat that wouldn't allowfor that.
And so now as somebody who is both curious and wise, masculine
and feminine, secular and spiritual and religious,
introvert and extrovert, he is just instead of being

(58:44):
compartmentalized, he has learned how to integrate all of
these parts of who he is into the human he is today.
And what a beautiful human. This is going to be a phenomenal
workshop in February. I hope you sign up soon because
I'm sure it's going to sell out.And I'll be there for the first
part of the workshop. Then I have to go fly to Baja to

(59:09):
Elizabeth Gilbert's workshop. I'm so those two are the same
week and I'm in both. Thanks for listening.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as Idid.
And we'll see you next week on the Midlife Chrysalis.
Thanks for listening to The Midlife Chrysalis.
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