What happens when you reach the summit of everything you were told to want, only to find the view strangely empty? For Ricky Williams, that moment arrived in an NFL locker room, at the height of a career most people spend their lives chasing. He had the fame, the success, the money. And sitting there one ordinary day, a single question surfaced that he could not shake: is this really it?
In this thoughtful and disarmingly honest conversation, Heisman Trophy winner and former professional footballer Ricky Williams joins Catherine to trace the journey that began the moment he walked away from the game. Two months after that question landed, he retired and started travelling the world, with no plan beyond a quiet certainty that there had to be more. What he found was not another title, but a calling. Today he is a professional astrologer, teacher and healer, and co-founder of Lila Labs.
This episode is for anyone who has ever achieved what they were sure would make them happy and felt something still missing. For anyone who has run faster, worked harder and climbed higher, only to sense a gap between how their life looks on the outside and how it feels on the inside.
A Map, Not a Prophecy
Ricky is quick to dismantle the idea that astrology is about predicting the future. For him it is something far more practical: a GPS, a navigation system for the moments when we feel lost and cannot work out where we are going. A birth chart, he explains, is not a script that dictates what will happen on a given date. It is closer to epigenetics, a map of potentials that lie dormant until our environment brings them to life.
His approach is refreshingly human. He does not call what he does readings; he calls them conversations. He begins not with the chart but with what the person in front of him is actually saying, then holds up a mirror so they can see themselves a little more clearly. The chart, in his words, is a growth document. We never outgrow it, because it describes a trajectory rather than a fixed identity.
Made Of, Made For
Much of the conversation explores the quiet ache so many high achievers know well: looking successful while feeling disconnected within. Ricky suggests the first step to closing that gap is simple honesty, admitting that something feels off. From there, the chart can reveal which parts of us are struggling to find expression.
His most useful idea may be the strongest planet. Rather than fixating on sun signs, he looks first at the planet carrying the most weight in a chart, because it points to what we have to offer the world. For Ricky, that planet is the moon. Once he recognised that his gift was his sensitivity, his caring and his nurturing, he says his life became immeasurably easier. As he puts it, what we are made of has a great deal to do with what we are made for.
The Questions That Open Doors
Ricky shares two deceptively simple questions he returns to as daily tools. The first is, what else is possible that I have not yet considered? The second is, how does it get any better than this? Both work the same way, by quietening the part of us that braces for the worst and activating curiosity instead. Curiosity, he notes, tunes us into possibilities we would otherwise walk straight past, whether life is going well or falling apart.
Key Takeaway
Ricky does not believe people are broken. He believes we are all in a developmental process, which means there is always a developmental way forward. Self-knowledge, in his view, is the foundation of that growth. The more clearly we can see what we are made of, the easier it becomes to find ourselves, and once we find ourselves, it becomes far easier to be ourselves.
Watch the full conversation on YouTube.
Find Out More About Ricky Williams
🌐 Website: https://www.lilaverse.app
📱 Lila app: available on the App Store and Google Play
📸 Instagram: @williams
▶️ YouTube: @lilaastrology