100 Episodes Later: What This Journey Has Taught Me About Purpose, Faith & Rising Up

100 Episodes. WOW.

When I started this podcast, I had no idea where the journey would lead. What began as a simple desire to share stories and create meaningful conversations has grown into something that has changed not only listeners' lives, but mine too.

In this special 100th episode, I'm reflecting on the lessons, growth, and faith that have shaped this journey. It's a conversation about purpose, surrender, and believing there's still more ahead. 

Whether you've been here since episode one or you're just finding the podcast today, this episode is a reminder that you are not alone, your life has purpose, and God is not finished writing your story.

Thank you for being part of this community, for sharing these conversations, and for growing alongside me through 100 episodes.

The best chapters are still ahead.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why success alone is never enough—and what we're truly searching for beneath achievement

• How surrender, faith, and trust often become the greatest catalysts for personal growth

• The powerful reminder that your story matters, even in seasons when you can't yet see the purpose

• Why slowing down long enough to hear yourself and hear God can change everything

Connect with Jill O’Boyle:

Website
Instagram - @jeoboyle
Facebook -  @jilloboylecoach  /  @jill.oboyle
LinkedIn

All the links

✨ Rooted & Real Retreat
A transformational retreat experience for women ready to step out of survival mode, reconnect with themselves, and create space for what matters most. Learn more here: Rooted & Real 

✨ Natural Wellness Support
Looking for natural support for stress, burnout, energy, hormones, or menopause? Jill shares the all-natural plant-extract drops that have helped her and many others take back their life naturally. 

Learn more here: Plant-Extract Drops

🎙️ Love the podcast?
Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.

Your Life. Your Story. Rise Up.

LET'S CONNECT
 Here To Help You, Let's Talk - Free 30 Minute Consultation Call

Transcript

Jill O'Boyle (00:02.574)
Hello friends and welcome back to Your Life, Your Story, Rise Up Podcast. I'm your host, Jill O'Boyle, and wow, you guys, this is the 100th episode. 100 episodes. Like, I cannot believe it. Like, honestly, as I sat down to record this episode, I kind of like really just paused for a minute. And I have just been sitting here like,

Soaking that in and reflecting like for a minute, like what does that mean? Like a hundred episodes, like a hundred conversations, a hundred connections with like amazing people in this world. If you have been my guests, you are one of them. A hundred moments of just slowing down and talking about just real life stuff. Like it's so fun and it's so.

I'm just honored that I have been given this opportunity. I just think it's really cool. I think it's really special and a little emotional because this podcast has never just been about recording episodes for me. Like it really hasn't. Like every episode is intentional. and sometimes that's why there has been delays in my podcast, if I'm gonna be honest, because I don't wanna just

Hit record for content. I want to like deeply resonate with what I am providing you guys because listen, I know my listeners, I know you guys, and I know many times you're probably in the car like listening to this before you're walking into work. Like, you're probably somebody that's rebuilding your life right now. you're probably somebody who found this podcast in seasons of like deep burnout and grief and

transition and heartbreak and probably some healing, probably a lot of uncertainty. and so honestly, that's just like emotional and an honor to be able to just be here and hold space for people like you, people that are finding this podcast that are in moments like that. And so I just wanted to just take a moment just to reflect on that and

Jill O'Boyle (02:20.066)
To share with you a little bit of the why behind why I even started. You know, when I started this podcast back in 2022, like I honestly had no clue what I was doing. Like, literally, no clue. Sometimes still don't. Like, I honestly YouTube my way through it. I followed some random guy on YouTube from Buzz Sprout, followed his amazing tutorials and just thank you. Shout out to Buzz Sprout, still hosting with you guys.

But they taught me the ropes, right? But here is what I did know back then in 2022: that there was something really heavy on my heart. And I knew that people were exhausted. I knew women were carrying entire worlds on their shoulders behind closed doors.

And really, I just knew that there were so many people that honestly appeared fine. They looked fine on the outside, but if they were honest with themselves, they were really quietly just falling apart inside. and honestly, I know that and I knew that because I had lived it for far too long as well. there were so many seasons where I felt really productive. I was productive, but completely

Disconnected from myself. I mean, I was showing up, you guys. I was doing all the things. I was getting things done. I was smiling behind it all. I was achieving. I was crossing things off of that awesome to-do list. And yet, meanwhile, internally, I didn't have it all together. I was exhausted. I was anxious. I was extremely burned out.

I was emotionally just disconnected. I was honestly just living completely on autopilot, just going through the motions of everyday life.

Jill O'Boyle (04:26.444)
And I knew I probably wasn't alone alone on that. And here's the thing that I think it's really important to say is that this podcast wasn't created in the middle of that season. Honestly, this podcast was completely born out of from really what happened after that season, right? You know, there was a journey.

Between that version of me, that exhausted, burnout, overwhelmed, frustrated version of me, and the woman who finally sat down behind the microphone in 2022. And let's be real, it was a long journey. Literally a four-year journey before I got on this microphone. A four year journey of healing.

Of unraveling my story, of rebuilding my life, of learning how to completely live differently than the way I sh thought I should live. You know, it was a journey of just coming out of the darkness and really just back into the light. And I don't say that like dramatically. but I really just say that honestly, because there was just moments in my life where I just

Truly just felt lost.

There were so many moments in my life that I was completely lost, you guys. I was emotionally a wreck. I had hit a rock bottom moment. And there were moments where I just remember not even recognizing myself anymore, not knowing who I was, like standing in front of the mirror saying, I don't even know this woman that is staring back at me. There were moments where I felt deeply alone inside my own mind. And it was during that season I remember.

Jill O'Boyle (06:22.594)
Just praying and wishing that there was a space where people just talked about this kind of stuff. Like not surface level conversations, like not pretending, like not just stay positive and it's all gonna work out fine. Like I was craving like real conversations, like conversations that just like reminded me or could remind me that I wasn't crazy, right? That I wasn't failing, that I wasn't alone.

That there's a way through this. And so honestly, go guys, that is why your life, your story, rise up podcasts exist. It's completely the reason why I pressed record back in 2022. Because I created a thing that I needed during my own hardest seasons. I wanted to create a space that if this would have exist back in

2015, 16, 17, 18, right? Kind of space I wish I would have found when I was just trying to find my way out of the mess that I was in. And so now, you know, sitting here four years later, a hundred episodes later, like, my gosh, what a beautiful mess that is. What it so beautiful is that.

It is just a beautiful mess. You know, I'm realizing that this podcast, you know, didn't just really exist to help other people. Like, what's really cool is how God has just used this podcast as well to not only heal other people, but to heal myself as well. there has been so many moments where

I think about something and God's like, Yeah, go back and listen to that. You you talked about that one time ago, right? So it's like something like where I'll go back and I'll listen to something I said like two years ago and thought, Wow, okay. I needed that reminder like today, right? It's crazy how sometimes we need to take our own advice on things. Like I find that all the time. I'll like randomly just have something pop up and like, I swear I talked about this. And, you know, I encourage myself at times. So

Jill O'Boyle (08:45.206)
Isn't that just like God though? You know, how he can use, you know, our pain, our healing, our stories, like the very things we almost didn't survive just to go and breathe life back into us again later. And so really that is the why behind the why for me. 

Jill O'Boyle (09:34.659)
You know, this podcast was never about building something impressive. It was about creating a place where people could feel seen while learning how to honestly just come back to themselves as well. And so for this hundredth episode, I thought it would be important to just rewind the tape, like slow down for a minute, like reflect on some of the biggest themes that, you know, just kept coming up.

like over and over again throughout the conversations, you know, the things that God kept placing in front of me, the lessons that I think we all keep learning in different ways. maybe the conversations that just seem to just like resonate deepest with me and the audience. and honestly, as I started to reflect on all of those and I started to looking back at these themes, like the top four that came up, I'm not surprised at all.

I'm not surprised at all by any of these themes because they are the exact same things that I've been walking through, right? That God's been walking me on. And so I thought, let's just break it down though. Let's just talk about what were the four themes that showed up over these a hundred episodes, time and time again. and so theme number one that just, you know, if there's one phrase that

probably was said more than anything on this podcast, it was survival mode. Survival mode. Survival mode. And you know that makes so much sense given that much of my life was spent there, right? And yet I also think so many listeners are also living in that stage of survival mode. Like women, we are just exhausted, let's be real. Like, not just physically, but you know, our souls are just

Exhausted. We're emotionally exhausted. It's no wonder we're tired, right? Because when we finally do actually get in bed, like I don't know about you, but our minds just decide they want to wake up. They want to run a marathon right now at 10 o'clock, right? Like we just lay in bed. We're so tired. We can't wait to crawl in that bed. If you're like me, I can't wait to get in that bed. But then all of a sudden, as soon as I do, my mind is like racing. It is unable to just close down.

Jill O'Boyle (12:01.326)
you know, I think some of us will probably, you know, have found ourselves just crying in bathrooms before we walk into meetings for the day. I think we are sometimes sitting in the pickup line at school, like just completely overwhelmed of the things that still have yet to get done. Right? We're constantly running from one thing to the next. And I don't know if you've been like me, but you also are like,

Sitting there like running and constantly running, but yet you're wondering like there has to be more to life than this. Like there has to be more to life than this. Or when did I lose touch with my own self? And I think that's why probably survival mode showed up a lot on the podcast, right? I think it's a message that just keeps resurfacing because so many people can relate to that. We've spent our lives abandoning ourselves.

While trying to be everything for everybody else. And somewhere along the way, we just forget ourselves. I know I did. Like there were years where I was accomplishing things externally while internally feeling just completely disconnected, right? And so one of the biggest lessons these a hundred episodes have taught me.

Honestly, in recording this and having conversations, is you can build a beautiful life on the outside and yet you can still feel very disconnected on the inside. And I think that's why, you know, intentional living matters so much to me. Like

Is because I for so long was not, right? I was stuck in the hustle, in the demands, in the hustle culture. and so intentional living just matters so much to me, not because what life needs to be perfect, it's not gonna be perfect. not because we need another morning ri ritual or planner, like, but because intentional living asks us to finally just slow ourselves down. Like slow down and actually discern.

Jill O'Boyle (14:15.692)
What we need? What do I actually need? What matters most to me in this season? What season am I in? Like, let's be real. Like, do you even know where you're at right now? Like, if you even stopped to pause, right? What kind of life do I actually want to experience? Like, we have to slow down and intentionally ask ourselves these kind of things. Because I believe people never do. We never pause long enough to ask ourselves those very important questions.

And so if you're listening today and you're feeling exhausted, maybe you're feeling a little burned out. maybe you're emotionally disconnected with yourself. Like I just want you to know right now, like, just hey, do not shame yourself. You are not failing. But you do need to pause. You need to give yourself a permission slip, a hall pass per se, right? To just pause. Like breathe, lady. Like reflect. Like just stop.

My last episode, that her her advice, just stop, right? It's okay. And it's needed in order for you to come back to yourself. So rest is not lazy. Rest is, you know, not a weakness. Slowing down is not a weakness. Like reflection is not unproductive. It is so productive, right? One of my favorites, favorite verses: be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46, 10. It is literally.

Right behind me on my wall because I need the reminder every single day. Every day. Right? And honestly, that reminder is honestly what saved me. Like when my world was just falling, falling right in front of me, that verse like stopped me in my tracks. And so that's just a freebie for you today. Be still and know that I am God. Right? It just puts it in perspective that we are not God. We don't know the outcome.

We can't out hustle God. We can't control it all. We can slow down though. And we can listen for him to discern what is our next best step. So survival mode. It's no wonder it's a freebie. It's a great or not a freebie. It's no wonder it's one of the big topics that showed up time and time again. so what was the second one that I noticed?

Jill O'Boyle (16:44.618)
So second theme that also seemed like it just resurfaced over and over and over again throughout the podcast was stories of faith. Of course it did, right? Faith, stories of faith, like real faith, real faith, faith that like wrestles, faith that waits, that questions, that doubts sometimes.

That hurts. But yet through all of that, faith that keeps showing up anyway. And then another word, surrender. Mm.

I still wrestle with that word, right? That word of surrender. Because you know, I think I'm not alone in this. I think because control over surrender like makes us feel safe. If I can just control this, right? Like I don't know about you, but like I want the timelines. I want the answers. I want the certainty. I want the direction. Like I wanna know how everything is gonna work out.

before I take that next step.

Control, letting go of control and opening your hands to surrender, it is definitely one of the hardest, hardest things to do. But what I have found in my own story and the stories that have been shared over and over and over again on this podcast is that growth just it requires surrender.

Jill O'Boyle (18:27.426)
Like it really does. Like surrender is is just you cannot grow, right? Until you give it to God. And for this former project manager, it's hard. It's hard because it takes us, you know, it's asking us to release all of that. It's asking us to release like the timeline. It's asking us to release the outcome, the pressure, like the need to force things, like the need to have everything figured out.

So hard as a planner. It really is. It's so hard. But honestly, faith is probably one of the biggest themes of this podcast because it truly is the only thing that has been able to carry me through some of the hardest seasons of my life. You know, those seasons where I was literally trying to hold everything together. I was trying to fix everything on in my own strength. I was trying to stay strong for everybody else. Like,

And I don't have to tell you that, but when you do that over and over and over again, like you just can't. It just is exhausting. And I just know that you listeners feel that. Like you might be in that right now, right? So over these last, you know, a hundred episodes, time and time again, the thing that can becomes more clear the more times I listen to it too, is that, you know, faith isn't gonna

remove the hard season. No. Like faith is built primarily from the hard seasons, right? It gives you that something steady to hold on to in the middle of all of it. And I just think about all the stories that have been shared here. You know, those stories of of intense heartbreak, grief, like stories of people just starting over from ground zero.

Stories of complete identity shifts, you know, stories of burnout, like all of those. And through all of them, that common thread that kept showing up was, you know, the breakthrough comes after the surrender. Like they had to get to this point in their life.

Jill O'Boyle (20:45.016)
They had to not give up, they had to not quit, and really they just had to have the faith to say, you know, God, I can't carry this alone anymore. You know, and that is my testimony as well. Standing in the kitchen in a condo where my kids weren't there, my husband wasn't there, and I just fell to my knees and said, You know, God, I surrender. I can't do this anymore.

So, you know, faith is just it's one where you just when everything is coming to an end, you have to have something to hold on to, and that is faith. Hebrews 11, one says it perfectly. Now, faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance assurance about what we do not see. All right. And so maybe somebody listening today, you know, just needs that reminder. Like you don't have to force this next season. Like you don't have to carry the weight. You don't have to hold the whole future.

Like in your hands. Like

Maybe more importantly, what you need to do right now, your your only job right now is just surrender it to God and just say, God, what is the next best step? And trust God that He's gonna do the rest for you. So we got survival mode and intentional living. We talked about faith. The third thing that kept showing up on the podcasts over these hundred episodes.

And I love that this one shows up because it's one of the biggest themes, honestly, of the podcast is storytelling. Like storytelling and vulnerability. Like it's always been the heartbeat of this podcast. Like your life, your story, right? Stories that just connect us. They remind us, like, hey, we're not alone. Like, hey, we're human, right? Because hey, listen, I don't know about you, but I think we live in a world that's constantly telling us otherwise. It's constantly telling us that we need to perform and perfect.

Jill O'Boyle (22:46.106)
it's constantly telling us to hide or pretend. it's constantly telling us to compare ourselves to other people. and so I'm craving, I think a lot more people, what I'm seeing that's shown up on this podcast is I think people are starving for truth. We're starving for honesty, right? People are walking around saying, I'm fine, but literally the world is crashing down.

And so

We need people to know truth and vulnerability and to know, hey, I'm walking through a similar season. And that's what these stories have done time and time again. Like they've allowed a space where someone can hear someone else's story and say, wow. Okay, you too, me too. Right? That's the power of vulnerability. It just opens the doors to say, you are not alone, right? It it's the thing that actually connects us.

And so over these episodes, I've just watched that. I've watched people share stories that were messy, stories that were unfinished, stories that were very painful to probably share, but also beautiful stories, stories that were probably a little awkward, brave, like deeply, deeply personal. That is definitely what you find on this podcast. And, you know, every single time I just know, I know somebody is listening.

And by them listening, they have now felt less alone because of it. And that's why this whole space exists. This is why this matters, like, is to show like our stories are not perfect. None of us are perfect. And we can share our stories because they are what absolutely builds connection and community. and vulnerability just, you know, vulnerability and honesty just creates permission. It, it, it.

Jill O'Boyle (24:47.68)
Allows, you know, when one person is honest, it gives someone else permission to just stop pretending to. Right? Honesty.

Jill O'Boyle (24:59.414)
Shows you're not alone, right? Honestly, somebody once told me that's one of my greatest gifts, creating spaces where people feel safe enough to finally be real, which I l I love that. Like giving somebody permission to go second because I went first, you know. So yeah, I do honor that. It's one of my values is authenticity. you know, I think because so many of my my life, I felt, you know.

Inauthentic or I wasn't showing up exactly who I was. And so I just think it's so important to be real and authentic and vulnerable and honest. and so I don't take that lightly. Like every story on this podcast matters to me. Your story matters, your voice matters, your experience matters, even the painful parts, like even the messy seasons, like even those chapters, like you wish looked different. Like there was still purpose in those.

And I love that because someone else may find healing in the very thing that you've been afraid to share. And so honestly, spaces like the rooted and real collective, my group coaching program that I offer, like is created because of that, right? That transformation happens when people stop performing and start telling the truth. Like when the masks come off, when people feel safe enough to be seen.

And I've watched women experience healing and breakthrough in those spaces. And honestly, it's been one of the greatest gifts of my life, like to be able to hold space for that. so if you have never checked out my rooted and real collective group coaching experience, I would highly recommend that you do that. Like we begin to just meet in a small space for eight weeks to build community and start unraveling our stories together.

And then it's just a powerful eight weeks. And if you want to extend that, then you can go to the Rooted in Real retreat and meet those women in person. So just there is just so much power in storytelling and vulnerability. Like I could go on and on about that, but I'll end it with your story matters, right? So you need to be sharing your story. Okay. So that finally leads us to our last theme of the podcast, number four, the one that kept

Jill O'Boyle (27:14.964)
Also coming up over and over. Of course, is purpose. Of course, purpose would come up to the top, right? Over and over again. That is no surprise because I could talk about purpose. I could talk about storytelling. I could talk about all these honestly all day long. But you guys know I love to talk about our purpose, like helping women reconnect with who they truly are.

Helping them to just stop shrinking, stop shrinking back in your life. Like stand up for who you are. You have one life on this earth. So live it well and find out what that purpose is. Like help you, like I just I can't I get so fired up. I'm already fired up. I've just lost track of what I'm even talking about. I'm so fired up, right? But I just love it. I love helping people rise into the life that they were created for. Like that work just really, really lights me up. So

And it is my purpose. It's my purpose, bringing light to those in darkness, like helping people who are living disconnected from themselves. And why is that my purpose? Well, because you guys, I've walked through that myself, right? I've been where you're where you are, waiting for permission, waiting for permission to rest, permission to pivot, permission to dare to dream, permission to speak up, permission to stop hiding, permission to change, like permission to choose myself.

over everybody else. Like so, you know, if you feel that, like maybe the discomfort that you've been feeling lately isn't discomfort, it's actually like an invitation.

Like if you have followed or listened to this show long enough, you have heard me say this quote time and time again. It's like one of my life quotes. Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing. Okay? Choose you, choose your purpose. Like maybe today is the day that you stop abandoning yourself. Maybe today is the day that you trust that your voice matters. Maybe today is the day that you realize.

Jill O'Boyle (29:19.308)
You do have gifts and you you should start discovering those and showing up in those gifts. You know, God gives us all like all gifts and when we don't use those gifts for his glory, that is disobedience. Like let that one sink in for a minute.

So discover your gifts, discover your calling, discover your voice. Like over these hundred episodes, like there's been so many things that, you know, I've learned. but one thing that has beencome incredibly clear to me.

Was that?

Jill O'Boyle (30:09.54)
No.

Jill O'Boyle (00:03.426)
And so the thing that stands out over and over as well for me is through my conversations with others and just in my own story, right? Like I reached a point where it was more than just success, right? I got to a point where success was always the end game, but I reached a point where I was like, I am so hungry for more than just success. Like I need something different.

And so I don't know about you, but if you landed on this podcast, like I'm guessing you're the person that's craving the same, right? You're craving more meaning, more connection, more peace, depth to your life, alignment, purpose. And really, that's what rise up has always really meant. It meant, you know, rise up into who you were created to be. You know, Romans 828, my favorite verse, all things.

Work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Jill O'Boyle (01:08.418)
hundred episodes, you guys.

Jill O'Boyle (01:13.432)
When I think about my purpose and think about being here with you all. Like I am just so grateful. I am just so grateful. I am just so grateful for every conversation, every guest, every message, every person who has shared an episode with a friend said you need to listen to this. Like, my gosh. Seriously, thank you for that. You know, I think about people who've listened while driving to work, while walking through, you know, just hard seasons, like.

Maybe sometimes questioning everything and honestly just trying to make it through another day. Like I see you. I really see you. And I just thank you for all the podcasts that you could listen to. I just thank you for letting me be a part of those moments for you. You know, this podcast again, it was never about numbers for me. It was never about just putting another episode out. It was,

It has and it always will be about people, about healing, about growth, about resilience, about faith, about transformation. You know, and honestly, somewhere along the way, along this journey, you know, this podcast has changed me too. Like there has been so much growth in me through this journey. you guys have probably experienced it if you've been here since the beginning. Like some of those early episodes are a little little sketch.

but that's part of growing, right? That's part of learning. That's part of like stepping into where God's calling you to, even when you have no idea what you're doing. So there's just been so much healing, so much, so much surrender. so many moments where God was just teaching me something through every conversation that I had. and then just, you know, every conversation that, you know, maybe I thought I was creating for somebody else, like.

I think God was using it for me too. And I just think that's the beautiful thing about the space. Like we are able to just grow and transform and and heal, you know, together. And so if even one person found hope from an episode like I did my job, you know, if one person felt less alone, if one person finally realized they weren't crazy for feeling what they feel, like if one person decided not to give up, if

Jill O'Boyle (03:40.291)
You know, one person just felt like they weren't alone. That one really, really matters to me. Like then every single one of these conversations mattered to me. And so if there's one thing I hope you take away from this episode is this your life matters, your story matters. And no matter what season you're in right now, like you matter. You matter.

Not because of what you've produced, not because of how strong you've been through it all, and not because you finally just have figured it all out. Like you matter because you just do. And I just truly believe, like God is not done with your story yet. Like He is not even close to done with our stories, all of us. And so wherever this episode may find you today, I just hope it's a reminder that you needed. And I hope it reminds you to just slow down.

Long enough to just hear yourself, to hear God, to trust yourself again, to believe that there is still purpose in front of you. Because you guys, the best chapters, are still being formed. Like your life is waiting for you on the other side. So thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for growing with me through these last one hundred episodes. Like

The best is still ahead, friends. I cannot wait to continue to just pour into you and have you pour into me and all of the amazing guests that are about ready to come on to the show in this next season. I just can't wait. So until next time, go out, make it a great day. Be you love life and of course keep rising up.