There are seasons when survival is exactly what life asks of us.

We put our heads down. Meet the deadline. Raise the children. Care for someone we love. Endure the loss. Pay the bills. Keep moving.

Those survival skills can save us.

But what happens when the crisis ends—and we keep living as though it hasn't?

In this episode of The Story of Us, Jeff Ellison sits down with author Paul Prien for a thoughtful conversation about what Paul calls “surviving survival”: recognizing when the strategies that carried us through difficult seasons have outlived their purpose. Survival is sacred, Paul argues, but it was never meant to become our permanent identity.

Paul's perspective comes from a life shaped by dyslexia, leadership, family, caregiving, loss, retirement, and a drea ...