Latest / The Everyday Awesome Project / 29: 7 Signs of Burnout: Clear the Decks and Reclaim Your Energy

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29: 7 Signs of Burnout: Clear the Decks and Reclaim Your Energy · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Hey superstars, welcome back Paula here and Sam.
• 0:26
  Samantha Pruitt: What's up?
• 0:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Beautiful humans.
• 0:27
  Polly Mertens: Hey you guys.
• 0:28
  Polly Mertens: It's a new episode and, Miss Pruitt, what are we talking about today?
• 0:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Wow, one of my favorite things to do.
• 0:39
  Polly Mertens: Clear the decks.
• 0:40
  Polly Mertens: We both did a little bit of this.
• 0:41
  Polly Mertens: That's why I was like we need to do an episode on this.
• 0:43
  Polly Mertens: So we're calling this the seven signs of burnout and breakdown - cleaning house, cleaning your plate all the things all the seven signs when it's time to clear the decks.
• 0:54
  Samantha Pruitt: People.
• 0:55
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 0:56
  Polly Mertens: And I, you know, what's funny is we're doing this.
• 0:58
  Polly Mertens: I, you know it's going to come out here soon.
• 0:59
  Polly Mertens: But as I was telling people about what you're doing and I'm doing, you know, leading up to this, I'm just hearing all my friends doing it.
• 1:05
  Polly Mertens: They're like, oh yeah, clean the shed, we clean this out.
• 1:08
  Polly Mertens: And you know just, people are doing it left and right.
• 1:10
  Polly Mertens: So I don't know if it's a spring thing or what, but it's.
• 1:14
  Polly Mertens: I think people have just accumulated too much.
• 1:17
  Polly Mertens: You know, sort of like post holidays.
• 1:19
  Polly Mertens: You know, people come into the January and they're like, oh, like, enough, right, like they just took on too much.
• 1:24
  Samantha Pruitt: And I think, energetically, environmentally, you know, commitment wise, we've just have, our plates are too full right, yeah, I think a lot of things compounded during the pandemic because people shifted into a different lifestyle to accommodate all of the insanity that was going on and that was prolonged, prolonged, prolonged.
• 1:43
  Samantha Pruitt: So a lot of buildup from that stuff emotional, a change in process procedures, daily operational stuff for people, a lot of family drama.
• 1:53
  Samantha Pruitt: So a lot of piling up of stuff, things physically, emotionally, just sucking the life out of people.
• 2:01
  Samantha Pruitt: Right, so they finally, a lot of people have come out the other side, very slowly but nonetheless hallelujah, and are ready to make changes and that's where we come in.
• 2:11
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah, and really we want to.
• 2:12
  Polly Mertens: You know, if you're, if you clicked on this and you're listening to this, you're probably like knowing what we're going to.
• 2:19
  Polly Mertens: You're going to hit like one, or you're going to be like check, check, check.
• 2:22
  Polly Mertens: So I'm going to, we're going to talk about them.
• 2:24
  Polly Mertens: These are seven, there's probably a hundred, you know, I mean, but we're going to talk about some of the ones that are like burning for us, or we've seen recently, so one of the seven signs of burnout.
• 2:35
  Polly Mertens: I find it shows up for me as frustration.
• 2:38
  Polly Mertens: Right so like short fuse.
• 2:40
  Polly Mertens: You're just like easily agitated.
• 2:46
  Polly Mertens: It's like damn it.
• 2:47
  Polly Mertens: You find yourself, you know, kind of can't get this done, can't get that done, or somebody like changes the timing of something.
• 2:51
  Polly Mertens: You're like right, so that that short fuse of frustration, yeah, right.
• 2:56
  Polly Mertens: And then, uh, I would say next, this one is a big umbrella, just the feeling of overwhelm in our life, right, yeah, overwhelm, drowning, right, right, so too many demands.
• 3:10
  Polly Mertens: Or you know so, some of what we're going to talk about towards the end is we help you with not only the seven signs of it, but it's like okay, what can I do about this?
• 3:17
  Polly Mertens: Like some proactive action, mini steps, micro steps, massive steps for some people, that it's it's time, you know, depending on how big the burnout or the breakdown is for you, is a signal to you of what kind of, what level of response you need, right, or you ought to need.
• 3:33
  Polly Mertens: You know, and some people maybe don't need a wake up call and this could be it for them.
• 3:37
  Polly Mertens: You know that that overwhelm can be.
• 3:39
  Polly Mertens: I call it like like internal or physical, like you just feel, feel the weight of things, the complexity of things, the intake your body is taking in so much, either information or demands, if you will, the physical.
• 3:56
  Polly Mertens: And then there's also external right.
• 3:58
  Polly Mertens: How it shows up in our world is there's an overwhelm of, you know, paperwork.
• 4:06
  Samantha Pruitt: The first one shows up a lot for me as anxiety.
• 4:09
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, all of that overwhelmed drowning, can't think straight, like oh my gosh.
• 4:19
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, can't make decisions.
• 4:20
  Samantha Pruitt: All that stuff, the stuff piling up.
• 4:21
  Samantha Pruitt: We all know those people.
• 4:22
  Samantha Pruitt: We've been seeing that in the business space with some of our clients and in the one-on-one life coaching with some of our clients too.
• 4:30
  Samantha Pruitt: So we've talked about that quite a bit.
• 4:32
  Samantha Pruitt: You know what that signifies.
• 4:33
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, it's another sign, polly.
• 4:37
  Samantha Pruitt: All right.
• 4:39
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I was talking with a friend and she was, you know, doing the clearing the decks in her life and a lot of that looked physical.
• 4:44
  Polly Mertens: And as I was asking her, I was talking with a friend and she was doing the clearing the decks in her life and a lot of that looked physical.
• 4:46
  Polly Mertens: And as I was asking her, I was like so why are you doing all this?
• 4:47
  Polly Mertens: Why are you cleaning the garage?
• 4:48
  Polly Mertens: Why are you clearing out the shed, why are you giving stuff away?
• 4:50
  Polly Mertens: Why are you, you know, et cetera.
• 4:51
  Polly Mertens: And it prompted me to think about my own and she's like I just can't get to the things that I want to do, like there's so many things of me doing on a daily basis, you know or for me it was I find that it takes my energy away.
• 5:07
  Polly Mertens: I've studied Feng Shui and whatnot and things we don't always recognize it, but physical things have energy, right.
• 5:18
  Polly Mertens: They like like I look in this, we're recording this and I can actually you and I can see each other on zoom and in your room you have this row of beautiful metals right and they're color-coded and it's like that feels energizing, like those metals are the expression and the experience of you doing those things, and they're colors also.
• 5:35
  Samantha Pruitt: You know like when you and I when we interact.
• 5:38
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, when we interact with things like colorful things or rainbow things.
• 5:40
  Polly Mertens: And you know, when you walk into a dull, dingy, dirty house or office or space, right Like you just feel your energy dip right.
• 5:50
  Polly Mertens: Or I know I find this a lot of like nice hotels, fine hotels you walk in and things are fresh and there's lots of light, or you know they've got beautiful plants everywhere.
• 6:00
  Polly Mertens: It just uplifts you, right, and so the things that are around us.
• 6:05
  Polly Mertens: When she said, you know I can't get to the things or it slows me down, I look at it too Like I had this area of my closet where every time I opened up the closet and I opened it up it was like a daily closet, not some closet that you know.
• 6:15
  Polly Mertens: Often the yonders of your house that you never go into, those are.
• 6:25
  Polly Mertens: Those can be take your energy as well too.
• 6:26
  Polly Mertens: But this was one I went into daily and I opened it up and just it had some files and some papers and old sweaters and you know it was just sort of like got very combobulated because the containers weren't containing the things, the things that were there.
• 6:37
  Polly Mertens: There was too many of them, stuff like that.
• 6:39
  Polly Mertens: So we can often be overwhelmed because we can't do the things we want to do or the things are just clunky and in the way.
• 6:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, I would add to that I'm speaking about myself now, but I've also bear witness, of course, to this on a regular basis with other humans is it can be something as simple as the mail that is unopened or the bills.
• 7:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Slash mail, slash paperwork, slash junk mail that's sitting on the counter, and every day the human goes to the mailbox puts more right.
• 7:14
  Samantha Pruitt: This thing happens, there's an action that goes there, but then nothing happens beyond that and it sits and it.
• 7:23
  Samantha Pruitt: This is one of my neuroses.
• 7:24
  Samantha Pruitt: I cannot tolerate this.
• 7:25
  Samantha Pruitt: It makes me insane because what that junk mail or those bills, or that propaganda or whatever unopened stuff, what it represents mentally, emotionally, you know, energetically is not good emotionally, you know, energetically is not good.
• 7:49
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, very, it's not a love letter, okay, and you didn't win the lottery.
• 7:50
  Samantha Pruitt: No one's on like you'd open that, right.
• 7:51
  Samantha Pruitt: So it's the energy that comes with that sitting there and then walking by it every day.
• 7:56
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah, you know and sometimes there's, I would say, the one caveat to this that we didn't address this in the beginning, but like there are definitely temporary periods in our life that we go through.
• 8:08
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, that it's like, okay, it could be, you know, a two week period, it could be a six month period, you know whatever.
• 8:14
  Polly Mertens: But it's a period.
• 8:15
  Polly Mertens: It has a beginning and an end.
• 8:17
  Polly Mertens: It's not your normal.
• 8:18
  Polly Mertens: It's not how you're running your life.
• 8:19
  Polly Mertens: You're not operating under this environment.
• 8:22
  Polly Mertens: You know, by choice and condition, forever.
• 8:25
  Polly Mertens: It's like you know what for these.
• 8:27
  Polly Mertens: You know like, oh, somebody had to move it.
• 8:29
  Polly Mertens: You know, you move the kids in, or something like that.
• 8:31
  Polly Mertens: It's like, yeah, you know we're going to see the kids stop a little bit, but they're going.
• 8:35
  Polly Mertens: You know, like, they have an exit date, an expiration date.
• 8:38
  Polly Mertens: We'll see you later.
• 8:39
  Polly Mertens: So that's one of the caveats to this is yeah, so that's one of the caveats to this is, yeah, okay, there might be a period, maybe it's a week, where, oh, I can't get to the mail.
• 8:45
  Polly Mertens: But then you get to the mail, you know.
• 8:48
  Polly Mertens: But what you're pointing out, I think too, is something yeah, when we look at feng shui, there's a lot of what they talk about in the papers and the piles, you know.
• 9:00
  Polly Mertens: And, yeah, not good, and this isn't what we're here to talk about is not how to feng shui your life, how to declutter.
• 9:05
  Polly Mertens: We're not going to go into the finer details.
• 9:07
  Polly Mertens: This is like the surface level, houston.
• 9:11
  Polly Mertens: We have a problem.
• 9:11
  Polly Mertens: The human is not doing well in their life.
• 9:15
  Polly Mertens: Yes, exactly, there's a warning sign.
• 9:18
  Polly Mertens: These are the warning signs.
• 9:19
  Polly Mertens: It's time to pay attention, pay more attention to self right.
• 9:22
  Samantha Pruitt: You know it's.
• 9:23
  Samantha Pruitt: When we say clear the decks, what we mean is removing the noise and the unnecessary things that are in your everyday world, holding you back, so you can think clearly and operate with time, space, energy towards the things that do matter.
• 9:41
  Samantha Pruitt: So these are distractions that are holding you back from your greatest life.
• 9:48
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean they look minor, but if you start piling them up it's a tidal wave.
• 9:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah Right.
• 9:56
  Polly Mertens: And then it feels bigger than you and then you feel powerless, right?
• 9:59
  Polly Mertens: So one of the some of the results of these signs if you will you know these are some symptoms if you will is, I mean, the worst is hopeless and helpless, right, or resigned, right, like, yeah, can't do anything about it.
• 10:13
  Polly Mertens: You know that closet is bigger than me, or I'll never get to it, or my calendar is just like this.
• 10:19
  Polly Mertens: You know, I just have to live like this.
• 10:21
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh, wait a minute, let's not so okay, let me just knock off a couple of.
• 10:26
  Polly Mertens: So we had frustration, overwhelm, can't get to things, things are slowing you down, getting in your way, if you will, procrastinating and avoiding.
• 10:34
  Polly Mertens: You know, like you talked about, like, if you start to see too much procrastinating or avoiding things that are draining your energy, it's, you know, it's time for that reset, that personal intervention and this is a big one.
• 10:47
  Polly Mertens: It has a lot of little fingers on it, but anxious or stressed, right, there's a lot that feeds into that.
• 10:53
  Polly Mertens: Depending on the level of that, how big is your burnout.
• 10:58
  Polly Mertens: You know how big is your breakdown, and we talked a little bit about this.
• 11:02
  Polly Mertens: So stuck energy.
• 11:04
  Polly Mertens: So stuck energy can look like just feeling indecisive, not creative.
• 11:10
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, these are some of yours that lackluster you know, just like feeling indecisive and confused and not able to make decisions about sometimes really basic things like what are we having for dinner, and other times it's really big things.
• 11:26
  Samantha Pruitt: But that's a huge warning sign.
• 11:29
  Samantha Pruitt: When that starts happening repeatedly to you, or where you feel that sensation of like I just don't feel empowered to make a decision, you know your brain and really your connection to your own personal truth is clouded over foggy, however you want to describe it right.
• 11:48
  Samantha Pruitt: You need to sort that out.
• 11:50
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I would say some of that like what you were saying, that it's like when you get to that indecisive where it's like I don't care, you just decide, you know, you just like turn it over to somebody else because you're just, you're so.
• 12:01
  Samantha Pruitt: You give up your power.
• 12:03
  Polly Mertens: Exactly You're like I don't have the energy for it, right, I don't have the energy to make another decision or to do another thing.
• 12:10
  Polly Mertens: That's a sign like okay, wait a minute.
• 12:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, you want energy in your life.
• 12:16
  Polly Mertens: You want the decisions that you're making to be empowering you and inspiring you.
• 12:20
  Polly Mertens: And you know, yeah, we've got.
• 12:21
  Polly Mertens: You know, not great things Like, oh, we got a flood.
• 12:22
  Polly Mertens: And you know, yeah, we've got.
• 12:23
  Polly Mertens: You know, not great things like, oh, we got a flood, okay, you got to, like, decide on the contractor, and things like that.
• 12:28
  Polly Mertens: But you know, the day to day in your life, you want to be empowered to choose things that make you feel good, because when you're not right, you start to load up the overwhelm of not good things, like you make poor choices or you lead to, you know, unhealthy habits and behaviors.
• 12:43
  Samantha Pruitt: right or resentment because you gave up your power to somebody else.
• 12:47
  Samantha Pruitt: By the way, this happens a lot in the workspace.
• 12:49
  Samantha Pruitt: We've seen it quite a bit with teams and corporations, organizations who are trying to do big, epic things right In some kind of team environment, and you'll sense some of the players on the team don't have the same energy as others.
• 13:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Right, it's normal and you know things need to be addressed and resolved.
• 13:06
  Samantha Pruitt: But you'll sometimes often see one or two team players that just has resigned to no longer having an opinion or having a creative input or having, you know, energy to bring to the mission.
• 13:20
  Samantha Pruitt: Huge problem, huge problem.
• 13:24
  Samantha Pruitt: And no one wants to show up like that on the team, right?
• 13:27
  Samantha Pruitt: You know they don't.
• 13:28
  Samantha Pruitt: People don't want to.
• 13:30
  Samantha Pruitt: It's so depleting and demoralizing and you know it doesn't feel good to be that person on the team who's just not able to deliver, and that could be coming from the workspace or the home space or the personal health and wellness space.
• 13:44
  Polly Mertens: But yeah, it might just be business specific, but it could be coming from the workspace or the home space or the personal health and wellness space.
• 13:50
  Polly Mertens: But yeah, it might just be business specific, but it could be coming from the house and then they just don't have energy to deliver in the business.
• 13:56
  Polly Mertens: I got it Totally.
• 13:57
  Polly Mertens: So we said stuck energy.
• 13:58
  Polly Mertens: The other one is just not enough energy, as you were talking about Right.
• 14:05
  Polly Mertens: So you know, I think there's two symptoms that you could look at with.
• 14:07
  Polly Mertens: This is just in the day-to-day not having enough energy to go about your day, just tired all the time, or like Physical energy Trudging through it, or if you look at a pattern, your energy load is declining over time.
• 14:15
  Polly Mertens: So over the last three months, six months or something, you feel less energized about your life, about the things that you're getting up to.
• 14:22
  Polly Mertens: Somehow you're just seeing a trend and not and you know it might be in the day to day.
• 14:26
  Polly Mertens: Day in, day out you have no energy, but the trend is also going down.
• 14:29
  Polly Mertens: Those are two signs.
• 14:30
  Polly Mertens: Like you mean the people that live for Friday or can like barely get up for you know, yeah, by the time Thursday night hits.
• 14:39
  Samantha Pruitt: They're like I'm going to pretend I'm going to work tomorrow.
• 14:42
  Samantha Pruitt: I'll you know, I'll physically like show up, but don't ask me to do anything.
• 14:48
  Polly Mertens: No productivity.
• 14:50
  Polly Mertens: That's a problem, totally so.
• 14:52
  Polly Mertens: That's like deflated, dejected, you just can't get up and go in your life, right.
• 14:57
  Polly Mertens: So something's holding you back, right, and it could be a combo of things, but that's, you know, one of the signs.
• 15:02
  Polly Mertens: And next one you know you're big on this because of your story and where you came from which is all the physical.
• 15:11
  Polly Mertens: I mean, some energy is a physical sign, but things like weight gain, or you can't lose weight, brain fog, sleep, tired, things like that.
• 15:17
  Polly Mertens: So what are some of the other maybe physical symptoms that you see or you you know are common, that we hear about?
• 15:25
  Samantha Pruitt: Fatigue for sure.
• 15:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Mine was physical and mental, emotional, so kind of a compound of all those things.
• 15:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Yes, I was having some physical challenges, but I was compounding it by poor lifestyle choices, overstress, overworked, all of the things you know.
• 15:41
  Samantha Pruitt: I was creating this really nice cocktail for myself and the warning signs were there for a really long time for me, but I chose to ignore them and put other priorities before my own physical and mental wellbeing.
• 15:56
  Samantha Pruitt: So, you know, hard lesson learned, but you do get to a point where the body does keep score and you will be educated at some point that this was the wrong path.
• 16:07
  Samantha Pruitt: You know.
• 16:08
  Samantha Pruitt: I just really want to caution people, to take these mild warning signs we're talking about and don't let it all come crumbling down like it did with me.
• 16:17
  Polly Mertens: Well, and you know what you talked about in the story of how you did, that was exactly why these things get out of balance, right, you know why?
• 16:25
  Polly Mertens: Because I was making the choices I was making, I was getting the results that I was getting.
• 16:30
  Polly Mertens: I wasn't either, in the moment, making empowered choices, wasn't thinking it through.
• 16:35
  Polly Mertens: You know, sometimes there's scenarios that we find ourselves in, you know, reliving trauma from childhood like, oh, people pleasing, oh, everybody else's needs first, right, or overgiving, or, you know, not feeling worthy, different things that create these choices that we make, choices that we make day in and day out.
• 16:56
  Polly Mertens: Where we're last place, we're the last person on our own to-do list, our own give a shit list, right?
• 17:04
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, that leads to things getting off the rail.
• 17:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Sometimes it's a real disconnection from your physical body.
• 17:12
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, I definitely experienced that and I know a lot of people whether there's trauma or not trauma, but have had a disconnection from their physical body for whatever reason at some junction, whether it was out of you know, protective measures or whatever happened there.
• 17:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Right, but then not really paying attention to when things feel good, when they don't feel good, when they don't feel good, what might be the root of that.
• 17:37
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, like I wasn't raised, educated in a way or in a family or cultural environment that we were taught these things.
• 17:44
  Samantha Pruitt: I didn't even know this was a thing, and the irony is my mother died of cancer and my dad died of a heart attack very young.
• 17:52
  Samantha Pruitt: Disease and illness physical and mental run in the family line, so you think we all would have been having these conversations going.
• 17:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Wow, you know, but we weren't, and so I wasn't raised that way and it took me into my adulthood to learn these lessons.
• 18:07
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm grateful that I finally did.
• 18:09
  Samantha Pruitt: But that process of just numbing your feedback loops, whether they're physical, emotional or otherwise, is pretty common in society.
• 18:22
  Samantha Pruitt: So just big sort of wake up call to people is you can bring that back and reconnect.
• 18:29
  Samantha Pruitt: All of those things and this is what we're talking about too is sometimes it takes clearing the deck, creating space, time, breath in between, to really get reconnected with yourself, that really deep place, you know.
• 18:46
  Polly Mertens: So true, you know.
• 18:47
  Polly Mertens: You know we're children of the what?
• 18:49
  Polly Mertens: 70s, 80s, you know, kind of generation, if you will, and the things we talk about on this show, like nobody told, nobody talked to us about these things or I don't remember hearing about it.
• 19:01
  Polly Mertens: Maybe there's some fringe, which I love.
• 19:02
  Polly Mertens: You know the fringe things that we're being talked about.
• 19:05
  Polly Mertens: Now it's getting more mainstream, now it's coming greater and greater into the awareness is, oh, this like temple, this body, this thing actually, like I don't treat it like a trash can, it needs like decent amount of sleep, I can't run it like a factory, like oh, what the hell Right?
• 19:19
  Polly Mertens: Like oh, and these emotional things, oh, these are chemicals, oh, the hormone.
• 19:24
  Polly Mertens: You know just the understanding that we have and we still don't have a total understanding.
• 19:28
  Polly Mertens: I don't think in our lifetime we ever will All the depths of like how is a baby, you know, created and how does his brain work and stuff.
• 19:36
  Polly Mertens: But we're a lot more aware and as we take that awareness to ourself and reprioritizing right, I think you and I were probably grow up in that generation where it was like the elders were the priority, like you know, I mean, and if we go back to the generation before by golly.
• 19:53
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, my parents was like you were, seen, not heard, kind of generation A hundred percent, a hundred percent, yeah, and it was definitely also the generation of, like you know, chasing the American dream survival of the fittest, grind, grind, grind.
• 20:08
  Samantha Pruitt: All the things like hey, you know that pressure and this is happening again in society, but it looks very different now, right, um, but we're just saying this as part of our wake up call to audience is like when we say clear the deck, sometimes it's literally clean your shit up, okay, do the dishes and pay the bills and clean your closets.
• 20:30
  Samantha Pruitt: And other times we're saying this physical body is showing you signs, clear indications that you are stuck in negative patterns.
• 20:43
  Samantha Pruitt: It can be negative habits that are repetitive, it can be addictive behaviors that are really detrimental to your body and brain.
• 20:54
  Samantha Pruitt: It can show up in so many places.
• 20:56
  Samantha Pruitt: Body and brain it can show up in so many places.
• 21:01
  Samantha Pruitt: So we say it sort of having fun with it.
• 21:02
  Samantha Pruitt: But really there's a very serious nature to this conversation in that those little pokes and prods and discomforts, those signs of anxiety and overwhelmed, are leading you to something else at some point if it gets unchecked.
• 21:15
  Polly Mertens: I just really love what you're saying there and it's like, if you get nothing else from this, like the tuning into your body, your needs, your emotional, you know I I say we have four bodies.
• 21:27
  Polly Mertens: You know your emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, body.
• 21:30
  Polly Mertens: It's like in those bodies, when you have resistance, when you have signal something's not right for me, um, something's dysregulated, um, I'm, I'm not energized by this thing or this person.
• 21:45
  Polly Mertens: You know, you, you want to lean away from that thing, you don't want to lean into it.
• 21:49
  Polly Mertens: Like you just find yourself going uh, I don't want to go there, I don't, I don't want to eat that thing or I don't want to be around that person, and then you do it anyway, right, or should ought to.
• 22:01
  Polly Mertens: What's wrong with me?
• 22:02
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, the mind steps in as, like you know here hear me now it's like don't be a baby, don't be a complainer, don't this, don't that.
• 22:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Shooting on yourself is the worst.
• 22:12
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, so yeah, I think really what we're giving space to in this conversation is bringing the body, the whole self, back into your awareness of where you're making decisions from, not just the mind you know not just logic what everybody else is doing societal, environmental shooting.
• 22:31
  Polly Mertens: You know expectations of others, but what do you have capacity for?
• 22:35
  Polly Mertens: What lights you up?
• 22:36
  Polly Mertens: What is your environment that you up?
• 22:37
  Polly Mertens: What are your?
• 22:38
  Polly Mertens: What is your environment that you thrive in?
• 22:40
  Polly Mertens: Or the people that you work well with?
• 22:42
  Polly Mertens: Right and saying no.
• 22:44
  Polly Mertens: So let's, let's go into how I I, you know I brought to the table.
• 22:49
  Polly Mertens: Let's, let's try this into two, and this is probably going to get blurry, if you will, but I was like I think there's an internal idea, so these are invitations that we have, things that we've done, or things that we just want to invite you to Absolutely.
• 23:04
  Polly Mertens: What we just said, though, is you check in with you If you find any of these symptoms that we were talking about.
• 23:09
  Polly Mertens: The seven signs are you've checked more one than one, or two or three, or you've got all seven.
• 23:14
  Samantha Pruitt: Anything we said resonated.
• 23:16
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, you're in start taking notes now and you say an invitation and I'm going to say it's your to-do list.
• 23:23
  Polly Mertens: Write this down.
• 23:24
  Polly Mertens: I'm coming for you and these are ones for you to choose from, right?
• 23:27
  Polly Mertens: So one one of the things we said off air was like um, well, I'll say it.
• 23:31
  Polly Mertens: Well, maybe I'll.
• 23:32
  Polly Mertens: Just I was, I'll start with the bottom, so this is going to be one of my last.
• 23:34
  Polly Mertens: Ones is nature.
• 23:36
  Polly Mertens: So this is an external change, right?
• 23:39
  Polly Mertens: So we'll get to internal and external.
• 23:40
  Polly Mertens: So external is time in nature, nature to nurture the self, and in that, that's all I'm saying, and the rest is for that human being who's listening to this for you to decide.
• 23:53
  Polly Mertens: What the fuck does nature to nurture look like for you.
• 23:55
  Polly Mertens: Is that?
• 23:56
  Polly Mertens: You know what?
• 23:57
  Polly Mertens: I want to go sit on my lawn.
• 23:58
  Polly Mertens: I want to sit on my porch and look at the flowers.
• 24:01
  Polly Mertens: I want to go to the ocean and look at the beach.
• 24:03
  Polly Mertens: I want to go on a long walk or, like you, I want to go backpacking for three days.
• 24:07
  Polly Mertens: You know like?
• 24:09
  Samantha Pruitt: So what we're telling them now is basically some ways that they can go about clearing the decks.
• 24:14
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah Right, here are some simple, everyday opportunities with the Everyday Awesome Project to clear thy decks.
• 24:22
  Samantha Pruitt: Human beings so out in nature, just being in the space, no need to do anything radical, just be out there breathing the air, connected with the environment.
• 24:34
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and maybe we'll start back from the top, because I that just felt like the next logical thing to say after what we were talking about is, like, time and nature can look different.
• 24:42
  Polly Mertens: So, with all of these that we're going to talk about, um, it's for you to explore with you, not, not?
• 24:49
  Polly Mertens: Oh, like Santa Polly said, I should do these six things Like, oh, like, these are invitations, these are ideas to get your, your imagination, your re, your ability to recreate.
• 24:59
  Polly Mertens: You know, you might need to lean on some of these because, like you, got nothing right.
• 25:03
  Polly Mertens: But so the first one, though, we said like an internal, is um, and this I've seen you do this so well so many times is like clearing literally the calendar, like saying no to commitment, like gotta go, gotta go.
• 25:17
  Polly Mertens: Nope, not doing that.
• 25:18
  Samantha Pruitt: I love crossing shit out with a black sharpie.
• 25:21
  Samantha Pruitt: You've seen my calendar.
• 25:23
  Samantha Pruitt: You're like why is there so many colors?
• 25:24
  Samantha Pruitt: What's?
• 25:24
  Samantha Pruitt: Going on over there and then what are all these black like sharpie things?
• 25:27
  Samantha Pruitt: That's right stuff.
• 25:29
  Samantha Pruitt: I said no I give myself that opportunity weekly, but even daily, because you and I are planners and organized you type of individuals in the world.
• 25:38
  Samantha Pruitt: But and there's a reason for that Um, sometimes I'm just not feeling it and I really like to listen to what my body and brain are telling me.
• 25:49
  Samantha Pruitt: I really like to give some time and space about assessing you know, I call it taking inventory Like what are the things that are must do's, what are the optional things?
• 26:03
  Samantha Pruitt: Like kind of evaluating what's on my plate, slash calendar at any time.
• 26:07
  Samantha Pruitt: Um, I have a couple of good friends right now who are recently in cancer treatment, you know, and I want to be available for them to support them in whatever capacity.
• 26:18
  Samantha Pruitt: That means I need more availability on my schedule and also emotionally, like I need to be capable of being of service and being open to their experience.
• 26:29
  Samantha Pruitt: Right, that means I need to create some more space for that.
• 26:32
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't just add that onto my plate.
• 26:35
  Samantha Pruitt: I make that a higher priority than maybe this week.
• 26:38
  Samantha Pruitt: I was going to do X, Y, Z or have lunch with Sally or whatever the thing was, but I'm like, no, my priorities have shifted.
• 26:44
  Samantha Pruitt: So I love giving myself the opportunity weekly, and sometimes even daily, to reevaluate and again clear the depths.
• 26:53
  Polly Mertens: I think that's important to hone in on something that you're touching upon, which is giving yourself that permission and I want to say not only to, like you said how I kind of saw it when you held up your hands was like have to and get to right.
• 27:08
  Polly Mertens: And I would even encourage you to evaluate and deeply question the have to, because there might be hidden within some of that some old stories, some old expectations that you're holding on to that.
• 27:21
  Polly Mertens: If you examined it right, examine, you know, what is that?
• 27:25
  Polly Mertens: Do I really need to still do that?
• 27:28
  Polly Mertens: Do I really?
• 27:28
  Polly Mertens: You know?
• 27:29
  Polly Mertens: So I find this with my family, you know, is like do I have an obligation to that?
• 27:36
  Polly Mertens: And some of it is like a hell, yes.
• 27:37
  Polly Mertens: Like, yes, I want to.
• 27:38
  Polly Mertens: Like I make my trips to visit my aunt and uncle.
• 27:41
  Polly Mertens: I do that twice a year.
• 27:42
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh yeah, that's, that's a get, that's a get to and a have to.
• 27:46
  Polly Mertens: Like I feel like I have to for me, it serves me, but there's other family members that I step back because it's like I don't have to do that.
• 27:55
  Polly Mertens: I've reevaluated what that looks like for me, right.
• 27:58
  Polly Mertens: And you know and people.
• 28:00
  Polly Mertens: I think I'll just.
• 28:02
  Polly Mertens: Maybe this is a time for a little story, or influenced by societal, commercial paradigms, whatever you want to call it.
• 28:07
  Polly Mertens: Hand-me-down, generational.
• 28:27
  Polly Mertens: This is what it needs to look like and maybe some of it's instinctual, I don't know.
• 28:33
  Polly Mertens: In the last couple of years, with some health problems that my mom's had and challenges with her being in the hospital and whatnot, and her need for me more and different things to evaluate At times, it's like there was times where it was a lot of demand you talk about, you know, clearing the decks and stuff.
• 28:50
  Polly Mertens: It's like you know, okay, I'm not doing anything this week by going and caring for her.
• 28:54
  Polly Mertens: You know she's in the hospital, she's coming out of the hospital, those types of things.
• 28:57
  Polly Mertens: And some of these were not super.
• 28:59
  Polly Mertens: They were hospital, but not like, you know, like a scare.
• 29:04
  Polly Mertens: It was more like mom being mom and all of a sudden she ends up in the hospital.
• 29:09
  Polly Mertens: But it's not.
• 29:10
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, there's a lot of drama, let's say, behind that, so we won't go too much.
• 29:15
  Polly Mertens: But my sense of self and my identity was good daughter, right, and what does a good daughter do?
• 29:20
  Polly Mertens: And it was only when I examined why am I doing this, do I need to do this to this level and how much do I need to go up there?
• 29:28
  Polly Mertens: And does she really need?
• 29:29
  Polly Mertens: You know, and it was, it was all in my mind, right, um, and maybe there was some, you know, influence from her or you know, maybe some feedback, yeah, but, but you know, maybe some things that I, yeah, but, but it all existed in my paradigm that I was saying what a good daughter was and I just, you know, much like I've, I've shifted my paradigm of good relationship, partner, uh, good health, vitality, what is a healthy body?
• 29:52
  Polly Mertens: You know, I had a very twisted body scenario when I was in my twenties and and 30s, you know, and how that was supposed to look, completely tore that apart, rewrote that, you know and so good daughter, I've done the same thing Took that out of the closet, went.
• 30:08
  Polly Mertens: You know who wrote all these.
• 30:09
  Polly Mertens: It needs to look like this and I was like scratch, scratch, scratch, black Sharpie, black Sharpie.
• 30:14
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, clearing the deck on those expectations.
• 30:17
  Polly Mertens: So what I'm saying in a long way of saying it, is those things that you think are need to just take them out and examine them also, because sometimes, when we shine the light of where you are, in your life.
• 30:27
  Polly Mertens: Some things have changed.
• 30:28
  Polly Mertens: What's real for you?
• 30:29
  Polly Mertens: What's true for your body?
• 30:30
  Polly Mertens: Like do I have the capacity for that anymore kind of thing or desire as well.
• 30:37
  Samantha Pruitt: I've done this a lot in the work and professional space and we work with a lot of people who are in the work and professional space and it you know the high performers.
• 30:45
  Samantha Pruitt: You and I have also historically been high performers in our work world.
• 30:51
  Polly Mertens: Thank you very much, yeah.
• 30:52
  Samantha Pruitt: Whatever that was, yeah, but for me, I will just say and I've shared this with you very candidly after 50, I definitely rewrote that story for myself also.
• 31:01
  Samantha Pruitt: So I'm going on my ninth business that I've owned and operated over my lifetime, which is insane.
• 31:07
  Samantha Pruitt: Plus, I've worked for a lot of people and I've done a lot of different things professionally, and so I'm generally, over my lifetime, a hard charging high performer in the workspace.
• 31:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Sometimes that's been amazing and it served me incredibly.
• 31:20
  Samantha Pruitt: I wouldn't change any of it, but many times it did not serve me.
• 31:25
  Samantha Pruitt: It really created a cycle of this repeated story.
• 31:28
  Samantha Pruitt: I told myself of having to continue to perform above and beyond, above and beyond, above and beyond, until I was burying myself literally in work, in work schedule, in accommodating the needs of, you know, my higher ups or my team or whatever, to my own detriment.
• 31:48
  Samantha Pruitt: So that is no longer what I consider a high performing leader to look like.
• 31:54
  Samantha Pruitt: But that's what I knew and that's how I initially evolved.
• 32:00
  Samantha Pruitt: But you know, again, I got schooled many times and ultimately schooled myself to rewrite that story, and now I just do it differently.
• 32:09
  Samantha Pruitt: It doesn't mean that I don't still perform at a high level when I choose to and when the environment is something that I want to be really contributing at that level to, but I don't have to do it all the time and we see, in the workspace you'll get one or two triple type A's not just a type A or an A team player, but a triple type A and they'll continue to just like push, push, push, push, push until they break and as leaders or teammates, recognizing that and helping them recognize that they don't need to every day be at 110%.
• 32:43
  Samantha Pruitt: It's not possible, it's not sustainable.
• 32:46
  Samantha Pruitt: And you know, we really want to see a well-rounded human showing up and all the team contributing, right, we don't want to see two people who are the 110% and we don't want to see the 50%ers, you know right.
• 32:57
  Samantha Pruitt: So, like, these work environments need to change their model and we need to think about ourselves.
• 33:02
  Samantha Pruitt: If you're one of those people, like I was, what am I trying to prove?
• 33:06
  Samantha Pruitt: What is this about?
• 33:08
  Samantha Pruitt: And why am I sacrificing my health or my relationships or other things I care deeply about?
• 33:14
  Samantha Pruitt: Because I'm not a workhorse, you know.
• 33:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, come on, I have other things.
• 33:19
  Samantha Pruitt: Why would I be sacrificing all of that?
• 33:22
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, rewriting what high performance can look like.
• 33:25
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, like I'm going to be high performance in every aspect of my life, every aspect of who I am as a human, and my work and professional life or my business, is one piece of who I am in the world.
• 33:38
  Samantha Pruitt: But I have so much more impact to contribute and I want my legacy to be bigger and broader and wider than that.
• 33:47
  Polly Mertens: So I think you know if all we think about sorry is the, let's say, the performance or the output right.
• 33:55
  Polly Mertens: Meaning numbers on the board or something like that, because you and I I mean you more than anyone I know the word culture like you're deep, deep, deep in culture and the humans and what I have seen over the trajectory of my life in my 20s.
• 34:13
  Polly Mertens: You know that hard charge, you know like get to the top.
• 34:16
  Polly Mertens: You know, and just, unfortunately, how I thought to do it in the beginning, I learned earlier on, thankfully, then later.
• 34:23
  Polly Mertens: You don't grind your vendors and your people and stuff to the ground to get the best performance, to get the best performance, to get the best overall results, to get the sustainable growth.
• 34:33
  Polly Mertens: Things like that no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 34:36
  Polly Mertens: Right, you don't send the racehorse out to run you across the country.
• 34:41
  Polly Mertens: It's like, no, that racehorse will get you around the track a few times.
• 34:45
  Polly Mertens: And then you switch, it's a relay race and then boom, yeah.
• 34:51
  Polly Mertens: But if you want to get on a horse or if you want to get on a team that's going to go the distance, right, you have to take into the needs of that horse, that body, those people, the culture your own included that has, yeah, more needs than just perform, perform, perform right and if you're the leader, you're setting an example for that.
• 35:08
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I mean, you're the role model, whether it's your family, your.
• 35:09
  Samantha Pruitt: And if you're the leader, you're setting an example for that.
• 35:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I mean, you're the role model, whether it's your family, your community, your business.
• 35:13
  Samantha Pruitt: You're the role model for that.
• 35:14
  Samantha Pruitt: And if they see you grinding yourself into hamburger and turning into another, you know what in the world?
• 35:21
  Polly Mertens: Totally yeah.
• 35:21
  Polly Mertens: And and that leads to all these other symptoms.
• 35:24
  Polly Mertens: You know, they're anxious all the time, they're, they're easily frustrated, they feel overwhelmed, like you know those people.
• 35:33
  Polly Mertens: You walk in their office and you're just like you can't give them another thing to do, you know, or you can't have a viable, healthy conversation because they're just gonna, you know, go off whatever.
• 35:38
  Polly Mertens: So, yeah, we, we, okay.
• 35:39
  Polly Mertens: So first one, from an internal perspective, is what do you need to say no to?
• 35:44
  Polly Mertens: What do you need to double down and check in with yourself that maybe you have as a commitment?
• 35:48
  Polly Mertens: That isn't a commitment anymore, you know clear the calendar, clear your space.
• 35:54
  Polly Mertens: And my next one this is some of my woo-woo-woo, but I wanted to weave it in here and I'd love for you to, you know, add another one to it.
• 36:00
  Polly Mertens: But mine is and I've been doing this more so lately just somewhat.
• 36:05
  Polly Mertens: Some projects have, you know, finished up.
• 36:07
  Polly Mertens: So it's like saying yes to slow, saying yes to still, saying yes to space, meaning nothingness, right, like, like, and then saying yes to silence.
• 36:20
  Polly Mertens: So slow, still space and silence, and it's amazing what's there, right, because I just I look, you know, from the inside out, you might say because I'm not, you know, you're not in the places that we were, as we talked about in our life, where it was the hard charging and stuff, and we look back out at what that looks like, whether it's family members or friends or colleagues or our clients, and we see the amount of fullness that they pack every minute in and it's it just leads to overwhelm for the nervous system, the whole body, if you will totally.
• 36:58
  Samantha Pruitt: I have been guilty of this, so you know.
• 37:02
  Samantha Pruitt: An example is I'm training for an iron man in five months or whenever this is going to air, but four or five months.
• 37:11
  Samantha Pruitt: And that's a part-time job, as you just experienced because you just finished doing your own half Ironman.
• 37:17
  Samantha Pruitt: It is a part-time job taking on a big race like that, and lots of people have these kind of lifestyles, and so you know there is an adaptation that has to happen.
• 37:27
  Samantha Pruitt: But, to be clear, these kind of lifestyles, and so you know there is an adaptation that has to happen, but, to be clear, you have to shift some things.
• 37:31
  Samantha Pruitt: You have to clear the decks to make space for this new thing, this great goal, wonderful, love it, all about it.
• 37:38
  Samantha Pruitt: But, like, it takes up space, it takes up time, it takes up energy, it definitely requires bandwidth and capacity and you can't just pile that on top of all the other things and think that the walls won't come crashing down or the plate won't topple over, right?
• 37:57
  Samantha Pruitt: So I had to really make some choices.
• 37:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, now I've got to change this, or maybe I'm going to go to that for a while, or I move these things around like I had to be, you know, thoughtful about it.
• 38:07
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 38:08
  Samantha Pruitt: And consciously make some choices, what you're experiencing so I was piling more on and what I love about the yin and the yang of who we are in the universe you're taking a moment to.
• 38:19
  Samantha Pruitt: You took a big project off and, instead of putting something in its place, allowing the space to be and breathing into it and creating time, energy, space for nothing or for quiet or for you know, stillness, that's so incredibly powerful.
• 38:43
  Samantha Pruitt: Like there's so many different ways to do, this is really what we're saying to people is like ways to do.
• 38:49
  Polly Mertens: this is really what we're saying to people is like, whatever needs to be for you, right, exactly.
• 38:57
  Polly Mertens: And you know, if you had said these things to me, 10 years ago you know, or 15, I've been like you know, right, um, I would say, just as you were saying that, you know, I, this is new for me.
• 39:06
  Polly Mertens: This is this is new for me.
• 39:08
  Polly Mertens: I'm just saying I haven't always been still and silent and, you know, created space and slow all my life.
• 39:16
  Polly Mertens: But I'm adapting.
• 39:18
  Polly Mertens: I'm adapting and I'm evolving.
• 39:20
  Polly Mertens: That's part of you know, two of my words this year expand and elevate.
• 39:25
  Polly Mertens: And I'm expanding into creating more space for nothing.
• 39:30
  Polly Mertens: Space for nothing Like it's so it feels so radical to have like, oh yeah, it's not.
• 39:35
  Polly Mertens: You know, and I would say at other times in my life, so you know, if somebody is looking at this and going, ain't got time, you know, totally maxed out.
• 39:41
  Polly Mertens: You know that there's no more.
• 39:42
  Polly Mertens: I can't have space or stillness or slowness or whatever.
• 39:46
  Polly Mertens: You know, when I did my RV trips, you know, or when I've done my RV trips, those can be periods or blocks, right, so can you create periods or blocks that aren't filled with more stuff?
• 39:58
  Polly Mertens: You know, like we get these amazing looking vacations or places people think they need to go and they just fill that all up.
• 40:06
  Polly Mertens: Right, it's like, can you not fill it up?
• 40:09
  Polly Mertens: Can you resist the temptation for more fullness and instead, you know I just did a cleanse, so there's a lot of emptying out.
• 40:17
  Polly Mertens: Yeah yeah.
• 40:18
  Polly Mertens: Emptying out, cleaning out, like getting rid of letting go emotionally, toxicity, wise, things like that.
• 40:26
  Polly Mertens: It's like can you take yourself on a little journey of letting go of emotional stuff?
• 40:31
  Polly Mertens: You're holding on to time commitments, things like that.
• 40:34
  Polly Mertens: Go take some walks in nature, take some time to yourself, just don't-.
• 40:39
  Samantha Pruitt: Maybe this is what the concept of a staycation was supposed to be.
• 40:44
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay Is like to be in your space, in your nest, whatever that looks like for you, and to elevate it, create more space within it.
• 40:55
  Samantha Pruitt: So clear out of things, right, Clear out of the energy, maybe, get quiet and clear things out in your body If that looks like a detox or whatever it might look like, you know, and really, from an energetic perspective, allowing that time and space for very little or nothingness besides elimination and limit, and then take that same time to review what's on the calendar, what is currently on your plate, what your daily life, you know, bandwidth looking like, and make some very conscious choices to clear a lot of that off and create the space hours on the weekend or it can be a week long thing, but when you come out of it, you come out with a fresh vision and rejuvenated, re-energized for a new path forward.
• 41:57
  Samantha Pruitt: It's really a catalyst for change.
• 41:59
  Samantha Pruitt: It's like that moment of going from too much to nothing to what it's really supposed to look like.
• 42:05
  Samantha Pruitt: Right.
• 42:05
  Samantha Pruitt: It's that shift of vision, perspective and feeling.
• 42:10
  Polly Mertens: I think some of it comes from giving yourself.
• 42:14
  Polly Mertens: So a lot of what I hear in the nomenclature is I don't have time, like, I don't have time to slow down, I don't have time for whatever.
• 42:21
  Polly Mertens: And it's like is that true, you know?
• 42:25
  Polly Mertens: Is that really true?
• 42:26
  Polly Mertens: Right, because that phrase is a state of powerlessness.
• 42:30
  Polly Mertens: Because if you, if you really back that sentence up and you really get to the root of it, it's a choice.
• 42:38
  Polly Mertens: You're choosing to not feel like you have time.
• 42:42
  Polly Mertens: You're choosing these other things over something else.
• 42:46
  Polly Mertens: Right, the language is disempowering language and it's not even true, right, you say it accurately I've chosen to do all these things.
• 42:55
  Polly Mertens: I've chosen to reprior, I've chosen these things as my priority.
• 42:59
  Polly Mertens: Yes, you have, that's how your life looks, and you're being invited, by listening to this, to choose that again or not.
• 43:07
  Polly Mertens: Like, do you want to keep choosing that?
• 43:08
  Polly Mertens: Don't say I don't have time for.
• 43:10
  Polly Mertens: Say what am I making time for, cause I'm choosing those things.
• 43:14
  Polly Mertens: And what am I not making time for, cause I'm not choosing those things?
• 43:16
  Polly Mertens: And where would I like to be?
• 43:18
  Polly Mertens: Right, like, do a reset.
• 43:21
  Polly Mertens: Like, like, put yourself up against the wall and go yo.
• 43:23
  Polly Mertens: No, you do have time.
• 43:26
  Polly Mertens: You are in choice in this life, even the things, like I was talking about earlier, that you think you have to those you've chosen like you've self-identified with that.
• 43:35
  Samantha Pruitt: So well, we take people through this process this pivot progress you know it's, it's the pivot, right.
• 43:43
  Samantha Pruitt: So we're talking about we always come back to the pivot, but, like this, clearing the decks is like a subtle pivot.
• 43:52
  Samantha Pruitt: It can be this really small thing.
• 43:54
  Samantha Pruitt: It can be.
• 43:54
  Samantha Pruitt: Of course, we love blowing things up and, you know, creating epic lives from through through the Phoenix rising through the ashes.
• 44:03
  Samantha Pruitt: But that invitation it's what you're talking about.
• 44:08
  Samantha Pruitt: Is people really feeling like they have a choice?
• 44:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Because they do I mean, we do have so many choices, right and people feeling like they have power, because we do.
• 44:21
  Samantha Pruitt: We have power over most of the decisions and we make thousands of decisions in the course of a day that build the body and life and brain that we have right.
• 44:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Sometimes you do need some assistance to go through the process and of course, we're here to have those hard conversations and help you through it.
• 44:38
  Samantha Pruitt: Sometimes it's pretty horrible and you can't think straight and you are overwhelmed and all that.
• 44:42
  Samantha Pruitt: We're not saying that this is easy, but I guess our takeaway today is that you're worth it and maybe, to start small, what do you?
• 44:52
  Polly Mertens: think.
• 44:52
  Polly Mertens: What's the takeaway?
• 44:53
  Polly Mertens: You know, I would say it depends on the size of the pain and the frustration, and you know, the size of the symptoms is going to dictate what reaction.
• 45:02
  Polly Mertens: You know counteraction needs to be taken.
• 45:04
  Polly Mertens: If you ask me, you know.
• 45:05
  Polly Mertens: So I would say, if nothing else, yes, start to take small steps.
• 45:09
  Polly Mertens: If nothing else, but evaluate the.
• 45:13
  Polly Mertens: You know what I have seen in my coaching, especially in the eating disorder world, those you know 10 years that I did that or more is the pain gets so great that the radical shift has.
• 45:26
  Polly Mertens: You know, because it's a fucking addiction we're talking about here you don't just like, yeah, toe out of that.
• 45:31
  Polly Mertens: Usually like you don't just go oh, I'm going to make a little change here.
• 45:34
  Polly Mertens: Usually it's like you got to rebalance some things and things are out of whack, right.
• 45:39
  Polly Mertens: So the degree that you're out of balance can often dictate you know what steps are going to help you get back into balance.
• 45:46
  Samantha Pruitt: So I want people to ask themselves this question.
• 45:48
  Samantha Pruitt: You know like a lot of people come to us and they want change in some place in their life.
• 45:57
  Samantha Pruitt: And the question is how can you implement change, sustainable real life change, if there's no room in your life for the change and when I say no room, I mean no time, no energy, no resources to put towards the shift, the change and if that isn't available to you because there's so much on your plate, on the deck, so much burdening, yeah, it's not going to happen.
• 46:24
  Samantha Pruitt: So if you come with a pain point and wherever that is, you want to make change within that pain point, like clear the freaking decks, yeah, yeah, and it starts with you know calling us, or you know finding a therapist.
• 46:37
  Samantha Pruitt: go to a retreat, whatever you need to do, but we're fun Like an intervention.
• 46:41
  Polly Mertens: Usually, you know an external intervention If the pain or the discomfort is small.
• 46:46
  Polly Mertens: Yes, all these things that we're talking about.
• 46:48
  Polly Mertens: You can gladly walk yourself down.
• 46:49
  Samantha Pruitt: Tell us anyway, though, because we want to know about it.
• 46:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:52
  Polly Mertens: Share share, share.
• 46:53
  Polly Mertens: So okay, well, I'm going to knock out some more of these and then we'll wrap it up.
• 46:57
  Polly Mertens: So another internal is really that, like we talked about earlier, is that self-check-in.
• 47:02
  Polly Mertens: I would just want to say, like one of the ways to be clearing and be assessing is like a self check in with your body.
• 47:09
  Polly Mertens: Right, we talked about where all these things are living, all of this stuff is.
• 47:13
  Polly Mertens: You know, 99% of it's going on below your neck, right?
• 47:16
  Polly Mertens: You know the tiredness, the brain fog.
• 47:18
  Polly Mertens: You know that's up above whatever the anxiousness might be living up here, but you're feeling it down in this body.
• 47:23
  Polly Mertens: Well, that body is your compass.
• 47:26
  Polly Mertens: You know, like what's right for you, what's not right for you should you, shouldn't you?
• 47:29
  Polly Mertens: You know what to do here and there.
• 47:31
  Polly Mertens: So, like the self check in is like what brings you more energy and what brings you less energy, what takes energy away from you, and trusting that, tuning in or understanding from yourself.
• 47:44
  Polly Mertens: Okay, and then let's jump over into external, right?
• 47:47
  Polly Mertens: So these are like external cues or ways to go about these changes is especially when it comes to like we talked about the stacks of paper or the closet or whatever is like assess the problem areas, like, okay, I got you know five problem areas, or two problem areas, or one really giant one.
• 48:03
  Polly Mertens: Or you like you know hot piles on the desk and like what's the hotspot?
• 48:06
  Polly Mertens: Like what is really the most annoying, painful, drains your energy when you think about it, look at it, talk about it, whatever, start with that and like make a plan for that.
• 48:16
  Polly Mertens: Right, just just look at what's the hottest spot, start there, do something and tackle it sooner than later.
• 48:23
  Polly Mertens: You know, like put it on the calendar.
• 48:24
  Polly Mertens: You know there's all kinds of ways that you can tackle those things and recruit someone to help if you need.
• 48:28
  Samantha Pruitt: You know there's all kinds of ways that you can tackle those things and recruit someone to help if you need recruit.
• 48:31
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, like you and I, you do this a lot because you work in real estate and in that space of people's homes and, yeah, you go into the space and you're like okay, give me 48 hours.
• 48:42
  Samantha Pruitt: Like there are people who do this.
• 48:45
  Polly Mertens: Yes, yeah, yeah yeah, and some of them might be like an organizer, or cleaners or haulers or bring it out all sorts of things, movers.
• 48:53
  Polly Mertens: You know got to get the junk furniture out of here, you know you got to make the dump runs, whatever it is Right.
• 48:57
  Polly Mertens: So, and then I would say we talked about like spatially, but then like overload areas for yourself.
• 49:04
  Polly Mertens: So are you overloading your, your body, with toxins or food that is just not helpful for it?
• 49:12
  Polly Mertens: You know, like looking at the things that you're consuming, looking at the energy things that you're consuming the Internet, the social media, the music that you're listening to, the news, the television, like the things that are coming in the sources of information.
• 49:27
  Samantha Pruitt: We have a podcast on that inputs and outputs and we we have a podcast on that Inputs and Outputs and we also have a podcast on boundaries Two of the big things we've talked about today.
• 49:35
  Samantha Pruitt: So go back and listen to those podcasts.
• 49:36
  Samantha Pruitt: We'll drop a reference in the show notes about it.
• 49:39
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:40
  Polly Mertens: Sweet, sweet.
• 49:41
  Polly Mertens: And then you know, the last one, which we actually talked about in the beginning, is that the nature component.
• 49:46
  Polly Mertens: Because you and I believe, like the, the self, we are human animals, we are part of nature.
• 49:53
  Polly Mertens: We get in these confines of society and brick and mortar and walls and lights and all this stuff, and we forget we're a natural body, right?
• 50:02
  Polly Mertens: So what?
• 50:04
  Polly Mertens: What might that look like?
• 50:05
  Polly Mertens: What you know?
• 50:06
  Polly Mertens: Because for you like being in nature is like I'm going to go run for six hours.
• 50:10
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, it's my daily religion.
• 50:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, you know, people meditate, they chant, they do all these things.
• 50:15
  Samantha Pruitt: It's all that's all great and wonderful.
• 50:17
  Samantha Pruitt: For me, it is nature.
• 50:18
  Samantha Pruitt: There's a great book on this called nature fix.
• 50:21
  Samantha Pruitt: I'll also drop that in the show notes.
• 50:22
  Samantha Pruitt: Absolutely, it's the science behind why this is actually a thing.
• 50:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean like if I'm not in nature every day, I literally am not the same person the next day, like that recalibration for me, that grounding, that openness, the space, the air, the sun, the energy, that's even if I'm moving fast, moving slow, not moving at all doesn't matter being in nature.
• 50:52
  Samantha Pruitt: For me, that's my secret sauce, my secret weapon.
• 50:55
  Polly Mertens: And figure out what it is for you, right?
• 50:57
  Polly Mertens: So Samantha's looks different, mine looks different, yours looks different.
• 51:00
  Polly Mertens: Just just an invitation to see what feels good for you, you know, like check in with your body.
• 51:06
  Polly Mertens: So so what would be the one thing that we want to leave our friendly folks with?
• 51:12
  Polly Mertens: That?
• 51:13
  Polly Mertens: What's one thing if they listen to this whole episode and they just wanted to take what's one takeaway?
• 51:19
  Polly Mertens: What do you think someone take away for them?
• 51:21
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, for me it's more of a call to action and I guess it's an awareness call to action for people to say yes to the fact there is something they want to be doing differently.
• 51:34
  Samantha Pruitt: It can be literally anything.
• 51:37
  Samantha Pruitt: Big or small is not even relevant.
• 51:39
  Samantha Pruitt: There is something they have been making excuses about changing or doing differently in their life and the question is we know you've got that thing, and some people have 10 things right, but whatever, the most important of those one things is if you don't ask yourself the question, how will I make this happen in my life?
• 52:01
  Samantha Pruitt: How will I make this change or this goal happen in my life If I don't make space for it?
• 52:06
  Samantha Pruitt: If you don't make space, it will not happen.
• 52:10
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, that's just real.
• 52:12
  Samantha Pruitt: It won't happen.
• 52:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, and the dream will never happen.
• 52:15
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and the counter to that is what will happen if I don't?
• 52:19
  Polly Mertens: What will my life look like?
• 52:22
  Polly Mertens: What will your life look like if you keep doing more of what you've done Right?
• 52:25
  Polly Mertens: Will it get more of the same or will it get worse?
• 52:31
  Samantha Pruitt: done right, will it get more of the same or?
• 52:32
  Polly Mertens: will it get worse?
• 52:33
  Polly Mertens: Right, it will get progressively worse, yeah, so this is a, a wake-up call.
• 52:35
  Polly Mertens: So I would say, you know, you and I as coaches, there's always homework, right.
• 52:38
  Polly Mertens: So I I feel like this assignment is um, having heard of the signs and symptoms, if you have, you know that going on in your life, you're raising your hand, you're like, damn, oh God, they're talking to me, okay, and you heard some of our ideas.
• 52:55
  Polly Mertens: You know what spoke to you, what jumped out at you, what do you already know?
• 52:59
  Polly Mertens: Oh, damn, I need to do that thing.
• 53:01
  Polly Mertens: And do it this week.
• 53:03
  Polly Mertens: Like do it in the next 48 hours.
• 53:05
  Polly Mertens: That's even the better scenario is like do that thing, take one step in that direction in the next 48 hours.
• 53:13
  Polly Mertens: It doesn't have to be massive.
• 53:13
  Polly Mertens: We're not saying, like you know, throw the whole schedule like minor or massive, depending on the pain that you're in, but do something in the next 48 hours a week at the latest, and take that action and let us know.
• 53:24
  Polly Mertens: Come share on social with us what you did.
• 53:26
  Polly Mertens: Tell us what you did, dm us whatever Like we'd love to hear about it.
• 53:30
  Samantha Pruitt: We need to hear about it.
• 53:32
  Samantha Pruitt: We're all.
• 53:33
  Samantha Pruitt: High fives are waiting.
• 53:35
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yes, all right, my dear.
• 53:37
  Polly Mertens: Well, this is super fun.
• 53:38
  Polly Mertens: So what do we want to remind our beautiful humans as we we sign off here?
• 53:44
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, this is really a drive home message for this episode, but how your life feels is more important than how it looks.
• 53:50
  Polly Mertens: Yes, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.
• 53:53
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, all right, thanks, lady.
• 53:56
  Polly Mertens: Thank you, darling.