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144: Tour du Mont Blanc: Moving Beyond Fear Into Adventure · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:27
  Samantha Pruitt: Hey superstars, welcome back.
• 0:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Polly here.
• 0:29
  Samantha Pruitt: And Sam Pruitt.
• 0:31
  Samantha Pruitt: What's up, beautiful humans?
• 0:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh my God.
• 0:34
  Samantha Pruitt: What do you think we're doing today?
• 0:38
  Polly Mertens: I'm feeling as you know, like I know the difference between nervous and excited, right?
• 0:42
  Polly Mertens: Like I remember when I learned the difference as a public speaker.
• 0:45
  Polly Mertens: People often say, like, I'm so nervous.
• 0:47
  Polly Mertens: I'm so nervous.
• 0:48
  Polly Mertens: And then I learned, like, actually, it's just excitement because your soul's about to express something.
• 0:51
  Polly Mertens: And so there's a bit of excitement over here because I know what's coming.
• 0:55
  Polly Mertens: What are we doing?
• 0:56
  Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
• 0:56
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm interviewing you today.
• 0:58
  Samantha Pruitt: I can't actually remember the last time I did that.
• 1:01
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm sure we've done it back and forth a few times, but Iron Man.
• 1:04
  Samantha Pruitt: We're on some ridiculous number of episodes on whatever the hell it's like.
• 1:08
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't quite have the memory I used to as a young woman, but today it's about you and it's in specifically about your Trell Mont-Blanc experience that you're about to undertake.
• 1:19
  Samantha Pruitt: A grand adventure that includes travel and physical activity at a very high level, you know, humping up and down mountains day after day after day, mile after mile, sleeping in strange places with new people, eating different food, like the whole thing has got so many layers to it.
• 1:38
  Samantha Pruitt: So today I get to interview you.
• 1:40
  Samantha Pruitt: We're going to talk about it a little of the specifics out of the gate, just so people can get familiar.
• 1:44
  Samantha Pruitt: But then we're going to dig into the good, yummy, gooey stuff, which is why are you doing this?
• 1:50
  Samantha Pruitt: And maybe hopefully inspire the listener to be like, huh, what about me?
• 1:58
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 1:59
  Polly Mertens: Please be thinking as you listen, like put put yourself either in the shoes or what what is what is anything that I share have to do with you and your life, right?
• 2:09
  Polly Mertens: This isn't about me.
• 2:11
  Polly Mertens: This is just me doing something, being up to something, sharing things.
• 2:14
  Polly Mertens: But listen for yourself for sure.
• 2:17
  Polly Mertens: I love that.
• 2:18
  Polly Mertens: I love that.
• 2:19
  Samantha Pruitt: Because this is a full expression of who you are, and that's one of the things we're going to dig into.
• 2:22
  Samantha Pruitt: So really that's what we're encouraging from the listener.
• 2:24
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, it can be their own version of Trailmont Blanc, but or like I did the JMT, right?
• 2:28
  Samantha Pruitt: But it's really what we're talking about, the essence of it is be a full expression of who you are in your life in the world, because that's what is needed, and that's what your soul deserves, right?
• 2:39
  Samantha Pruitt: For sure.
• 2:40
  Samantha Pruitt: That's really what this is.
• 2:42
  Samantha Pruitt: So where the hell are you going, lady?
• 2:44
  Samantha Pruitt: What are you doing?
• 2:45
  Polly Mertens: Okay, well, and I may not, you know what?
• 2:47
  Polly Mertens: It's funny.
• 2:47
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, do I even know the exact specifics?
• 2:49
  Polly Mertens: I'm not even sure.
• 2:50
  Polly Mertens: So it's called Tour de Mont Blanc.
• 2:53
  Polly Mertens: It is approximately 100-105 miles.
• 2:56
  Polly Mertens: It is, it starts.
• 2:57
  Polly Mertens: We're starting anyway.
• 2:59
  Polly Mertens: I'm going with a little tour, a couple friends and strangers, lots of strangers.
• 3:03
  Polly Mertens: It starts in Chamani Friends.
• 3:06
  Samantha Pruitt: And just hold right there.
• 3:08
  Samantha Pruitt: Right.
• 3:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 3:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Anyway, okay, keep going.
• 3:14
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:15
  Polly Mertens: Picture like like the Alps and like, you know, small villages and you know, yummy films.
• 3:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, Google that shit, people.
• 3:24
  Samantha Pruitt: Like you need to see a visual of what's about to go down.
• 3:28
  Polly Mertens: Pretty fucking epic starting point.
• 3:30
  Polly Mertens: If I do say so, myself.
• 3:32
  Polly Mertens: A lot better than some of the races.
• 3:33
  Polly Mertens: This isn't a race, by the way.
• 3:35
  Polly Mertens: Oh, that I should I should preface that.
• 3:36
  Polly Mertens: Somebody was telling yesterday and she's like, have a great race.
• 3:39
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, oh no, no, no, there's no racing.
• 3:41
  Polly Mertens: This is just this is a fun, a fun, epic thing.
• 3:44
  Polly Mertens: So starts in shamini, ends in shamini.
• 3:47
  Polly Mertens: It's 10 days, is what we're doing.
• 3:49
  Polly Mertens: Some people do it as a full backpacking experience.
• 3:52
  Polly Mertens: So backpacking outdoors, some people do it at the next grade, which is they backpack and then they stay in little huts or kind of like pensions, villages, whatever, dormitories.
• 4:02
  Polly Mertens: And then we're doing a little bit, a little bit up from that, which is our luggage will be transported.
• 4:06
  Polly Mertens: We'll be day hiking and then staying in some hotels, and then a couple places are pretty remote.
• 4:11
  Polly Mertens: So it's it is like four to a room kind of thing, but a little bit more comfortable than you know, 20 to a room or something like that.
• 4:20
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, the full hostel experience tends to be slightly barbaric.
• 4:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Not that we can't do it, but you know, yeah, yeah.
• 4:27
  Polly Mertens: So so it's I'd say about a little more than half of it feels like it's in France, and then about a third or a quarter of it's in Italy, and then crosses over into Switzerland.
• 4:37
  Polly Mertens: So this mountain, we go around it basically, up and down hills through villages, and it's pretty steep.
• 4:42
  Samantha Pruitt: Hills, dude.
• 4:43
  Samantha Pruitt: You mean freaking mountain?
• 4:44
  Samantha Pruitt: You're so funny.
• 4:45
  Samantha Pruitt: No, they're not hills, darling.
• 4:46
  Samantha Pruitt: You go up real deal mountains, like this whole thing is at high altitude, also.
• 4:51
  Samantha Pruitt: But yeah, in terms of the terrain, mountainous, big time.
• 4:56
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, you know, and that was some of the like little shift I had.
• 4:59
  Polly Mertens: So I did, and you've done two.
• 5:01
  Polly Mertens: So I did six days in 2022, the Trans Rockies race.
• 5:05
  Polly Mertens: That was actually a race, like a starting finish, you know, timed and everything.
• 5:09
  Polly Mertens: And it was six days, 120 miles, 20,000 feet of elevation gain.
• 5:12
  Polly Mertens: This one is 10 days, but looking at the elevation gain each day, that's like, whoa, okay, we're not okay, you know.
• 5:21
  Polly Mertens: So I was thinking about there was one day on like the hardest day in Trans Rockies was around 5,000 or 5,200 feet elevation gain in a single day.
• 5:33
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, damn, and this has a lot of those, you know.
• 5:37
  Polly Mertens: So it's like, okay, we're out for longer, you know, like six hours was what my max was on Trans Rocky, six hour days.
• 5:44
  Polly Mertens: This is like six is an average, nine sometimes.
• 5:48
  Polly Mertens: So it's steep, longer, but it's there's no freaking racing.
• 5:52
  Polly Mertens: It's like we might be an hour at a coffee stop, you know, we might, you know, enjoy the view and just take our shoes off for a little bit or whatever.
• 6:00
  Samantha Pruitt: So it's there's no racing, which is like, ha, it takes a little bit of the pressure off, of course, and it allows you to be fully in the experience and not looking at the clock or worried about your pace and really just enjoying and say really it feels savory.
• 6:17
  Samantha Pruitt: It feels decadent, is how I would describe it.
• 6:20
  Samantha Pruitt: Pure decadence.
• 6:21
  Samantha Pruitt: And I'm not even talking about the croissants, okay?
• 6:23
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm talking about like the decadence of the natural world being what you consume for seven, eight, nine, ten hours a day.
• 6:32
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, so good.
• 6:34
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm so jealous, girl.
• 6:35
  Samantha Pruitt: So good.
• 6:36
  Samantha Pruitt: It is on my bucket list.
• 6:38
  Samantha Pruitt: I'll get there one day, but you'll tell me all about it.
• 6:39
  Samantha Pruitt: And we'll go back there.
• 6:41
  Samantha Pruitt: I might need to go back.
• 6:42
  Samantha Pruitt: So yeah, yeah.
• 6:43
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:45
  Polly Mertens: So looking forward to it.
• 6:47
  Samantha Pruitt: You're going to travel there and then travel back, or do you have anything on the front and the back bookend?
• 6:53
  Polly Mertens: The only thing I added was a couple days in before.
• 6:56
  Polly Mertens: So traveling, and and then it was like, okay, well, I'll just pick a couple of days beforehand.
• 7:01
  Polly Mertens: Didn't even know when I booked the flight, but I was like, well, I'll just book the flight a few days before.
• 7:05
  Polly Mertens: Because I don't love, I'm like, I'm I was all, if I'm going that far, like I don't want to just like walk onto the mountain and then walk off.
• 7:11
  Polly Mertens: So I think I booked maybe three days before or something.
• 7:14
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, okay, well, what is there to do near this area?
• 7:17
  Polly Mertens: You know, literally, okay, so how it started, I was like, maybe I'll like, because it lands in Geneva and then Chamonix about an hour, hour and a half outside of it.
• 7:26
  Polly Mertens: I was like, well, if I land in Geneva, maybe I can like fly to, I don't know, Bosnia for a couple of days.
• 7:32
  Polly Mertens: And then I was like, oh, hold up.
• 7:34
  Polly Mertens: Then I realized that was a little, you know, I was like, maybe I can go visit my cousin in Germany for a few days.
• 7:39
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, I started doing the logistics.
• 7:42
  Polly Mertens: Like, nope, no, no, scale that back.
• 7:43
  Polly Mertens: Okay, what's within an hour of this?
• 7:45
  Polly Mertens: And so I can by train.
• 7:47
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and so I can enjoy it.
• 7:49
  Polly Mertens: So the little town that I found is a town, it's called the the Venice of France.
• 7:54
  Polly Mertens: Um little places have nicknames.
• 7:56
  Polly Mertens: It's called Anasi, A-N-N-E-C-Y, Anasi.
• 7:59
  Polly Mertens: Didn't never heard of it, whatever.
• 8:01
  Polly Mertens: Looks super cute.
• 8:02
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's on a lake and it's got you know a beautiful river, you know, flowing through.
• 8:07
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, it's yeah.
• 8:08
  Polly Mertens: So I'll let you know.
• 8:09
  Polly Mertens: I'll let you know.
• 8:11
  Samantha Pruitt: I love it.
• 8:11
  Samantha Pruitt: And you are gonna trade the train everywhere, right?
• 8:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, so there is train options, but because the towns are quite close, there's actually better like buses, shuttles.
• 8:20
  Polly Mertens: You know, so like picture a big super bus or whatever you want to call it.
• 8:24
  Samantha Pruitt: They get well you're good at navigating all of those things, so that is not a problem.
• 8:27
  Samantha Pruitt: It's already done.
• 8:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:29
  Samantha Pruitt: I already got it.
• 8:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, you've already downloaded the app called this.
• 8:34
  Polly Mertens: And that's the one thing of all the so I'm trying to remember the first.
• 8:37
  Polly Mertens: So I started traveling in Europe when I was in my twenties.
• 8:42
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I was in my twenties, you know, and so there was a lot of figuring that stuff out.
• 8:47
  Polly Mertens: There was not a lot of internet back then and backpacking days, and oh yeah, buy a your rail, that was like the big deal, and navigating that was like one pass, you know, and then it got me everywhere.
• 8:56
  Polly Mertens: Now I'm like, you know, and like over the arc of travel, there's so many things that you learn, not just navigating, but like the travel just makes me go, whatever's like whatever, you know.
• 9:08
  Polly Mertens: I and I I think that helps me more in life too, you know, just like whatever, it's late, or you know, whereas used to get all stressed about it.
• 9:17
  Polly Mertens: And I now laugh, not laugh, but I I have compassion for people, especially because my energy, like I'm intentional as I approach the airport.
• 9:26
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's sort of like when your brain is fearful of doing something for the first time, whether that's running a new race, meeting a new person for a first date, giving a presentation on state, whatever, right?
• 9:40
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear.
• 9:41
  Polly Mertens: So I've done enough airport trips, not only just being in them, but I recognize the anxiety that it would create in me and in other people.
• 9:48
  Polly Mertens: And so I'm just like this calm force when I get to an airport.
• 9:52
  Polly Mertens: I'm just like, yep, it's all good.
• 9:55
  Polly Mertens: I've done this, not only have done it a few times, but it doesn't help.
• 9:58
  Polly Mertens: It does not help to be that state.
• 10:01
  Polly Mertens: Doesn't make the plane get there any faster.
• 10:03
  Polly Mertens: It actually doesn't make you get there any better.
• 10:05
  Samantha Pruitt: If anything, you lose cognitive one up on the calm, because I know you do do that.
• 10:10
  Samantha Pruitt: We both do that, but also the joy.
• 10:12
  Samantha Pruitt: You show up into the space and you're like, hey, what's up?
• 10:15
  Samantha Pruitt: Look at me doing this crap.
• 10:16
  Samantha Pruitt: Whoo, you know, like you start engaging with the energy around you because you can hold your container calm, cool, collected, but you got to mix with some cray cray energy when you travel, dude.
• 10:30
  Samantha Pruitt: It's next level, okay.
• 10:31
  Samantha Pruitt: Like getting on a plane, I'm fine, but who is this and what in the hell is going on right next to me, right?
• 10:36
  Samantha Pruitt: So when you put together a different energy out into the space external as well, you get something totally different back.
• 10:43
  Samantha Pruitt: And it's so good.
• 10:45
  Polly Mertens: I'm just like a Buddha walking through the airport exactly, dude.
• 10:48
  Polly Mertens: Like this is all good, you know, and then I see people in varying degrees.
• 10:52
  Polly Mertens: Now I'm not, you know, navigating three children falling, you know, with all of their stuff or whatever.
• 10:57
  Polly Mertens: So I'm just, you know, taking care of this human, if you will.
• 11:00
  Polly Mertens: But I'm I've got capacity for anybody else that doesn't, you know, and I can just be with okay, you know, and just send them some love or whatever.
• 11:09
  Polly Mertens: But my space and the orbit around me, we're good.
• 11:12
  Samantha Pruitt: We're good, people.
• 11:13
  Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
• 11:15
  Samantha Pruitt: And that's what we plan on attracting for the entire journey.
• 11:18
  Samantha Pruitt: Heck yeah, yeah.
• 11:19
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, the biggest reason we're talking today is we do want to tell people about that stuff, and we'll just maybe talk about really I want to get into the why.
• 11:27
  Samantha Pruitt: That's the most important part because that's really the most fascinating piece.
• 11:31
  Samantha Pruitt: But real quick before we jump there, can you give just a brief how did you train for this?
• 11:37
  Samantha Pruitt: What was your intentional way of taking care of your body or your brain or your spirit, etc., in order to get prepared for something of this magnitude?
• 11:47
  Polly Mertens: Well, I'll tell you what I remember.
• 11:49
  Polly Mertens: Maybe as I start speaking, some more things will be remembered.
• 11:53
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, thankfully, I've done quite a bit of hiking in my day.
• 11:57
  Polly Mertens: So that's not usually where I, you know, it wasn't a new skill you had to learn.
• 12:02
  Polly Mertens: No, no, you know, training for Trans Rocky, running a lot of Spartan races, adventure races, just hiking in general.
• 12:08
  Polly Mertens: So that Trans Rocky race probably prepared me the most experientially, right?
• 12:13
  Polly Mertens: Like, oh, I had to train for that.
• 12:14
  Polly Mertens: And okay, what did that look like?
• 12:16
  Polly Mertens: And I was grateful to have you, you know, some coaching and support for you of like what my workouts could look like and how to adjust.
• 12:22
  Polly Mertens: This isn't, no, I might have this wrong, but I believe I looked this up.
• 12:26
  Polly Mertens: The highest point on the whole trek isn't more than 8,500 feet.
• 12:30
  Polly Mertens: So this isn't high, high elevation.
• 12:32
  Polly Mertens: It's not like we're Trez Rocky's was like running like nine to 11 or something, nine to twelve, maybe was what that was.
• 12:38
  Polly Mertens: So I don't, I'm not like, oh, high out super high altitude, you know, like I'm gonna be in it a long time.
• 12:44
  Polly Mertens: So that's reassuring.
• 12:46
  Polly Mertens: And I think Chamonix is like 3,500.
• 12:48
  Polly Mertens: Is that not even at four or something like that?
• 12:50
  Polly Mertens: Or maybe it's at four.
• 12:51
  Polly Mertens: So that wasn't a big thing.
• 12:54
  Polly Mertens: The what what were some of my thoughts?
• 12:57
  Polly Mertens: You know, definitely multi-day is something you have to consider, you know.
• 13:02
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I'm a gym goer, so I do my strength trainings, and you know, I was looking to increase and I appreciated your workouts that you gave me, you know, in support of getting my VO2 max so I could, you know, lower the heart rate and stuff.
• 13:14
  Polly Mertens: So I was doing some running on treadmills, long, long, not long, not steep hikes, but trying to slow my ass down on long hikes and the long hikes, and it's not a distance thing, so uh you start to shift when you get into distances like this from how many miles can I cover to let me go out on my feet.
• 13:36
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 13:36
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 13:37
  Polly Mertens: So I learned that in Trans Rockies.
• 13:38
  Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, I'm just going out for six hours today or five hours today or three hours today, and however long that is, right?
• 13:44
  Polly Mertens: And you just you try to figure out what mountain can you accomplish that much in that amount of time.
• 13:48
  Polly Mertens: Plus or minus, of course.
• 13:50
  Polly Mertens: So doing single days leading up to double days back to back, doing the strength two to three days a week, and listening to my body.
• 13:58
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm so over a strict regimen that doesn't account for how this body's doing with all of the, you know, I'm building a business right now, too, right?
• 14:06
  Polly Mertens: Like the kind of business I'm launching, my coaching business is growing and doing, you know, expanding into new areas.
• 14:12
  Polly Mertens: So it's like, yeah, a lot of a lot of mental and spiritual and uh energetic energy is being applied there.
• 14:19
  Polly Mertens: So it was exactly yeah, like there's days where I'm like not doing what I plan to do today and totally okay with that.
• 14:26
  Polly Mertens: Or coming home and you know, as a post-menopausal woman, like like I'll go do a workout.
• 14:31
  Polly Mertens: I wasn't gonna throw that in, but I'm glad you did because it's relevant.
• 14:35
  Polly Mertens: Mm-hmm.
• 14:35
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 14:36
  Polly Mertens: So sometimes like I have find I'll go do my workout in the morning, and then it's like, oh, you know what?
• 14:41
  Polly Mertens: I think I need to lay down for 20 minutes before, you know, like like somewhere around 9 or 10 a.m.
• 14:45
  Polly Mertens: I just need a little like a little cushion and then I'm then I'm fine, you know?
• 14:50
  Polly Mertens: And some people it's in the afternoon, sometimes I do that in the afternoon, but working with and that we just recently were learning about energy in the body, and we did an episode on energy medicine and in reviewing that, I'm seeing how that I was aware of that somewhat intuitively, like how much energy my body physically has during the day, like if it's like spending more mentally or emotionally or on the treadmill or on the mountain, right?
• 15:17
  Polly Mertens: Like not over exerting, right?
• 15:20
  Polly Mertens: And I'm a huge fan of rest.
• 15:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, recovery is what I want to call it because people confuse the the things, right?
• 15:29
  Samantha Pruitt: And when life is very demanding, in this instance, you were training for this big thing and launching a business and taking care of the needs of other people.
• 15:39
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, you know, life is full.
• 15:40
  Samantha Pruitt: You're that kind of person, you don't really have a lot of extra breathing room on your calendar throughout the day, right?
• 15:46
  Samantha Pruitt: So figuring out, well, how am I gonna still do this goal?
• 15:52
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, how am I gonna work towards it and create some additional workload, physically in this case, to take on, you know, an athletic event of this nature, right?
• 16:00
  Samantha Pruitt: But how am I gonna have enough energy to do that?
• 16:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, if you're not recovering, and recovery is a physical thing, it's a real legitimate physical thing, people.
• 16:10
  Samantha Pruitt: And as you transition over your lifetime, age, different things happen within your physical body.
• 16:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Like it just looks different, and it becomes more and more and more critical that you do it and you do it well, and then to recover mentally, emotionally, etc., at the same time as you're doing a lot of thinking, a lot of brain work.
• 16:31
  Samantha Pruitt: You're doing a lot of brain work right now, and you're doing a lot of computer work and things that are very focused and intentional related to your professional life, you know.
• 16:39
  Samantha Pruitt: And then of course servicing others, coaching others and taking care of others.
• 16:43
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, so the emotional, you know, demands there.
• 16:45
  Samantha Pruitt: And so finding recovery in those pockets throughout your day.
• 16:49
  Samantha Pruitt: And I think you were really disciplined this time about getting that recovery in, as far as I could see.
• 16:53
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and I think, you know, looking externally at I had a training partner who was just foot on the gas all the time.
• 17:01
  Polly Mertens: I call them all gas, no break, you know, and I was like, yeah, well, I'll be taking today off, you know, I won't be joining you in that workout or whatever, you know, and and that was okay.
• 17:09
  Polly Mertens: And so it's, you know, I think as an elite athlete over the years, you know, in endurance things and whatnot, learning to just learning your own body, learning what works for you, not having to be you did, I saw you do this in your Iron Man training.
• 17:23
  Polly Mertens: Your coach was like and you're like, nope, won't be doing that, right?
• 17:27
  Polly Mertens: And like find what works for you.
• 17:30
  Polly Mertens: And I think the one thing I would say to this A, we talked a little bit about how comfortable I am going into an airport or getting on a place that I've never been or whatever.
• 17:40
  Polly Mertens: And then, you know, having done trans Rockies, I don't have that level of fear because I've had, you know, enough.
• 17:45
  Polly Mertens: And so, and having done last year at Mount Whitney, I'm like, I just have a knowing.
• 17:50
  Polly Mertens: And knowing, not like like I know I can do it, but like like an inner knowing, like, yeah, I got this.
• 17:56
  Polly Mertens: And yeah, I'm conditioning, like I'm conditioning my body, but I'm also trusting and knowing that if I couldn't do it, I would feel in my body that I I probably shouldn't do this.
• 18:05
  Polly Mertens: So I'm trusting that knowing and judging each day, each week, what's needed.
• 18:11
  Polly Mertens: What what more is this okay to pull back?
• 18:13
  Polly Mertens: Do I should I do more?
• 18:14
  Polly Mertens: Do you know, do I need more flexibility?
• 18:16
  Polly Mertens: Do I need a massage?
• 18:17
  Polly Mertens: You know, do I need to stretch more?
• 18:19
  Polly Mertens: You know, what have you?
• 18:20
  Samantha Pruitt: So and a big part of that is having an understanding about your psychology, your mindset, and how you can operate under stress and load, or when you should and when you shouldn't, and all those kind of things, and then ultimately what you're capable of, right?
• 18:39
  Samantha Pruitt: Because of all of those things, all of the work that's done over an entire lifetime, not just in a training season.
• 18:47
  Samantha Pruitt: I remember having a moment out on the GMT while I was like sort of, you know, falling over a rock, just sort of exhausted and like, how am I gonna get up this mountain?
• 18:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Why is it taking so long?
• 18:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Ah, you know, like having one of those moments, which there wasn't very many.
• 19:02
  Samantha Pruitt: So when it happened, I was a little bit shocked.
• 19:04
  Samantha Pruitt: And having a talk with myself, I think I did a video on it, but it was about dude talking to myself, okay.
• 19:13
  Samantha Pruitt: Do you you have a resume that you've forgotten about?
• 19:18
  Samantha Pruitt: And the resume is not just athletic accomplishments that are fucking epic and really hard physical things, but it's like hello, because I'm doing a life inventory right now.
• 19:28
  Samantha Pruitt: All the things that you have also come through psychologically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, like what this mountain is not.
• 19:38
  Samantha Pruitt: Are you kidding me right now?
• 19:39
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, this mountain ain't taking you down.
• 19:42
  Samantha Pruitt: Get a grip.
• 19:43
  Samantha Pruitt: And I just ended up laughing my ass off, and then of course, charging up the mountain.
• 19:46
  Samantha Pruitt: But you do have to sometimes do those inventories.
• 19:49
  Samantha Pruitt: We call it taking inventory, right?
• 19:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Before you do something really hard.
• 19:52
  Samantha Pruitt: It's helpful to reflect back, and sometimes it's in the moment when it's a clusterfuck and you don't know why you're doing what you're doing.
• 19:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And sometimes it's good to do it before as a refresher.
• 20:03
  Samantha Pruitt: So I have a big question for you.
• 20:06
  Polly Mertens: Can I speak to that just for one second?
• 20:08
  Polly Mertens: Yes, of course.
• 20:09
  Polly Mertens: One thing I wanted to add was I'm doing various forms of code, you know, I had been a primarily per personal coach, right?
• 20:16
  Polly Mertens: And now more business coaching.
• 20:18
  Polly Mertens: And then I had this opportunity show up with a gal who's a co-founder of a company and is in both needing both camps, personal and professional.
• 20:26
  Polly Mertens: And one of the things I was thinking about in bridging her next level for her, her next dynamic was, you know, helping all of us, right?
• 20:36
  Polly Mertens: The dimension of leadership that you are in the world is attributable to your self-leadership, right?
• 20:42
  Polly Mertens: So what you were just what you were saying is, huh?
• 20:46
  Samantha Pruitt: It's everything.
• 20:47
  Samantha Pruitt: If that ain't there, you can't do the other.
• 20:52
  Samantha Pruitt: If that ain't there, hello, people, you can't do the other.
• 20:56
  Samantha Pruitt: Like it's just not gonna work out.
• 20:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 21:00
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm saying this in a very nice, loving way.
• 21:02
  Polly Mertens: And I think part, you know, it's interesting you were asking me before we started, like, you know, well, what's the background and why do I do these things?
• 21:10
  Polly Mertens: And I'm just discovering as I'm sharing this, like, I think these things help me rediscover and you know, have greater confidence, knowing in myself, so that as I coach, as I lead, as I am a you know, person in the world, a figure, a guide, whatever, like I I know that because of what I've done on these trails, you know, or in a mountain or in a race or whatever.
• 21:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Or just traveling globally in some random country on a freaking, you know, train and you can't read anything because nothing's in English and nobody speaks English.
• 21:43
  Samantha Pruitt: It's like, oh, okay.
• 21:45
  Polly Mertens: Well, you know, because you and especially solo.
• 21:48
  Polly Mertens: You know, I've done a lot of solo travel.
• 21:50
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 21:50
  Polly Mertens: So I think that's just I wanted to double click on what you were saying is like that self-leadership, like that inner monologue and how you coach yourself through those highs and lows.
• 22:00
  Polly Mertens: And and, you know, it's it's a muscle, it's a developed skill, if you will.
• 22:05
  Polly Mertens: It's something that you graduate yourself through, having gone through ups and downs.
• 22:10
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I know that you've had you and I've both had like hiccups and failures and detours and all that stuff, and that gave us.
• 22:19
  Polly Mertens: Greater inner confidence and self-leadership.
• 22:21
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 22:22
  Polly Mertens: So good.
• 22:24
  Samantha Pruitt: So it's also your birthday.
• 22:27
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, it is very right.
• 22:28
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't know.
• 22:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Initially, I think you had intention around this being around your birthday or that solidified well, it maybe solidified the deal to say yes or something.
• 22:39
  Polly Mertens: No.
• 22:39
  Samantha Pruitt: No?
• 22:40
  Polly Mertens: No.
• 22:40
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 22:40
  Polly Mertens: I it just occurred.
• 22:42
  Polly Mertens: Like, so how the legit the timing was not to say anyway, a friend of mine booked a trip with his friend.
• 22:50
  Polly Mertens: I told him about Mont Blanc, and he and his friend booked it.
• 22:53
  Polly Mertens: And he was my training partner when we did Mount Whitney last year.
• 22:56
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, oh, you're going?
• 22:57
  Polly Mertens: Wait, I'm going, you know.
• 22:58
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, when is it?
• 23:00
  Polly Mertens: I'll just book with you guys, you know.
• 23:02
  Polly Mertens: Like, and so it happened to be the flight or the first day of it was September 6th.
• 23:06
  Polly Mertens: So my birthday is September 5th.
• 23:07
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, well, look at that timing.
• 23:09
  Polly Mertens: You know, and then adding Happy birthday to me.
• 23:12
  Polly Mertens: And what I love is I have a since I was 30, I was on a, I didn't know it at the time, but when I turned 30, I was on a train between Venice and Florence.
• 23:26
  Polly Mertens: And I went, look at me traveling on my 30th birthday.
• 23:28
  Polly Mertens: I remember going, oh, this is going to be a thing.
• 23:30
  Polly Mertens: And then I was intentional on my 40th birthday.
• 23:32
  Polly Mertens: I was in Bali.
• 23:34
  Polly Mertens: My 50th birthday, I was in Croatia, right?
• 23:36
  Polly Mertens: So I have this thing on my zero birthdays, not always traveling in between, but then I was like, look at me on my five.
• 23:43
  Polly Mertens: Maybe I'll make that like a little other trip.
• 23:45
  Polly Mertens: So maybe I'll do fives and zeros.
• 23:46
  Polly Mertens: So that just worked out.
• 23:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I love it.
• 23:49
  Polly Mertens: I'm turning 55.
• 23:50
  Polly Mertens: I'm turning 55, September 5th.
• 23:53
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, you're just a wee baby, just a wee lassie.
• 23:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:56
  Samantha Pruitt: What an incredible way to spend your birthday.
• 23:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And I do know you do other rituals on your birthday and you put great intention to how you reflect on a year of your past life and then move into the next year of your life.
• 24:10
  Samantha Pruitt: It's not just a January, December sort of end of your calendar y thing, right?
• 24:14
  Samantha Pruitt: But for this particular birthday, the five five.
• 24:18
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 24:20
  Samantha Pruitt: And you're going to be going on this particular excursion, like, can you identify or have you identified as of yet what intention you may be setting or what your particular vision is for this particular birthday experience?
• 24:39
  Polly Mertens: So I was thinking a little bit about that this morning.
• 24:42
  Polly Mertens: So I came out of my meditation with that question in mind.
• 24:46
  Polly Mertens: And what kind of poured out of me was so this year, my word of the year is wonder.
• 24:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 24:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 24:52
  Polly Mertens: That that came to me almost a year ago.
• 24:54
  Polly Mertens: So this year's word is wonder.
• 24:57
  Polly Mertens: So I mean, can you imagine anything better than being on TMB with the word wonder, like as your lenses through which you're seeing?
• 25:05
  Polly Mertens: Like wonder, like amazing.
• 25:06
  Polly Mertens: So and I had that word, did I have that before Whitney?
• 25:10
  Polly Mertens: I think I had that before Whitney last year.
• 25:12
  Polly Mertens: So just right right around this time.
• 25:14
  Polly Mertens: So here's what I what came out of me after that, and we can add to this.
• 25:19
  Polly Mertens: So wonder.
• 25:20
  Polly Mertens: So my intentions for the TMB, wonder, bliss, okay, connect with magic and beauty, to be fully present.
• 25:27
  Polly Mertens: So I'm listening to a lot of Ram Das lately, and it's all about be here now, right?
• 25:31
  Polly Mertens: So be fully present, fully alive.
• 25:34
  Polly Mertens: Because as as you and I are in this course, you're in the course, you know, year to live, the more present we are to this precious day, this precious life, right?
• 25:44
  Polly Mertens: So to be fully present to this experience.
• 25:46
  Polly Mertens: Probably won't be, possibly we'll be walking on this mountain again with you.
• 25:49
  Polly Mertens: But if I that doesn't happen, enjoy that snot out of it while it is.
• 25:54
  Polly Mertens: And here's what else was it was like to be authentic and speak my truth.
• 25:59
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 25:59
  Polly Mertens: Be me, fully me, and hold nothing back.
• 26:03
  Polly Mertens: And we were starting to unpack that a little bit together, and I'll keep I have a couple more, but feel love for humans, planet, and all the creatures.
• 26:11
  Polly Mertens: And I should say feel and flow, because I love when love, love flows through me.
• 26:17
  Polly Mertens: To have my kitties well loved and cared for, because they will be cared for while I'm away.
• 26:22
  Samantha Pruitt: Yep.
• 26:23
  Polly Mertens: And this one is a little bit along the lines of, you know, staying in the wonder, staying in the magic, which is to receive whatever the universe knows is best for me with love and peace in my heart.
• 26:35
  Polly Mertens: And then I wrote down the surrender experiment because one of my favorite teachers, Michael Singer, the author of, you know, that beautiful book, Tethered Soul.
• 26:43
  Polly Mertens: The surrender experiment.
• 26:45
  Polly Mertens: So I've been like, I want to go back and before I jump on that plane to like what how does he frame it?
• 26:51
  Polly Mertens: I haven't listened to it in five or six years.
• 26:53
  Polly Mertens: So I want to, so there's some sort of a surrendering in these 10 days and more, you know.
• 27:01
  Samantha Pruitt: I love it.
• 27:01
  Samantha Pruitt: I love it.
• 27:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, to be in wonder, you know, there's so many possibilities there, because it can be the visual experience, seeing nature, etc.
• 27:11
  Samantha Pruitt: But it's also just to be in wonder of how your body feels and what is going on internally, not just externally.
• 27:20
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, wonder is not just what we see or how we perceive others in the world and things happening outside of us, but wonder is also like, what in the hell is going on in there?
• 27:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Inner journey.
• 27:33
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 27:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, totally.
• 27:35
  Samantha Pruitt: And to be able to do both of those things is gonna be where that, in my opinion, where that real like integration or personal internal growth comes from, right?
• 27:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Is to be able to be in the that external and interiorscape conversation, you know, which is so personal, it's so freaking intimate, by the way.
• 27:55
  Samantha Pruitt: It's so intimate, it's the most intimate thing you can do with yourself is just get to know yourself and to become your own love.
• 28:06
  Samantha Pruitt: Right?
• 28:08
  Polly Mertens: I was thinking about some of the things I remember from your interview after you came back from the JMT.
• 28:12
  Polly Mertens: So go listen to that episode.
• 28:14
  Polly Mertens: And what as you were starting to say that, I was thinking about, you know, this be fully me, be me, nothing held back.
• 28:20
  Polly Mertens: Is I've been in my meditations and in my just thought process thinking about what layers of ego, ego meaning the personality, that's Polly, the ways of that I see myself or I think of myself as um as a human, not as a spiritual being or a soul.
• 28:38
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, what layers of the onion can I peel away of those identities?
• 28:45
  Polly Mertens: Identities, yeah, stories that allow more of me, all of me, to be fully realized.
• 28:52
  Polly Mertens: And because it's not, you know, sometimes I was actually writing a proposal this morning for a new coaching client, and I was like, help people live their best life or best selves.
• 29:01
  Polly Mertens: And the more I think about it, it's like just be themselves.
• 29:04
  Polly Mertens: Like, like we're already we're born whole and complete, right?
• 29:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Know thyself, yeah, and then be thyself.
• 29:12
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 29:12
  Samantha Pruitt: Because half the battle is knowing thyself without rejecting, judging, denying, you know, all the busyness of the world.
• 29:21
  Samantha Pruitt: Can't busy be I don't know what's going on here because I'm so busy, right?
• 29:24
  Samantha Pruitt: And then the being of the self, like the actual evolution of the being, not like I'm gonna be who I was 10 years ago.
• 29:32
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't even I don't even know who I was yesterday.
• 29:34
  Samantha Pruitt: What the hell are we talking about?
• 29:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Right, but how can I continue to be and become the best me?
• 29:40
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I love it.
• 29:41
  Samantha Pruitt: That's good, dude.
• 29:42
  Samantha Pruitt: That's so good.
• 29:44
  Polly Mertens: So glad we're talking about this.
• 29:45
  Polly Mertens: I'll probably re-listen to this in your own interview.
• 29:48
  Samantha Pruitt: You're like, wait, what was that?
• 29:50
  Samantha Pruitt: What?
• 29:50
  Samantha Pruitt: So, one of the things you mentioned I want to uh double back on is when you do go out because you travel is your calling.
• 29:57
  Samantha Pruitt: So we talked a little bit and we're sort of laughing, but it's true.
• 30:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Like you got a phone call.
• 30:02
  Samantha Pruitt: There was a calling.
• 30:03
  Samantha Pruitt: Hey, Polly, right?
• 30:04
  Samantha Pruitt: And this is a calling you get a lot, which is it's time to travel, it's time to go above and beyond into the world.
• 30:12
  Samantha Pruitt: And you love to travel all over the world, you're not like you know, let me travel Los Angeles, like you know, your travel is extreme in all these places, and you'll continue to do it.
• 30:22
  Samantha Pruitt: It's just a big part of the fabric of your being.
• 30:24
  Samantha Pruitt: So, what part of that, the travel and the being submerged in other cultures or in new places, or the complete unknown or whatever, the strangers, the all the things, what about that is is calling you?
• 30:40
  Polly Mertens: Uh if I don't answer that question, come back.
• 30:42
  Polly Mertens: But what was starting to percolate is is like when you said, you know, like it's who I'm being, it's a part of I was like, I think wander, like if you could have like, you know, there's like little tiny type on stuff sometimes and you don't really see it.
• 30:53
  Polly Mertens: I think there's little tiny type on my DNA that says wanderlust.
• 30:56
  Polly Mertens: It's like it's hard-coded, written in my DNA.
• 31:00
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, I'm a student of gene keys and human design.
• 31:03
  Polly Mertens: And in my chart, my body graph, one of my core areas is 35, which is the gift is so the shadow work is hunger, like like never enough, like hungering, right?
• 31:15
  Polly Mertens: And then look at it, had an eating disorder.
• 31:16
  Polly Mertens: Like, how's that?
• 31:17
  Polly Mertens: How's that for you?
• 31:18
  Polly Mertens: But the gift is adventure, right?
• 31:21
  Polly Mertens: And then boundlessness is the city.
• 31:23
  Polly Mertens: But so adventure is is like what I'm here for.
• 31:27
  Polly Mertens: It's you know, it's I said earlier before we hit record, is like some people have that that urge or that calling to be a mother or to be whatever, start this or passionate about, you know, creating something that saves the planet, yeah, whatever, going to the moon, whatever.
• 31:43
  Polly Mertens: And mine is just like, just get me on a train plane automobile somewhere.
• 31:48
  Polly Mertens: Like, and the calling is from within.
• 31:51
  Polly Mertens: It's I mean, a little bit of how it shows up, because this is, I think, us interacting with the universe, is like I hear something or I see a picture or whatever, but then it's like the picture and like it, it it it's almost like the compass is inside, and then when something lines up with it on the outside, a picture of something, a war hearing of a story about something, I go, whoop, and it just hit the north star or north point inside of me, and it's like, oh, that's it, you know.
• 32:16
  Polly Mertens: So, and it was like I knew you and I have been talking about the Tour de Mont Blanc for years, and when our my friend said, I'm signed up for it, I'm doing, I'm like, oh, ding, ding, ding, I'll be doing that, you know.
• 32:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Yep, didn't even hesitate.
• 32:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Didn't even hesitate, didn't ask any permission, and this calling that you have this, you know, wander typed into your DNA, which it it is, you know.
• 32:41
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm sure if we go back into your DNA, it would be like, oh, this is making perfect sense for you now at 55 soon to be, not quite, but you know, you're right on the cusp of it.
• 32:54
  Samantha Pruitt: How do you feel that wander feeds you?
• 32:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, does it feed your soul, your spirit?
• 33:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Does it help you?
• 33:01
  Samantha Pruitt: What's the personal growth piece of it?
• 33:03
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, what does it give you?
• 33:06
  Polly Mertens: Well, part of it is it's like an itch that is so loud you have to scratch it.
• 33:12
  Polly Mertens: So there's like a you can't deny it type of thing.
• 33:15
  Polly Mertens: It's like somebody who just is that, like they have to like somebody has a singer inside of them.
• 33:21
  Polly Mertens: They have to be singing, you know, or playing music or something.
• 33:24
  Polly Mertens: It's like it's or part of them is dying.
• 33:27
  Polly Mertens: If they're not answering it, yeah.
• 33:29
  Polly Mertens: So I I go, yeah, I would be pretty unfulfilled, right?
• 33:35
  Polly Mertens: So it's a part of what fulfills me for whatever reason.
• 33:39
  Polly Mertens: And then the growth part of it is, you know, there's other aspects I talked about in my gene keys.
• 33:44
  Polly Mertens: One of them is the path of discovery.
• 33:46
  Polly Mertens: Like I discover and I experiment and I experience life.
• 33:49
  Polly Mertens: And so my personal growth is not just here in my home and like working on stuff and limiting beliefs and reading things in books and stuff like that, but like the growth of being out in the world, I I never really know.
• 34:02
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I've had callings to go, like I had a one to visit Vietnam, the kind of like the trifecta was like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.
• 34:10
  Polly Mertens: I had that.
• 34:10
  Polly Mertens: Or in Thailand for 15 years.
• 34:13
  Polly Mertens: It was just like in the back of the mind.
• 34:15
  Polly Mertens: It was like, okay, I'm and then, and who knows?
• 34:18
  Polly Mertens: And what did I discover?
• 34:20
  Polly Mertens: Some cool cultures and things like that.
• 34:22
  Polly Mertens: But it's the moving through these places is just it's not that I'm on fire when I'm doing it.
• 34:30
  Polly Mertens: I'm just on purpose.
• 34:32
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm like the singer who needs to sing when they're singing, they just know that they're like they don't feel any like they need to be anywhere else but doing that, right?
• 34:43
  Polly Mertens: And it's not yeah, I guess I just want to describe it like that.
• 34:48
  Polly Mertens: It's like I know I'm supposed to be doing this, like I'm supposed to do it for the planet or something, you know.
• 34:54
  Samantha Pruitt: But when you're there in this space doing it, it almost sounds like there is a vibration, speaking about energy again, that's happening in your cells, like when you're in the experience doing the thing, right?
• 35:08
  Samantha Pruitt: Like the magnet and metal, right?
• 35:11
  Samantha Pruitt: And then they're like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 35:16
  Samantha Pruitt: That's the vision I got of your cells, like responding to being in that place.
• 35:21
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 35:22
  Samantha Pruitt: That vibration, I'm sure it doesn't feel high intensity anxiety ridden.
• 35:27
  Samantha Pruitt: It feels very calm and soothing, but very like again, at home.
• 35:31
  Samantha Pruitt: Like I feel like you're getting a calling to go home.
• 35:33
  Samantha Pruitt: And home for you, what I know about you is travel, is the globe.
• 35:38
  Samantha Pruitt: It's not your four walls where you happen to live.
• 35:42
  Samantha Pruitt: That's your nest where you hang out and you nest a lot, but then you go home, which is this much bigger space.
• 35:49
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 35:50
  Polly Mertens: And it yeah, and so the growth is well, it's just doing what you're meant to do, is what it starts to feel like is like it's a calling, right?
• 35:59
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, some people it's you know, like writing music, like whatever.
• 36:03
  Polly Mertens: It's like I'm just doing what I'm supposed to be doing on this planet, and I think I would be starving my soul if I, you know, like I can remember.
• 36:12
  Polly Mertens: I mean, like I have left jobs and have been, you know, my financial, you know, ups and down has been guided by I can't have just two weeks of vacation a year.
• 36:24
  Polly Mertens: I can't fucking do that.
• 36:26
  Polly Mertens: I'm sorry, like I can't sit within those constraints, you know.
• 36:29
  Polly Mertens: It's like exactly so compelling that I'm willing to give up the security and the stability and the whatever the career path.
• 36:37
  Polly Mertens: And that would be, I mean, I don't think it would be great.
• 36:40
  Polly Mertens: Like it sounds horrible to me.
• 36:41
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, oh, that'd be great if I could just have that.
• 36:43
  Polly Mertens: It's like, no, I couldn't.
• 36:44
  Polly Mertens: But I with that comes the ability to do what feels best to me.
• 36:49
  Polly Mertens: And like one year I took, went to Asia for seven weeks.
• 36:53
  Polly Mertens: Like, seven weeks.
• 36:55
  Polly Mertens: And and you know, some of this came out of I remember it was in my 30s, and my aunt and uncle, who I don't, they were they were must have been right around retirement, and they had a love of travel and enjoyed traveling, and they have kids in different parts of the world, so they would go and see their grandkids and stuff.
• 37:10
  Polly Mertens: And as they came to retirement, my I remember my aunt and I on a call one time, and or she wrote me a letter or something saying, like, you need to be traveling now because we are seeing how we've waited, you know, you know, they waited to the end, and it's hard to fly on planes and it's hard to get around as much, and we just don't feel as energetic to be trumpsing up and doing all this stuff.
• 37:34
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, oh, hold up, you know.
• 37:36
  Polly Mertens: And then of course, at the time, around that time, I read the four-week, four-hour work week, which was like, don't he call them many retirements, right?
• 37:44
  Polly Mertens: It's like living your life, don't saving the best for the last, which is what my aunt, you know, made me aware of.
• 37:53
  Polly Mertens: So I had this regular work life, travel life balance because I believe life is to be lived along the way, not saved for someday, and and then you do it.
• 38:05
  Polly Mertens: So that's part of what's driving it.
• 38:07
  Samantha Pruitt: If you can do it, and if your life is that long, which none of us know, right?
• 38:12
  Samantha Pruitt: Another part of this year to live is like we don't know.
• 38:14
  Samantha Pruitt: So all of us pretending that we know how it's gonna end is ludicrous.
• 38:20
  Samantha Pruitt: 14 years and seven days.
• 38:21
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, who knows?
• 38:22
  Polly Mertens: You might have four days, like, right?
• 38:24
  Polly Mertens: You know, yeah, totally.
• 38:26
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, totally, dude.
• 38:27
  Polly Mertens: That's so good.
• 38:28
  Polly Mertens: And I think as I go, like I said, the zeros and the fives now.
• 38:32
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, oh, zero and five, and hold up like next year.
• 38:35
  Polly Mertens: I'm already thinking, I'm already, you know, corralling friends, like, hey, there's some other things I want to get up to, right?
• 38:40
  Polly Mertens: And it sounds ludicrous because it's like, where am I gonna come up with the time or the money?
• 38:44
  Polly Mertens: Like, I got a business and you know, finances and stuff.
• 38:47
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, I just don't let anything get in the way.
• 38:49
  Polly Mertens: It's just like there, it will be there.
• 38:51
  Polly Mertens: It's going to happen, you know.
• 38:53
  Samantha Pruitt: So it's one way, yeah.
• 38:55
  Samantha Pruitt: And for you know, the listener, it can be whatever that thing is.
• 38:59
  Samantha Pruitt: For you, it is travel, right?
• 39:01
  Samantha Pruitt: It can be something else.
• 39:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Like for me, when you were saying that, what was repeatedly ringing true for me in the same vein is just this commitment to my health and fitness being my highest priority, and then everything else is secondary.
• 39:13
  Samantha Pruitt: And that does include work and making money and having things and having security or having a certain type of lifestyle or job or whatever the hell it is, right?
• 39:22
  Samantha Pruitt: There's always got to be some sort of, because we live in a very traditional Western world, some sort of, you know, give and take around that.
• 39:29
  Samantha Pruitt: And all of us get to decide what that is.
• 39:34
  Polly Mertens: You know what I just realized as you were sharing that is when you said the health and fitness.
• 39:38
  Polly Mertens: So health and vitality are my number one core value, right?
• 39:42
  Polly Mertens: And so what was kind of cool as you said that was wow, having a trip that is epic like this, whether it's the race of the trans Rockies or things that I've been up to, it includes so much training.
• 39:53
  Polly Mertens: So the the joy factor of the trip, you know, like I don't live to sit on a beach.
• 39:59
  Polly Mertens: Like I don't live to go for one week sit in on a cruise ship on a buffet line.
• 40:05
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 40:05
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, I want to be like I'm like my driver, like this burning desire in my body.
• 40:12
  Polly Mertens: And if you could like be inside this body, that travel wanderlust thing is like I think about it all the time.
• 40:17
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm like, how can I be out there and I'm thinking about places to go and you know, constantly.
• 40:24
  Polly Mertens: And so having that kind of an excursion keeps my core value in my daily day-to-day life as the backbone, right?
• 40:33
  Polly Mertens: And then the I feed the wanderlust and these trips and these, you know, and there's there's ones in between.
• 40:39
  Polly Mertens: It's not like I only travel every five years by all means, you know.
• 40:43
  Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
• 40:43
  Samantha Pruitt: But you've integrated them into, you know, programming, if you will, or day-to-day operational structure and programming facilitation as like this leads to that, and that leads to this, and like right.
• 40:57
  Samantha Pruitt: So you every day you get to have these little mini experiences, because even when you're training for something like this, for example, we go train wherever we have different experiences.
• 41:06
  Samantha Pruitt: There's a sense of adventure and wonder.
• 41:07
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, I know you were hilarious with the wonder this round because your hiking partner is also a wonder person.
• 41:13
  Samantha Pruitt: So you guys are like, look at the nature and look at the rock.
• 41:16
  Samantha Pruitt: And did you see the little thing?
• 41:17
  Samantha Pruitt: And then you know, you're looking at all that stuff as part of your regular training experience.
• 41:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 41:23
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, not like let me wait till I get onto the mountain to do that.
• 41:28
  Samantha Pruitt: No, every day I get to do that.
• 41:29
  Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
• 41:31
  Polly Mertens: There, there are, I remember Trans Rockies, it surprised me a little bit because I was doing so much training because it was, you know, like it was running.
• 41:40
  Polly Mertens: It was not just this, not not that TMB is going to be a leisurely stroll, it's not.
• 41:44
  Polly Mertens: But the level that I felt like I needed to be at to run that race, I literally had a little PTSD on hiking afterward.
• 41:53
  Polly Mertens: Like I I didn't feel like hiking for months.
• 41:56
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm kind of burnt on hiking because I did so much of it, you know.
• 42:00
  Polly Mertens: So you can, you know, you can push it, but you know, I'm back, you know, and I enjoy it.
• 42:05
  Polly Mertens: And I am was starting to feel a little bit of that recently because it was like every week.
• 42:10
  Polly Mertens: And there's sacrifices, you know, there's things that I'm saying no to on the regular because I'm out for five hours, you know, on a beautiful mountain.
• 42:19
  Polly Mertens: And then I have to recover.
• 42:20
  Polly Mertens: And I gotta recover, I gotta nap, I gotta feed myself, all that stuff, you know.
• 42:24
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, so it's like there's been a lot of Saturdays and quite a few Sundays this summer that have not been playful and you know, other things with intention.
• 42:33
  Polly Mertens: Thank you very much, too.
• 42:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, no hey, side note, I think no martyr here.
• 42:37
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 42:38
  Samantha Pruitt: Yesterday I got back in the pool and I swam for 30 minutes.
• 42:41
  Samantha Pruitt: I have not swam since I finished the freaking Iron Man race, got out of the water with hypothermia, and was borderline, you know, even surviving could have plus hours, yeah, exactly.
• 42:53
  Samantha Pruitt: And it was lovely.
• 42:55
  Samantha Pruitt: But it's been almost two years.
• 42:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Will I remember how to swim?
• 43:01
  Samantha Pruitt: So sometimes you can overdo, right?
• 43:04
  Samantha Pruitt: You can, and to me, that speaks to not the body, because the body will recover, but like the psychological mental focus exactly around the other aspects of this, you know.
• 43:14
  Samantha Pruitt: So it is good to create something that, you know, is not going to make you miserable.
• 43:20
  Polly Mertens: And I have this, you know, and I realize it too with travel, you know, like I don't like I have there's people I know that just like you, you know, Amira, right?
• 43:29
  Polly Mertens: She was like globe hopping for years or something.
• 43:32
  Polly Mertens: Years, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 43:34
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, so I remember when I was on my seven-week trip in Asia, I hit a little threshold of homesickness.
• 43:42
  Polly Mertens: Like I hit a like I was all three weeks.
• 43:45
  Polly Mertens: I just kind of remember being in a hotel and a little bout of, wow, I I'm not home and I'm missing this or that or whatever, and you know, get out of it or whatnot.
• 43:55
  Polly Mertens: And I did live abroad in I summer, I studied a summer abroad during college.
• 43:59
  Polly Mertens: So I had three months there and seven weeks, you know, whatever.
• 44:03
  Polly Mertens: But I know I'm not a travel for a year person, also.
• 44:07
  Polly Mertens: You're a full gypsy.
• 44:08
  Polly Mertens: That's fully gypsy life right there.
• 44:10
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 44:11
  Polly Mertens: So I have that's why the home base, like you're talking about.
• 44:13
  Polly Mertens: It's like so I'm my my internal therm thermos, that is like my desired.
• 44:19
  Polly Mertens: Is three to four months a year somewhere or something.
• 44:22
  Polly Mertens: I'm not always doing that.
• 44:24
  Polly Mertens: Like it doesn't whatever, but that just feels like my yummy threshold is.
• 44:28
  Polly Mertens: And it could be broken up.
• 44:29
  Polly Mertens: It's like three days here and it could be here.
• 44:31
  Polly Mertens: And then like last summer, I did six weeks in the Pacific Northwest in my RV, and I was working while I was doing it, you know?
• 44:36
  Polly Mertens: But it was like new surroundings and new places to see.
• 44:40
  Polly Mertens: So mixing it up.
• 44:42
  Samantha Pruitt: With this trip and this destination and experience, because it is a unique experience.
• 44:47
  Samantha Pruitt: What do you hope to learn about the world and either the place that you're going to, the people you'll be able to be with, or just the world at large when you go on this trip?
• 44:59
  Polly Mertens: The answer that comes is I don't know yet.
• 45:01
  Polly Mertens: You know, I that's where I think the surrender experiment is the theme for that is if I had an expectation, then I think I would sort of hinder or diminish what could be possible.
• 45:16
  Polly Mertens: What is, you know, I love the line, like, I wonder what's trying to happen here, right?
• 45:20
  Polly Mertens: And I use that often when something doesn't look like it's going well.
• 45:24
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh shit, I don't know what's trying to happen here.
• 45:26
  Polly Mertens: But I mean it more so like stay and wonder about not knowing, right?
• 45:31
  Polly Mertens: Stay in the be here now and allow, you know, because I I do, I, you know, I vacillate between, did we have a souls contract when we came in and there's certain things and I'm just meeting this contract, or is there some dimension of as we go through life, we have new experiences, and that helps us create, and then we want to do this and whatnot.
• 45:50
  Polly Mertens: And so, you know, am I intending new things as I go?
• 45:54
  Polly Mertens: So there's a little bit of both.
• 45:55
  Polly Mertens: And when I put guardrails on it, you know, especially something that's like oftentimes when I do these longer trips or bigger trips, it's just the adventure of my body, like you said, moving through space, like seeing new places and the wonderment of, I don't even know.
• 46:13
  Polly Mertens: Like I remember earlier this summer I went on that little road trip, RV road trip with my friend Jill, and we called it, and I was like, hey, let's create a little theme for this.
• 46:22
  Polly Mertens: Like, I love road trip themes.
• 46:24
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 46:24
  Polly Mertens: Like, like I had I did the Highway 49 one year for my birthday, and it was like the gold mine trip.
• 46:30
  Polly Mertens: And it was like, oh, let's just stop at all these little places and along the gold mines.
• 46:33
  Polly Mertens: And so this one, I was like, Jill, let's call this Jill and Polly's magic mystery tour.
• 46:38
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, cool, you know, and she's totally woo-woo like that too.
• 46:41
  Polly Mertens: And was like, let's just see what we can discover.
• 46:43
  Polly Mertens: And around every turn, just with that childlike wonderment, right?
• 46:48
  Polly Mertens: It was magical.
• 46:50
  Polly Mertens: That's what showed up, you know.
• 46:52
  Polly Mertens: So I'm just leaving the door open to what won't I think there's a I think there's a synergy between my wonderment and not knowing and the kind of that underlying attention of myself to emerge.
• 47:04
  Polly Mertens: So there's a little bit of wonderment about what am I going to discover about the world, but but also the inner wonderment of what am I going to discover about myself?
• 47:12
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, that's the best part.
• 47:14
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, and that speaks to being able to do it anywhere, you know, which is another question I have is like if you're just an normal average Joe and don't have a motorhome or don't have the wanderlust sort of calling that you have, and your life, whatever it looks like for people out there, right?
• 47:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, how can you allow for a time and space like this in your life, period, and what could it look like in what are some of the different forms?
• 47:40
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, obviously I did the backpacking thing and I've done other things.
• 47:43
  Samantha Pruitt: You're doing this, but like you can take this kind of experience if you have a hunger for it and want to make space and time for it, and it can look a thousand different ways, right?
• 47:55
  Polly Mertens: And I think that's I like what you're saying and where this is going in my mind is you know, it's the first step when you and I work with coaching clients.
• 48:03
  Polly Mertens: What the hell do you want?
• 48:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, what do you, you, you most want, right?
• 48:09
  Polly Mertens: Like it doesn't have to look like like I've got this inner calling and this, you know, wanderless way of exploring the world and you know, self-expression and whatnot.
• 48:18
  Polly Mertens: Somebody else's might sound completely different, right?
• 48:20
  Polly Mertens: But it's giving yourself permission to want.
• 48:23
  Polly Mertens: And then I don't know, the second permission is like giving yourself permission to make it a reality, you know, like like I said, I've made some intentional no's and changes in my life that, you know, I don't have a steady job.
• 48:38
  Polly Mertens: I don't have, you know, this and that, right?
• 48:40
  Polly Mertens: Because I said yes to the things that mattered most to me.
• 48:44
  Polly Mertens: And I'm just saying, like, give yourself permission to a dream and imagine and or follow through on what is already inside of you that wants to come out.
• 48:52
  Polly Mertens: You probably already know.
• 48:53
  Polly Mertens: Like say yes to that wanting.
• 48:55
  Polly Mertens: And then how do you begin to create that?
• 48:57
  Polly Mertens: Like look at that with intention and and put aside all of what you how you know, because I mean, there's time like I'll tell you, you know, the funny thing that I start to reflect on when I go back to I have some girlfriends from college, right?
• 49:11
  Polly Mertens: And a lot of their lives look a lot like more, you know, stable, you know, like had a family, had got a house, have a great tradition, I've got a great career, and it's wonderful.
• 49:24
  Polly Mertens: And then I show up at these things and I'm just like, we looks kind of different over here every time you see me, sometimes too.
• 49:34
  Polly Mertens: You know, yeah, and I can't explain it.
• 49:37
  Polly Mertens: Like, and there's no justifying or like there's no make wrong, but I hope there's no judgment, yeah.
• 49:42
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, if anything, it's self-judgment.
• 49:44
  Polly Mertens: And then I go, yeah, enough of that.
• 49:46
  Polly Mertens: Like, no, thank you.
• 49:47
  Polly Mertens: And I just allowed myself to get out the palette and paint it the way that I wanted it to look.
• 49:55
  Polly Mertens: And again, their palette looks like that, and maybe that's exactly how they wanted it.
• 49:59
  Polly Mertens: And my palette was like, oh, look at that, this is how it looks for me, you know, and it's it's just different for everyone.
• 50:05
  Polly Mertens: And I say, you know, I think about the people that Bernie Man is a wonderful expression of self-expression, and it's not for everyone, right?
• 50:12
  Polly Mertens: And so is a lot of things, you know.
• 50:14
  Polly Mertens: Some people are doing other things that are very outside the norm.
• 50:18
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, just give yourself permission to dream it, want it, and then go for it, right?
• 50:24
  Polly Mertens: And it could be small, it'd be like just wanting to play the guitar.
• 50:27
  Polly Mertens: My friend Joe's like a couple years ago, she's like picking up guitar more, and now she's like really good.
• 50:32
  Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, you know.
• 50:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, and it can be in seasons, like there's a season, there's seasons to a lifetime, and there's a time and a season for all things, in my opinion.
• 50:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Like you can have all of that available, so there can be a time for a more traditional path based on whatever, however, that went raising kids, yeah.
• 50:54
  Samantha Pruitt: Like that's yeah, okay, cool, right?
• 50:57
  Samantha Pruitt: But then that ends.
• 51:00
  Samantha Pruitt: I think some people forget that a new season is coming and then another one, and then another one, right?
• 51:06
  Samantha Pruitt: So if you're conscious to that and you have awareness that that's sort of a flow of life, then you welcome it, you look for it, you bring it in, and then you nurture it, right?
• 51:18
  Samantha Pruitt: And you say, Oh, how do I feel about this next season?
• 51:21
  Samantha Pruitt: What do I want my next season to look like and feel like?
• 51:24
  Samantha Pruitt: And then, you know, in the future, there's going to be even more seasons rather than my life was crafted a certain way and based on all these things, this is where we're going.
• 51:33
  Samantha Pruitt: And then just literally, like, people are just putting blinders on and staying stuck in winter or in summer or whatever their thing is, right?
• 51:42
  Samantha Pruitt: It's like, ooh, that's a very small life experience, right?
• 51:46
  Polly Mertens: And I think, you know, like I was at a some networking thing, and they were talking to an architect, and they asked, like, when did you get into this or how did you know, or whatever?
• 51:57
  Polly Mertens: And like I'm continually recreating who I am.
• 52:00
  Polly Mertens: Like the the portfolio that I've had of who I've been over my quote quote career.
• 52:06
  Samantha Pruitt: It's borderline ridiculous at this point, but okay.
• 52:08
  Polly Mertens: This guy was like, I pretty much know I want to be an architect since I was four and was just pursuing that.
• 52:12
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, mind blowing to me to have and he but he loves it, you know.
• 52:17
  Polly Mertens: It's like, hey, cool, great.
• 52:19
  Polly Mertens: Like I said, it look your your canvas looks like that, and mine over here looks, you know, I color outside the lines, and you know, I throw like 16 colors on it and make you know, make it more.
• 52:30
  Polly Mertens: It's just different.
• 52:31
  Polly Mertens: So following it and just I just think people need to trust themselves more too.
• 52:36
  Polly Mertens: Like trusting it's gonna work out, trusting it's okay to color outside the lines, be outside the lines, be outside the norm.
• 52:43
  Polly Mertens: You know, our human brain, right, is so constricting if we let it rule the show, right?
• 52:50
  Polly Mertens: So I'm not afraid to bump up against the unknown, you know, and I think travel is one of the greatest teachers for me for that, right?
• 52:59
  Polly Mertens: Like landing in a foreign country, never stepped foot in, haven't seen a lick of you people before, and have no idea where these things are.
• 53:08
  Polly Mertens: Thankfully, you know, the internet and cell phones and stuff makes it way more reasonable.
• 53:14
  Polly Mertens: I would say like now it's like yeah, you can GPS anything, you know, but totally giving yourself permission to get outside of, you know, and think that.
• 53:23
  Polly Mertens: And even on small scale, start with like a weekend excursion, you know.
• 53:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Start with going to a different town.
• 53:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Hello.
• 53:29
  Samantha Pruitt: When you were talking about travel, I was thinking about my own travel experiences and some cool experiences I've had.
• 53:36
  Samantha Pruitt: But what I really, really love from the travel side of it is, you know, going somewhere what when I have gone somewhere by myself in particular for some reason, because again, you have to be fully self-reliant, self-capable, but you're you're only having your own experience.
• 53:54
  Samantha Pruitt: You're not having your partners or your kids' needs or the people you're traveling with influence or whatever, right?
• 54:00
  Samantha Pruitt: You're like, huh, what do I want to eat today?
• 54:04
  Samantha Pruitt: Where am I gonna go today?
• 54:06
  Samantha Pruitt: Use it like it's just you having a conversation with you, but then you go out into the world and there's all these people out there.
• 54:13
  Samantha Pruitt: There's all this culture out there that is so different than ours.
• 54:19
  Samantha Pruitt: There's all of these visual and culinary and sound and smell and musical experiences for your senses that are so different than ours.
• 54:31
  Samantha Pruitt: And it just literally blows you open.
• 54:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Like you cannot resist that coming into you, right?
• 54:39
  Samantha Pruitt: And the beauty of that music, taste, smell, sound, culture, you know, experience of the local humanity or whatever.
• 54:49
  Samantha Pruitt: What in the hell is that?
• 54:52
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, that's a drug to me, like being in that and being like, whoa, I'm in Africa now.
• 54:57
  Samantha Pruitt: What am I doing in Africa?
• 54:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Who are these people?
• 55:00
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm gonna eat that, like get out of your own head and your own life and your own restrictions around what things should look like and how they should be and how the world operates.
• 55:11
  Samantha Pruitt: All these preconceived ideas and stories you've told yourself about politics, culture, whatever, the color of someone's skin, whatever the thing is.
• 55:21
  Samantha Pruitt: First of all, it's all bullshit, but also besides that obvious fact, like there's so much to be learned.
• 55:29
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 55:29
  Samantha Pruitt: And then you take back with you like little pieces of that, and they become part of you.
• 55:35
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, I think about people I've met or places I've gone, and it's like still in there.
• 55:39
  Samantha Pruitt: It's literally part of me, right?
• 55:41
  Polly Mertens: Absolutely.
• 55:42
  Polly Mertens: Absolutely.
• 55:42
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I think what I love what you're saying is, you know, I'm an only child, right?
• 55:47
  Polly Mertens: And so I've and I've been married, some relationships here and there along the way, but I've done way more as a solo individual on this planet, experiencing, you know, with wild-eyed childlike abandonment or wonderment so much, like you're talking about.
• 56:03
  Polly Mertens: And so I hope I want to double down on if you haven't allowed yourself to travel solo, you know.
• 56:10
  Polly Mertens: Like sometimes I do wish I had more people to travel with.
• 56:14
  Polly Mertens: Sometimes I'm like, oh, that would be funny.
• 56:15
  Polly Mertens: Like I'll see group, like, you know, I'm traveling my RV and I go to a campground and there's like a couple RVers that are traveling together and they're having dinner together or whatever.
• 56:23
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, oh, that'd be so cool to be traveling with.
• 56:25
  Polly Mertens: But the amount of people a solo traveler meets, like I am a magnet.
• 56:30
  Polly Mertens: Whether I sit down at a restaurant, like I, you know, as a I remember one time I was down in Key West and I sat at this little restaurant bar.
• 56:37
  Polly Mertens: Because, you know, sitting at a two-top or if it's a busy place, I do like sitting at the bar, not to necessarily drink, but to have food, because then you sit with other single people and you're just like, strike up.
• 56:47
  Polly Mertens: Like I met this one guy.
• 56:49
  Polly Mertens: You're reminding me.
• 56:50
  Polly Mertens: I'm at, I'm in Key West.
• 56:51
  Polly Mertens: This gentleman a couple seats down, could be my dad or whatever.
• 56:55
  Polly Mertens: He's visiting Key West also.
• 56:57
  Polly Mertens: We're just chatting it up one night, and I told him the next day I was gonna go.
• 57:01
  Polly Mertens: What's the famous writer that is famous for Key West?
• 57:03
  Polly Mertens: Is it Hemingway?
• 57:04
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 57:06
  Polly Mertens: So I was gonna go to Hemingway Museum, and he goes, Oh, I would like to go to Hemingway.
• 57:09
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, hold up, all right, I'll meet you at nine.
• 57:12
  Polly Mertens: Let's go to the Hemingway meeting.
• 57:14
  Polly Mertens: So, so 9 a.m., you know, we show up, we go to the Hemingway, have a lovely day together.
• 57:20
  Polly Mertens: We went out to dinner that night too.
• 57:22
  Polly Mertens: I and I my dad had passed away just a few years before this, and I swear I felt like I was having a day with my dad.
• 57:28
  Polly Mertens: It was so sweet, right?
• 57:30
  Polly Mertens: Just and the amount of people I could tell you that I've met like that, or like here's another little rando, right?
• 57:37
  Polly Mertens: So I have my big ol' RV, 32-foot motorhome, and you remember the days when I had my big old scooter, my motorcycle, right?
• 57:43
  Polly Mertens: Scooter 350 pounds, little me.
• 57:45
  Polly Mertens: I still was like in awe at myself, like getting that thing up onto my my hitch in the back.
• 57:50
  Polly Mertens: Well, I was in the middle, I was on the mountains outside of Telluride in Colorado.
• 57:54
  Polly Mertens: No one around, like on the mountain, you know, I had slept there that night, and why was my scooter on?
• 57:59
  Polly Mertens: Why was my I forget?
• 58:01
  Polly Mertens: Oh, I maybe had ridden into Telluride and I came back and I was doing the, you know, loading it up and I got it off and it it didn't fall down, but it fell like one was on it or whatever.
• 58:12
  Polly Mertens: Out of nowhere, this truck shows up.
• 58:14
  Polly Mertens: This guy gets out and he's like, Hey, would you like some help with that, ma'am?
• 58:17
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, Yeah, totally like boop, boop, up, and then off you go.
• 58:22
  Polly Mertens: It was like the angels and the interactions and the people I've spent time with.
• 58:27
  Polly Mertens: I mean, it's next level.
• 58:29
  Polly Mertens: Next level.
• 58:30
  Polly Mertens: From little baristas and waiters and people at tables near me and stuff like that, or walking along trails in Zion National Park and having just epic conversations with people from all over the world.
• 58:41
  Samantha Pruitt: So exactly.
• 58:43
  Samantha Pruitt: And there's no need to have fear.
• 58:45
  Samantha Pruitt: If these things scare people, which I know a lot of times they do, turn off the news and stop populating your brain with the what ifs around a very small percentage of the population that's having a bad experience, but that's all that makes mainstream news.
• 59:04
  Samantha Pruitt: So just stop, you know, subscribing to that.
• 59:07
  Polly Mertens: It it's all in our consciousness, dude.
• 59:09
  Polly Mertens: Like I I cannot begin to explain it and I won't.
• 59:13
  Polly Mertens: You can go listen to it and learn it for yourself, but you know, sometimes people I've talked to, like I'll be having a different experience from them, either on a trip, whatever.
• 59:23
  Polly Mertens: And I'm just like, yeah, I'm just over here in Polly's bubble because I create it that way.
• 59:27
  Polly Mertens: Like, like I have it that the universe and people are benevolent and it's blessed, and magic and beauty are all around.
• 59:34
  Polly Mertens: And guess what?
• 59:35
  Polly Mertens: It's my reality, like it's how it goes.
• 59:39
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, like no fear, no problems, no whatever.
• 59:42
  Polly Mertens: If anything, people come to yeah, that's been my experience too.
• 59:48
  Samantha Pruitt: In a good way, yeah.
• 59:49
  Samantha Pruitt: 100%.
• 59:50
  Samantha Pruitt: 100%.
• 59:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Wow.
• 59:52
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, if somebody listening is not inspired by now, do you have any closing thoughts that you would want to leave them with that might have them maybe give some thought to doing something like this?
• 1:00:05
  Polly Mertens: Maybe this, or you know, just going back to listening from within.
• 1:00:09
  Polly Mertens: What's your inner compass, your inner north?
• 1:00:12
  Polly Mertens: What is your calling?
• 1:00:14
  Polly Mertens: What does it look like, sound like, feel like?
• 1:00:16
  Polly Mertens: Trusting it, answering it, rearranging things to make it happen.
• 1:00:22
  Polly Mertens: And maybe it's not right away, you know.
• 1:00:24
  Polly Mertens: Like I remember when I wanted to move to the Central Coast, it was a, you know, it unfolded over a couple of years.
• 1:00:30
  Polly Mertens: It didn't happen like, okay, tomorrow I'm just moving, you know.
• 1:00:33
  Polly Mertens: So you can march towards something that lights you up, but allow yourself to dream or get in touch with the in inner world, what lights you up, and then start to create that.
• 1:00:44
  Samantha Pruitt: So totally.
• 1:00:46
  Samantha Pruitt: And when it comes to traveling, you know, if you go to different places, you might think, like it happened for me here, I think I could live there.
• 1:00:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I like how it feels here.
• 1:00:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Maybe I should be living here.
• 1:00:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, I'm moving.
• 1:01:01
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, right?
• 1:01:02
  Samantha Pruitt: That's also how that happens.
• 1:01:04
  Samantha Pruitt: And a lot of people could start their travel adventures like that.
• 1:01:08
  Samantha Pruitt: I've always wanted to live in a city.
• 1:01:10
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, go to some freaking cities and see.
• 1:01:12
  Samantha Pruitt: I've always wanted to live in the mountains.
• 1:01:14
  Samantha Pruitt: We'll go to the mountains and see what the mountains feel like.
• 1:01:17
  Samantha Pruitt: I've always wanted to live in the desert, whatever, right?
• 1:01:19
  Samantha Pruitt: Like they could start their travel adventure that way.
• 1:01:22
  Samantha Pruitt: And I do like the other thing you said that you know, and I'll just say it differently, but your life is calling and you might want to pick up.
• 1:01:29
  Samantha Pruitt: So you say a calling, but I'm like, yo, I'm actually ringy dingy.
• 1:01:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Like anybody louder.
• 1:01:37
  Samantha Pruitt: Is anyone home?
• 1:01:38
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 1:01:38
  Polly Mertens: And I I I've heard it.
• 1:01:40
  Polly Mertens: There's a phrase, uh, I don't know if I it was like the calling doesn't get any quieter.
• 1:01:44
  Polly Mertens: Like it, like they'll just keep calling.
• 1:01:46
  Polly Mertens: Like it's like a phone that doesn't go unanswered.
• 1:01:48
  Polly Mertens: It's like ring, ring, ring, like it just will keep keep calling you.
• 1:01:52
  Polly Mertens: So until you answer, it will keep ringing.
• 1:01:55
  Polly Mertens: And speaking of, you know, living, so I've been, I mean, I did 100 days in Colorado years ago, and I'm like, oh, I think I could live in Colorado.
• 1:02:03
  Polly Mertens: And so now I'm starting to dream about could I do it halftime?
• 1:02:06
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's like, I don't know if I'd want to live there during the winter, you know, and so just listening for that, listening for, you know, the Central Coast called me here 25 years ago, and that's amazing.
• 1:02:16
  Polly Mertens: And now it's kind of like, hmm, maybe the mountains are where I'm supposed to be.
• 1:02:20
  Polly Mertens: And so just leaning into it and you know, looking for the serendipity, right?
• 1:02:25
  Polly Mertens: And and trusting it.
• 1:02:26
  Polly Mertens: So we'll see.
• 1:02:27
  Polly Mertens: Maybe we'll be interviewing about that soon.
• 1:02:31
  Samantha Pruitt: Maybe we will.
• 1:02:31
  Samantha Pruitt: But then we'll be together.
• 1:02:33
  Samantha Pruitt: I'll just come to Colorado and we'll just hang out.
• 1:02:34
  Samantha Pruitt: It's fun.
• 1:02:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 1:02:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Fine by me.
• 1:02:38
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 1:02:39
  Samantha Pruitt: I hope you have a great trip.
• 1:02:40
  Samantha Pruitt: I know you will.
• 1:02:41
  Samantha Pruitt: And I can't wait to see when you come back what all is going on in that energy over there and how you're vibrating differently and what's new for you.
• 1:02:52
  Samantha Pruitt: And of course, we'll do an interview and we'll talk about that at length.
• 1:02:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I can't wait to share.
• 1:02:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 1:02:58
  Polly Mertens: I mean, the the awe and epicness, I'm sure, are just gonna be like, dude, like, can't you, you know, just like pictures don't do it justice.
• 1:03:06
  Samantha Pruitt: I know, right?
• 1:03:07
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, that's the thing.
• 1:03:08
  Samantha Pruitt: And then it does take a while to unpack it.
• 1:03:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Like I remember you and I talked right away because I saw you when I finished not too many days later, and I was like, I just don't know yet.
• 1:03:17
  Samantha Pruitt: I just, I just, it's like so intense and it was so deep and so rich.
• 1:03:23
  Samantha Pruitt: And I'm still completely unpacking my 20 days, right?
• 1:03:25
  Samantha Pruitt: Like it's just gonna take time for me to really realize the magnitude of what transpired inside this person, secondarily from all the external stuff.
• 1:03:37
  Samantha Pruitt: And that's gonna happen for you too, because I feel that, like I know that to be true.
• 1:03:42
  Polly Mertens: When you said that, I'm hearing the word portal.
• 1:03:45
  Polly Mertens: You know, I'm here your what was your your word on your trip?
• 1:03:48
  Polly Mertens: Was initiation.
• 1:03:50
  Polly Mertens: I'm hearing portal over here as you said that that shit is going down.
• 1:03:56
  Polly Mertens: Good stuff.
• 1:03:57
  Polly Mertens: I feel like uh like the you know, like you go up the start of a roller coaster, like the anticipation, like and I love roller coasters, so I'm not like afraid of it, but it's like the anticipation of the portal.
• 1:04:10
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh my god, you know at Disneyland, that ride is I don't know if it's still there, but it was called the Matterhorn.
• 1:04:15
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh did you ever go on the Matterhorn?
• 1:04:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Because you're going basically to the Matterhorn.
• 1:04:19
  Samantha Pruitt: So you you kind of got in the roller coaster and you went around and then you went inside the mountain and it was black, and you were inside the mountain, and you're it was like higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, and then all of a sudden there's this little bit of light, and then you hit the light, and then it was like and you're just like, what the heck?
• 1:04:37
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, you're about to do that.
• 1:04:39
  Samantha Pruitt: That's a portal right there, and uh in a really cool expansive set, pure magic, dude.
• 1:04:44
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, pure magic when you hit the light and uh start moving around the mountain, like portal, okay.
• 1:04:51
  Polly Mertens: All right, I'm ready.
• 1:04:52
  Polly Mertens: Now let's go.
• 1:04:53
  Polly Mertens: I'll I'm open for light, man.
• 1:04:55
  Polly Mertens: More light, more photons.
• 1:04:56
  Polly Mertens: Yes, please.
• 1:04:57
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 1:04:57
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 1:04:59
  Samantha Pruitt: All right, let's close this thing out.
• 1:05:00
  Samantha Pruitt: What do you got to say for yourself, little lady?
• 1:05:02
  Polly Mertens: Well, I would well, I want you to like close this out.
• 1:05:06
  Polly Mertens: I would say thank you for this opportunity to share where I am before the portal, you know, because it's always a nice like we're so blessed to have this podcast for that, you know, the people that listen.
• 1:05:18
  Polly Mertens: Thank you for listening.
• 1:05:19
  Polly Mertens: But part of this is just for us to be a creative act for us.
• 1:05:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Look, this is this is exactly right.
• 1:05:25
  Samantha Pruitt: This is as good as it gets.
• 1:05:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Getting our needs met, but it's a creative act of expression for us.
• 1:05:29
  Samantha Pruitt: It always has been.
• 1:05:31
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:31
  Polly Mertens: So thank you for the listening that I know you have, and the listeners who tune in that give us the opportunity to just share a part of ourselves uh intimately and openly and be our be involved in our self-expression.
• 1:05:45
  Polly Mertens: So I'm I'm I'm grateful for that.
• 1:05:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and this podcast is yet another expression of us and our values and our statement of why we do this and how your life feels is more important than how it looks.
• 1:06:01
  Samantha Pruitt: This is literally couldn't be more of an expression, an act, a statement, if you will, of that gift to the world by you.
• 1:06:10
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome, as we say.
• 1:06:14
  Samantha Pruitt: So go find it.
• 1:06:15
  Samantha Pruitt: Cheers, guys.
• 1:06:17
  Samantha Pruitt: See you next week.