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117: Reinventing Yourself: Your Career Detours Might Be Your Superpower · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:26
  Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, Polly here.
• 0:28
  Polly Mertens: Welcome back.
• 0:29
  Polly Mertens: And no Samantha Pruitt today.
• 0:31
  Polly Mertens: This is a solo episode.
• 0:32
  Polly Mertens: I was inspired by this episode.
• 0:34
  Polly Mertens: I'm calling it Reinventing Yourself, Taking the Road Less Traveled.
• 0:39
  Polly Mertens: And I was thinking about calling it things like detours or actually divine interventions and all sorts of things.
• 0:44
  Polly Mertens: And really how it started is I was having a conversation yesterday with a future consulting client who's is now signed up as a consulting client for their business.
• 0:53
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, where it went and where we navigated in the conversation was like, so, you know, like, not why should I hire you, but like, how, how, who are you?
• 1:02
  Polly Mertens: Like, how do you, you know, because I was referred to this person.
• 1:05
  Polly Mertens: And he's like, So who are you?
• 1:07
  Polly Mertens: And how, how should how can you help me?
• 1:09
  Polly Mertens: Um, that kind of a conversation, right?
• 1:10
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, well, where do I start?
• 1:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, and I I sort of went through my resume of like, well, I did this and I studied this and I did this, and oh yeah, and I created that business, and oh yeah, I helped do this, and um, you know, all these things along the way.
• 1:24
  Polly Mertens: And then I created websites and I was an SEO expert and and just like this patchwork quilt, and it had me think, wow.
• 1:31
  Polly Mertens: And he said along the way, he goes, Wow, you know, you're really someone who's reinvented yourself.
• 1:35
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, we moved on in the conversation, but that stuck with me, and I was like, reinventing yourself.
• 1:40
  Polly Mertens: And in a conversation I was having um with uh someone last evening, was I was really, they were talking a lot about AI, just really excited about AI and AI, and and I've had this similar conversation with this person.
• 1:55
  Polly Mertens: We go on walks sometimes, and it was like, I don't know, the last four conversations, just AI has almost dominated the conversation.
• 2:01
  Polly Mertens: I was like, man, you know, I am not reinventing myself in this area.
• 2:05
  Polly Mertens: I don't know.
• 2:06
  Polly Mertens: So it was like the merging of those two.
• 2:07
  Polly Mertens: And as I heard how much he was excited about it, how much I've heard about AI like on the forefront and it's coming and all this stuff, and I was like, and I have time right now.
• 2:17
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm I'm more available for time.
• 2:19
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, you know what?
• 2:20
  Polly Mertens: I really appreciate you bringing to light how much you're learning and getting out of and incorporating and just like this like hunger he has for learning AI.
• 2:30
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, you know, it seems like the most people that are learning AI right now are like middle-aged men that are just fascinated with it.
• 2:36
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, well, what would prevent me from it?
• 2:38
  Polly Mertens: So that's a little bit of what started this stirring inside of me.
• 2:42
  Polly Mertens: But, you know, so I just wanted to tell you a little bit about reinventing yourself, how I see it and the journey that I've been on, and you know, just kind of disclose, you know, some of the shame that I've had about how my life has gone.
• 2:55
  Polly Mertens: And now I'm like, wait a minute, there's a whole nother way of looking at this.
• 2:59
  Polly Mertens: So my hope is uh wherever you are in your life, whether you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, or whatever, if you have or you haven't reinvented yourself, or however it's looked for you, or if this title just sounded interesting to you, I hope you get some value from this because as I've done some reflection since those two conversations and realized, wow, there's a way I was looking at it, and now I look at it differently, and I it feels completely different inside my body.
• 3:27
  Polly Mertens: So um, yeah, you know, so I've had this, you know, a sharing.
• 3:32
  Polly Mertens: Um, I had this package work quilt.
• 3:33
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I, you know, I had an undergraduate business degree, then I got my MBA, I've had some corporate roles, I've done consulting, I've been a real estate agent, investor, I've done, you know, advisor and marketing director role, I've, you know, done eating disorder coaching, website building, lots of different solar, you know, construction, flipping, lots of different industries, lots of different roles, perspective, all sorts of things.
• 4:00
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, and I go into a company and you know, it's not always great to be just like a Swiss Army knife.
• 4:05
  Polly Mertens: Um, you know, if I were hiring people, I want people like really good skills.
• 4:09
  Polly Mertens: But there's definitely traits and qualities that you want, right?
• 4:13
  Polly Mertens: And that moment, you know, as I shared this with this person and just heard myself in this conversation.
• 4:18
  Polly Mertens: And previously I would have made myself wrong for it, right?
• 4:22
  Polly Mertens: You know, many of us are taught that like a successful career looks like a ladder, a career ladder.
• 4:27
  Polly Mertens: Well, what it how is a ladder?
• 4:28
  Polly Mertens: It's very linear and you grow up it, right?
• 4:30
  Polly Mertens: You go up it to get from a lower rung to a higher rung.
• 4:34
  Polly Mertens: It's steady, it's linear, it's predictable.
• 4:37
  Polly Mertens: You know, and we're taught that like that's how it goes, right?
• 4:41
  Polly Mertens: Or we're given, you know, sometimes our mind can identify with an image of something.
• 4:45
  Polly Mertens: And if I stuck to that ladder, most of my life I've made how my life has unfolded wrong, right?
• 4:53
  Polly Mertens: hasn't always felt wrong.
• 4:54
  Polly Mertens: It's always felt quite guided and right for me, right?
• 4:58
  Polly Mertens: Doesn't look like the ladder doesn't look like a lot of other people's and call it more maverick or, you know, I even love the nomadic idea.
• 5:04
  Polly Mertens: But I realized something powerful.
• 5:06
  Polly Mertens: And my career was never a ladder.
• 5:09
  Polly Mertens: It was a path, right?
• 5:11
  Polly Mertens: And I just, I just hadn't recognized it.
• 5:13
  Polly Mertens: I was looking at it as wrong, like, oh, my life, my career, how things have gone for me, do not look like this steady linear trajectory from one level to the next, and you have this like perfect growth path and b-b.
• 5:25
  Polly Mertens: And I've actually said, I never want that.
• 5:28
  Polly Mertens: Like I just said, my body inherently, it's like, uh, no, thank you.
• 5:32
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, what I want to share on this whole episode is how what if reinvention is not failure or lack of progress or lack of focus or you know, doing it wrong?
• 5:44
  Polly Mertens: What if it's the most valuable skills that we can cultivate, especially in a rapidly changing world with who knows what is coming, right?
• 5:52
  Polly Mertens: What if reinventing ourselves is actually adaptability, it's curiosity, it's flexibility, it's the ability to take what's next and to grow and not be stuck or stagnant or lost or feel left out or left behind.
• 6:07
  Polly Mertens: I never feel that way, right?
• 6:08
  Polly Mertens: I'm always like cutting edge, like creating what's next, what's next?
• 6:11
  Polly Mertens: What do I want, right?
• 6:12
  Polly Mertens: So if you believe that you had to follow a career ladder, and and I'm using that in this case, but you can explore this into a lot of areas of your life.
• 6:21
  Polly Mertens: So take, you know, this and allow your mind to creatively stretch that metaphor into whatever works for you.
• 6:27
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, the ladder is choose a profession, stay on the, stay on that, you know, rung and climb upward.
• 6:33
  Polly Mertens: But real life doesn't look like that.
• 6:35
  Polly Mertens: If I look at 90% of my friends and people I know, and not to say that I just hang out with mavericks or whatnot, but I tend to, but I don't think there's many people that it does look like that, right?
• 6:45
  Polly Mertens: And we think in our you know, teens and twenties, like, you know, just as like there's a lot of structure for most families and most people as you grow through life.
• 6:54
  Polly Mertens: You've got, you know, kindergarten, grade school, junior high, high school, hot college, you know, and it's like, and then this career ladder is the next step of that.
• 7:03
  Polly Mertens: Well, I think that's just an industrialized concept to make us workers, and that's not what we are here for, right?
• 7:12
  Polly Mertens: Or I'm not here for.
• 7:13
  Polly Mertens: So looking back, you know, a lot of moments in my life and maybe in yours, sometimes it felt like a detour, right?
• 7:19
  Polly Mertens: It was like, um it felt like a left turn, a roadblock, detour, like can't go further on this path.
• 7:27
  Polly Mertens: But it actually, you know, it was part of the journey as I look back now.
• 7:30
  Polly Mertens: And so what if these disruptions that we have in our life are actually divine interventions guiding us just to new possibilities?
• 7:39
  Polly Mertens: You know, as Robert F Robert Frost, great line.
• 7:42
  Polly Mertens: I love this quote if you know it.
• 7:44
  Polly Mertens: Two rows, two roads diverged in a wood.
• 7:48
  Polly Mertens: And I I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
• 7:54
  Polly Mertens: Just love that quote, right?
• 7:56
  Polly Mertens: Like, I mean, if you just think about that, like there's the well-worn path, the ladder, whatever, and it's like, wait a minute, what's over here?
• 8:04
  Polly Mertens: Right?
• 8:05
  Polly Mertens: So instead of treating life or your career like a well-planned vacation, what if we thought of it like a sojourn?
• 8:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I know, and you know, as I was thinking about this episode, and I was like, how does this, you know, as I start to think about this ladder, I'm like, my life is more like a meandering path.
• 8:23
  Polly Mertens: And then I was like, wow, how have I done that?
• 8:25
  Polly Mertens: And how does that also translate into how I do life, if you will?
• 8:29
  Polly Mertens: I it would, I mean, there have been times, maybe, I don't have to think about this, that have gone on a well-planned vacation, like, right?
• 8:40
  Polly Mertens: I have done, you know, back in the day you had to book your travel way more in advance.
• 8:44
  Polly Mertens: So I've done those.
• 8:45
  Polly Mertens: But now I just like get in the RV and go.
• 8:48
  Polly Mertens: I just like book a flight and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna go explore.
• 8:51
  Polly Mertens: Like, I'm just gonna go three days and be somewhere.
• 8:54
  Polly Mertens: No plan whatsoever.
• 8:56
  Polly Mertens: Like often I'll get in my RV and I'll just like, I'm gonna go north.
• 8:59
  Polly Mertens: I think I'm gonna go to Shasta.
• 9:00
  Polly Mertens: May not end up in Shasta, may end up in like Tahoe, may end up in Oregon, you know.
• 9:06
  Polly Mertens: And that's a bit how my career has looked, right?
• 9:09
  Polly Mertens: So if you have the vacation or the life that's like, you know, exactly where you're going and what you're doing and when you're coming home.
• 9:16
  Polly Mertens: A sojourn is very different.
• 9:18
  Polly Mertens: A sojourn, a sojourner, right, and you know, look this up, is um you travel, you explore, you discover things you didn't even plan for.
• 9:27
  Polly Mertens: You allow the journey to unfold, you allow career to unfold, if you will.
• 9:33
  Polly Mertens: So your career, my career has become more of a sojourn as I look at it, like my vacations, like my trips, if you will, like my travel.
• 9:42
  Polly Mertens: I'm a sojourner.
• 9:44
  Polly Mertens: I'm not a career path or a career laddaler, right?
• 9:46
  Polly Mertens: Whatever.
• 9:47
  Polly Mertens: So every step of my career, every path, every place I've stopped along the way, I could stand there, look around, and see what's next.
• 9:56
  Polly Mertens: And that was really, I think, what I started to look at this that there was this shame that I was caring about.
• 10:02
  Polly Mertens: Um, wow, you know, like I can remember going and visiting.
• 10:06
  Polly Mertens: So I have this really super great group of girlfriends, and we get together from college and we get together, and you know, they have largely have followed that career ladder path.
• 10:17
  Polly Mertens: Like, get the job out of school, work your way up, um, have a good family, da-da-da, retire and you're whatever, right?
• 10:25
  Polly Mertens: And have all this money saved up.
• 10:27
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, I go, and the more I'm a part of this group, the more I'm not like this group, because I don't tend to hold the same job for or a job for very long.
• 10:38
  Polly Mertens: Five years, probably the most, right?
• 10:40
  Polly Mertens: And I have this shame of like, wow, am I doing it wrong?
• 10:44
  Polly Mertens: Is it wrong?
• 10:44
  Polly Mertens: Is you know, am I am I effing up?
• 10:48
  Polly Mertens: You know, like what the hell?
• 10:50
  Polly Mertens: But now it's like, no, it's just, it's a path.
• 10:53
  Polly Mertens: I'm on, I'm on an exploration, I'm on a sojourn.
• 10:56
  Polly Mertens: That's how I'm doing my life.
• 10:58
  Polly Mertens: And I really just release that shame, actually, just in preparing for this.
• 11:03
  Polly Mertens: Like I just had this pivot of thought of like, no, I'm not doing it wrong.
• 11:08
  Polly Mertens: I'm doing it as a shojourn.
• 11:09
  Polly Mertens: Like I do travel, like, and I love that.
• 11:12
  Polly Mertens: Like I would not want, I don't think I would want trips that are super hyper planned, right?
• 11:18
  Polly Mertens: Or they're linear, you know.
• 11:20
  Polly Mertens: No, thank you.
• 11:21
  Polly Mertens: Like, I yeah, I definitely, as a Virgo, I have things that I like that are linear and discipline, routines, and consistency.
• 11:28
  Polly Mertens: But uh, think it turns out with career and travel and expiration of life, it's not that way.
• 11:34
  Polly Mertens: So I just want to tell you, you know, if the path before you is clear, this is a quote from Joseph Campbell, you're probably on someone else's.
• 11:42
  Polly Mertens: If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.
• 11:46
  Polly Mertens: I can tell you, my path has not been cleared at all.
• 11:49
  Polly Mertens: Like a little visibility.
• 11:50
  Polly Mertens: Like if you're driving along, it's like foggy as fuck out there, like very limited visibility.
• 11:56
  Polly Mertens: But yet you keep going on, keep going on.
• 11:59
  Polly Mertens: I love that, you know, as I was reflecting on this episode, it was like there's a great quote.
• 12:05
  Polly Mertens: I'm not quite sure who spoke it, but I've heard Martin Luther King say it, which is, you know, you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step, right?
• 12:13
  Polly Mertens: Or if you're taking a trip from Los Angeles to New York, you don't have to have every single mile planned out and prescribed, right?
• 12:22
  Polly Mertens: You can just go, I'm heading northeast, right?
• 12:26
  Polly Mertens: So if the path before you, what if it's clear?
• 12:29
  Polly Mertens: It's probably someone else's.
• 12:30
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, ching, that sounds like me, you know?
• 12:33
  Polly Mertens: So it's like this constant um uncertainty.
• 12:37
  Polly Mertens: It's it's being comfortable with uncertainty and not knowing the path or the map or even the landscape, or sometimes the destination.
• 12:46
  Polly Mertens: I'm being downright okay with that, right?
• 12:49
  Polly Mertens: So what I've reframed, this shame and like, oh, I'm doing it wrong, is and I hope you will take this on as well, is what if reinventing ourselves?
• 13:00
  Polly Mertens: What if career pivots and changes and course corrections in life?
• 13:04
  Polly Mertens: They're a superpower.
• 13:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, what if reinvention is a superpower?
• 13:08
  Polly Mertens: It builds you an incredible toolkit.
• 13:11
  Polly Mertens: So, like every pivot adds perspective, skills, new relationships, network adaptability, clarity, insight, ability to like see patterns and connect things that other people couldn't.
• 13:23
  Polly Mertens: But then over time you could gain confidence in your ability to learn new things, enter new arenas.
• 13:31
  Polly Mertens: Like I am not afraid, like all of a sudden I'm in the construction industry.
• 13:34
  Polly Mertens: Like I used to be in SEO marketing, digital marketing, and now I talk to contractors and I'm like, and I can like I re you know, remodel, you know, lots of houses.
• 13:46
  Polly Mertens: I can walk into a construction site and hold my own.
• 13:49
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, wow, I can walk and talk to a construction company owner and guide them like confidently, because the network and the web of the things that I know and the experiences that I've had from running job sites and having things F up and seeing the the landscape and you know, like the as a guide, I've been down a lot of these roads before, whatever the industry is, like hiring people and firing people and you know, building new CRMs and and workflows and processes and cash flows and um you know, building teams and blah blah blah blah blah, you know, and like organizing your schedule and staying on track and all this stuff.
• 14:30
  Polly Mertens: And I was just like, wow, rather than being scattered, you know, what if we're just versatile?
• 14:36
  Polly Mertens: Like super specialists can go deep in one lane, and people who reinvent themselves, they develop pattern recognition across many lanes.
• 14:45
  Polly Mertens: Like, wow.
• 14:46
  Polly Mertens: And this ability to adapt is increasingly valuable.
• 14:50
  Polly Mertens: And I see it even more so.
• 14:51
  Polly Mertens: Like as I was talking with this friend, as I said about AI, I was like, I'm going all freaking in, right?
• 14:57
  Polly Mertens: Like, I don't know where and I don't know where I'm gonna come out on the other side.
• 15:00
  Polly Mertens: It's not like, oh, I'm gonna do this so I can get there.
• 15:03
  Polly Mertens: It's like you know, swimming along, swimming along through the fog, getting a little more clear.
• 15:08
  Polly Mertens: Oh, have a conversation.
• 15:09
  Polly Mertens: Wow, these people are really lit up about AI.
• 15:12
  Polly Mertens: Oh, tell me more.
• 15:12
  Polly Mertens: Like seeing what it's doing in their life and what how they're interpreting it, incorporating it, and trying new things.
• 15:18
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, wow, it's just like a sandbox of opportunity, and things aren't finite, and there's possibility.
• 15:26
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, dang it, all right, okay.
• 15:29
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, the ability to be increasingly valuable in a world where, man, technologies and industries and opportunities are constantly evolving, reinvention, flexibility, adaptability, seeing all of this is a superpower, right?
• 15:44
  Polly Mertens: So I would invite you, you know, if you haven't already to have that courage to be a beginner again.
• 15:51
  Polly Mertens: So I hope something you're hearing in this is like giving you permission to not have it always look perfect, linear, exact, let go of any shame that you might be having, like, oh, I'm not as where I thought I would be, or you know, or people on either side of you, the comparison trap, like let it go, right?
• 16:10
  Polly Mertens: And be a beginner again.
• 16:11
  Polly Mertens: If you're not already, like if reinvention and pivoting isn't something you're doing, whether you have an interruption, like I had the 2008, you know, stock market or not, sorry, the housing market, I was a realtor, like thriving, like wow, so opportunity, great, great, great, 2008, right?
• 16:28
  Polly Mertens: I was like, oh, hell no, I need to get out of this.
• 16:30
  Polly Mertens: Like I saw the door closing on that opportunity and where that was gonna go.
• 16:34
  Polly Mertens: And I went, I'm not going into that dark, damn dark tunnel, like you know, helping people who are losing their houses.
• 16:41
  Polly Mertens: I did not want to be that agent.
• 16:42
  Polly Mertens: I was like, all right, reinvent, pivot, right?
• 16:44
  Polly Mertens: And yet then I saw solar and I got into solar, and then I saw SEO, and now I'm like AI, right?
• 16:51
  Polly Mertens: And all this opportunity.
• 16:53
  Polly Mertens: So it's it's out there.
• 16:55
  Polly Mertens: So, and you know, and when I thought about like being a beginner again, I remember after 2008, you know, I'd been making a ton of money as a realtor, I was doing great.
• 17:04
  Polly Mertens: And then I had to eat some humble pie and was like, could not find a J O B to, you know, I I I decided I, you know, stepping out of an industry, you often, if you're going into a new one, you can start on the ground floor.
• 17:16
  Polly Mertens: You know, you kind of it felt like taking a step back.
• 17:19
  Polly Mertens: I became an executive assistant, two high-level people, to C-level people.
• 17:23
  Polly Mertens: But at the time it was like, oh my God, I'm gonna become an executive assistant.
• 17:28
  Polly Mertens: Are you fucking kidding me?
• 17:29
  Polly Mertens: Like, wow.
• 17:31
  Polly Mertens: But I was willing to be open and I was like, these are freaking brilliant people.
• 17:36
  Polly Mertens: I had such an educational experience being that and being humble, but I always rise to the top because I bring excellence to what I do, and I trusted in that.
• 17:46
  Polly Mertens: And not and not, and I was thinking it was like within six months, I was pulled out of inside of that company to go and help the commercial sales team.
• 17:53
  Polly Mertens: Like, let's build a commercial sales team inside the solar company and crush it, right?
• 17:56
  Polly Mertens: And we became, you know, the number one.
• 17:57
  Polly Mertens: It was like, yeah, right.
• 18:00
  Polly Mertens: But that opportunity led to the next one, to the next one.
• 18:03
  Polly Mertens: I didn't see all that.
• 18:03
  Polly Mertens: I was just like, oh, need money, need income, 2008.
• 18:06
  Polly Mertens: Like it was dire, right?
• 18:09
  Polly Mertens: But I was willing to become a beginner again and just say, you know what, you can bring all of what I know and all of who I am to everything that I do, like I always do.
• 18:18
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, having a mindset of a beginner's mindset, willing to go back, you know, from expert back to beginner, you know, like I'm gonna step into AI and be just like, I have no idea.
• 18:29
  Polly Mertens: Like I was an SEO expert, I have been a real estate expert, I have been a flipping expert, you know, and I'll be like, okay.
• 18:34
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, but in a couple of weeks and 30 days, look out, right?
• 18:40
  Polly Mertens: And you can too.
• 18:41
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, a career or a life or a sojourn life experience built on curiosity, rarely is it gonna be boring, right?
• 18:52
  Polly Mertens: Or stagnant or stuck.
• 18:54
  Polly Mertens: Because if you're always curious and open, you're opportunistic and optimistic.
• 18:58
  Polly Mertens: Don't be overly optimistic, don't be overly opportunistic, but be curious.
• 19:03
  Polly Mertens: And my favorite word this year, wonder, right?
• 19:05
  Polly Mertens: Like in wonderment.
• 19:06
  Polly Mertens: And there's a quote by Anas Nin says, Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
• 19:15
  Polly Mertens: Our life shrinks or expands in proportion to our courage.
• 19:20
  Polly Mertens: And our courage is not the absence of fear, it's the ability to act in spite of fear.
• 19:26
  Polly Mertens: That's what courage is, right?
• 19:27
  Polly Mertens: So reinvention is often simply the courage to start again.
• 19:31
  Polly Mertens: The courage to be a beginner again, to begin to not know something, to be in new territory, new people, new industry, to F up left and right, right?
• 19:43
  Polly Mertens: To not know.
• 19:44
  Polly Mertens: To not know and and want to know, be hungry for it, right?
• 19:49
  Polly Mertens: So I think that's I would call it a sojourner's mindset.
• 19:52
  Polly Mertens: And I would say some questions or like principles, you know, if the sojourner, rather than the fixed itinerary, you know, if curiosity becomes your compass, you don't need to know the entire map, right?
• 20:04
  Polly Mertens: Instead, you move towards what interests you.
• 20:06
  Polly Mertens: You take the next step, you stay and open to what emerges.
• 20:10
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, your pivots, they feel messy in the beginning.
• 20:12
  Polly Mertens: They reveal themselves as the path, right?
• 20:15
  Polly Mertens: So if you've taken any trips like I have, where I don't know where I'm going, you know, half the time we're just like, wow, this feels good.
• 20:21
  Polly Mertens: Oh, wow.
• 20:22
  Polly Mertens: And they get a little curious.
• 20:23
  Polly Mertens: And some of my best inspiration and vacations, I always say I love knowing and learning from people who travel because they have the best advice, you know.
• 20:32
  Polly Mertens: And you go somewhere and you get a little bit closer to that thing, and then you meet people and they give you a tip about this place or that restaurant or this trail or watch out for that, or oh, you're not you're gonna be able to not be able to do that right now.
• 20:44
  Polly Mertens: Maybe go over here.
• 20:45
  Polly Mertens: If you're paying attention and you're open to it, it's incredibly valuable, right?
• 20:50
  Polly Mertens: And that comes whether it's your your sojourn in life or your sojourn in your career or whatever it is.
• 20:56
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, these these detours are divine.
• 21:00
  Polly Mertens: They're divine adjustments, course corrections, course straightening, if you will, to where you're supposed to be, where I'm supposed to be.
• 21:08
  Polly Mertens: And so I want to leave you with some questions to ask yourself.
• 21:11
  Polly Mertens: Um, and just see if you're staying open and curious.
• 21:14
  Polly Mertens: So are you keeping an open or growth mindset?
• 21:18
  Polly Mertens: Would you say you're open to learning new things?
• 21:20
  Polly Mertens: You're open and you're curious and you're up to like just a mindset for growth, continual growth in whatever area, not like you're stupid, not like you have to be the expert or perfect, but just like open and listening and paying attention.
• 21:31
  Polly Mertens: Like I was like tuning into all this activity in my friend's life, and I was like, wow, I'm really open to that.
• 21:36
  Polly Mertens: And I declared, you know, I'm gonna like really embody this and embrace this because it feels like there's so much over there that I could lean into and step into that could help me in a lot of ways with my coaching clients, with my consulting clients, with my own business, right?
• 21:51
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, why not?
• 21:53
  Polly Mertens: So, do you like learning new things?
• 21:56
  Polly Mertens: Are you trying new activities?
• 21:58
  Polly Mertens: Are you taking new classes?
• 21:59
  Polly Mertens: Are you meeting new groups of people?
• 22:01
  Polly Mertens: Like being around new groups of people, fascinating the things you'll be exposed to.
• 22:06
  Polly Mertens: Like I always love going to potlucks because I love trying people's different food.
• 22:08
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, what's that?
• 22:09
  Polly Mertens: I I don't eat that all the time, you know, like exposure to new things and and being around, like I was just telling my friend who was telling me this about AI.
• 22:17
  Polly Mertens: I said, I really acknowledge you and I appreciate you.
• 22:19
  Polly Mertens: For all that you're being curious about and you're sharing with me, because it's having an impact on me.
• 22:24
  Polly Mertens: That's going to change the course of, you know, and it was my choice.
• 22:26
  Polly Mertens: I could like reject it or be like, that's good for you, buddy, but not for me.
• 22:30
  Polly Mertens: But instead, I'm like, wow, this really is lighting him up.
• 22:33
  Polly Mertens: And there's just so much talk.
• 22:35
  Polly Mertens: Why not like start to see what over there is and could be for me, for you too?
• 22:40
  Polly Mertens: So new groups of people, new, new technologies, right?
• 22:44
  Polly Mertens: What experiences or skill, what experiences or skills might you be undervaluing because they don't fit a single path?
• 22:52
  Polly Mertens: So are you labeling like I was your life, your past incorrectly?
• 22:57
  Polly Mertens: And could you connect the dot?
• 22:58
  Polly Mertens: And you couldn't connect the dots because maybe you're in the middle of the path.
• 23:01
  Polly Mertens: You know, like, you know, like me, I've had a lot of history in life, you know, like looking at the first three pivots in that career, I was like, oh, I'm so like all over the map.
• 23:11
  Polly Mertens: And now I'm like, yeah, I'm all over the map.
• 23:13
  Polly Mertens: Like, and I used to call it a patchwork quilt.
• 23:16
  Polly Mertens: And then I turned it into a portfolio.
• 23:17
  Polly Mertens: Now I'm just like, yeah, I'm a career sojourner, right?
• 23:20
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm doing life as an unfolding, as a beautiful discovery of the landscape and actually like creating it instead of being guided and directed by some linear planned path, like this is the way to whatever, right?
• 23:36
  Polly Mertens: So what if you weren't afraid to begin again?
• 23:39
  Polly Mertens: What if you weren't afraid to be a beginner again?
• 23:42
  Polly Mertens: What would you explore next?
• 23:44
  Polly Mertens: What would you be curious about?
• 23:45
  Polly Mertens: What have you like maybe been thinking about or hearing about or just want to, you know, it could be anything, it could be something personal, it could be like gardening, it could be walking.
• 23:53
  Polly Mertens: I've been seeing so much about Tai Chi, and I'm into like animal flow, and it's like in any area of your life, like what could you explore next, right?
• 24:02
  Polly Mertens: And what's a small first step you could take in the next week, in the next month, to get curious again.
• 24:09
  Polly Mertens: But how about just being in a state of wonder?
• 24:12
  Polly Mertens: Like, hmm, I wonder.
• 24:14
  Polly Mertens: Like, what if you just walked around with in a state of wonder for a day?
• 24:19
  Polly Mertens: Like you took a Saturday and you're just like, oh, I wonder.
• 24:21
  Polly Mertens: Like some days I'll just have my weekends, just like no plan and an absolute unfolding of like what feels good.
• 24:29
  Polly Mertens: Sometimes I'll go in the garden and then I'm like, oh, I'm hungry.
• 24:31
  Polly Mertens: And then like, oh, I want to go to the this and then up blah blah blah.
• 24:34
  Polly Mertens: Oh yeah, and then this.
• 24:35
  Polly Mertens: And I just allow it to be guided by what my body and my intuition is taking me for.
• 24:40
  Polly Mertens: So I ask you, what if the twists and the turns or the detours in your story are not mistakes?
• 24:46
  Polly Mertens: They're not anything to be ashamed of, they're just divine moments, and you're actually right on track.
• 24:52
  Polly Mertens: What if?
• 24:53
  Polly Mertens: How would that feel in your body?
• 24:55
  Polly Mertens: How would you embrace like how you're doing it, how you're doing it life?
• 24:59
  Polly Mertens: Like you're a freaking reinvention master.
• 25:01
  Polly Mertens: Or what if you could be?
• 25:02
  Polly Mertens: Like, what if you gave yourself a little courage and curiosity?
• 25:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, what would you start to lean into?
• 25:07
  Polly Mertens: So, where to look for what's next is what I want to talk a little bit about.
• 25:13
  Polly Mertens: And then I'll just kind of close this up.
• 25:14
  Polly Mertens: So, opportunities often show up quietly, you know.
• 25:17
  Polly Mertens: Like my friend, you know, it was I would say like over the past few weeks, like I said, my friend's been just sharing, like, I'm doing this with AI, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:24
  Polly Mertens: And it was like quiet.
• 25:25
  Polly Mertens: And then yesterday it was just like this rumble.
• 25:27
  Polly Mertens: It was like, like I couldn't ignore it anymore, right?
• 25:30
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, there's opportunity here.
• 25:32
  Polly Mertens: I don't know what it is, but it's just like my body was like, I'm a yes for this.
• 25:36
  Polly Mertens: So opportunities often show up quietly.
• 25:39
  Polly Mertens: So pay attention to curiosity.
• 25:41
  Polly Mertens: Maybe emergent technologies, inspiring conversations, or problems you feel drawn to solve.
• 25:47
  Polly Mertens: Because I was like, wow, well, I know a lot about a lot of these industries.
• 25:51
  Polly Mertens: And I know a couple things from teaching entrepreneurship.
• 25:53
  Polly Mertens: One is like 10% better, 10% different.
• 25:56
  Polly Mertens: Like that's all you need.
• 25:57
  Polly Mertens: Like when post-its were just yellow and they were a certain size, and then somebody started making pink ones and yellow ones, and they started making them flags and little bit, like 10% markers were always yellow when I was a kid, or highlighters, sorry.
• 26:07
  Polly Mertens: Highlighters were always yellow.
• 26:08
  Polly Mertens: And then they became pink and green, and then they were skinny and they were fat and they were like 10% different.
• 26:13
  Polly Mertens: Like I know some of these inherent things about like creating opportunities and entrepreneurialism.
• 26:18
  Polly Mertens: So I'm like looking over here at this emerging technology and inspiring conversations, and I'm like, what problems can I solve?
• 26:24
  Polly Mertens: So are there new skills that you're just drawn to for frickin' no other reason?
• 26:29
  Polly Mertens: That sounds fun.
• 26:30
  Polly Mertens: Who knows?
• 26:30
  Polly Mertens: Right?
• 26:31
  Polly Mertens: Like AI, like I have no idea how I'm going to use this right now.
• 26:34
  Polly Mertens: I have some curiosity.
• 26:35
  Polly Mertens: Like one of the things that I would love to solve for myself is I see how long as a web developer, and I'm not like a self-proclaimed web developer.
• 26:43
  Polly Mertens: Yes, I can create a website, whatnot, but I see also the developers that that's their jam and that's what they do best.
• 26:49
  Polly Mertens: How freaking long it takes us to create them.
• 26:52
  Polly Mertens: And I just hear people saying, oh, yeah, you can create a website in an afternoon.
• 26:55
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, I want to know that.
• 26:57
  Polly Mertens: I want to know that because I'm like the incremental painfulness of creating a website, like ours and cost, there's got to be a better way.
• 27:05
  Polly Mertens: And so if there's a better mash trap out there, I'm like, let's do this, let's learn this because we can bring that shit to a lot of people.
• 27:11
  Polly Mertens: And I would love to help from myself.
• 27:12
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I got three websites right now that Samantha and I have one, and I have two, and I'm like, I would love to reinvent those and make them sexy as hell on my own, right?
• 27:21
  Polly Mertens: And I will, and that's where part of this is going.
• 27:22
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm gonna use that as the first step, but there'll be many more.
• 27:26
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, these signals, these, these, and um, these callings, these interesting conversations, these interesting things that we read about and get curious about, not from like a painful, like fear-based, like, oh, I better learn that, you know, like I better know this, right?
• 27:41
  Polly Mertens: But more of like, wow, that sounds like he's having a lot of fun over there.
• 27:44
  Polly Mertens: Like the things he's just popping off, right?
• 27:46
  Polly Mertens: Get curious, and maybe it's something else for you, right?
• 27:49
  Polly Mertens: But what if it could take you to that next chapter?
• 27:52
  Polly Mertens: What if it's the next step with the next cobble or path on your crooked path, right?
• 27:56
  Polly Mertens: So for me right now, you know, Samantha and I are definitely in a year to live.
• 28:01
  Polly Mertens: Like that's in the background of all of this.
• 28:03
  Polly Mertens: But how fun to be like, okay, I'll play AI inside of this because it's fun, it's interesting, it could be amazing, right?
• 28:10
  Polly Mertens: And this year I am all about.
• 28:12
  Polly Mertens: I said in December 2025, my life in December 2026 will be unrecognizable, unrecognizable to the me who I was.
• 28:21
  Polly Mertens: And I still don't even know what that means or looks like, but I know something about this is like, oh, okay, that's got something to do with it, right?
• 28:30
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, whatever it is for you.
• 28:33
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, in 2008, for me, it was like, I'm creating websites, right?
• 28:36
  Polly Mertens: Now I'm like creating websites with AI.
• 28:37
  Polly Mertens: It's gonna be the next thing I'm exploring and building and looking at this new area of technology, just embracing it, right?
• 28:43
  Polly Mertens: Embrace whatever feels good for you.
• 28:45
  Polly Mertens: That may or may not like I got down the wrong um class yesterday.
• 28:49
  Polly Mertens: I was like, found myself in an AI for developers and I didn't realize it.
• 28:53
  Polly Mertens: And I was and they were just like talking super tech.
• 28:56
  Polly Mertens: Wait, I was all, if this is how it is, I'm I'm probably a no for this.
• 29:00
  Polly Mertens: So I went back to chat and I was like, you told me to take this class, and I and man, I don't, and they go, Oh no, no, no, take this one.
• 29:06
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, Okay, well, there you go.
• 29:08
  Polly Mertens: So I'm just like feeling it out as I go, like, oh, that's a no.
• 29:12
  Polly Mertens: Okay, next, right?
• 29:14
  Polly Mertens: So final thought.
• 29:15
  Polly Mertens: So for a long time I believed that, you know, pivots, you know, meant I lack direction, right?
• 29:22
  Polly Mertens: Or I look back on my life with this, like, like, what were you doing?
• 29:26
  Polly Mertens: What's going on?
• 29:27
  Polly Mertens: Get get in line, right?
• 29:29
  Polly Mertens: Like, like snap out of it.
• 29:31
  Polly Mertens: And now I'm like, I'm fully fucking embracing the sojourner that I am.
• 29:36
  Polly Mertens: Like, hell yeah, I'm doing it differently than Maverick.
• 29:38
  Polly Mertens: Now, you know, I see how I've created, you know, new perspectives, I've created resilience, I've created inner confidence in myself to reinvent.
• 29:48
  Polly Mertens: I'm not afraid of the unknown, I'm not afraid of new opportunities, I'm not afraid of new industries, new territories, new people, new what ifs, becoming a beginner again, all over again.
• 29:58
  Polly Mertens: Like AI is like basic.
• 30:00
  Polly Mertens: I'm going back to basics, right?
• 30:03
  Polly Mertens: So I think reinvention is not like a starting over, it's a stacking, right?
• 30:08
  Polly Mertens: You're not like blank slate like nothing.
• 30:11
  Polly Mertens: No, you bring all that damn stuff with you.
• 30:13
  Polly Mertens: Like I walked into that job as an executive assistant knowing a lot.
• 30:17
  Polly Mertens: Like I knew a lot already.
• 30:19
  Polly Mertens: So I didn't like start over, I just like stepped into something new and I stacked what I knew and then boom, boom, boom, rise to the top.
• 30:26
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, my life wasn't a ladder, my career was not a ladder, it was a path.
• 30:32
  Polly Mertens: A damn beautiful sojourn filled with frickin' learning and adaptation and growth.
• 30:40
  Polly Mertens: And I'm sure some, if not a lot of you, are having that experience too.
• 30:45
  Polly Mertens: And what looked like a detour seemed inconvenient.
• 30:49
  Polly Mertens: God, the stock, you know, the mark, capital market, and then the financial market, and then let go from this job or whatever.
• 30:56
  Polly Mertens: Like it seems like it's an inconvenience, or this isn't what's supposed to be happening.
• 30:59
  Polly Mertens: But you know what?
• 31:00
  Polly Mertens: Every time it is what it's supposed to be happening.
• 31:02
  Polly Mertens: And it actually, if we can look at it as a divine intervention, a divine detour, a divine direction guiding us to where we're supposed to be and what actually feels fulfilling for us if we listen and if we tune into that.
• 31:14
  Polly Mertens: So looking back, I don't see this scattered career now with this pivot of mind framing, right?
• 31:19
  Polly Mertens: I see a journey, a career journey, a series of reinventions that taught me far more than a straight line career ladder ever could have.
• 31:28
  Polly Mertens: And I'm prepared for what's next.
• 31:30
  Polly Mertens: I'm prepared for a world that's like AI.
• 31:32
  Polly Mertens: Bring it on.
• 31:33
  Polly Mertens: Like, oh, I can't wait to play in it, right?
• 31:36
  Polly Mertens: Who knows where this is gonna go?
• 31:38
  Polly Mertens: But I'm not afraid of something new or the shift or the downsizing of this, because you know what?
• 31:43
  Polly Mertens: I'll pivot again.
• 31:45
  Polly Mertens: So I want to leave you with one final thought.
• 31:48
  Polly Mertens: Maybe a few, but one that I can think of is like what is something new you could explore or be curious about?
• 31:57
  Polly Mertens: If there's anything in this that prompted you of you're stagnant in some area of your life, maybe it's your career or something, it's your relationship or whatever, or your health, your studies.
• 32:08
  Polly Mertens: You know, you haven't learned anything in a long time.
• 32:09
  Polly Mertens: You haven't tried anything new, you're doing all the same, right?
• 32:11
  Polly Mertens: Like, I get that, you know.
• 32:12
  Polly Mertens: Like I have, you know, if you're watching this video, uh, like I have a card, like every day I've got like these routines that I do in my morning routine and whatnot.
• 32:20
  Polly Mertens: And I'm doing new things.
• 32:21
  Polly Mertens: Like I was just thinking, I was gonna say this earlier, but it's like like I'm growing up my hair.
• 32:24
  Polly Mertens: Like I've highlighted my hair since I was in my 20s.
• 32:28
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, like high school.
• 32:29
  Polly Mertens: High school, like fully bleached blonde in 20s, and I haven't known myself to be a full, you know, strawberry blonde brunette, whatever brunette, more so.
• 32:39
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, and I'm getting more gray, and I'm like, embrace that shit.
• 32:43
  Polly Mertens: Like, let's go, reinvent, like, whoa, who is this woman that's emerging?
• 32:48
  Polly Mertens: Like living into putting those gloves on and be like, uh-huh, I'm dolled up in all of me, more so, right?
• 32:55
  Polly Mertens: So, what's something you could try to explore?
• 32:57
  Polly Mertens: An area you could be curious about, something you could bring wonder to, and it will just light you up.
• 33:03
  Polly Mertens: And anything, I hope something in this gave you peace of mind, a permission slip, inspiration to get out there, soften those edges, like get out there and sojourn for a while and just explore, baby.
• 33:17
  Polly Mertens: All right, so one last thing to remind you of is how your life feels is way more important than how it looks.
• 33:24
  Polly Mertens: And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.