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129: The Midyear Reset: Rethink Your Goals and Restart Without Guilt · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:27
  Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, welcome back.
• 0:29
  Polly Mertens: Polly here.
• 0:30
  Samantha Pruitts: And Sam Pruitt.
• 0:32
  Samantha Pruitts: It's been a minute.
• 0:33
  Samantha Pruitts: It's been a minute and guessing.
• 0:35
  Polly Mertens: It was only a week, but it felt like a lot longer, didn't it?
• 0:38
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, I tell you, that's I think everybody's got that going on these days, man.
• 0:42
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, it's mid-year, and we're like, you're doing some resetting, I'm doing some resetting, re, you know, like looking at the future.
• 0:50
  Samantha Pruitts: So that's what we're going to dive into today.
• 0:51
  Samantha Pruitts: We're going to really go into like what do we do to, you know, some stories you have about like, okay, I was on track for this, like your 100 race, right?
• 1:00
  Samantha Pruitts: 100 miler, and you're like, not doing that, right?
• 1:02
  Samantha Pruitts: So like the pivots, the redirects, the restarts, or the review and reflect, and like what's next?
• 1:07
  Samantha Pruitts: So that's what we'll cover today, and just share with you how we do it, how often we do it, you know, because it's not just at June, right?
• 1:14
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, I see you do it when you're like the train is off freaking track.
• 1:18
  Samantha Pruitts: We gotta reboot here.
• 1:21
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 1:21
  Polly Mertens: And and that's my biggest message that's gonna be for this whole combo is like you can do it whenever the hell you damn well please.
• 1:27
  Polly Mertens: It doesn't have to be a mid-year.
• 1:29
  Polly Mertens: Mid year is a good professionally and even personally, it's usually a good time to do it before you go into summer and everything sort of changes energetically and seasonally.
• 1:40
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 1:40
  Polly Mertens: But for me, it's like whenever I gut feeling intuitively know things are becoming super resistant or sticky or recirculating, or just I feel stagnant, even whatever that might be, resistance, stagnation, et cetera.
• 1:56
  Polly Mertens: I'll be like, hold up.
• 1:58
  Polly Mertens: Let's pause for a minute here.
• 2:00
  Polly Mertens: Am I still moving in the direction of my dreams, or is something shifting for me, whether it's external or internal?
• 2:07
  Polly Mertens: So I really want to just double down on people honoring that feeling.
• 2:11
  Samantha Pruitts: And I want to, you know, add to that is that A, you're present to your dreams and your goals, right?
• 2:17
  Samantha Pruitts: Like some people like are just kind of like winging it, right?
• 2:20
  Samantha Pruitts: And I think you and I really are, and people listening to this, you know, it's like important to write that shit down.
• 2:26
  Samantha Pruitts: Like write down what you're up to and share it.
• 2:28
  Samantha Pruitts: And we'll be talking about accountability, right?
• 2:30
  Samantha Pruitts: So what I love is it's not like, oh, like I have done this and I'm totally guilty of like, oh yeah, I did say in January I was gonna do something, you know, and lose track of it, right?
• 2:42
  Samantha Pruitts: So I love that you have the awareness because sometimes too, I'm guilty of like having too many.
• 2:48
  Polly Mertens: Like I'll have to I was gonna say, Paul, you're not the one for getting it.
• 2:51
  Polly Mertens: If anything, you have so many things.
• 2:54
  Polly Mertens: And I'm laughing out loud because AI can relate.
• 2:56
  Polly Mertens: And then secondarily, I just had a conversation with a loved one this week.
• 3:00
  Polly Mertens: I bought a new calendar.
• 3:02
  Polly Mertens: This is one of the things I do around summer.
• 3:05
  Polly Mertens: Really?
• 3:06
  Polly Mertens: Um, because you can get the year and a half calendars, they come out.
• 3:09
  Polly Mertens: Oh, okay.
• 3:10
  Polly Mertens: So it's not just the 12-month thing.
• 3:12
  Polly Mertens: And I this is a routine that I normally do.
• 3:15
  Polly Mertens: Of course, I already had a calendar, right?
• 3:17
  Polly Mertens: But I reset my calendar.
• 3:19
  Polly Mertens: I literally do that.
• 3:20
  Polly Mertens: And so this loved one was like, oh my goodness, how many calendars do you have?
• 3:25
  Polly Mertens: How can you have another calendar?
• 3:26
  Polly Mertens: How are you getting another calendar?
• 3:28
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, dude, you don't even have a calendar.
• 3:30
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, okay.
• 3:31
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, but this is a normal thing for me.
• 3:33
  Polly Mertens: And let me show you why.
• 3:35
  Polly Mertens: And it feels so good for me.
• 3:39
  Polly Mertens: It's like a cleansing.
• 3:41
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, and I've seen you do this.
• 3:42
  Samantha Pruitts: You're funny because you get all, you know, things stirred, you know, it's like this this like energy.
• 3:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, yeah, well, you get like big things that you want to, and then you're like slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, you know.
• 3:55
  Samantha Pruitts: And so I yeah, that's that's your power.
• 3:58
  Samantha Pruitts: So let's talk about like why do them?
• 4:00
  Samantha Pruitts: Like why, what, what is the key here?
• 4:02
  Samantha Pruitts: What are we why would somebody do a mid-year reset?
• 4:05
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, what are some of the reasons?
• 4:07
  Polly Mertens: I mean, if it's professionally and it's business, then you need to be doing that on a more regular basis, quarterly, or whatever your planning is.
• 4:14
  Polly Mertens: But if you do it mid-year professionally, right, then you're really taking a good damn analysis of what has happened for the first six months in your business or in your professional life, if you're chasing career goals or whatever all is going on with you, right?
• 4:27
  Polly Mertens: To do that and be honest about it and have a sit down with yourself or your peers in your company is super, super important.
• 4:36
  Polly Mertens: So you can see, are we going to achieve our goals for this year that we set?
• 4:41
  Polly Mertens: Or do we need to strategically make some changes in order to ensure those things happen?
• 4:46
  Polly Mertens: Because if you wait till fall, it is too damn late to course correct.
• 4:50
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 4:51
  Polly Mertens: So professionally, you've got to really be doing this on a more regular basis.
• 4:55
  Polly Mertens: That's the reason I would say professionally.
• 4:57
  Polly Mertens: What would you say professionally is a good reason to do it?
• 4:59
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, so there's a couple of systems out there, and then maybe there's hundreds, you know.
• 5:03
  Samantha Pruitts: I'm just going to talk about a couple of two that I know of that I'm fond of.
• 5:06
  Samantha Pruitts: One is it's called EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System.
• 5:10
  Samantha Pruitts: And they, you know, they, you know, you said a 10-year, five-year, three year.
• 5:14
  Samantha Pruitts: I'm like, 10 year, you know, like things change so damn much.
• 5:17
  Samantha Pruitts: But it is good to have those.
• 5:19
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I believe in like having, you know, shoot for the moon goals and stuff.
• 5:23
  Samantha Pruitts: But for me, it and then so EOS is one.
• 5:26
  Samantha Pruitts: And then the other one is what's called the 12-week year, which is basically like like a quarter.
• 5:31
  Samantha Pruitts: So you do, I mean, if you can get super focused, and I love because both of them break it, break it, break it, break it down into 90-day goals.
• 5:39
  Samantha Pruitts: Because I'm a huge fan of like, man, in business, you got to have like one, two, three at the most core things that you and your team are doing, and that's it.
• 5:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Because and I think you know, we're you're pointing to like earlier this year, or I tend to have so many things, you know, that I want to get up to, right?
• 5:55
  Samantha Pruitts: And I lose track because more than three.
• 5:58
  Samantha Pruitts: I think the teams, you know, the founder, whatever, we lose track of all of it, right?
• 6:03
  Samantha Pruitts: So mid-year is great because you've got six months of this year, and I find that like strategically you you have a horizon of what you can see out in front of you.
• 6:12
  Samantha Pruitts: 90 days is usually like you can move some things or you can adjust some things.
• 6:16
  Samantha Pruitts: Six months is like things can change, you know, like um, especially with with AI and social media and the shifts and the algorithms and things like that in marketing, and the economy and the political climate.
• 6:26
  Samantha Pruitts: And your team too, you know, like you like oh yeah, key players.
• 6:31
  Samantha Pruitts: Key players can come and go and what and markets can shift, you know, things like that.
• 6:36
  Samantha Pruitts: So I'm like a big fan, like right now, of working with I'm gonna dive into a story that's a little deeper than I thought, but so I have a client right now who last year she had she brought on a key player, right?
• 6:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Like that was like big business.
• 6:49
  Samantha Pruitts: He'd worked at, you know, big companies.
• 6:51
  Samantha Pruitts: You would know the names if I said them, and was like, okay, great, you know, have him help you build, you know, strategic plans and get things going.
• 6:58
  Samantha Pruitts: And like never got traction.
• 7:00
  Samantha Pruitts: Like a dude just was like there, some ideas, whatever.
• 7:04
  Samantha Pruitts: And so she, you know, hired me earlier this year and I was like, all right, what are we doing?
• 7:07
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, let's get some, you know, and so we had a sit-down, we had a strategic planning session, like let's focus on this for the, you know, what needs to be most important?
• 7:15
  Samantha Pruitts: What is driving revenue, what isn't?
• 7:17
  Samantha Pruitts: Where can we eke out or we need to focus on?
• 7:20
  Samantha Pruitts: Got that super clear.
• 7:22
  Samantha Pruitts: And like every meeting, that's all we talk about.
• 7:24
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, okay, it's sales training, it's this one particular campaign that she's doing, you know.
• 7:29
  Samantha Pruitts: Forgive me, I'm I've got a lot of clients in my mind right now, but forget what the third one is.
• 7:32
  Samantha Pruitts: But it's like those things we talk about constantly, right?
• 7:36
  Samantha Pruitts: And they know what what the focus is, right?
• 7:38
  Samantha Pruitts: So I think that's true.
• 7:40
  Polly Mertens: Otherwise, you see the opposite, which I had a conversation, business conversation yesterday.
• 7:44
  Polly Mertens: I know we're a little bit off the wheels here, but like it was the opposite.
• 7:47
  Polly Mertens: I have a person in leadership and coming in and making some significant changes within the team.
• 7:52
  Polly Mertens: And they're so microfocused on these daily sort of survival metrics and things like that.
• 7:59
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, okay, but where's like the next 60, 90 day calendar?
• 8:04
  Polly Mertens: Where's the like what where are the more bigger picture strategic elements to this plan?
• 8:10
  Polly Mertens: Not what are we doing tomorrow or are we hitting the numbers next week?
• 8:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, that's survival mode.
• 8:16
  Polly Mertens: So you can get stuck in that too if you're not careful.
• 8:20
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, I like what I like to see is you know, you start with the 90, or you know, you start higher than that and you break it down in your in your 90.
• 8:26
  Samantha Pruitts: Like these are the core three things.
• 8:28
  Samantha Pruitts: And what, and when we look through that lens, right, then we can say, okay, what KPIs do we need to measure for sales training?
• 8:34
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, you know, is it number of calls they're making?
• 8:37
  Samantha Pruitts: Is it, you know, whatever, how are the close ratios, how are appointment settings, things like that, right?
• 8:41
  Samantha Pruitts: So, and then with our marketing, I was like, okay, we need a campaign for this quarter, right?
• 8:45
  Samantha Pruitts: Okay, what are what are what are we focusing on, you know?
• 8:47
  Samantha Pruitts: And so you can break it down into like, oh, this mailing and this and smaller pieces, but not having the bigger vision, like you said, it's like, what is all this good for?
• 8:57
  Polly Mertens: You know, I think it's suicide, you can't make any intelligent decisions.
• 9:00
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I was like, I don't see how we can decide on these 10 things we're supposed to be talking about when we don't have like basic foundations.
• 9:07
  Samantha Pruitts: And how this relates personally.
• 9:08
  Samantha Pruitts: So you're helping me.
• 9:09
  Samantha Pruitts: We're gonna talk after this episode about my training plan for my next, it's not a race, but it's my next big track, right?
• 9:16
  Samantha Pruitts: And so that I've got this goal, and it's like, okay, you and I both know to hit something like you know, 10 days of hiking, you got to prep for that, right?
• 9:26
  Samantha Pruitts: And then what it looks like on the every day is like, okay, this is what I'm doing Monday, Tuesday, when you know, so it is broken down by the daily.
• 9:33
  Samantha Pruitts: But if I just started with the daily, like would I ever get there?
• 9:37
  Polly Mertens: Or, you know, so it's easy to lose motivation for many, many reasons.
• 9:42
  Polly Mertens: So, okay, now we're on to the personal reason to do this mid-year, yeah, you know, redo or or reanalysis or you know, redirect if you want to call it a redirect, really.
• 9:52
  Polly Mertens: Personally, there's tons of reasons to do it, like what you just said.
• 9:55
  Polly Mertens: You could have personal goals that are physical or health or athletic.
• 9:59
  Polly Mertens: That's really critical.
• 10:00
  Polly Mertens: You know, you're not going to set that as a 12-month goal.
• 10:04
  Polly Mertens: Those are periodized training plans that usually run 12, 16 to 24 weeks.
• 10:11
  Polly Mertens: You know, they definitely are not something you do for the whole year.
• 10:13
  Polly Mertens: Like you don't spend a whole year training for a marathon or a 5K or whatever.
• 10:16
  Polly Mertens: You'd make yourself crazy.
• 10:18
  Samantha Pruitts: But some people have the big goal.
• 10:20
  Samantha Pruitts: I mean, you know, ultras and yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:22
  Polly Mertens: I mean, obviously I have you know crazy ass shit that I but I stack these goals.
• 10:27
  Polly Mertens: Again, it's strategic, the stacking of them.
• 10:30
  Polly Mertens: But from another personal perspective or vantage point, it could be financial goals, right?
• 10:35
  Polly Mertens: So setting a goal for the year, great, I have a financial goal to save X or to budget appropriately, blah, blah.
• 10:42
  Polly Mertens: But like those check-ins are really important.
• 10:45
  Polly Mertens: And maybe something did change.
• 10:47
  Polly Mertens: So, really, a lot of times what we're talking about with these redirects is life happened, which by the way is happening every single second as we just stand here and breathe.
• 10:56
  Polly Mertens: And so, therefore, circumstances changed.
• 10:59
  Polly Mertens: It could be external circumstances, like maybe I can't save that money now because my car broke down.
• 11:06
  Polly Mertens: Maybe I have medical bills for a loved one I didn't have before, whatever, right?
• 11:11
  Polly Mertens: Like things just change, job changes, etc.
• 11:13
  Polly Mertens: Or maybe I got a massive bonus.
• 11:16
  Polly Mertens: Hey! And then, you know, all of a sudden I'm like, damn, that's go straight into savings or whatever.
• 11:21
  Polly Mertens: It could be relationship status changes.
• 11:23
  Polly Mertens: Like there's so many things that make our life different on the daily.
• 11:27
  Polly Mertens: And so why wouldn't we, knowing that change is inevitable and constant, be also sort of looking at our goals in relationship to that and our strategy towards those goals?
• 11:39
  Polly Mertens: So it just makes sense.
• 11:41
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, and I think two things are there I'm present to as you were saying that is one is the goal that you are aiming for, something has changed, right?
• 11:50
  Samantha Pruitts: Like it's it's either seems unachievable, and I'm not always saying like give it up or whatever, but like how can you redirect for that?
• 11:57
  Samantha Pruitts: How can you pivot to still keep the goal, but maybe change your approach, right?
• 12:01
  Samantha Pruitts: And then there's ones like for me, I'll share.
• 12:04
  Samantha Pruitts: So I love these quarterly.
• 12:06
  Samantha Pruitts: So for the past 90 days, I've been in my what's called miracle quarter through my landmark program.
• 12:11
  Samantha Pruitts: So I did that 12-month program February.
• 12:13
  Samantha Pruitts: We ejected from that, went into what's called Miracle Quarter.
• 12:16
  Samantha Pruitts: And so the cohorts from that group that we all sort of graduated, we created a little uh accountability group and set new, you know, 90-day window goals for, you know, and so I had five or six of those, and that's coming to an end.
• 12:29
  Samantha Pruitts: So you can have a 90-day window completing inside, let's say, a bigger 12-month goal or whatever it is.
• 12:34
  Samantha Pruitts: And then you go, okay, and sometimes it's looking back and going, I hit three out of four, or I hit 80% of this one, and I want to finish it.
• 12:42
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, like I didn't, I didn't get it.
• 12:44
  Samantha Pruitts: So it's taking that opportunity, stepping back and putting it into the future.
• 12:49
  Samantha Pruitts: Like right now, I set a new, so I was working, one of my goals this past 90 days was AI mastery, you know, really studying and like using that muscle of AI.
• 12:59
  Samantha Pruitts: So I feel great about that.
• 13:00
  Samantha Pruitts: I don't want to like, oh, done, you know, won't continue.
• 13:03
  Samantha Pruitts: It was like, okay, yeah, I want to, I want to continue that.
• 13:06
  Samantha Pruitts: And I've got a new goal that's we've talked about is my 100-day challenge for you know being more and more present on YouTube.
• 13:13
  Samantha Pruitts: So like that's creates a whole new set of like, what am I doing on the daily and what do I need to learn, you know, and things like that.
• 13:18
  Samantha Pruitts: So I really love those stretch goals for that.
• 13:21
  Samantha Pruitts: So it can be either that goal that you had, you're something's in the way, right?
• 13:27
  Samantha Pruitts: Like something's impeding you achieving it.
• 13:29
  Samantha Pruitts: So you have to change the strategy, ideally, not change the goal because it was something that you wanted if you can still achieve it, like use your brain in, you know, or other people's brains to what else can I do?
• 13:40
  Samantha Pruitts: How can I, how can I still get this goal, right?
• 13:43
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 13:43
  Polly Mertens: But then there's things abandon it.
• 13:45
  Samantha Pruitts: But then there's things like you with your hundred miler, right?
• 13:48
  Samantha Pruitts: So talk a little bit about that.
• 13:49
  Samantha Pruitts: Like that was yeah.
• 13:51
  Polly Mertens: It's similar to kind of what you're saying, though.
• 13:52
  Polly Mertens: I didn't abandon the goal.
• 13:54
  Polly Mertens: I had a fall goal.
• 13:55
  Polly Mertens: So I've got July, John Muir Trail, solo, start to finish, right?
• 13:59
  Polly Mertens: And then I had this fall goal of this hundred mile race.
• 14:02
  Polly Mertens: I have done that race before.
• 14:04
  Polly Mertens: I felt pretty comfortable signing up for it.
• 14:06
  Polly Mertens: But then as I got into my training program and I was just really recalibrating all of my health and fitness, you know, a bit from front to back because of everything that transpired with my back surgery and all this yada yada stuff, I thought, huh, this is really not reasonable for me for many, many reasons.
• 14:26
  Polly Mertens: Time constraints, but also just physically, I'm not giving my body enough time to get where it needs to get to have a good experience.
• 14:35
  Polly Mertens: Could I muscle through it because I'm a stubborn SOB?
• 14:38
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, but what is the point?
• 14:39
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 14:40
  Polly Mertens: So then I was kind of playing with it, giving myself the grace to sort of play with it.
• 14:45
  Polly Mertens: And then I ended up, of course, I got tempted with a different race, which does happen on a regular basis.
• 14:51
  Polly Mertens: And it's actually one I'm way more interested in on the Arizona Trail.
• 14:55
  Polly Mertens: I've never done it.
• 14:55
  Polly Mertens: It's on my bucket list.
• 14:57
  Polly Mertens: This this is a brand new 100-mile race.
• 14:59
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, okay, easy decision for me.
• 15:01
  Polly Mertens: Wow.
• 15:01
  Polly Mertens: Fall is done.
• 15:02
  Polly Mertens: I'm not interested in that anymore.
• 15:04
  Polly Mertens: I'm moving it to the spring.
• 15:06
  Polly Mertens: I feel super confident I can be ready by then.
• 15:08
  Polly Mertens: And also I'm much more excited about going to that race than repeating this other one.
• 15:13
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 15:13
  Polly Mertens: So there's so many reasons for me to like take that goal, reposition it, freshen it up, buff it up, and then look at, okay, now what's it going to take for me with the change in timeline to achieve that goal?
• 15:28
  Polly Mertens: Sometimes you need to take shit just off.
• 15:31
  Polly Mertens: Like you know, you didn't get it done, and it needs to just go away.
• 15:35
  Polly Mertens: Like sometimes that's a reality too.
• 15:37
  Polly Mertens: Do you have any experiences with that?
• 15:39
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, there's one thing I just wanted to say, in addition to what you're saying, is so you we could look at the goal, like you could one, you could say, oh, it was to complete that race, right?
• 15:49
  Samantha Pruitts: And I would say that wasn't why you signed up for it necessarily.
• 15:52
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, a hundred miler is inspiring to you.
• 15:54
  Samantha Pruitts: So what you did is you just looked at how can I shift the timing of it?
• 15:58
  Samantha Pruitts: You said timing-wise, that that, you know, and so there's there's a component to keeping the goal in place, and sometimes it's just the timing of it.
• 16:06
  Samantha Pruitts: So, like, can I do it two weeks later?
• 16:08
  Samantha Pruitts: Can I do it two, you know, six months later, whatever it needs to be, but keep that core of the goal, right?
• 16:14
  Samantha Pruitts: Same thing with like financial, like you were talking about earlier.
• 16:16
  Samantha Pruitts: It's like, oh, save X amount by whatever.
• 16:19
  Samantha Pruitts: So still have that goal, but maybe it needs to be moved out 30 days or three months or something like that.
• 16:24
  Samantha Pruitts: So I like that.
• 16:26
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, and then you said the like pivot, like canceling.
• 16:29
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, yeah, definitely evaluating, because you know, I've definitely had times where something seems exciting and inspiring and like totally what I should be doing this year, and then get into it, and I'm like, and you know what?
• 16:44
  Samantha Pruitts: Like this is our life, right?
• 16:46
  Samantha Pruitts: It's not anybody else's life.
• 16:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Even if you've committed it to somebody else on the external, it's like, uh, this it's not for you.
• 16:53
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, if it's not for me, then like, okay, but consciously choose it.
• 16:57
  Samantha Pruitts: Don't just like wimp out, right?
• 16:58
  Samantha Pruitts: And I think there's a place in your your intuition and your heart where you know, okay, yeah, I'm here's why.
• 17:05
  Samantha Pruitts: And it's not a justifying, it's a understanding.
• 17:08
  Samantha Pruitts: It's like a conversation you have with yourself.
• 17:10
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, yeah, that that that's doesn't make sense for me right now.
• 17:14
  Polly Mertens: So yeah, and generally our mode of operation is when we eliminate something from the let's call it New Year's, you know, goal list or whatever.
• 17:25
  Polly Mertens: We don't just like bail on the goal and then go on about like having a vacation for the next six months.
• 17:30
  Polly Mertens: We're like, no, but this other thing is taking precedence now.
• 17:33
  Polly Mertens: My gaze has shifted in a new direction based on opportunity or availability or resources or invitations or whatever.
• 17:43
  Polly Mertens: And I want to put that energy, those resources in that direction rather than this other, right?
• 17:49
  Polly Mertens: And not feel any sense of obligation or guilt or whatever, especially like what you said, making that a commitment to someone else.
• 17:56
  Polly Mertens: Okay, so we're gonna do this trip in the fall and we're gonna go here and it's gonna cost a lot of money and blah, blah.
• 18:02
  Polly Mertens: And then you get like into the middle of the year and it's not working for you for whatever reason, but you force yourself to do it because you committed to these two friends or whatever the thing is to go on that vacay to Hawaii or go do whatever the hell the thing is.
• 18:16
  Polly Mertens: But really, you have no desire to do it.
• 18:17
  Polly Mertens: It's totally insane to do it.
• 18:20
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, insane to do it.
• 18:22
  Polly Mertens: It should be completely against your gut and intuition and your value system to continue on that path.
• 18:30
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, I would say is are you congruent?
• 18:32
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, do you have inner con inner congruence that the decision that you're making is right for you, right?
• 18:38
  Samantha Pruitts: Don't make it for other people, don't make it about other people, make it is it congruent for you?
• 18:43
  Samantha Pruitts: Do you feel in alignment about it?
• 18:44
  Samantha Pruitts: Totally, totally.
• 18:45
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:46
  Polly Mertens: So you have to keep checking in on all these things, right?
• 18:49
  Samantha Pruitts: Definitely, definitely.
• 18:50
  Samantha Pruitts: So yeah, good, good, good, good.
• 18:52
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, so so what are some of the ways that we set and evaluate?
• 18:57
  Samantha Pruitts: How do we evaluate whether something should be tossed or something should be kept and moved?
• 19:02
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, like what are some of the thoughts, processes that you go through to what are the questions you ask yourself, maybe?
• 19:08
  Polly Mertens: I mean, at this point, I've been doing it so long, it pretty much bubbles up for me pretty quickly, whether I'm even wanting to think about it or conscious of it.
• 19:17
  Polly Mertens: So that's kind of a just like a spider instinct or whatever that I've developed.
• 19:22
  Polly Mertens: But initially that was not the case at all.
• 19:24
  Polly Mertens: I would just get in the middle of the abyss of the year and be literally drowning.
• 19:30
  Polly Mertens: And maybe I would be sick or I would be tired or I would be pissed off every day, or I would whatever, like physical symptoms would start brewing.
• 19:39
  Polly Mertens: And so then I would be forced to do it.
• 19:42
  Polly Mertens: So at that junction, usually something would be like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
• 19:48
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, like this morning you said, Wake up, Sam.
• 19:50
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, if you had so like this morning you said you you had your workout and something was just off, like, you know, the energy output just wasn't there, right?
• 19:58
  Samantha Pruitts: And if you had that or the runs you weren't able to finish them.
• 20:01
  Samantha Pruitts: Like if you started to notice as you're tracking with your training, you know, whether you've had to cancel a couple of them because something's come up or you got sick or whatever, right?
• 20:11
  Samantha Pruitts: Um, if you just start seeing like the output or whatever, you've got to evaluate, wow, I can't even complete the trainings that I'm doing right now.
• 20:16
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, like I'm not even at the level I need to be at.
• 20:19
  Samantha Pruitts: And so it's it's about evaluating that right then and there, right?
• 20:22
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and figuring out the whys, right?
• 20:25
  Polly Mertens: If you're not reaching that halfway savings goal or that fitness goal or that whatever fill-in-the-blank thing, then you have to be honest, really honest, about why that's not happening.
• 20:37
  Polly Mertens: Like you said, is it just because I've sort of lost motivation or I'm just kind of procrastinating and being lazy, or is there literally some things that are happening that need to be addressed?
• 20:47
  Polly Mertens: So they that can fall into two different, really different buckets, right?
• 20:51
  Polly Mertens: So evaluating, looking at really honestly, sometimes you need to do that with another person.
• 20:57
  Polly Mertens: So, like in business and professionally, this is really important.
• 21:00
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 21:01
  Polly Mertens: Somebody else's eyeballs need to get on that, okay?
• 21:04
  Polly Mertens: Because we work with visionaries, with entrepreneurs, business owners, usually small, middle-sized business, and they're like they you know, literally, there's so much.
• 21:15
  Polly Mertens: I got it, I got it, literally, they're falling backwards.
• 21:19
  Polly Mertens: I got it.
• 21:20
  Polly Mertens: And we're like, but do you?
• 21:22
  Polly Mertens: But do you know?
• 21:24
  Polly Mertens: And it's okay to say, I don't got it.
• 21:26
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 21:27
  Polly Mertens: And for someone who is supportive of you, you know, without judgment, we are very like non-judgmental, we're here to support and all that.
• 21:34
  Polly Mertens: Go, okay, let's just pause for two seconds, take this, dismantle this for a minute, and then look at the pieces.
• 21:40
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, what should you really pick up?
• 21:42
  Polly Mertens: Should you pick up the 20-pound weights or should you put the 150 barbell on your back right now?
• 21:48
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 21:48
  Polly Mertens: You know, so doing that with another person professionally or even personally is super helpful if you can.
• 21:55
  Polly Mertens: Um, if you can't, it's gonna be calendars and journals.
• 21:58
  Polly Mertens: Like, you know, it's literally writing stuff down and being like, Okay, dump it all out first.
• 22:04
  Polly Mertens: Here's all the things.
• 22:06
  Polly Mertens: Oh my god, I got some things, oh my god, you know.
• 22:09
  Polly Mertens: And then with a calendar and going, okay, let me see what is reasonable here and also what still looks like something I actually Give a shit about.
• 22:20
  Polly Mertens: Because many, many times when I do that dump list or when I've done it historically, 50% of it, I was like, don't even care anymore.
• 22:29
  Polly Mertens: Don't want to do it.
• 22:31
  Polly Mertens: Like it's if I am being honest.
• 22:33
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Samantha Pruitts: And there's something that I just want to say, and I can't remember, I think it was in James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, or somewhere like that.
• 22:41
  Samantha Pruitts: And this is just has to go with like recalibrating, whether it's a lifestyle shift or a training thing or whatnot.
• 22:47
  Samantha Pruitts: I I can't, I you know, I wasn't prepped to answer this right here and now, but it just came occurred to me, so I'll describe it as best I can.
• 22:54
  Samantha Pruitts: But it's like distance to goal, time to goal, the further out it is, if it's not present right now, the that what you're talking about, like do I lose momentum, do I lose motivation, right?
• 23:06
  Samantha Pruitts: It's your job if it's like a long-term thing, you know.
• 23:10
  Samantha Pruitts: I mean, I think an easy example of this is uh if you sign up for, let's say, a two-year master's program or something that's gonna take a while.
• 23:18
  Samantha Pruitts: We're not just talking like in 90 days you're gonna run a race or something, but like in a few years, you've got the structure in place that like will keep you on track.
• 23:25
  Samantha Pruitts: It's like, yeah, every quarter you're going to class, you know, like you and you've got that goal.
• 23:30
  Samantha Pruitts: But in our own life, right, we can have things that are gonna take a while to get to, whether, you know, longer than three weeks, three months, let's say.
• 23:38
  Samantha Pruitts: So when we lose sight of that, the brain is like, you know, so you've got to keep it in the present.
• 23:45
  Samantha Pruitts: So you've got to keep bringing yourself back, like you said, to the why.
• 23:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, why am I doing this?
• 23:49
  Samantha Pruitts: And that can help when you have people surrounding you.
• 23:51
  Samantha Pruitts: So the best thing is to like have someone else in the game with you.
• 23:54
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I've got a cohort partner, and he and I are doing this 100 days together.
• 23:58
  Samantha Pruitts: And we were literally sometimes because we're six days in or something, we're like calling each other on the daily because it feels so good to know, okay, this is 100 days, this is gonna take something, and somebody's there in the trenches with me.
• 24:10
  Samantha Pruitts: I mean, like we're like at the end of the day, just like sweating it and be like, oh my god, I can't believe what happened today, you know, like all this stuff.
• 24:17
  Samantha Pruitts: So sharing in that can really keep those longer distance things, and not that 100 days is so long, but like things that especially if you're pulling new muscles, right?
• 24:26
  Samantha Pruitts: And the other thing I wanted to talk about is um capacity, because you've coached me on this too.
• 24:32
  Samantha Pruitts: I mean, I think sometimes when the decision is made, the capacity in your life looks different.
• 24:37
  Samantha Pruitts: I'd love for you to talk about capacity.
• 24:39
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, that looks different.
• 24:42
  Samantha Pruitts: So you have to talk, talk about just tell rant on capacity because I love your thoughts on capacity, the way to approach that.
• 24:51
  Samantha Pruitts: Like people are like, what is that?
• 24:52
  Samantha Pruitts: Is you know, is it like filling a cup, the capacity of a cup?
• 24:55
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, what is capacity and how does that relate to what we're talking about here?
• 24:59
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and ultimately when I said I sort of just have this spidey sense now, it is the capacity element of that that is the spidey sense.
• 25:06
  Polly Mertens: So just to kind of dig into that is like I am so in touch with my daily and even like hourly to hourly capacity, never mind week or month or whatever.
• 25:18
  Polly Mertens: So it's how I feel and how I am emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and physically able to handle the things that are happening, the things that are coming my way, the things that I'm putting out, the things that are coming in, right?
• 25:33
  Polly Mertens: It's the the ability I have as a unique individual person, you know, separate from everybody else in the world, to handle life, right?
• 25:43
  Polly Mertens: And that's not a bad thing, it's a beautiful thing, like because I have built enormous capacity, as have you, to handle a big load.
• 25:52
  Polly Mertens: But then there are times where that big load and my capacity shrink sometimes strategically, sometimes against my will, right, because of life or whatever.
• 26:04
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, think about when you had your back problem.
• 26:06
  Samantha Pruitts: Like how much capacity did you have?
• 26:08
  Polly Mertens: I mean, you were in level nine ten pain, like right, right, because my capacity, because of those circumstances, shrunk in an instant, literally in a second, right?
• 26:18
  Polly Mertens: It went from me having 150% capacity for life to, oh my goodness, if I have 10% tomorrow, that will be amazing, right?
• 26:29
  Polly Mertens: And then there are just times and seasons of your life where that capacity is gonna ebb and flow.
• 26:34
  Polly Mertens: People should not think or get attached to, you know, I'm a type A person, and therefore I should always be at 150% capacity.
• 26:43
  Polly Mertens: Again, we coach entrepreneurs, business people, you know, high-level people, and they're always like, This is just who I am in the world.
• 26:50
  Polly Mertens: It's like, no, dude, no, your capacity will change, and it does change, and you should be respectful of that.
• 26:56
  Polly Mertens: Because if you override that and you don't get in tune with your mental, physical, emotional capacity because of all these things, then you will get sick, you will get injured, you won't achieve your goals.
• 27:09
  Polly Mertens: There will be absolutely downfall, triage will have to happen at some point because you ignored that.
• 27:16
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, right.
• 27:17
  Polly Mertens: We're all humans.
• 27:18
  Samantha Pruitts: We pay the price, the carnage is us, right?
• 27:20
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:21
  Polly Mertens: And some people honestly need to build their capacity.
• 27:24
  Samantha Pruitts: I was just gonna say, I was like, you know, I want to talk on the other side of that.
• 27:27
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, how do you build it?
• 27:29
  Samantha Pruitts: Because I feel like a lot of people I talk to just little things overwhelm.
• 27:35
  Samantha Pruitts: And I'm like, that's not that overwhelming, you know, to me anyway, right?
• 27:40
  Samantha Pruitts: Because we we've like you were referring to, like our capacity's been built.
• 27:43
  Samantha Pruitts: So where does where does capacity building show up?
• 27:47
  Samantha Pruitts: What what what would we do to build capacity?
• 27:49
  Samantha Pruitts: Something that you've done, maybe.
• 27:51
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, it's totally a muscle, right?
• 27:52
  Polly Mertens: You develop it over life experiences that you either willingly or unwillingly take on, right?
• 27:59
  Polly Mertens: And through the the building of those muscles, of that capacity capacity muscle, if you will, if you want to think of it as a muscle, you know, you're doing the reps because you're handling whether it's growing a business, growing a family, doing some kind of crazy physical challenges, crazy, you know, to the individual, whatever that might look like for some people, is just starting to exercise.
• 28:22
  Polly Mertens: It's just starting to take care of their health.
• 28:24
  Polly Mertens: It feels totally overwhelming.
• 28:26
  Polly Mertens: They don't have capacity to cook a meal or to get an exercise routine in for 20 or 30 minutes a day, right?
• 28:32
  Polly Mertens: Their capacity is so small in this area.
• 28:35
  Polly Mertens: And I'm we're not judging, we're just saying that you need to build that up.
• 28:39
  Polly Mertens: Okay, there is no resiliency there.
• 28:42
  Polly Mertens: Emotional fitness, emotional resiliency, physical capability, focus, just being absolutely dedicated and consistent, right?
• 28:52
  Polly Mertens: Like all of that is building your capacity so you can over time accomplish great things.
• 28:58
  Polly Mertens: So if you stay at that really low capacity throughout your days, it's gonna be problematic.
• 29:03
  Polly Mertens: I do know that people are under a lot of stress, and we're gonna talk about the stress hormones pretty soon here on the podcast.
• 29:09
  Polly Mertens: People should listen to that.
• 29:10
  Polly Mertens: But that's their body and their nervous system telling them that they don't have capacity that is triggered by every little thing.
• 29:19
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 29:19
  Polly Mertens: So that's a physiological thing.
• 29:21
  Polly Mertens: That's not a reality, right?
• 29:24
  Polly Mertens: Like their mind in many cases is making up a story around that.
• 29:29
  Polly Mertens: And so that's a whole other conversation for us.
• 29:31
  Polly Mertens: But like building capacity is consistently putting yourself into places, experiences, things, environments where you're building the muscle of resiliency and capability.
• 29:45
  Polly Mertens: I'm gonna do the John Muir Trail solo.
• 29:47
  Polly Mertens: People think it's totally nuts, right?
• 29:49
  Polly Mertens: I'm gonna be gone for 22 days or whatever in the wilderness by myself.
• 29:52
  Polly Mertens: And people think I've completely lost my mind.
• 29:54
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, this is the best thing I could ever be doing.
• 29:57
  Polly Mertens: I can't freaking wait, right?
• 29:59
  Polly Mertens: But I've spent 30 years building the capacity as a human being to be able to physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, skills, fitness, health to be able to do that.
• 30:13
  Polly Mertens: I didn't all of a sudden get this crazy idea, and now off I run into the woods with no like capacity to be successful.
• 30:21
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, right.
• 30:22
  Polly Mertens: So that's that's me building capacity for that thing, right?
• 30:27
  Polly Mertens: But you this is what happens in business all the time.
• 30:30
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, if you start a business, do you have capacity?
• 30:33
  Polly Mertens: No, it's through the building of a business.
• 30:35
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, you don't even know what the hell is about to happen when you start the business.
• 30:39
  Polly Mertens: It's all rainbows and unicorns and sparkly dust.
• 30:42
  Samantha Pruitts: Mm-hmm.
• 30:43
  Samantha Pruitts: I would say two things I want to say is control, like the minds need to control.
• 30:48
  Samantha Pruitts: And then the second is the story you tell yourself, right?
• 30:50
  Samantha Pruitts: So first I want to touch upon like control.
• 30:53
  Samantha Pruitts: So I think people who don't see their capacity or their comfort zone as a malleable, a flexible thing is because they're trying to control themselves and the outcomes and the results and stuff like that overly.
• 31:07
  Samantha Pruitts: So, so like see your comfort zone as like a flexible thing that you you test every so often, right?
• 31:12
  Samantha Pruitts: Or regularly if you really want growth.
• 31:15
  Samantha Pruitts: And then the story you tell yourself, like you have an empowering story.
• 31:19
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, you have built, or whatever, like you were born with it, Miss Leo, like you have an empowering story.
• 31:25
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I was coaching someone last week, and like her go-to triggered from childhood was overwhelm and then abort, like just like you know, like from childhood trying to learn complex science or something, and then she like couldn't understand it or couldn't keep up at that particular class, not like all the classes, but like that particular class, and then told herself she was stupid, and and then she just like aborts and checks out, and it's like shows up in her life, you know, like and she's learned massive things.
• 31:50
  Samantha Pruitts: And I'm like re-reminding, like, hey, remember, like you studied this whole whole industry that was super hard to get into.
• 31:58
  Samantha Pruitts: You're one of the few females in it, and you did it, right?
• 32:01
  Samantha Pruitts: Like you can do that.
• 32:01
  Samantha Pruitts: And she's like, Oh yeah, you know, so but that inner story, that inner dialogue that was like historical from being a little girl was quickly overwhelming abort, like, oh, don't do it, you know, and then she just keeps setting herself back, not getting into action, delay, you know, kind of like woe is me.
• 32:17
  Samantha Pruitts: And I was like, uh, new story, new story.
• 32:19
  Samantha Pruitts: That's just outdated, you know.
• 32:21
  Samantha Pruitts: Look at all this evidence.
• 32:23
  Polly Mertens: In parenting all the time.
• 32:24
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:26
  Polly Mertens: And I can say that because I'm a parent and a grandparent.
• 32:28
  Polly Mertens: Okay, y'all.
• 32:30
  Polly Mertens: This whole thing that like it's getting hard and you need to swoop on in and save the kid because God forbid they fail at it.
• 32:39
  Polly Mertens: Okay, what is that shenanigans?
• 32:44
  Polly Mertens: Please stop that immediately.
• 32:46
  Polly Mertens: We are not building capacity in our young people, and so they are getting, you know, further on down the line or the pipeline, educationally, sports, life, whatever.
• 32:54
  Polly Mertens: Hopefully, they're having these experiences, and there is very little capacity built.
• 32:59
  Polly Mertens: And then, next thing you know, surprise they're an adult.
• 33:02
  Polly Mertens: Oops, out in the real world, and now they've got to get a job and have a car and have all these things and be responsible for themselves.
• 33:10
  Polly Mertens: And truthfully, the skills aren't there.
• 33:13
  Polly Mertens: And I don't blame the young people, okay?
• 33:16
  Polly Mertens: They were raised by somebody in environments that that wasn't something that we valued, that building of capacity, right?
• 33:24
  Polly Mertens: And that's not something we want to do.
• 33:26
  Polly Mertens: Flip side of the coin.
• 33:27
  Polly Mertens: I was coaching somebody this week, professional, very high-level female, and she's freaking amazing, and she's got these really significant goals, and so we're like lining it professional goals, kind of cueing things up to make sure she accomplishes these things and they're big things.
• 33:42
  Polly Mertens: Then she's also wifing and mothering and you know, family and whatever.
• 33:46
  Polly Mertens: And then all of a sudden she's like, Okay, and right now I also want to lose weight and start lifting weights.
• 33:51
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, No, we don't.
• 33:54
  Polly Mertens: I love your enthusiasm for that.
• 33:57
  Polly Mertens: I don't know what you saw on Instagram last night, but this is not happening.
• 34:00
  Polly Mertens: Okay, because we have to regulate and balance that capacity growth, those that muscle building.
• 34:08
  Polly Mertens: I'm not every day going and doing bicep curls so I can have biceps, right?
• 34:12
  Polly Mertens: Rest, recovery.
• 34:15
  Polly Mertens: Rest recovery, periodized training.
• 34:17
  Polly Mertens: It's the same thing with other goals in your life.
• 34:20
  Polly Mertens: Periodization, periodization, rest and recovery.
• 34:24
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's like that's how you adapt and keep moving up.
• 34:27
  Polly Mertens: And then later, when her professional life is stabilized or whatever all, then we can be like, okay, now let's shift focus again, maybe mid-year, maybe in the fall, maybe at the end of the year.
• 34:38
  Polly Mertens: Maybe we won't get to it this year.
• 34:40
  Polly Mertens: I don't know, right?
• 34:42
  Polly Mertens: But we're gonna be reasonable with the demands that we put on those type of individuals.
• 34:47
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, you know, my my little story about how when I started coaching, I would I likened remodeling your life to like remodeling a house.
• 34:54
  Samantha Pruitts: And one of my lines is like, you know, remodeling, you know, so if you remodel the kitchen, bathroom, you want to like re redo the house, right?
• 35:02
  Samantha Pruitts: And the house is your life.
• 35:03
  Samantha Pruitts: So if you remodel the whole house, it's not very comfortable for the occupants.
• 35:07
  Samantha Pruitts: It's just not.
• 35:08
  Samantha Pruitts: So take on the bathroom.
• 35:09
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, okay, remodel the bathroom.
• 35:10
  Samantha Pruitts: Okay, and then we're gonna hit the kitchen because like you need your, you know, or like you're gonna you're gonna do the laundry room.
• 35:15
  Samantha Pruitts: You're not gonna have a laundry for three weeks, whatever.
• 35:17
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, do it in phases.
• 35:19
  Samantha Pruitts: Definitely.
• 35:21
  Polly Mertens: That's a great analogy.
• 35:22
  Polly Mertens: I got a total visual there from a like health fitness perspective.
• 35:26
  Polly Mertens: When I'm working with somebody on their health and fitness goals, we are literally ripping out all the floors.
• 35:33
  Polly Mertens: Okay, the foundation, we're taking it down to the freaking studs because health and fitness is foundational, mental and physical.
• 35:41
  Polly Mertens: Foundational.
• 35:42
  Polly Mertens: So we're literally tearing it all out.
• 35:44
  Polly Mertens: So you don't, the house does not feel the same.
• 35:48
  Polly Mertens: It's very uncomfortable for a while, and it takes a long time before we have put the bricks and the flooring in place to start putting up walls and putting in windows and all that kind of stuff.
• 35:58
  Polly Mertens: You know, same thing.
• 35:58
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, that's a great analogy.
• 36:00
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, let's talk about.
• 36:01
  Samantha Pruitts: I think one of the key things in a mere reset or in a you know, shifting between one goal to the next set of goals is having accountability.
• 36:10
  Samantha Pruitts: I want to talk about that.
• 36:12
  Polly Mertens: You're the queen of that.
• 36:13
  Polly Mertens: I suck at that.
• 36:14
  Polly Mertens: I just do shit.
• 36:15
  Polly Mertens: And then I go, oh yeah, hey, what's up?
• 36:17
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I'm better in my old age, and we have a small little cluster there.
• 36:21
  Polly Mertens: We have a trio right now, you, me and Jen.
• 36:23
  Polly Mertens: So yeah, you, but you're the queen of this, so you speak to it.
• 36:26
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, so there's a lot of dimensions to this, you know.
• 36:30
  Samantha Pruitts: So you could have just because I think, you know, in habit change and forming, you know, if you want to start learning the guitar or you want to lose weight or something like that, right?
• 36:39
  Samantha Pruitts: Or you want to take on a new goal, whatever it is.
• 36:42
  Samantha Pruitts: Accountability.
• 36:43
  Samantha Pruitts: So there's different theories of thought, like should you publicly announce it, should you not publicly announce it, should you tell them exactly what it is, should you keep it a secret, you know, should you get moment?
• 36:51
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh man, you know, like I think that's personal choice, I think, you know, or it is a personal choice, and you should honor that choice, whatever it is for you.
• 37:00
  Samantha Pruitts: But I do know for me, speaking my intention, speaking this, this is happening, you know, like for example, this just came to my mind.
• 37:09
  Samantha Pruitts: I remember I was in a Tony Robbins group and we met for years, and I declared, like a turning point in my life, I declared that I was going and I was, I had a job and a house and a husband and all this stuff, and I declared that I was going to be on the road in my RV for 90 days, right?
• 37:24
  Samantha Pruitts: And I was like, how the hell is that gonna, you know, I just declared it.
• 37:27
  Samantha Pruitts: And sometimes your your, you know, massive, big, hairy, audacious goals come from those moments of like, yes, like I want this.
• 37:35
  Samantha Pruitts: It could come from either suffering or either like inspiration, like you see someone else doing greatness, right?
• 37:40
  Samantha Pruitts: And you're like, I can totally do that, you know.
• 37:43
  Samantha Pruitts: So wherever it comes from, like jump on that.
• 37:46
  Samantha Pruitts: And then publicly declaring it for me in that moment was like frightening.
• 37:52
  Samantha Pruitts: First of all, it's like terrifying.
• 37:54
  Samantha Pruitts: Why?
• 37:54
  Samantha Pruitts: Because those people had listening for me.
• 37:56
  Samantha Pruitts: Like they had, you know, they were like, oh, what are you doing?
• 38:00
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, and so if I wasn't getting up to that goal over the next couple weeks, months, it was about I think it was like April, and I was gonna do it in August or something.
• 38:07
  Samantha Pruitts: So it's like I'd have to see them between April and August.
• 38:10
  Samantha Pruitts: This wasn't like, you know, so and it wasn't like they were, you know, hounding me, but like I kept my word, like I believe in my word, and so I gave my word to these people, right?
• 38:21
  Samantha Pruitts: And I gave it to myself too.
• 38:23
  Samantha Pruitts: And so that was huge for me.
• 38:25
  Samantha Pruitts: It doesn't have to be public, like, and I'm not a huge fan of like share it on social, just like, you know, whatever, but like people who will keep you accountable, who care for you, achieving your goals, like will cheerlead and like celebrate when you succeed, those are the people you should be sharing it with.
• 38:42
  Samantha Pruitts: And people that could help you and in support of it, right?
• 38:45
  Samantha Pruitts: Whether that's people that are already in your life or go find those people, right?
• 38:49
  Samantha Pruitts: If you want to take on something that you've never done before and nobody in your life, you're looking left, looking right, there's nobody that's up to this, go find those people, you know.
• 38:57
  Samantha Pruitts: So go put yourself in those environments, in those scenarios, fine, whatever.
• 39:01
  Samantha Pruitts: If it happens to be someone you know, and make sure that they're also people worthy of being accountable as well.
• 39:07
  Samantha Pruitts: It's great when you like have an accountability buddy, right?
• 39:10
  Samantha Pruitts: It could be a it can be a mastermind group like us, it's a trio, and it's so what is it, you know, or a coach, you know, like you and I, like I was digging one of my clients, I was like, Hey, you said you get me that thing.
• 39:20
  Samantha Pruitts: I haven't seen it, uh right.
• 39:23
  Polly Mertens: So totally like that, those sometimes you do need to hire those people.
• 39:26
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, okay, because you might not be surrounded.
• 39:29
  Polly Mertens: Your friends and family group might be part of the problem.
• 39:33
  Polly Mertens: Okay, you set these great goals, and next thing then you know, they're bringing the Ben and Jerry's and putting on the Netflix or whatever all is going.
• 39:41
  Polly Mertens: And you're like, Well, I was gonna get up early tomorrow and go on that run, but this feels pretty good right now, except I'll have diary in the morning and I'm not going to bed on time.
• 39:50
  Polly Mertens: Okay, that's not gonna work, people.
• 39:51
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, right.
• 39:52
  Polly Mertens: So sometimes you do need to either be in a group, yeah, an accountability group, and you can find those.
• 39:58
  Polly Mertens: How do you find those?
• 40:00
  Samantha Pruitts: A lot of different ways.
• 40:02
  Samantha Pruitts: So I I did want to say one oh, there was something I wanted to say about anyway.
• 40:06
  Samantha Pruitts: Okay, so how do you find those?
• 40:07
  Samantha Pruitts: So I was amazed.
• 40:09
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I found some Facebook groups, you know.
• 40:10
  Samantha Pruitts: So if you have a specific, you'd be amazed.
• 40:13
  Samantha Pruitts: There's all crazy amount of things on and I you don't even have to be on social media to be on a Facebook group.
• 40:17
  Samantha Pruitts: You can just go on Facebook and go right to groups, and you don't have to do all the rest of it.
• 40:20
  Samantha Pruitts: So those are fantastic.
• 40:22
  Samantha Pruitts: It depends on what it is.
• 40:24
  Samantha Pruitts: Sometimes meetups, you know, those can be like a hiking group or something like that.
• 40:28
  Samantha Pruitts: And then professional, you know, so there are paid mastermind groups that you can be in, like if it's on a specific topic, right?
• 40:35
  Samantha Pruitts: And I would just say like start like hoarding around something is what I want to say.
• 40:40
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, like, like I was interested in YouTube, like learning more about YouTube and getting stronger at making videos.
• 40:46
  Samantha Pruitts: So it was like, I just start hanging out in the places that they hang out online.
• 40:50
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, I'm looking at videos, I'm checking out things, and then you know, different people, you know, you know this, they throw up a course and whatever.
• 40:57
  Samantha Pruitts: So if you get into that course, they usually have a cohort or a group or something like that.
• 41:01
  Samantha Pruitts: So if it's in alignment, like I'm looking to create masterminds for my contractors, right?
• 41:06
  Samantha Pruitts: So creating a cohort of contractors so that they can share information.
• 41:11
  Samantha Pruitts: They can, you know, share with each other problems, benefits, oh, this worked, that didn't work, right?
• 41:16
  Samantha Pruitts: It's so good if you're in business to be having people on a sl on a similar plane giving you feedback, right?
• 41:23
  Samantha Pruitts: And giving you ideas as well.
• 41:26
  Polly Mertens: Totally, totally.
• 41:27
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 41:27
  Polly Mertens: I mean, people exist all around you and you'll find them in the strangest places.
• 41:31
  Polly Mertens: But if your goal is to learn how to run, then you join running communities.
• 41:37
  Polly Mertens: If it's to whatever, go backpacking, you go find those people.
• 41:40
  Polly Mertens: If it's to do the gym, you find that.
• 41:42
  Polly Mertens: If it's to build a business, you go into these entrepreneurial groups specific to the industry that you want to be in and you start associating with those pockets of people.
• 41:51
  Polly Mertens: Or if it's schooling and education, obviously the people that are drawn to that type of education, whether it's uh trade, skill, or you know, stuff study, then go find them.
• 42:03
  Polly Mertens: They do exist.
• 42:05
  Polly Mertens: I know that I mean, honestly, the pandemic really unfortunately we haven't come out of so many of these repercussions.
• 42:12
  Polly Mertens: And one of them is that people forgot that there's a whole life outside of their computer and online life.
• 42:18
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah.
• 42:19
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 42:19
  Polly Mertens: And I think that's just one of my biggest things with people right now working with people is like just turn it off for a hot second and just go find some real humans to talk to, please.
• 42:29
  Samantha Pruitts: Definitely.
• 42:30
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, and there's local associations, there's chambers, there's networking mix.
• 42:34
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I went to the Rotary Club.
• 42:36
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, I went to the interior designers meeting recently, look, you know, talking to other contractors, like be social, be out and be with people.
• 42:42
  Samantha Pruitts: And you know, and if you have people in your life like me, like that are up to accountability, like they probably have ideas.
• 42:48
  Samantha Pruitts: Like if they're if they're in groups, like how did you get in those groups?
• 42:51
  Samantha Pruitts: So ask them, right?
• 42:52
  Samantha Pruitts: So, but there's infinite.
• 42:55
  Samantha Pruitts: If you have an intention, like I want and some accountability, start maybe with your friends if you you know have a good resource there.
• 43:02
  Samantha Pruitts: If you've got people that can hold the walls with you and will hold you accountable, and then just like I'm gonna find one.
• 43:08
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, just start looking.
• 43:10
  Samantha Pruitts: I'm gonna find mine.
• 43:11
  Polly Mertens: So I mean, we really want people, and that's before we wrap this up, to be understanding that it's about the middle of the year-ish.
• 43:19
  Polly Mertens: A, you can go out and buy a new calendar like me, put the old one away, whether the first half was good for you or not.
• 43:28
  Polly Mertens: I do keep mine because there's a lot of valuable things that transpired, right?
• 43:32
  Polly Mertens: But you don't have to, maybe it wasn't great.
• 43:34
  Polly Mertens: And that's okay.
• 43:35
  Polly Mertens: You can also close the door on it and be like, okay, but the second half, I'm gonna get down to business here, right?
• 43:42
  Polly Mertens: I'm refocused on what it is that's important to me to achieve this year, my values, my goals, my purpose.
• 43:50
  Polly Mertens: And I'm gonna reinvest the second half in that.
• 43:54
  Polly Mertens: Either I'm doubling down on what I've accomplished or I'm just gonna change directions.
• 43:58
  Polly Mertens: And I'm giving myself the freedom to do that and the power to do that.
• 44:02
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah.
• 44:02
  Samantha Pruitts: And, you know, like when I was talking about like I finished this last quarter, like we did a my cohort and I, the Miracle Quarter, we, you know, we shared what did we get out of it.
• 44:13
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, A from working, like I'll tell you in that cohort.
• 44:15
  Samantha Pruitts: So we made Sunday mornings, and I said, I Have you guys felt value in this?
• 44:20
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, should we continue on?
• 44:22
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, everybody re-upped.
• 44:23
  Samantha Pruitts: We're like, yes, 100%.
• 44:25
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, and they could, you know, quantify it, things like that.
• 44:28
  Samantha Pruitts: And then it was like, all right, and what did you accomplish?
• 44:31
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, so celebrate, you know, so sometimes you'll just be in a group for so long.
• 44:34
  Samantha Pruitts: And it's like, am I am I achieving what I said I was gonna achieve?
• 44:39
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, like take a pause and reflect, you know.
• 44:41
  Samantha Pruitts: So last, so this coming week, we're gonna share, you know, what have we completed since our last session?
• 44:46
  Samantha Pruitts: Like, how did you grow in ways that you didn't even expect, right?
• 44:49
  Samantha Pruitts: So some things I set out to do this and I did those, and that's awesome.
• 44:52
  Samantha Pruitts: And then some things I also learned and I didn't know I was gonna learn along the way, right?
• 44:57
  Samantha Pruitts: And celebrate that.
• 44:58
  Samantha Pruitts: Like that's you going, you know, it's these seasons of our lives when we lose track of all the awesomeness.
• 45:04
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I love, I haven't done this in a while, but it's reminding me that I was making once a month like collages of pictures from my phone and putting it into Canva and just doing these collages.
• 45:14
  Samantha Pruitts: See what I was up to in my life.
• 45:16
  Samantha Pruitts: I was like, I have a radiant life, you know, but you can just, you know, get so bogged down in like day, you know, dog, you know, groundhog day, day at one day looks like the next.
• 45:25
  Samantha Pruitts: But when I look back at the pictures of the friends and the faces and the places that I've been to, it inspires me.
• 45:31
  Samantha Pruitts: It's like, wow, that's so yummy, right?
• 45:33
  Polly Mertens: That's a really cool way to take inventory, you know, because all right, we're this episode's gonna be what early June when it goes out.
• 45:42
  Polly Mertens: That's only five months into the year.
• 45:47
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 45:48
  Polly Mertens: You were just discussing, describing that, you know, the collagen of the thing, and I just had this like you know, 50,000 frames kind of collage go through my brain.
• 45:58
  Polly Mertens: Holy shit.
• 46:01
  Polly Mertens: What I personally, I'm giving myself kudos, have accomplished in the last five months, right?
• 46:07
  Polly Mertens: Is blowing my own mind.
• 46:10
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 46:11
  Polly Mertens: I already was moving on because I got the new calendar into this.
• 46:14
  Polly Mertens: I didn't appropriately take inventory and give credit where credit is due to the incredible amount of work that had to transpire for me to be here right now, yeah, so that I can move forward with the next six, seven months.
• 46:29
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 46:30
  Polly Mertens: So I think that is what a huge take-home message for people.
• 46:34
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 46:35
  Polly Mertens: Sometimes we do get caught in, well, I had 10 goals and I only achieved three, and you know, you kind of whatever.
• 46:42
  Polly Mertens: But this looking back and taking inventory, actually, I think that needs to be the first step.
• 46:49
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, well, well, you know, in my program last year, remember my return to the light.
• 46:54
  Samantha Pruitts: So that's what I do on an annual basis, right?
• 46:56
  Samantha Pruitts: And so every and I do this each week of my week, part of my planner has reflection time for the past week.
• 47:04
  Samantha Pruitts: And not just from a goals perspective, but like what worked, what didn't work, what are you gonna do differently in the next week and stuff.
• 47:10
  Samantha Pruitts: So I wouldn't say it's like just looking at yummy pictures and stuff, like I talked about the collage, but yeah, like life goes pretty quick, man.
• 47:18
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, can get going.
• 47:19
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, it freaking does.
• 47:21
  Polly Mertens: The pictures are just an easy way to do it, but you're right.
• 47:23
  Polly Mertens: They're just gonna trigger ideas and memories and things of you know, like that.
• 47:27
  Samantha Pruitts: But because oftentimes those pictures, like those moments, the getting together with a friend or or whatnot, it doesn't show up on a goals list either.
• 47:36
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, it's like like your trips to OHI and these things that you've done outside of it, it wasn't a personal goal, I would say.
• 47:44
  Samantha Pruitts: It wasn't like you said, Oh, I'm gonna visit these three people, like chuck, check, check.
• 47:48
  Samantha Pruitts: It's like those opportunities came up for good or bad, you know, and you're like, there you were, you know, and you did those.
• 47:54
  Samantha Pruitts: And those are the memories of our life that are the fabric of what what happened in that period.
• 47:59
  Samantha Pruitts: So it may not show up on the goals list, but it happened in your life, and it's a beautiful way to honor and be like, yeah.
• 48:05
  Polly Mertens: So that's why you keep your camera, your calendar too.
• 48:08
  Polly Mertens: Because when you get to the end of the year and you do this end of year cycle, you're like, wait, what happened in April?
• 48:16
  Polly Mertens: I don't know.
• 48:17
  Polly Mertens: What if?
• 48:17
  Polly Mertens: I don't remember a thing.
• 48:18
  Polly Mertens: Really?
• 48:19
  Polly Mertens: To look at your calendar.
• 48:20
  Samantha Pruitts: Totally.
• 48:21
  Samantha Pruitts: That's usually how I'm like, oh yeah, I did that.
• 48:23
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh my god, yeah.
• 48:24
  Samantha Pruitts: Like I just was reminded that something showed up.
• 48:26
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, Iron, I got a reminder about Iron Man.
• 48:28
  Samantha Pruitts: Oh, I was looking at my medal and it said May 19th, 2024.
• 48:31
  Samantha Pruitts: And I was like, wow, two years ago, I did Iron Man.
• 48:36
  Samantha Pruitts: That was so cool.
• 48:37
  Samantha Pruitts: So yeah.
• 48:38
  Samantha Pruitts: I love it.
• 48:39
  Samantha Pruitts: I love it.
• 48:40
  Samantha Pruitts: All right.
• 48:40
  Samantha Pruitts: Well, what's what's the one thing?
• 48:42
  Samantha Pruitts: What's your one takeaway from today?
• 48:44
  Samantha Pruitts: What do you want to have people leave with?
• 48:47
  Samantha Pruitts: What do you think?
• 48:48
  Polly Mertens: I think I've changed it a few times since we sort of got to the conclusion here.
• 48:52
  Polly Mertens: But really, what it is is I mean, people, I want to give people the permission they might not be giving themselves, but really I want them to give it to themselves.
• 49:02
  Polly Mertens: That it's perfectly okay to get to the middle of the year and start again in whatever way, shape, or form they need to.
• 49:10
  Polly Mertens: Again, changing directions or doubling down on or whatever.
• 49:15
  Polly Mertens: It's depending on what it is, right?
• 49:17
  Polly Mertens: But just giving them that freedom, permission, if you will.
• 49:21
  Polly Mertens: But then also what an incredible opportunity that is, right?
• 49:27
  Polly Mertens: So it's not just about taking inventory and resetting goals, but what an opportunity to put an incredible sense of value on your life.
• 49:35
  Polly Mertens: My time and my actions are all that I have.
• 49:43
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 49:44
  Polly Mertens: All this other stuff around me means nothing.
• 49:48
  Polly Mertens: So if I'm not utilizing my time and my actions in the way that is true for me, best for me, makes me happy, thriving lifestyle, all that kind of stuff, then I'm kind of missing the mark, right?
• 50:00
  Polly Mertens: So this is really an opportunity to do that.
• 50:03
  Samantha Pruitts: I love that.
• 50:04
  Samantha Pruitts: I would say mine is you know, people get going so busy in life.
• 50:10
  Samantha Pruitts: I'm a big fan.
• 50:11
  Samantha Pruitts: I do a weekly review, you know, of my week and stuff, and then a bigger one at the end of the month.
• 50:16
  Samantha Pruitts: And I don't think people see know enough of why you would do that.
• 50:21
  Samantha Pruitts: So I would just say try it sometime, whether you do it on a weekly basis or like a mid-year and an annual, try it one time and you might be surprised if you sit down and you can look online for templates and stuff.
• 50:32
  Samantha Pruitts: I think we've given you a lot of ideas here, but like, you know, you do a review, it's it's so valuable for your spirit, for your soul, for you know, you to re-up on something.
• 50:41
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, I think if we're here for growth, a looking at the growth that we've had is very empowering and looking up to what do we want to get up to, that I think is it it puts the power back in your hands for setting a life with intention, like living deliberately, if you will.
• 50:57
  Samantha Pruitts: So, but you gotta set that time aside.
• 50:59
  Samantha Pruitts: So make it, make it, don't just bl, you know, buzzing through life.
• 51:03
  Samantha Pruitts: You know, a deliberate life is one that is, you know, evaluated and a lot of self-awareness too, with intention.
• 51:10
  Polly Mertens: So that's a deliberate life is a life well lived.
• 51:13
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:15
  Samantha Pruitts: Yeah.
• 51:15
  Samantha Pruitts: One life, live it.
• 51:16
  Samantha Pruitts: All right.
• 51:17
  Samantha Pruitts: What's our what's our motto though for taking taking away?
• 51:20
  Polly Mertens: Well, how your life looks is not that important compared to how it feels.
• 51:27
  Samantha Pruitts: And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.
• 51:30
  Polly Mertens: See you next week.