The Everyday Awesome Project

53: Reflections on Year 1 of The Everyday Awesome Project

• Polly Mertens & Samantha Pruitt • Season 1 • Episode 53

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Here we are- honestly reflecting on our journey together the first year of this podcast and fully embracing the profound impact of all of our lives pivotal moments. Join us this week as we embrace the messiness of life that truthfully can unlock your true potential! This episode marks our podcast's one-year anniversary, and we're celebrating by looking back at the diverse range of topics we've covered, from emotional fitness to the art of pivoting. Sharing personal stories and insights, we hope to inspire you to recognize and harness the transformative power of these moments in your own life. Together, we've explored the courage it takes to realign with our core values and the beauty of unexpected growth.

Through candid discussions on authenticity, boundary-setting, and the importance of self-care, we invite you to reflect on your own experiences. Join us as we recount how blending our backgrounds as life, business, and wellness coaches has enriched our perspective and empowered listeners to embrace their inner light. By prioritizing personal well-being over societal expectations, we illustrate how self-care can lead to profound empowerment and peace. Our conversations challenge conventional norms of success and encourage you to break free from outdated narratives, promoting a more fulfilling and authentic life.

As we wrap up this milestone episode, we're eager to deepen our connection with you, our listeners. We welcome your feedback and insights, as understanding your experiences helps us continue to grow together. Whether through our website or social media, your voices are invaluable in shaping the journey ahead. Remember, life's richness lies in how it feels, not how it looks. Each day is an opportunity to discover your awesome, and we're here to support you every step of the way on this shared path of growth and transformation.

See you next year Beautiful Humans! 
-Coach Sam & Polly xoxo
@everydayawesomeproject.com

Follow Coach Polly @getbusythriving and Coach Sam @thesamanthapruitt

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Polly Mertens:

Hey superstars, welcome back Polly here.

Samantha Pruitt:

And Sam. What's up? Beautiful humans, how are you all, you guys?

Polly Mertens:

So today is the day that you and I were not sitting in the same room together, but almost a year ago to this day, we were getting together for our first podcast, woo-hoo.

Samantha Pruitt:

I know, I know it's unbelievable we launched at the beginning of 2024. And actually we went live on January 1st, I believe, 2024. Yeah, yeah.

Polly Mertens:

And we'll talk about that episode.

Samantha Pruitt:

But here we are reviewing our year. Yeah, this is like Reflecting, Reflecting right right on the art we created together. What the hell? Take a look at us. We're creative souls in the universe making art and it's so nice when you reflect.

Polly Mertens:

It's like like I was saying so, if you can't see us, if you're, if you're listening to this, but samantha sits in her, her office and she has this wall of metals that she's accumulated right, and it's like these evidence, it's like physical evidence of the miles, the sweat, the hours, the learnings, right, of all of those experiences that you, you had, right. And so if you look inside of Samantha, all the lessons that she takes with her, the outward reflection is just this you know this wall of beautiful metals and stuff. And so, until we give ourselves that opportunity to reflect that you know, like I've done, times where I'll sit and I'll look at a metal that I received and I'm and I viscerally remember the moments it took leading up to it, or the experiences in that race, or like what the feeling was afterward, or whatever, right. And so it's these moments where we take time to take those lessons with us, get the juice and and give ourselves kudos Like, hey, we've come this far. Well, you use the word received you know earned.

Samantha Pruitt:

So, all of us humans, everybody listening right now has earned this year. Yeah, we made it to the. Has earned this year. Yeah, we made it to the end of the year, okay, people. So I'm sure we did some things not so great and some things great, and everything in between transpired right. We learned a tremendous amount about ourselves, which is the number one priority to evolve thyself and know thyself right. So there is a earning, a way of doing the work called living, that when we get to the end of a year, a year out of our life, it's quite remarkable.

Polly Mertens:

It's quite remarkable and I've noticed until I started doing year-end reviews and there's another episode that we have that's on how to do a year-end review, if you ever want to do that. But you sort of just keep bumbling along through the day-to-day of life and you don't actually like take in like holy cow, like we were you and I before we started taping this. You're like, yeah, I'm going to what happened this year.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and this year, and I was like do you remember those first six or eight months of the year where you were really, you know, engulfed in that project that you had, and it's like this work project just swallowed me Right?

Samantha Pruitt:

And you're like, oh yeah, I did all of that out of my mind because it was so horrendous Isn't that funny? And I was like I don't know really what I did in the first half and you're like, oh, I do remember that.

Polly Mertens:

I know what happened the second half, remember that circus you were playing in and navigating. So we just want you, we invite you, to join us as we do a little bit of reflecting on the kickoff of our podcast, like what the energy we had with that and where we've come through this year, and we want to inspire you and invite you to do the same for yourself out of this. It's like what are you up to? What's? You know what creative juices, what creative expression are you taking on or could take on? If you haven't that, you might hear some inspiration out of our story today.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, so specifically about the Everyday Awesome Project podcast that we launched a year ago. Our number one episode was on the pivot year, and so we're going to talk about pivoting as the second half of today's show, but I want to just read the first. Oh, it's so freaking good. Read a little nugget from the description of the first podcast that we launched, so entitled embracing change Change the Power and Growth of Life's Pivot Moments. Here we go, as the sun rises on the new year and our first episode of the Everyday Awesome Project podcast we launched together on this journey into becoming our own change agents. Let's peel back the layers in the next 30 minutes as to what it really means to pivot in life.

Samantha Pruitt:

Coaches Polly and Sam open their hearts to you, sharing the raw emotional journeys that led to our own personal pivot years, reflecting on times when our old blueprints were no longer to the house slash life we lived in, from addiction, business failure, divorce, eating disorders, family dysfunction, broken down brains and bodies. We dissect the courage and the self-respect it takes to chart a new course, sharing how the burning of the boats is often required to chart a new course towards profound growth and opportunity that come from realigning your actions with your deepest values. Boom, boom. That was our first episode. What the and you know what's fun about that. We sat out in the desert and we videotaped it and we literally were sitting in the middle. And you know it was fun about that. We sat out in the desert and we videotaped it and we literally were sitting in the middle of the desert. It was the most beautiful experience and we launched our year and this art form of ours called the everyday awesome project oh good and what I love is like.

Polly Mertens:

As I was hearing you reading that, it was like beautiful words, beautiful words, and then you got into that chunk where it was like and the dysfunctional relationships and the eating disorders and the, and I was like, and we were our messy, messy lives, you know, messy, so it's such a messy faith, whatever, and we, and yet there's growth in those right there's, there's insights that come from not doing what you're supposed to be doing, not doing what lights you up, not living the life that feels good to you. Right. And I mean, one of the things we've said over and over and we always say is our tagline is like how your life feels is more important than how it looks. And I find that that's just streamed through every thread of what our message is underlying. Everything is, if your life isn't feeling good, pivot, right. Like, like, take that opportunity, do something.

Polly Mertens:

And that's where I think the inspiration and I'll just hold up this book that I, you know, I was taking on at the beginning of this year and now I'm at like day 330, whatever it is, or the end of it. It's like, yeah, life's less messy moments or whatever, show you more truly what you are wanting to do. Right, like what your heart wants to do, what feels good to you and when it's not looking good, feeling good, showing up the way that you're not showing up, in alignment with how you feel deep inside, there's often you can feel it, you sense it right. Pivot and take, take, take something on. So can I read? Um, I love what you just read. That's our artistry right there. Um, I want to read a page that might, like, set a little tone for us on this.

Samantha Pruitt:

Don't send them on a mission pivoting just yet not yet this out, okay, okay okay, check this out.

Samantha Pruitt:

So in our audience there's plenty of people that have not heard all of our podcasts. Of course, and why the hell not? Excuse me, hello. So just for a quick, this is for our sake as well as the audience's. Some of the many things that we've talked about in the course of the year are the elements around pivoting reinvention, self-exploration, all of that, all right. Here's a couple of the episodes. We talked about emotional fitness. We ran a 30 day challenge. We talked about resistance to change, championship, mindset transformation. We had some great guests on our show on our show investing in the self. Seven key habits, seven keys to have a change fear of failure and success. Five to thrive. Remember that. Five to thrive not always awesome. Navigating life's chaos with grace. Uh, again, other guests. Boundary badass that was a good one. Boundaries, heck. Yeah, guess, guess, guess. Raise your standards. Okay, quite a few guest episodes, and I mean these guests are freaking legit badassery pause and reflect.

Samantha Pruitt:

Uh, you doing your iron Woman event and sharing stories around that. You did yours earlier in the year in the spring, I did mine in the fall. Masterminds and creating circles for accountability, leading A-teams we put a lot of work on this. A-teams there's a whole mini-series on just building and navigating an A-team.

Polly Mertens:

Being an A-team player. Being an.

Samantha Pruitt:

A-team player. Exactly Seven signs of burnout. Red flags and resolutions motivation versus willpower. Fueling the fire. Empowering yourself. Three empowering F's to live by fun, free and fricks From party to purpose. Making your birthday count. How to combat anxiety. How to find the right fitness program for yourself. Making peace with food.

Samantha Pruitt:

Living your life as art like we are doing right now Satisfaction, the power of saying yes, friendships, raising gratitude, drive versus motivation, recalibration, how to hit reset on your nervous system. I have some solo episodes in here, and so do you, where we basically talk to the audience in these short little mini forums around what was going on at that moment for us and how we wanted to share. So it's a really diverse selection of over 50 episodes of us in dialogue with the listener, who is a fellow human being that we so love and cherish, and really doing whatever we can to help support them on their journey. I just love that quilt that we've created so far this year. It's quite remarkable. It really is.

Polly Mertens:

I had to just throw that out there before and as I, as I hear about those things, I'm like, oh yeah, that's, it's a part of who we are. That is, yeah, we, we have done that. Oh yeah, you know. And just remembering those conversations and the important moments of those things and what we you and I as coaches, and our blending bring together, you know, is just this yummy for us. You blending bring together, you know, is just this yummy for us.

Polly Mertens:

You know, if you're listening to this, I hope you find these to be yummy and enriching and you know, like that, it's like this yummy weaving together of our worlds and our experiences and our you know, our magic to help bring what we can to people's lives and help them in little ways. And like big, like you know, we talked about like dinging the side of their bowl, like ding, wake up. You know, like, hey, remember, you're awesome. Hey, remember you can have an awesome day. Hey, remember you can change the story whatever. Or, you know, remember that inner light inside of you, like you've got it inside of you already. Or like, don't fret with how it looks to the outer world, do your thing, like you know, be authentic and stuff. These are yummy, yummy episodes. I love that.

Samantha Pruitt:

You know what's cool? Well, there's many things, but like we both have, we coach humans Okay, in life, in business, and health and wellness and all of these different aspects, and we're humans, I mean hey go figure, right. So what's great about this podcast is we're sharing our knowledge and experience working with others, and what we see and what has helped, etc. At the same time, we share our stories, our real life sufferings and overcomings and transformations, right. So it's really a showcase into, in my opinion, humanity.

Polly Mertens:

And our continue to do our continual evolving and expanding and up leveling is a part of who we are and where the audience is going with us as well. You know it's like we expect you, if you're listening to this, to be on your own journey of I mean, you're naturally are as if you're in a human body.

Samantha Pruitt:

You can't really fight it, yeah, yeah.

Polly Mertens:

It's like okay, like stating the obvious, right, but it's like this evolving. We hope you just evolve more into who you truly are and authentically, and less of what doesn't work for you, what other people are dictating for you or whatever, and you're so good at that. You've got like a clear, honed compass of like I am and I'm not Like tell a quick story about. There was a recent holiday moment where you're like that you know so and we're probably going to do a whole episode on this, but like you're so clear what you are and what you are not that you can just speak that to people.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, you know, we are constantly in environments with other humans and can be greatly influenced by our surroundings and the people that we share this life with coworkers, family members, whatever the dynamic is, friends, you know. And yeah, just recently I was just sharing a story with you about being in a family environment where there was an expectation, of course, coming out of the holidays everyone's got no shortage of these examples to be doing a certain thing around food and around an experience and I just said, well, I'm not interested in that end of story period. There isn't really a conversation about right, so I didn't want to participate in that particular food experience. It was going to be just in no way, shape or form Was it going to serve my health mental or physical, by the way and so I didn't want to partake. I wasn't rude about it, I wasn't disrespectful, I just said I'm not interested in that, so I won't be going to that thing.

Polly Mertens:

And then that's it. I don't need to explain anything else.

Samantha Pruitt:

I don't need to get into a debate about it. I don't need to navigate the complexity of the others' emotions around how they feel about me not wanting to do this. By the way, I don't own that. They own that. I own my experience, yeah, and I felt great. I felt totally at peace and completely comfortable and went on about my own evening as I wanted to, to care for myself. Yeah, in that moment and by the way, they all got over it right, they went on and did their thing and they were just fine. Like I'm not the center of the universe and everybody's happiness and comfort and satisfaction doesn't revolve around what the hell I'm doing.

Polly Mertens:

And their moment isn't made any less because you're not in it. It's not like, oh, if the thing isn't going to happen if Samantha's not there, it's like, no, Samantha's just not going to participate. Y'all can have the thing still happen.

Samantha Pruitt:

And it's your experience like go ahead, you know right, that's right, and so the clarity of that particular example and there's many things like this in saying no, is that you're not rejecting them, or what their choices are. It's completely up to them to do whatever they want to be doing, and maybe that's all wonderful for them. I'm not saying, oh, that's bad. I'm not labeling, I'm not doing this whole drama around it. I was simply stating the fact. Right, if they felt rejected or feel rejected by that, again, that's their story. But I didn't do anything to place that emotion on the table.

Polly Mertens:

I made it about me and it's incredibly empowering and liberating, and that's a that's a pivot all day long, by the way, right, and and this is like a pivot moment, you know, so I would just share. Um, I was thinking about all the pivots that I've been through this year and one of them is you've been through a lot, and I think I may have said in the episode I was revisiting the transcript, I think I said, and I'm entering a pivot year, I was like I kind of knew it was coming, didn't know all the things like what, what I like? Okay, maybe I saw one coming, but I didn't see 15 or whatever, four or whatever it was. But one of them for me was also around and I'm just going to say so. My mom and I have a a a evolving dynamic in our relationship. It's never, oh, it's never been that lovey-dovey, close, tight-knit, that some mother-daughters have yeah it's not like fairyland and whatever.

Polly Mertens:

So it's it has felt. Anyway, I'm not sure how it feels on her side, but it has felt a bit one-sided on my end, you know, and so I just stepped back. So last year, so in 2023, last year you know so whenever you're listening so in 2023, my mom had a lot of health challenges and health not scares, but needs. So she was in and out of the hospital, probably, or she was in and out of the ER, I think, eight times and they'd send her home. You know, it wasn't true health scare kind of thing. There were a couple of times she did go in and whatnot. So there was a lot of me like you know, having to tend to her and you know being there for her and like taking time off, what I was doing for weeks to go visit her, you know, help her transition out of a recovery center and her, you know things like that. And then this year A, I think she got the hint that like going to the ER like doesn't really produce the outcome yeah, that wasn't producing outcome I think she was looking for. And then she has since, I think, seeing that how that last year went, decided okay, well, that's not going to get me the results that I'm looking for or something anyway. So this year hasn't been as health scary get me the results that I'm looking for or something anyway. So this year hasn't been as health scary. But now she's in an assisted care right and for me A that was like I don't know anybody that cares for an elderly parent or has ever done that.

Polly Mertens:

I did some of this with my dad his end of life and I had very little burden. My dad was not mentally challenged, you know, he wasn't losing his mind, he was very adept. He was very physically challenged in a wheelchair for the last 10 years of his life kind of thing, but he had his senses about him or whatnot, so he could care for himself as best he can in a wheelchair and whatnot. So the burden on me was not a great one, like people who have mentally challenged family members or physically challenged family members in their life were very disruptive family members or physically challenged family members in their life where it's very disruptive. So when you take on that weight and that care of an elderly family member, it can take away from a lot of other energy that you have going in.

Samantha Pruitt:

Oh 100%.

Polly Mertens:

So having the ability for my mom to go into assisted care is this huge, let's say, burden I don't have to have? And some people would say, oh, of course you to have and I don't, you know it's. You know. Some people would say, oh, of course you want to take care of your parents and stuff like that. If you haven't done it. Caring for elderly people, it can be a lot, anyway.

Polly Mertens:

So there's great people that are caring for her now and I just realized how much the one-sided feeling of this relationship was in my life and I hadn't been.

Polly Mertens:

You know, there's a lot of stories I was telling myself about good daughter and you know, like what are my expectations of myself Obligations, yeah, and what I regret if I wasn't caring, and all this stuff.

Polly Mertens:

And I just you know, and part of what we can maybe share in, like the process of looking at pivots or when things aren't working in your life, is you really have to take a deep look inside, and so I really needed to go inside and go. Is this serving me? Is this the best thing for me and or her, but me first and foremost, and what would I like it to be and how to feel and whatnot. And that's where I had a conversation with myself about how involved do I want to be, how much energy do I want to put, you know, just like all of this evaluating, coming to terms with myself. You know what's my story about this, you know, because some people be like you know, so like I didn't go see her for Thanksgiving, this, this, whatever, and so I was just having inner dialogue and there's moments like that, like birthdays, thanksgiving, whatever, that like traditionally, like oh, you go see your parents or whatever.

Polly Mertens:

And I was like how do I feel about that and what? And the first and foremost thing, I think you and I's tagline just really guides me. Like it's just. This beacon is like how would going up there feel for me Excuse my fucking French, but it would feel like shit the whole time, like it just I knew it wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

Polly Mertens:

About 60 of the time with my mom it's. It's pleasant. Turmoil, yeah, yeah. Well, 40 of the time it's just drama and turmoil. And it's like being with a two year old brat, you know, or or worse, because it's an adult and they, you know, they can make bigger havoc than a little two-year-old if you, you will, and so I was. Like that just doesn't sound appealing, kind of like you saying I'm not going to this meal, I'm not, you know. So that's been a pivot for me is like the years gone by where I felt obligation to try and make her Thanksgivings or holidays as pleasant as possible, whatever all this for her, and putting aside my own sense of well-being or how it is yeah, all those things.

Polly Mertens:

And this year I'm like what? What's in my best interest? First, not at the expense of not like, oh, I'm denying her something or whatever because she's in assisted care.

Samantha Pruitt:

So she's got like all these people, she has everything she needs taking care of being met and, yeah, I'm.

Polly Mertens:

I'm not like she's sitting at home alone.

Samantha Pruitt:

She's not being neglected.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, exactly, I'm like they gave her a bigger birthday party than I could. She's like oh, my God, my birthday was amazing and all these people came and I was like, yay, that's awesome yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

And I was like the story I was making around that and what would like you said, like what would feel good for me in this moment, right, well, you took that whole relationship, which is a lifetime long relationship of challenge, if, if you will, good, bad, indifferent challenges, and you created a different relationship with yourself, to that individual, and we can all do this exact same thing with our relationships to others, with our relationship to self, with our relationship to our work life, to our financial life, to our health life, to our community, like at any moment.

Samantha Pruitt:

We can change that entire relationship and how we want it to be moving forward. We're not forced to do these things. Right To be a certain way, I mean, people do feel family expectations as an example of what you and I just talked about, but societal expectations, you know, around success or money, or how we live, how we look towards the outside world. You know that whole thing that's a relationship to ourselves that we can decide is no longer working for us. Right, if I decide I no longer want to have long hair, I can cut it off.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, right, we have so many choices, yeah, and you and I have had these experiences as I think about the health challenges you had in your younger years and you turn that all around and you made completely different choices that totally changed the trajectory of your life ever after right, oh yeah 100% and me with, like, the choices I was making inside of the confines of an eating disorder and then transforming that and like who I, you know, became and saw myself as.

Polly Mertens:

And so these opportunities, these experiences in life we come upon and and it's in those moments we have to look at is this serving me? Is this in my wellbeing? Is you know? Is this one of the things I was going to reflect on is, like our first step, let's say in a pivot, is like looking at what's not working in your life, like what's not working, and I think we wholeheartedly want to remind people you have the power, you have the choice. Even if it doesn't look like, you have a choice.

Polly Mertens:

Action and inaction are both choices, right, and the story we tell ourselves in those moments can totally change the experience of it, you know. So some of what I was doing in that moments with my mom was I was letting go of a story that I was a bad daughter if I didn't show up, you know, every holiday or everything like that. I was like who the fuck made that? Like that's just a story that I've. You know, I'm looking in the outer world at like, oh, these daughters go and do these things whatever and I'm like, yeah, but that's not the dynamic I have and that's not feeling good for me, Right, and so I let go of that story of that's what a good diet's like. No, I would rather be known as somebody who takes good care of themselves and looks after their needs instead of somebody else's as a priority over, and above.

Samantha Pruitt:

Right, I made a massive pivot. I just realized, as you're talking, on how I view my work life and my career, and basically what I did is I determined early in the year, because some things weren't great and satisfying in my work life and in my career trajectory, that I was no longer going to identify a story I had with being in charge and being the boss and running the show and doing all the things. Okay, I obviously have those capabilities because I've done that, but it was no longer serving me to play that role and I no longer had an interest didn't even want to do that role in opportunities I was getting. And so a couple things transpired with job opportunities and project opportunities and different roles and all that.

Samantha Pruitt:

And I kind of sifted through it if you will like flour, you know, going through the sifter and made a decision and then pivoted that I would no longer go after those roles, accept those roles or take them on. And it was really interesting to watch the people around me be like, yeah, but that's who you are, you know you have those skills, you need to be doing that. Huh, I need to be doing that, I don't want to be doing that. And so then I pivoted really and was looking for opportunities, roles, projects where I was a teammate, a team member, a person contributing to a whole, and even if they were community projects or paid work projects or whatever the dynamic was, event production and all that I was picking different roles, and how much more fun it got and how much more alive I felt I was still, able to contribute all of my gifts, but I didn't have to be at the helm of anything.

Polly Mertens:

You know, I was just one of the people things were held out and dangled in front of you like hey, maybe we could go up a rung or you could take on more or whatever, and you seriously were like let me look at that no you looked at it and went. What would that entail?

Samantha Pruitt:

you know my ego, though would say yeah, more money, more prestige more, more, more and I was like, excuse me, bye.

Polly Mertens:

And it's like how I want to feel in this right, like I think you like, for example, these World Championship Ironman events that you produce and are just a part of this amazing team that travels around the world, right.

Samantha Pruitt:

A rockStar team.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and.

Samantha Pruitt:

I want to just be on the team playing the bass guitar okay, and it's so fun, and maybe I can't play the bass, so I play the drums this time, or whatever the thing is. So those are two examples of us. Let's dig more into this, but I really want you to read the passage.

Polly Mertens:

Okay, all right. So if you have the pivot year this is a book by Brianna Weiss that we've been referring to. It's called the Pivot Year 365 Days to Become the Person you Truly Want to Be and I would say you already are but day the blueprint given to you over the years. It does not mean to turn in a new direction, but to first go inward, to learn how to hear your moment, your own moment-to-moment instructions. It is to learn how to trust yourself, how to listen. It is to lead your life with a deeper degree of integrity. It is to not reconstruct your identity with pieces of what the world may deem more acceptable, but to deconstruct the notion that you must fit within a mold at all.

Samantha Pruitt:

Oh yeah, that is what it means to pivot. Yeah, and we have been doing this all year, and so have the listeners, whether they have awareness around it or not. You know some in varying degrees, obviously right, we talk a lot about giving permission to ourselves and to others if they think that they need that which they don't need, that We'll point out the obvious. We say it lightly.

Polly Mertens:

I just remind you yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, gentle reminder. Yeah, wow, okay, I wrote down some of the steps in case the listener needs to be walked through. Now would be a time.

Polly Mertens:

I just want to double click on listening. You know it's that something we've talked about before. You know, like your inner compass, your inner knowing, intuition, whatever guidance, whatever you want to call it's that something we've talked about before. You know, like your inner compass, your inner knowing, intuition, whatever guidance, whatever you want to call it, that, if we're so, you know we have these two beautiful eyes and ears that like taken so much from the world, right, like we can see the world, we can interpret it, whatever beautiful ears to hear things. You know what other people think, the stories that we want to take in from media, if you're watching social media and stuff like that, but damn it, your compass lies within, if you ask me.

Polly Mertens:

I think we're all born with it and we get a little distracted by the noise, the visuals, the complexity of the world and we forget where the compass lies. You know, we forget where the intuition is and it's inside of us and it's that listening and I would say sensing also. So listen within, you know, for the senses, the signals, the signs, the intuitive hits, the nudges, whatever guidance that you want to call it, and that's what you want to start to trust in more. That's what you want to tune into. That's where the how does this feel for me, and I think the examples that we just gave about these relationships, that we were navigating the outward signs and the outward signals I was getting you were getting from the society that we live in would say oh yeah, you should do that. Oh yeah, that's what that looks like for a relationship, and we were both like no, no.

Samantha Pruitt:

Before. You can listen now and I love it because it says in this what you just read stop, reflect and consider.

Polly Mertens:

Okay.

Samantha Pruitt:

If you can't do it at the end of the year yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

People are so busy, busy, busy, right? They think they're needing to be doing all these things. As the year and the holidays are here and all the demands increase, I mean I would beg to differ. Is that really a requirement? No, it's not a requirement. These are choices. If you choose to get all swirly and whirly at the end of the year, but you can also choose to stop, reflect and consider. You do a great process and you're going to share that in an upcoming episode with the audience and they should absolutely listen to that and do the work, because you're going to lay out how they could do that. But just the process of stopping, reflecting and considering you can do it whenever you want, but you I mean I almost mandate you have to do it at the end of the year.

Samantha Pruitt:

At least Because if you're not doing it once in the course of a year and your life is made up of years, days and moments and breaths when are you doing it?

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and it is moment to moment. You know you don't need a number on a calendar.

Polly Mertens:

You just need a signal from your heart that it's time to pay attention to this. It's time to right, pause and go inward and reflect and consider like where am I, you know, not serving myself? Where am I giving over my power? Where am I saying yes when I mean no, you know? Where am I letting myself down? I'm not taking good enough care of myself or giving myself enough space, or whatever. That looks like that you don't need a date Like oh yeah, I'm going to wait until someday or some moment or something happens. You know, people largely put things on this outer like oh, at the end of the month, end of the year, when the kids move out, whatever excuse it is. No, your life is now right, like I've been. I was going to tell you about this, but I've been listening to a lot of these near-death experience stories.

Samantha Pruitt:

That's a little kooky, but okay it's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing.

Polly Mertens:

They're recounting. I mean, it's beautiful to hear the stories of like people just going through me, Like this. This thing called life is this is pretty damn hard. I'm no, they're like. I'm home, I'm with you know, I'm with my creator. Whatever I'm, I'm expanded, being not in this little thing called the body and it was. It's been so, so eyeopening that like, and when they come back right, so like they spend minutes, 45 minutes, you know, like a lot of time on the other side, you might say, and they don't even.

Polly Mertens:

They're like I don't know if it was five years or five minutes, because it just feels so expanded, all this stuff that they experience. And then they get, boom, popped back into their body and a lot of them get sad because they're like, oh my God, that was so amazing. This is so challenging. You know, like life is filled with physicalness and the heart. You know whatever bones breaking down. You know all those things and it's like a lot of them come back and they just shift who they are fundamentally. They're just like.

Polly Mertens:

I can't look at the world the same way, knowing this, right, good, right, right. And it's like now, what do I want to get up to? Right, like, how can I make this time that I'm in this body as meaningful as possible, as joyful as possible, as whatever expressive as possible? And you and I are big proponents of like don't wait until that someday moment, don't wait until some outer thing needs to happen before you take that opportunity to say I'm not doing it this year, like, yeah, I know I've done all these Thanksgivings with you, but not doing it Right, and you don't need permission, you don't need a date on the calendar. It's moment to moment like choosing this life is a precious gift. Treat it as such. We never know when that day is going to come.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, I think we have these opportunities all the time. It doesn't need to be a near-death experience. We coach people daily. I was just coaching somebody yesterday that's having a health scare and it looks like there might be a serious diagnosis. And, of course, I have a couple other friends and family members who are in the middle of serious disease states that they are battling with, and I was actually saying to her to take this opportunity to start journaling and stop process what is actually going on in her body and mind, not what she's being told from medical practitioners or blood tests or this test or that that, or reading on the internet about all the scary things that could be connected to this possible disease.

Samantha Pruitt:

Right, what's going on inside of her, this human? How is she feeling? How is she thinking? Also, how is she spending her time? What was her day look like now? Is it looking the way she'd like it to look? You know, how is her sleep, nutrition? How is her exercise? How is her emotional state? What are her relationships like? What are all the things actually that she has agency over and can be completely empowered by right now, in this moment, without even having a diagnosis or a treatment plan or any of these things that may or may not even come Right, and just to see the revelation that went on in that moment of exchange we were having around her, feeling like I'm going to take this back into my power and I'm going to focus my energy on, on this tangible.

Samantha Pruitt:

So real so reality, based from her own personal experience, and it's just all the time. If somebody is having a health issue or financial despair or an addiction crisis, a mental health crisis, like there's an internal process that needs to be happening for every single one of us before a crisis moment, during a crisis moment, throughout our daily lives, around just the everydayness of life. You know where we can continue to stay connected to ourselves.

Samantha Pruitt:

It seems so basic and simple and, by the way, it's free. I mean it takes a notebook and a pen, so it might be a couple bucks. It takes a little time. But that process alone before we decide whether we need to pivot or not, how would we even know if we didn't do these very simple moments and acts, giving ourselves these gifts?

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and I like what you're highlighting too, because I was just talking with a friend who's made a profound pivot in her life, really feels like she's found her calling and stuff like that. I was talking with her yesterday and I was like how did you get to this?

Polly Mertens:

She's 53.'s 53. Like man. I was like when did this start? Like, I'm trying to remember. You know I've seen her, you know in the last year, and I was like and when did you find that? And how did you know like? And she's like man, I was working with this like for her really high paid coach and she like put me through even know which one of those she does, but out of that, you know she's like I think she had like a three month project or you know program, and it only unless she's like and in five weeks I was like I I'm on it, you know like she like found her thing, it was like whatever.

Polly Mertens:

And so, um, I think sometimes we need that outward structure or that outward support, coaching, you might say, to help us do that reflection, like give us homework, give us, because a lot of us, you know, if you haven't been through, like you and I, a lot of self work and development or gone to a lot of these, let's say, events and programs to do that work, how does it begin? You know you're kind of like I want to reflect, I want to consider, and we get into this little mental spiral that often just feels like, you know, we're just like turning on the same old story, and it's like opening up the mind and breaking out of the confines. You know, sometimes, as Einstein says, you can't solve the problems with the mind that created it. Right, so right. It's like you have to see the problem through a different lens. She's like I didn't even consider that I could be the one to do this thing that she's doing. She's become a.

Polly Mertens:

She wants to be a DJ, like a DJ of experiences, you know, not just like a DJ in a lounge or something like that, but like she wants to create transformative experiences, kind of like sound baths and stuff you know, but she's like a DJ that works with people who do sound baths and so creates, you know, little people do like ecstatic dance or whatever movement and stuff like that. So she's like I want to take people on movement exercises and journeys to have a transformative experience, to open up to who they are and, like you know and stuff like that Right and stuff like that Right. And she's like I was sitting, you know, a year ago, before I got in the journey, even knowing that that was even possible or I could be the one, or what you know, and it just like cracked open her mind to a new possibility, a new level opened up for her.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, so sometimes you need somebody else to reflect back to you.

Polly Mertens:

Ask you questions, like you were.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, prompting, you know, maybe providing opportunities and ideas that may or may not resonate, you know, not somebody telling you what to do, somebody who's creating a safe space for you to ask yourself and dig into yourself and then be able to express that and then see what happens. Like it's incredibly powerful to create these opportunities for others and for yourself and, you know, make it happen people.

Polly Mertens:

Make it happen. And some of them are smaller. You know, like you and I've had, let's say, smaller pivots that I think we can do on our own. And then there's like bigger not life crises, but they're bigger moves that have a bigger impact or a bigger ripple on either other people's lives or the course of your own life that, yeah, it might need some support in making those decisions. So, yeah, so what I was saying as my you know, kind of other language for what you were talking about, the reflection is like starts with recognizing what's not aligned Right, so like realizing is shit ain't working.

Samantha Pruitt:

reflection is like starts with recognizing what's not aligned right.

Polly Mertens:

So like, yeah, realize the realizing is shit ain't working. I don't feel good in this, like something's whatever. You've got resistance, you got friction, frustration. You know you can find, define it in emotional language you're on the wrong side of the scale. Ie nothing's feeling good. If it's feeling good, it's probably aligned right, and then I would say so my notes about going inside is like finding your inner truth, like reconnecting with your truth. The answers are inside. So lean towards your heart, not your rational mind, right? Life is made up of experiences and feelings. So, recognizing those feelings and what you want to be feeling maybe you've been putting out effort, or you know have to, or should you know shooting experiences that don't feel good for you, that we both talked about, that should on yourself.

Polly Mertens:

And then notice maybe there's stories that are happening inside that may need upgrading, letting go or reframing right. So for me it was like I had to shed these stories about what a good daughter was or what you know, how I had to show up in the world and I was like, no, I'm reframing that, I take good care of myself and if I opt to engage with you know, a family member, relationship, other people or whatever, I do that but it makes me feel good and if I if it don't I don't think it's going to make me feel good I opt out right. So I reframe those, those moments. I just wanted to say that's my homework or that's how I do. Going inside step.

Samantha Pruitt:

And then add trust trusting yourself Right, because a lot of people will do these things, and then they'll waver back and forth. They won't have full commitment to the self self-compassion, self-love, self-investment. They'll have one foot in each camp. I'm over here doing the self with one leg, but this other leg is still in the camp of servicing others. First Right, self-sacrifice you know all the things that we rationalize in these in 2025 into the camp of you Self-love, self-compassion, self-respect, self-investment, please. I mean, we just are urging at this point.

Polly Mertens:

It's a must-do and we're taught as children. I think there's a phenomenon in the culture, a paradigm around, like oh it's selfish, oh that's selfish and whatnot, and it's actually. It's actually selfish, not to toxic judgment. Yeah, because, like when we're better sourced, when we're better fulfilled and happier, or taking care of ourselves, taking care of our needs first right, we have more to give. We're like, actually serving the collective. We're serving our family, our friends, our community.

Samantha Pruitt:

We're evolved serving the collective. We're serving our family, our friends, our community. We're evolved Like we can actually become our best and highest potential. We're evolved people Our skills are evolved, our emotions are evolved, our capabilities and our bandwidth has evolved. The amount of power in that is tremendous. How I can show up now to be of service in whatever capacity, is light years ahead of what I was doing 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago. It's just mind boggling, you know.

Polly Mertens:

So I, so I don't know what you have next on your like, how these steps, but I would say that phase of like going inside, taking, and then, like you just said, like so my I take this from tony robbins is decide, commit and resolve, like out of this inner knowing and truth and having trust and faith, then decide what you're gonna and then the next step is action or inaction. You're gonna take steps or you're gonna stop doing things like yes, say no's and mean them or whatever. So it's decide, commit and resolve, like, okay, I'm not, I'm not playing the part of some you know, programmed good daughter out there. I'm not playing the part of like I have to or should, or whatever. You, you think this is the way my life is going to go. The script and the pen are in my hand. I'm writing this story right, one thousand percent.

Samantha Pruitt:

I have down change, move, act and lead from a place of values and integrity. So once you've decided, you're taking action. Right, hello, I mean you can decide all kinds of things I really want to be healthier this year, or change my job this year, or get out of this crappy relationship this year, whatever your thing is. That you decided, but then you don't take action. What the hell is that? I mean talk about letting down the self. How can you trust the self if you make a commitment to the self and then you don't take action towards it? True, yeah?

Samantha Pruitt:

It's just not fair to the self.

Polly Mertens:

And in our case, you know, stop taking action, right. So it's. It's you could say it's leaning towards the action, towards self-care, or bopping the action, that we were giving away care for ourself and people pleasing, or responsibility, or something like that and instead taking care of self first and whatever we felt called to, whatever we feel like is ours, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, exactly.

Samantha Pruitt:

I mean we always talk about this ongoing theme of our conversations around. You know the limited time we are here in this one body, in this one heart, mind, in this one lifetime. Right, it's not going to last forever, people. So again, a gentle reminder from Polly and Sam as to get busy, please Do it now. Get busy, yeah, and the end of the year is a great time to be like. Okay, I'm going to stop, reflect, consider, but I'm not going to dwell, I'm not going to be stuck in how it didn't go that great this year, but I'm going to recognize that it's time to do it differently and I'm going to get busy taking the action, doing it differently.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and it's, you know, serenity prayer is like what is mine to act upon, Right? So it's like grant me the acceptance of what I can't change. You know there's other people's, you know, reflections on you or projections on you or expectations or whatever. It's like can't change that, right, they're going to feel how they feel, like you said. You know their hurt feelings or whatever. If you didn't go and do those things, it's like hurt feelings or whatever. If you didn't go and do those things, it's like, okay, I can't, can't change that. What can I take action on? What can I control? Like act on that and the wisdom to know the difference. It's like a lot of us make these decisions, these choices out of. I don't want them to feel this way, you know, whatever it's like they're going to feel how they're going to feel.

Polly Mertens:

Right. What do I have? What do you call it? What do I have? Agency over Yourself, right. Prioritizing self-care, your needs, put you back on the table in the playing field of the world. You matter, right.

Samantha Pruitt:

We hear a lot of time about people's limiting beliefs around money and how it is a limitation, around the choices that they make about their health and wellness, maybe where they live or what they do with their spare time.

Samantha Pruitt:

For example, right, like, so I can't go on these great trips or vacations, I don't have the money, so instead I'm just going to be pissed off about it and do nothing. Or I'm going to eat fast food because it's cheaper, because that's what my budget allows, right. There's all these old stories around the limitations that we all are bumping up against. But you know, we are here to empower people to understand that there is no truth in a majority of these stories that we have told ourselves, that society tells us, that, maybe our family tells us Right, and so a little bit of like debunking those stories is part of that. Or you know whatever, contributing to the world and my community, instead of all the limiting beliefs that surround why you're not doing those things, I think we should just right now, give everybody permission to release them all, literally. Maybe you need to write them down, all of these excuses and limiting beliefs on paper, put them in the fire and burn them.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, yeah, shed what's not serving you, shed it Just let it go.

Samantha Pruitt:

Let it go for sure, because sometimes that's what stops you from the forward thinking and planning. Is this, you know, really heavy limiting belief system that you might have carried around for 50 years, or whatever?

Polly Mertens:

And you know, I think one thing too, one of my next steps on this is like so you take action or inaction. You know you do or stop doing something, and then the next step, as with business and in life, is you get feedback right. So it's like, well, how did that go Right? Like, how did not going to that event that expected you know thing, or how did saying no to that person or how did stepping away from something? How am I now feeling? Do I feel more aligned? Do I feel less aligned?

Polly Mertens:

Like, oh, I have regrets, like no, actually I think I would have had a better time, you know, or something right, like, check in with yourself again, like you can always reconsider or reconnect. Or you know it's like, oh well, maybe I don't want to not be in their life, maybe I just want to be in their life in this way, right? Or maybe I don't want to. You know fast food and stuff like that. It's like, ok, well, you tried, you overdid it in exercise. You're like holy cow. You know, like I'm killing myself here, like, or this is way too much of a time commitment or something like this doesn't serve you, okay, step it down to what feels good for you, right? So it's like get that feedback at that, that um, you know, like try something and then see how it goes. Try something, adjust, you know um correct and continue as you go.

Samantha Pruitt:

Get the feedback, but we're not talking about guilt and shame. No, no, no, no, right. So a lot of times it will be like oh, I got feedback, I felt so much guilt and so much shame around the X, y, z, do, da, do, da, uh, and I never want to feel that again. So I'm just going to keep doing that thing. Well, that felt horrible. So, to be clear, you're not talking about that kind of feedback. No talking about what is true for you.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, yeah, and I would say that guilt and shame is just a story you're telling yourself also, right, and so it's. It's just the lingering, you know feelings of, oh, I'm not doing that thing, that I still have a story around that I ought to right like I ought to, whatever be doing these things, and it's like, well, if you are feeling pangs of guilt and regret, it's because you're still tied to that old story. So maybe there's more shedding, more layers of that story that need to be like oh, but in that moment it's like, but if you looked at how you felt, aside from the story that you told yourself like I ought to, how was your time not doing that? Things like, oh, my God, I took care of myself, I, you know, I ate a good meal or I got some sleep, or something like that's what you want to pay attention to, Like that's the feedback that you want, not the lingering story, because as you change, we talk about this, it's messy in the middle.

Polly Mertens:

It's like you know, you might play this little ping pong game, even with yourself, you know, like trying to go to bed earlier and get more sleep in your day. You know it's like, oh, I have to say no to these things that I used to do or these habits that I had that weren't serving me. It's a little messy when you, you know your body kind of leans back into those old habits or old stories. So expect a little transition period and give yourself that grace that it could take you 30, 60, 90 or more days to really start to feel the momentum of that as well. And, as with all pivots, as with all pivots.

Samantha Pruitt:

As with all pivots as with all pivots.

Polly Mertens:

Oh my gosh, this was so good.

Samantha Pruitt:

What do we want to do? We got to wrap up here for our people. We can't keep them at our disposal all day no we'd love to, so I think, to hear from them.

Polly Mertens:

And I think so. If we wrap it up in a one thing, you know, I just think the one thing for me, anyway I'd love to hear yours is it goes back to you know, the feedback of how is it for you, how is your life experience Like, how is your feeling in this moment? Like if you weren't telling yourself a story about something, but you were truly checking in with what's true for you, then what right? So it's like paying attention to what's true for you and only you know that. Right, like the world, be damned right. Like regardless of expectation or what you're hearing or something, but like checking in with yourself what's true for you and trusting that. How about?

Samantha Pruitt:

you. I want to give an assignment because that's what I'm feeling. I'm feeling that coachy in me is having a hard time not being coachy right now. I'd love it.

Polly Mertens:

Let's hear it, do it.

Samantha Pruitt:

Stop, reflect, consider and listen. So four things I want them to do Get a notebook and a pen, carve out some time, stop, reflect, consider and listen and I'll add to that.

Polly Mertens:

So, like, what's an area of your life that you're feeling less than energetic about? Is it an area of your health that you feel frustration or tiredness or friction? You're just feeling friction in your life. Pick one area and one thing and hone in on it and just do as Samantha said is like okay, stop and like reflect, like benchmark what's going on here, like what is it? And noticing the stories that you're telling yourself around these things and are they serving you, you know, and if you up leveled or if you expanded that, as you said, what could you consider? What new possibilities could you consider that you hadn't considered before? The limited mind had you in, like, oh, I just have to do this thing, or these things are, they've always, I've always done it this way. Well, what if you didn't always do it that way? What would possibility allow for to be present if you let go of that old story?

Samantha Pruitt:

that's beautiful. That's beautiful stop, reflect, the homework, consider and then stop, reflect, consider and listen, listen, consider and then act. Stop, reflect, consider and listen, listen and then act. And then act, and then ooh, and then act.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, yeah. Right on right on Well a beautiful year, my dear.

Polly Mertens:

What a beautiful year we had together, wasn't it fun, and with our listeners. You know it's been great to like go out on these little events and journeys that we've bumped into you know our listeners here and there and getting their reflection so, just so honored to be on this journey with you and with all of you that are listening to this. We hope you've had a insightful growth year, something that maybe in this podcast or the other ones that you've listened to from us, has inspired or nudged you or dung your little bell and like, hey, I want to do that. I want to pay attention to something more that inner compass more this next year. How about you?

Samantha Pruitt:

I definitely want to hear more feedback from people. We do get some good feedback and it's freaking awesome. Literally some of the stuff that we get is tremendous and I love that and I just want more of that. Like, I want to have a greater understanding for people that are listening. What are they experiencing? How have we shared their journey and how can they share their journey more with us? What can that look like? You know, we just we want to know, because this is what we're investing in is in the humans who are listening and doing the work. Those are our people.

Polly Mertens:

So we totally invite you to reach out to us, either through our website work, those are our people, so we totally invite you to reach out to us, either through our website, everydayawesomeprojectcom, or on our social media Everyday Awesome Project on all the platforms. Just touch us, let us know, something that made a difference for you, or something that you'd like to hear from, or just like hey, you're doing great, or whatever. Whatever it is, we love that feedback.

Samantha Pruitt:

We appreciate it so all right, let's wrap it up?

Polly Mertens:

Yes, my dear, what would you like to remind them, as we've done in every episode this year, and I can't wait for your five and 10 and all of these. But that's our recap for today.

Samantha Pruitt:

People should have this tattooed on their arm by now, shouldn't they? I'm just saying yeah, how your life feels is more important than how it looks.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah is more important than how it looks. Yeah and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.

People on this episode

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Polly Mertens

Co-host
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Samantha Pruitt

Co-host