The Everyday Awesome Project

85: Finding Trust Out On The Trail | Why Everyone Needs a Re-Wilding Sabbatical

• Polly Mertens & Samantha Pruitt • Season 2 • Episode 85

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Do you have trust issues? With others, the world or YOURSELF? Then what happens when you strip away all your safe roles, responsibilities and digital distractions, leaving nothing but you, a 42-pound backpack, and 50 miles of rugged trail ahead? If fear and distrust are your instincts then listen up! This week Coach Sam shares her recent profound personal journey of self-discovery on the Trans Catalina Trail—a solo backpacking adventure that transcended physical challenge to become a masterclass in self-trust.

"I wanted to be free from all identities and labels—mother, wife, worker, friend, sister—for this week," Sam explains, describing her decision to travel without music, podcasts, or any human companionship. The resulting silence created space for something remarkable: meaningful dialogue with herself. Between encounters with curious foxes and face-to-face meetings with deer outside her tent, Coach Sam discovered that the voice inside her head was "pretty damn interesting" after all.

When trail markings failed her—twice in one day—turning a planned 13-mile hike into a grueling 20-mile odyssey, Sam found herself laughing out loud  rather than panicking. This response wasn't luck or innate courage, but the product of what she calls "stacking wins"—small, consistent acts of integrity that build unshakable self-trust over time. "Trust in oneself only comes from stacking wins," she emphasizes, drawing parallels between her CrossFit training, business leadership, and years of prior ultra racing navigation.

The experience wasn't merely about physical endurance but served as what Sam terms a "backpacking sabbatical"—a deliberate pause for self-exploration, dialogue, reflection, and recalibration. She makes a compelling case that these intentional breaks aren't luxuries but necessities in our hyper-connected world. "You deserve this too," she insists, challenging listeners to create their own version of disconnection, whether for five days or five hours.

Whether you're contemplating your first solo adventure or simply seeking to build greater self-trust in everyday life, this conversation offers practical wisdom about preparation, mindset, and the liberating power of believing in your own capabilities. As Coach Sam reminds us, "How your life feels is so much more important than how it looks."

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Samantha Pruitt:

hey, superstars, welcome back paula here and sam pruitt. What's up?

Polly Mertens:

beautiful humans, I just want to give you a so excited you're back, yay, from your solo backpacking trip. So this episode is about trust found on the trail. So, my dear, what have you been up to? What tell us about this backpacking trip, this solo female backpacking trip that you just went on?

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, it's funny. You say I'm so excited that you're back. I don't know that I'm excited that I'm back. Nothing personal. I want to see you and be with you.

Polly Mertens:

You know exactly what.

Samantha Pruitt:

I'm talking about personal. I want to see you and be with you. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Polly Mertens:

I do.

Samantha Pruitt:

I was explaining it to a coworker the other day. There's a thing that I call burning up on reentry, so you know what that is. Yeah, okay, I was only gone for five days and, yes, it was my first solo backpacking trip and we'll talk a little bit more about what that was. But only being gone, or quote unquote, unplugged for five days and to come back into the everyday life, yeah, a little bit of burning up on reentry, like, oh, there's a there's a harshness to that. So I'm I'm getting better as I do more of this at transitioning from that life to this life, because I want them to be integrated. Transitioning from that life to this life because I want them to be integrated. I so value the work that I was able to do out there and that all of us are able to do, given these opportunities if we so choose. And then really it's quite a skill to learn to bring that work back and integrate it into your everyday life. So thanks for welcoming me back and I'm still working on the transition.

Polly Mertens:

I'm not sure I'm welcoming me back, but I want to be back out there. But it's so funny you say that because two things come to mind. I definitely have talked to people who you know whether I mean a lot of, I think you're. What you've shared with me so far, since you've been back these few days is, you know, it's like you're in nature, like there's very little humans, let alone technology and glitz and screens and things like that. Right, so there's a, an adjustment just when you're spending time in nature, like I remember one time I did a backpacking trip and just coming out from the nature, you know, deep in the woods back out and I started smelling people's laundry on their clothes. You know, laundry detergent.

Polly Mertens:

I was like whoa, that's society or whatever you call it. Like you know, like back in nature. It's just like natural smells and trees and stuff. And then you start hiking back and coming across people and I smelled their laundry detergent on their clothes and I was like, oh, that's weird.

Samantha Pruitt:

you know people and I smelled their laundry detergent on their clothes and I was like, oh, that's weird, you know, and and the other. That's hilarious, because we didn't smell good at all. On the Trans Catalina Trail, which is the trail I did across Catalina Island it's called the Trans Catalina Trail I ended up doing 50 miles. The trail is not supposed to be 50 miles, supposed to be 38, but that's another story. I got some extra credit but there were not people. I was heading west on the trail, most people were going east. So apparently I didn't get the memo that the easier way is to go east. But I don't pick easy things anyway. So whatever, and I saw literally in five days one other human going the direction I was going for 50 miles and I mean we had a fleeting moment. We weren't on the trail at all together, we just ended up in a particular camp.

Samantha Pruitt:

That person came in after me, we had a brief little conversation and then I got up early the next day before sunrise and was out and never saw them again. But coming the other way there were humans. I didn't really experience them, except sometimes at these camps, you know, people would come in at different times and generally I was already. Cause I go up early. I'm up at five, I'm on the trail by six. I want to be there at sunrise.

Samantha Pruitt:

I want to have these experiences, and so I was finishing earlier than most people and just already had my chill out going on by the time they all showed up and set up their tents. I'm like bye, and I wasn't there to in any way, shape or form, be with any other human. So, to be clear, I had great intention not to be engaging with other humans except when necessary. So the rules of play for me were I'm going to do this trail, I'm going to do it by myself, I'm going to carry this big ass 42 pound pack, which was totally out of control and I had a few come to Jesus moments about that and I'm going to obviously have no TV, not have cell communication, except to create some video and photo content which I have shared, and I'll keep sharing and make some personal notes for myself because I'm in the process of doing some writing. And then, no music, no podcasts. Okay, that's huge for me because I love audio.

Samantha Pruitt:

And I love the learning experience. I didn't do any of that with great intention and my only communication would be when required or necessary with other people, whether it was in a camp situation or I had to check in for a camp or whatever. So all day long I would not have communication with anybody, except for myself, who knew that that person's pretty damn interesting. We got a lot to talk about in there. That's so cool, dude. It was so good. It was so good.

Polly Mertens:

I didn't know. It was so like I love that you turned off all the music and you know just things coming in, Because that's your MO, I mean, it's definitely you're always feeding me with great content that you find, so that you were discovering your own truth from inside, on the trail, right.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, yeah, I wasn't in learning mode. You know, that's who I am at home, in my normal life. I'm a learner, I'm a teacher, I'm in all these things, right. So I didn't want to be in that mode or in that identity. I wanted to be stripped of all of those identities, right, in addition to being, you know, a mother and a wife and a employee and a coworker and a boss, and a friend and a sister and what. I wanted to be free from all of those things and those identities and roles and responsibilities for this week. So I gave myself that gift, which was an incredible gift, and I really all I want to impart today on the listener is you deserve this too.

Polly Mertens:

So let's go, we all deserve this. Is there anything else you want to say about what it was, or I want to hear more. Why did you do this too? You?

Samantha Pruitt:

know. So the what was? Yeah, I ended up doing 50 miles. I was on the island for five days, I packed everything, obviously in my backpack, carried everything and was completely self-reliant, self-sufficient and yeah, out in the wilderness of Catalina Island and I saw some of the pictures of the critters you were coming across.

Polly Mertens:

You came across fox foxes, as I remember, and some deer.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah.

Polly Mertens:

I don't know what else.

Samantha Pruitt:

A lot of foxes were visiting. I had a lot of fox interaction and that was really cool. And then, yeah, of course, deer and birds and a little bit of ocean experience and a lot of big mountains, because Catalina Island is not flat. If anyone wants to take a look at the map, it's like holy hell, tell me a little bit about.

Polly Mertens:

you said it was 38, turned to 50.

Samantha Pruitt:

Tell us a little bit about some of how the yeah, on my third day on the island I ended up getting lost on the trail and as I spoke I was headed one direction and most people were headed the other. The trail markings going west were nowhere near as robust as the ones coming eastbound, and so there was quite a few junctions that were quite confusing. And they were speaking to that eastbound hiker and not the westbound hiker. And luckily also this was me not using technology by choice. I didn't have a Garmin. I didn't have any kind of tracking device for my mileage and all that. I didn't want any of that. I didn't have an app.

Samantha Pruitt:

With the map downloaded, I wasn't going into the wild. Okay, catalina Island is, you know, very safe environment, especially for single females, totally safe, had no qualms or safety issues whatsoever. But I did have a paper map. I did, and actually another hiker gave it to me and I thought that was kind of fun too, because he was coming off the trail. I even referenced this map twice and I still got lost twice. So I ended up doing quite a bit extra mileage because of that and that was a learning moment for me.

Samantha Pruitt:

But again it comes to the core lesson for me and the core experience was around trust and we'll get into that and me understanding who I am in the world, who I am in nature, and feeling very comfortable and confident that even though that was frustrating and could have been a precarious situation, I was more than capable of handling that and of figuring it out and also of moving through it. I mean, it added a lot of miles to my journey, so that day was supposed to be 13 miles and I did 20. So again, you know, for a lot of people that might have felt really emotionally defeating or even dangerous if they ran out of water and whatever, all might have happened. But I didn't have that experience. I just kept moving forward.

Polly Mertens:

Can we talk a little bit about that moment, that day specifically, you know, and then if there's any other days that you want to highlight. But I, you know, I'm curious. When I saw your post of like holy hell, I think at the time you had, I thought you said it was like four miles out of the way, but I'm hearing you say it went from 13 to 20. So something got extended, bigger than even by the time I saw the post.

Samantha Pruitt:

So totally yeah, Cause I got lost twice that day. So the post I did was my initial. I got lost and I was up on top of a mountain. I was like, okay, apparently this is how the day is going. I still had a pretty good sense of humor about it all at that moment. Yeah, Cause I was like I got this handled Okay.

Polly Mertens:

You have done hundreds of miles before. This is like 50 or you know, or 38. This is nothing.

Samantha Pruitt:

Totally, totally. But I ended up getting lost a second time that exact same day. So it was really an interesting psychological, you know, experiment of sorts and I have been lost. I've been lost in other experiences and I've always been able to find my way out of it. You know, I've never had to be rescued or anything like that. So I felt really confident that I'd figure it out, and of course I did.

Polly Mertens:

And yeah, how did you feel after the end of that day? Like you know, as you got to camp and you reflected on that day. What are some of the reflections that you had? About yourself, about the trail, about how you did, whatever.

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, once I actually had like camp in line of sight and I was descending off this big mountaintop down into the ocean. Really I was laughing a lot at the hilariousness of it all right, because that's also how I operate. And then I had an incredible sense of accomplishment and pride, like my physical body just did I'm on the third day of this hike and just did a 20 miler with a 40 pound pack. I mean, I'm a 56 year old female, so the fact I'm physically doing this I felt amazing because sure, I was and things were achy, but I was more than capable and able to do it physically and that feels great. But also psychologically it feels great to know and it brings a lot of confidence in the self to be able to be capable to overcome adversity, challenge et cetera. You know.

Polly Mertens:

You know, what you're pointing to right now reminds me a lot of, you know, in the world of habit change, and this is a bigger topic that I think we'll go into. So I used to coach my clients a lot, especially as they're like trying to break an old habit or, you know, replace something that has just been ingrained for a long time. Right, that mind is used to long time. Right that that mind is used to that loop. Right Is stacking small wins, right and so, like, have a small win, have you know, day, daily, little wins, weekly wins. It builds that inner like bank account with yourself, like, look at me, I did that, look at me, I did that, right. So you, you just sort of this inner well of of, I mean, you just did a big one. You went from like boom 20 done you know. But you're, you know, you've had some experience of like crushing big things too, but those little wins. But I love where you're going with this. It's like where does trust in oneself come from? Mm, hmm.

Samantha Pruitt:

Exactly, it only comes from stacking wins. Yeah, I would say you, it's a must part of the whole equation. I am going to do a video on this as part of my conclusion to the trip and my lessons and learnings, and it's about building momentum, and momentum, to me, only comes through stacking wins. Okay, I can't wait to get motivated to do anything. Nobody should be waiting around to get motivated. And when they finally get motivated, they're going to get busy living their life. That is the most ludicrous thing ever, right, but through momentum which action is momentum? And stacking wins, the wheel start turning. The emotions come along for the ride. Right, they're the result of the action, but not the reverse.

Polly Mertens:

You know, and it reminds me, like when you think of you know, I was talking to someone yesterday about imposter syndrome, right, and imposter syndrome is basically an identity I haven't grown into. Right, you have this old identity, a way of seeing yourself and this thing that you want to get up to, this challenge, this big hike, whatever it's just more than you've ever done before. It's something you haven't done before or you don't know if you can possibly achieve. And we don't know until we do it. Like you know, it's like get, you know, go outside, you know where I think dissatisfaction and just sort of like dullness in life come from, is like only doing what's comfortable all the time, right, and so Right.

Polly Mertens:

And you go on these little and not so little excursions and it's like boom, you just kind of grow yourself. You're like, oh, look at me, I'm capable of doing this now, right. And they're like what else? And then what else? Right. And so we stack this identity, this sense of self, this trust in like, well, you know, I mean, for me, traveling international was like every time I travel international, I'm like, shoot, I can handle anything. You know exactly. So you, and especially physical challenges, you know, as, as you level up, as you level up.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, and there's nothing that's a physical challenge, that is not a mental challenge. You can do plenty of mental challenges that don't have a physical component and I obviously there's value in that too. But my style of operating the world you know I'm a learn by doing person is you pick the physical, challenging things and you build your mind and with that, of course, the body also says, whoa, I better be physically prepared for this character, because God only knows what she's going to get up to next, so I better get fit. Um, why I want to, why I did it? So I did it as a form of self-investment and I basically was calling it a backpacking sabbatical and I will continue to do them for sure. Um, for self exploration, for self dialogue, for self-reflection how many are there five?

Polly Mertens:

I want to go into all of these, so we might not have time to cover them up.

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, um, self-exploration, right? So that's, uh, an inquiry into the internal world called you, yeah, self-dialogue.

Samantha Pruitt:

Lots of conversations were had with the self and then you know what was also cool sometimes there was nothing it was silence, yeah, and to me that's a form of moving meditation where I basically was actually detached from my body, my brain, all the things, and I was just literally cells moving across the trail and mountain as part of the natural environment, literally miles of that, which which was a fricking amazing Okay, amazing Self-reflection.

Samantha Pruitt:

So I did do some heavier thoughts and thinking and processing around stuff going on in my life and some decisions and just some clarity of values and, you know, things that I want to get up to. And then really self recalibration. So that recalibration of like retuning my energy in the world. Things had gotten pretty stressful leading up to it for months, probably really a year, but kind of building in a lot of areas of life, and I needed to settle that all down and release those things because they weren't serving me in my day-to-day life and my decisions and my physical health. You know I was starting to have some physical health results of that. So that recalibration was also a big part of it and all of that to be accumulated in the container called me is a form of self-love.

Polly Mertens:

And it's. I'm thinking there are some things you let go on the trail or you worked out as you walked or something right, like you just were. You know it's like you, it's like you. You go on this trail with a hairball of knitted stuff in the brain or in the body or energy, whatever you want to call it, and it's like out there you just start to kind of pull it apart lightly or you leave some of it on the trail like oh, don't need that anymore, right.

Samantha Pruitt:

And that's why it was so important to me and I really do again want to impart on the listener it's so important to detach yourself from inputs. So if I had done listen to podcasts, if I had been reading an audio book or listening to music or having a person with me on the trail which, of course, that's all I saw out there was groups of people, right, if I had those inputs, it would have been a completely different experience. And so it's not that doing things with other people isn't great and fun. It's wonderful, of course, or having these experiences sometimes where you are taking and learning knowledge and getting creative energy, but there's a time and a place for that, and there's also a time and a place for nobody but you, and that's a gift that more people should be giving themselves, in my opinion.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and choosing it, you know, choose, where are you, you know? So, themselves in my opinion? Yeah, and choosing it, you know, choose, where are you, you know? So hey want to hang out with two or three or four or 10 of your besties and go on a amazing journey and like go do that, Right.

Samantha Pruitt:

Um, but I agree with that, if that's your intention, because I will say a lot of the feedback I got, in particular being a single woman from the external world. Of course I disregarded all of it, but was, you know, concerns of safety? Many, many, many endless people were concerned for my safety and imparted on me that they would never do anything like that by themselves and yada, yada, yada. So I had to talk a lot of people off the cliff and they weren't even coming with me. You know I was like, but why not to be worried about me? Or why to consider for themselves the possibility of this experience? Yeah, you know, and again, trust, trust yourself. I mean, I wasn't going to do it perfect. Of course I jacked up all kinds of things and did all sort of it was a learning, it was a growth process kinds of things and did all sort of it was a learning, it was a growth process. But I did that without any judgment and actually with a sense of humor and levity. It was, it was fun.

Polly Mertens:

And I think that's two of the best things I get from you. One is well, I know several things, but one is you're. When you say hilarious, like that's just natural for you, Like, look, how hilarious this was. You know this, that You're being hilarious, I'm being hilarious, the situation's hilarious, this traffic's hilarious, Whatever right Like such a levity place to be with whatever shows up, right, Well, you know, whereas not everyone has that levity torch thing, so it's great that you can take that out on a journey wherever you go in the world, because you're going to run into bumps and roadblocks and breakdowns and whatever you know detours.

Samantha Pruitt:

People in general are taking things way too seriously Right economy and the politics and the this and the that and the behavior of their co-workers and the behavior of their housemates or whatever, like it's the be-all, end-all of their existence and that their world is controlled by all of that which is not at all yeah, yeah, it's just made up in the mind, right?

Polly Mertens:

we create these prisons in our mind, like I was just thinking about that deer picture that you had. This deer is just out on this island his whole life foraging maybe some. Yeah, just doing, you know, berries tree berries.

Samantha Pruitt:

Did I tell you about the deer moment where I was in one particular camp and we have fox boxes to put our stuff in our food and whatever you can't keep it in your tent, they'll look for everything that they can possibly eat. And so I heard at night, while I was trying to go to sleep, there was literally a Fox going around my tent, going around my tent, like circling around my tent, you know, like smelling and whatever, and I kept seeing it. I didn't take a picture because it was dark and then I went to fell asleep and then I woke up in the middle of the night because I hear and I'm like, oh shit, did I leave? Could it have gotten into the fox box? Or did I leave something? Or is it the guy in the camp next door who I don't know?

Samantha Pruitt:

So I unzipped my tent and I open it and literally there's a deer. I could have put my hand out and literally pet the deer and it's just eating the tree right there, just the berries off the right next to my tent. And he just looked at me. I was like, oh, okay, hi, and I just zipped it up in my back sleep. But yeah, it was cool to look in the eyes of these animals.

Polly Mertens:

That was also wonderful you know that you're an animal person well, you know, and it's just like the world that is going on for the trees and the critters and nature and stuff, and then the world that we've created and that, even if you go to the micro level, like there's the global world that we've, you know we swim around in whatever, and we're like a fraction on this frickin planet, Like our cities look so big but like if you look at the whole planet, there's really big spaces in between these. You know groups of us, you know humans or whatever, but we take it so seriously. What's going on in these groups, like, oh, you know this and that and we're also connected with everybody seeing everything and whatever. And these deer are just like to do you know birds are doing what the birds are. You know it's yeah, it's not. They're not plus by all of our chaos. It's not, they're not plussed by all of our chaos, right? And these meanings that we're going through up and down, up and down all day long, right?

Samantha Pruitt:

So yeah, and allow them to talk to you. Allow nature to talk to you. If it's quiet enough, oh, they'll talk to you. Should we talk about how I did it and how other people could maybe do this?

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, well, I let's go. Let's go, lady. Yeah, so tell so. I know you I mean, you're a massive preparer and great at you know preparing but I have a feeling, I think from what I saw, like even you discover some things on the trail that you're like, ah, you know, throw that out right Like some adjustments. So tell us how you did it. What, what, what can you share about what you've discovered?

Samantha Pruitt:

Yeah, and here's what we're going to talk about in terms of how to do this is because you don't need Samantha Pruitt's idea about how to pack your backpack. Okay, there's 50,000 videos about that and of course, I have opinions about all of those things and would be happy to be a resource if somebody needs help there. But realistically, that is not the biggest limitation to said human doing anything like this. And when we say anything like this, I also mean that you don't have to go backpacking across Catalina Island for five days. Do whatever the hell you want, okay, but if your thing feels overwhelming impossible, whatever, whatever the story is you're telling yourself about why you can't, shouldn't, will not, cannot, blah, blah, blah. Fill in the blank we're here to blow that shit up. Okay, because your life is waiting. So choose something. Whatever your dream is Okay. Now I have a new dream of every quarter I'm going to do a backpacking sabbatical, okay, but whatever theirs is going to be, so let's just start with that, so they don't get overly attached to the backpacking piece of it.

Polly Mertens:

And I want to insert, as we talk about this context, because you and I know numerous people who can have what you're about to share if they don't have people in their life that are watching and and up to stuff also right, like you talked about the, the naysayers before you left, like, like, if you have a lot of those in your life and you don't have the resolve, if you don't, you know, have something else around you, like you and I have each other and you know we have all kinds of people that we surround ourselves. That's like constantly, like you're going to get up to what? Yes, you should do that, you, you, yeah, and here's what I'm getting up to, right, just to inspire you back and back, and you know so exactly exactly.

Samantha Pruitt:

We're resources for each other in so many different ways, shapes and forms. If you're in these right communities and of course these communities exist everywhere you know you can find these people already in your existing life. You know who they are and you also know who the naysayers are. And if you don't have them frigging, call us or join. What we're up to, I mean, obviously we're happy to light a fire under anything.

Polly Mertens:

Okay. So if you don't have those people in your life, get them, because as you do these things, you know, depending on your own resolve or like you know, they might just be like no, it's settle down, settle down, right. But all right. So you're you, you've got those people in your life, you've been doing this for a long, long time, so can you share with us? Like what, what? What does it take?

Samantha Pruitt:

Number one is to be brave and believe. It does take some courage and it undoubtedly takes belief belief in what is possible as an opportunity, belief in your own potential, belief that you can make it happen. Okay, so that's pretty important to have that as a foundation for whatever the thing is you're about to get up to yeah, I mean, it's just a little correlate.

Polly Mertens:

I watched that documentary about the jasmine who finished the barkley marathons, right, and it was like, you know, the four minute mile, that barrier that existed many years ago, right, like, could, could someone do the four minute mile? Nobody could. And then you know it happened. And then, like now, this Jasmine gal, you know, completed the Barkley marathons, which is one of the hardest, most challenging ultra race in the world, not just distance wise, but like all the shit that you get up to. But I remember I was listening to her interview and she kept saying she's like, yeah, I just, I just believe that it's possible. It's just possible, you know. And whether it's a stretch, right, like a big stretch or a little stretch or whatever. And so for you, how, how big of a stretch was this in your belief bucket? Like, was it a? You know, I got to throw a lot of like I'm not sure, maybe it could happen, maybe it won't happen. Or was it like, yeah, this was easily within reach.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, I mean, you were there the first time I went backpacking which is called once Okay With somebody else's pack. Well, we had no idea what the hell we're doing. I had that thing way over packed. Even then it didn't even fit me. The whole thing was a comedy act. I mean it really was, but somehow we made it through a couple of nights in the wild and that was it. That was my depth of experience.

Samantha Pruitt:

Okay, so I'm not by any means an expert in this. I had and still have the courage. I'm a brave human being. I am a Leo, so part of it is just in me, and then the other part is so developed from a lifetime of just, literally, battles. Okay, so I am a freaking warrior, there's no doubt about it. But then that's the bravery, that's the courage element. The belief is making myself capable. Capable, so investing the time, the energy, the knowledge, the curiosity in let me figure out how to do this, and then allowing myself the grace of. Well, I think I have a good enough plan here, but it's not going to be perfect, but I have belief in myself, that I am capable, I am resilient and, frankly, I do have a streak of relentlessness in me that will keep moving forward, you know.

Polly Mertens:

I think of a couple things. One is on the daily you go to CrossFit. And you like I mean, you just nail these tough ass workouts right and so, like you know yourself to be a tough ass person, you're like you know, look what I just blew up Right. So, like that daily conditioning of like I can do hard, like yes, yes, yes.

Samantha Pruitt:

And then conditioning is the right word, and I think you want one of the things you want.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, so, conditioning on the daily right, like those little small wins, whatever you want to call them Right, depending on if you're growing or you know. And then I think you and I, because of our race experience, races, we have that period. We know there's like a timeline, a training period, right. So I mean, yes, you know, could I get on the PCT tomorrow without any training or whatever, and figure it, okay, probably, but usually you like plan those things.

Polly Mertens:

So saying yes to something doesn't mean you have to do it tomorrow, create the runway to get there through the conditioning if you need to level up the body or whatever, but just putting your hat in the ring and say, you know, like when you know you said, hey, you should do half Ironman, you know, and I was like whoo, and I was like I don't, you know, I had enough time and I think I had five months. I was like, ok, right, and just saying it like I believe I've, I've, could get there, right, like you with the Catalina, it's like, yeah, you've done two days, you know we didn't go super far, right, but it was like all the other places in your life that you've seen yourself succeed and warrior up and whatnot and you take that out to this challenge and you deliver yeah.

Samantha Pruitt:

And there was no guarantee of success for in either of these instances that you're referring to you at the Ironman, me doing this or whatever other thing there's no guarantee of success. We're not in it for an automatic success. We're not picking easy things. We are intentionally picking things that are a little bit scary, a little bit intimidating, definitely new, definitely unknown, definitely full of growth opportunity. We are saying yes to that.

Polly Mertens:

Okay and I want to share. You know I'm doing this in business right now too. You know, with the way that I'm growing the business and then hiring people and you know taking on, I'm like man, new muscle. You know like I've been a business person and I've had some, but like this just feels, you know that that growth they talk about who you have to grow yourself to be but just believing like I can do that, and last night I had a moment from working with my team, you know, on this landmark work that I do and I just had an experience of myself is like I said to my team, because I've had this trust with my team and some experiences. You know we go play all these games and projects and stuff, and it was like I feel like you could put me on a CEO level of a really big company.

Polly Mertens:

By the way, that would sounds horrible. But then I said right, and I would be like I wouldn't have to be down in the details. You know cause I'm such an operations person, I'm good at scaling businesses and stuff. But I was like no, it's about having account, people of accountability that know how to be responsible and putting great people. And I was like man, I could totally, and I was like I'm doing that in my company, right. And so these growth dimensions can be physical challenges, can be backpacking challenge, you know whatever they are, but it could be who you see yourself as as a businesswoman, right, or as a totally right, or as a community leader on any area of your life literally any area of your life that you are unfulfilled and looking for growth, or unfulfilled and looking to become something new, something different.

Samantha Pruitt:

You're really in this place of what we call it fired up or fed up, but you're in that bubble of fired up or fed up and you're like not anymore, I want something different. And you have to intentionally choose opportunities to put yourself in.

Polly Mertens:

That will require that growth and and find resources to support it, Of course, yeah, and I, as you were saying that, I'm like, don't let your potential be your potential, like realize that potential, like get after, like oh, I think I could do Catalina, but then I don't do anything about it. Right, it's like no, I you know, let me go see if I can. I can do that, I can scale that.

Samantha Pruitt:

So all right. So plan, plan and prepare, which to me was habits, okay. So yes, I did do some planning for the event and got permits and scheduled all these things that so I could be on the Island legally. I mean, it requires a certain process, that's the easy part and prepared myself physically primarily through CrossFit and a little bit of hiking, but I didn't do any prior backpacking or big heavy lifting of backpacks up and down mountains.

Samantha Pruitt:

And that might be recommended backpacks up and down mountains and that might be recommended for some people. Well, crossfit allowed me to lift that pack 50 miles, no doubt about it. There is no doubt. I had no ankle, knee, hip, back issues, no shoulder issues. Okay, I weigh 130 pounds, so I was lifting a pack that weighed 42 pounds. That's not the right math for this. Okay, my pack should have weighed between 30 and 35 in terms of what is suggested, but it is what it is and obviously I got it done. But so there was some physical training through the CrossFit that really allowed me to, and I'm hooked for life now for many reasons.

Samantha Pruitt:

But the other thing I want to talk about is in the preparation phase is habits. So what I it's one of the posts I did on my own social media about the experience how you do one thing is how you do everything, and what was allowing me to be successful, no doubt in my mind, was my well-established habits, my daily habits, these little micro habits, and then the macro habits around how I do the things in my life, so literally how I organize myself. Okay, cause you're operating out of a backpack, I mean, and I have to cross all these miles on a trail, so I have to take care of my nutrition and my hydration. I have to take care of my sleep. I have to operate a certain way psychologically, mentally and emotionally as I do a challenging thing. These are all habits that are ingrained in me and how I operate my daily life at home, when I'm not out in the wild, absolutely carried over and allowed me to be successful in the wild. It was, there's no doubt about it, it was miraculous actually.

Polly Mertens:

And I think it's. I want to break it down just a little bit, because I've had the comparison syndrome for myself. So if I looked at you know, if I was in a few years or decades behind you and I went, well, I could never do that Like she's just say whatever, but it's like you know, you didn't, you weren't always this well organized. No, so it's, it's starting somewhere, is what I want to say is like, yes, these habits.

Polly Mertens:

So maybe you don't take on a 50 mile backpacking trip like right out the gate, like you are right, because you've stacked your wins in a lot of areas of your life.

Polly Mertens:

That was like what felt like the next natural step for you. So, wherever you're starting, maybe it's a small win in a little area, right, you need to get some, develop some habits. Just in walking more or, you know, saying no to people, you know, like, whatever those habits are in your in the area of your life, that you're looking for that growth, just get up to them, get you know, get some reps on those right, and then you go to the next area and the next area and the next area and so something like this, which is solo, driven, solo, you know, you're all on your own prepping your meals, all this stuff, lots of things that you have to take into consideration, like you know about your nutrition gear, trail mapping, fitness levels throughout the day, navigating things like that. So take a small, small win from this playbook of Samantha's life. Is it wasn't like she went from zero to this?

Samantha Pruitt:

and develop some habits. If you're, this boils down to values. Okay, if you want to be a certain person in the world and I mean just for yourself, I'm not talking about external society I want to look a certain way to other people we don't give to. You know what's about that. If you want to be a certain human in the world for yourself and you want to operate from a value system that you are committed to, underneath that or actually above that, on top of that, if you will, are these habits that are built into your daily operating systems, operating plan.

Samantha Pruitt:

If I care about my health, I move my body every day, I eat quality nutrition and I sleep, okay, you're doing all these things anyway. Why not do them? Well, why not do them systematically to make you feel better, to operate at a higher level? You know same around financial responsibility or relationship responsibility or whatever. Fill in the blank of whatever area of your life that you feel needs to be looked at and start developing small stackable wins with habits around this kind of way of being in the world. And next thing, you know it's totally second nature, like all of this to me was completely second nature. It's automatically who I am in this space and just how I. But that's not at all how I was raised. It's not how I lived the first 30 years of my life and it's taken me a while to get to this place, but anybody can get there.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and I think you know, as I picture you with all of you know the packing and prepping well, you did that for years with all the races that you've done, you know. And the food and nutrition you've been tweaking that and fine tuning that in so many ways for your whole life right. And the exercise and fitness and or the navigate. You know like all these areas have been stacked wins from your history. So I love it. What else you got what?

Samantha Pruitt:

else Trust. So trust and travel onward. If you don't and we started the conversation with this if you don't trust yourself, you game over, game over. And you and I have talked a lot about trust with ourselves when we were younger, or lack of trust, you know, making commitments to take care of ourselves or get up to certain things or be a certain person in the world, and then not falling through on our own word to ourself. Again, we're not talking about trying to meet someone else's expectations. We're not talking about trying to meet someone else's expectations. We're talking about integrity of the self. And if you don't build integrity of the self and trust within the self, there's nothing there of strength, of fortitude, of resiliency to build on, because you've let yourself down repeatedly, over and over and over. And so to reestablish that trust is, I would say, the number one critical piece that any human needs to get up to immediately, immediately.

Polly Mertens:

It's yeah, and in language I hear it as um, you know, we, we, we believe what we say, right? So, like last night we had to be on this team call. And you know I have a committed colleague, right. So he's once a week we have a call together, whatever. And so he's like my buddy through this quarter, right, you know, to make sure everybody arrives on time. There's 30 of us getting on this call. It's like, okay, make sure your buddies gonna be there, right? And so I texted my buddy beforehand. I'm like, hey, can I count on you to be there? And he's like, yeah, I'm all you know, like I'm aligned and everything's going to be good. He goes and thank you for being someone I don't have to check on you know, like like I know you're going to be where you say you're going to be.

Polly Mertens:

He's like I can always trust that you're going to core strength of who you are in the world and you're reflecting that inner trust and integrity out into the world.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, and do you know how? The first time I saw where this and there's many places, but one of the key it was like a surprise to me when I discovered it was I was like, oh, that's like where it shows up too. So I'm doing like some sort of workout, like reps of something, bar curls, whatever. It was right. And let's say, the prescribed amount from the trainer was 10, right. And you know, sometimes I lose count or whatever. You know. You're just, you know whatever, right. And so like I did it and I wasn't quite sure if I did 10. And it's like one thing to just like put it back, it's good, now I'm going to make sure I do 10.

Polly Mertens:

And it was weird how that little moment was like nobody else is like counting my reps, right, everybody's like right. So I just see you slack off, right, but like my inner integrous, exactly, it's like I don't let, and it's not like slack off like um, there's a difference between like letting yourself off the hook, like slacking, and there's being kind to yourself and it's a line right, you know, when you're like dude, give yourself a break. Like you know, you don't need to work so hard or something like that, right? Or you didn't finish 10 and you said you were going to do 10. That's a different category, right? Oh, totally. So I was over here in this category and I was like I don't know if I did 10. I could have just. And I was like, no, I, I do what. I't send someone an email. You said you're going to send them whatever. You know like it's not a perfect just own it exactly it's integrity.

Polly Mertens:

Just own it. But you watching you or me watching me is where the game is won or lost exactly it's great if you know's great if my buddy thinks that of me, but it's more important, right? Like you said? Yeah what you think of you 1000%.

Samantha Pruitt:

And if you get away around people, by the way, who are always compromising a little bit of their integrity, it's very easy to start compromising your own because they have set the standards way down here and so you rise or fall to meet that. So, being in community where this is what is expected this is one of the reasons I love about CrossFit, too. This is how we do this here. Okay, there are some rules of play. If we say it's going to be a certain thing, it's a certain freaking thing, okay, and we're all holding space for each of us individually to rise to that. And it's incredibly powerful to do stuff like that. And in groups and circles that we have belonged to, that you are currently forming with the Alive Alliance, like those are those groups. You want to be in those circles, the vibration is freaking high and you absolutely will be pulled up into it and be held to that accountable space with love and kindness, with unconditional love, no judgment. But it's intense to be in there, like it feels so good.

Samantha Pruitt:

It's like plugging yourself into a battery, and if you don't have that self-trust, it's very difficult to make decisions, and so you become paralyzed. You procrastinate like hell. You become paralyzed, you go into this vortex of rumination around trying to figure out. I'm so confused, I don't understand, I'm doubting everything. It's because that trust has been eroded For whatever reason, for whatever reason, for whatever reason in this area of your life. You've got to get it back. Do not ignore it. Do not allow that pattern or that behavioral pattern to continue, because that's a big red flag and it will just trickle into other areas of your life. And what?

Polly Mertens:

I'm hearing when you say that is like potential, just sitting dormant, likeant, like potential just waiting to be fulfilled because you're not trusting yourself. To like oh, I can stretch and grow into that. Right, it's like it's potential, it can be nurtured. Trust yourself and you'll grow into it.

Samantha Pruitt:

People like coaches. We do this, you know. We reflect back to our clients, to each other, around what we see as what's true and possible for the person, Because sometimes theirs has just gotten dull, that, you know. Monitor, if you will that beacon or covered up, and so they can't see it for themselves. But we can go whoa, hey, I see something amazing over there, so try it. Yeah, Let me know how it works out for you.

Polly Mertens:

So good. I love the trust conversation. All right, Well, and would you say that it was because you were quiet? A lot Like is that where the trust came in was just hours.

Samantha Pruitt:

Oh dude, this was so crazy. I will write about this. There will definitely be a blog available about my whole trip, in addition to a couple more videos I haven't put out yet. It happened immediately. It literally I got on the ferry and even before I got on the ferry out of Long Beach, california, san Pedro Harbor, I felt this wave come over me and I was like Whoa dude.

Samantha Pruitt:

I'm with me get ready for something big Like it, was this really amazing opening, emotional opening and freedom and just this great feeling. And then I got on the boat and I was like, as I crossed the Pacific Ocean, literally, that's the first thing that came to mind was I have complete trust in myself in my capabilities, in my physical strength and endurance, in my wisdom, in my knowing, I have complete trust.

Samantha Pruitt:

I have absolutely literally zero doubt about what's going to happen next even though I had no idea what was going to happen next, and so that really deep internal trust was just like welled up in me. It was really powerful.

Polly Mertens:

Well, and I want to say I think there's a symbiotic relationship, I think, in the mind, in terms of the environment as well, or the universe, or what you think you know the outer world is like. So you know, I don't know if I'll quote the phrase, well, but Albert Einstein had a phrase, you know, do you believe that it's a scary universe or a benevolent universe that we live in? Right, and so the lens through which you see the universe, the outer world, the environment that you're going into, yourself included, right, like so do I think I've got what it takes and do I think this environment is suitable, safe, if you will? And so I think it's that symbiotic relationship between the two that allows you to move into things.

Polly Mertens:

Because if you're going into an environment that's like, okay, I could die here, I mean there are some very, you know, people put themselves in some not good situations, right, or they have the mindset that bad things are out there. They're going to get me there, you know, like you know, if we go through, you know, I would say that when I've traveled, I've developed this like belief in like good, good karma, like good travel karma. I'm like, everywhere I go, it's always amazing, right, like I have great experiences out in the world, you know, like I don't have a fear of going here, going there. What if, like you said, those people like going back, back and you're like my belief system is it's a good world, it's a good universe? Things will, naturally, you know. So I just wanted to put that there because it's the trust in the environment that you're putting yourself in, or the outer world as well.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, kind of to bring this full circle, how I think about it is that your truth is the compass for whatever you're about to get up to. Yeah, so your belief system, your truth, is literally going to be the compass to guide you South, north, east, west, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, going right, making a decision to go left, going backwards, going forward, like that compass of your own personal truth is everything. And so what you just described is your truth is, when I travel, no matter what country I'm in, no matter where and you do a lot of this by yourself also I am safe, the world is good and good things happen to me, and they do, and they do, and they do Exactly. And I say that when I go out in nature, when I go out in nature, I'm safe, I'm strong, I'm capable, I'm wise. Let's go.

Polly Mertens:

Right, I just have this little side Okay, sorry, I just did this in a meditation the other day where I was like moments of gratitude and I was like you know, I want to think about things that I don't normally place gratitude on right, like you know, my family or loved ones or something like that, and I just had this moment I was in the middle of, felt like nowhere in. I think I was in was in Arizona, I think, and desert all around. But I had found my way to this one little town and then I was like, oh, and I'm going to shoot off, you know, for a couple hundred miles to get to the next town or something like that. And I woke up and I think I parked in the Walmart parking lot or a parking lot somewhere or something like that, I forget, but I was kind of in town-ish and I had a flat tire, oh, and I was like this is a small town, you know, I was like do-do-do and you know, I think I called the tow truck company and they were like I think it was near Salt Lake, it was like three, they were hours away, like the nearest tow truck that they could order was like, and then then and then go back Like this is going to be a whole day thing or whatever.

Polly Mertens:

So I called the local tire store and I was like hey, you know, I know you probably don't have what it takes to tow my RV to your tire store right now, but I just had this idea. I was like, by any chance, could you come put a tire and then I could drive it over there. And and they did that, yeah, they sent a guy. I had this big old Jack, and they, like I'm in the middle of, you know, this parking lot and he, jackson, and I was just like angels, you know, and I didn't have to. Just this journey that it would have been. I'm waiting for this tow truck to tow the RV hundreds of miles somewhere. I was like that just sounds horrible.

Samantha Pruitt:

And then this what the moral of the story is. A, you thought outside the box because you're a wise, you know, inventive person, you're a creative person like, hey, let me explore all the possibilities here. And then you believed that good things would happen. And then they did, and then they did and it happens all the time all exactly so.

Polly Mertens:

Yeah, okay, trust this is so good. Yeah, let's wrap this party up. I don't want to wrap it up. You've had so many more like. I just want to keep talking about your trip. Like there, there's just so many nuggets to unpack.

Samantha Pruitt:

Well, I am writing about it, so I'll put that piece out and that'll be on our website sitting somewhere. And then also I've got a couple other videos. I'll post about it on my personal social and then we're going to post the series of that on Everyday. Awesome YouTube, yes, so we're just finally getting caught up on our YouTube and going to make that more of our conversation with the world.

Polly Mertens:

Check it out Check it out. So what's the one thing? You know this. You know we talked before you left and now we're talking after. Now we're flexing. What's the one thing that you would impart about someone who's made it this far and is listening?

Samantha Pruitt:

What do you want them to know or be up to? I really just can't stress enough about how this whole concept of a sabbatical whether it's a five day like I did or something longer is what I believe should be part of a regular society experience and in some areas it is professions it's normal. It used to be much more normal back in the day before we all worked at 24 seven society. In some cultures globally, it is more normal. Um, I happen to live in the U? S and I happen to live in California, right.

Samantha Pruitt:

So we have this idea that time off is for lazy people and blah, blah, blah. We have all this weird stuff around it. So when people get time off, they generally by then are so exhausted they can't really. It's just a time of recovery and rest, just trying to get their head back above water again. And that's BS. We shouldn't be living like that. You know, we're really just robbing ourselves of these opportunities that can be big or small depending on your availability, and they don't even have to cost money. I mean, my trip was actually quite inexpensive, right. I just ate out of my backpack for a week and I just got a ferry ticket over to the island and you know, camp is very inexpensive. So you can do this in a lot of different ways and shapes. But unplugging and giving yourself a sabbatical moment annually, if not quarterly, which is what I hope to get up to, um, it's just a gift that none of us can afford not to give ourselves and one thing you said was like you felt more energized, you felt fitter as you went right.

Polly Mertens:

So someone might look at like I'm so exhausted, I can't imagine doing a trip like this. But you're, you felt energized and lighter as you went right. So someone might look at like I'm so exhausted I can't imagine doing a trip like this. But you're, you felt energized and lighter as you got through it. So you might be surprised.

Samantha Pruitt:

Oh, totally, totally. And it is because you're on wrapping, on peeling, peeling back all of this emotional weight. Yeah, sure, you're physically moving your body through space. In the instance of what I did, and I literally did get more fit as every day progressed, at the end I literally wasn't even using my poles anymore and I was probably moving twice as fast. It was crazy in five days. So that does happen. The training effect is real, people. But then emotionally, psychologically, I got lighter and lighter and lighter. So don't feel like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, be exhausted and it's gonna. Now it's not, it's not, it's not.

Polly Mertens:

I love it. So good for sharing this with us. And thanks, lady. What do you want to remind our beautiful humans, as we say oh my goodness, come on now.

Samantha Pruitt:

How your life feels is so much more important than how it looks, and every day, is your opportunity to find your awesome.

Polly Mertens:

How your life feels is so much more important than how it looks, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.

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Polly Mertens

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Samantha Pruitt

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