Polly Mertens: 0:22

hey, superstars, welcome back Polly here and Sam, what’s up beautiful humans? Yo You guys we’ve got something epic for you today T hat’s what it is pretty much.

Samantha Pruitt: 0:33

It’s epic, pretty much, yeah. First of all, we are here, uh, together in the same room, which is always a really high vibe in san luis obispo, inside your beautiful tiny little house. Yeah, I love it here, yeah, yeah, so thanks for having me.

Polly Mertens: 0:47

Strap on your seatbelt. Yes, of course I’m happy to have you here. I’m so glad you’re here and we have found that. You know we do these wherever and whenever we can, but our goal is to always be creating them. So if we and feel that in person is better, so we hope you feel that difference as well?

Samantha Pruitt: 1:07

yeah, so so let’s get down to business, all right.

Polly Mertens: 1:10

So today, is about let’s call it loosely like choosing an epic lifestyle choosing an epic lifestyle.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:17

Yeah, just choosing epic choosing epic.

Polly Mertens: 1:21

You know, and part of it is, you know, we want to like disclaimer. You know some people as you look at you know. Should I listen to this? What are these?

Samantha Pruitt: 1:27

two talking about.

Polly Mertens: 1:28

You know like samantha ultra marathon you know all these like crazy things. Wherever you’re at, we want to meet you there yes, right because epic looks different for different people. Yeah, um, and we’ll go into a little bit about you know what that can look like, feel, sound like, but we’re not here to say oh, you’re on the couch, you should be doing 100 mile races this year.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:51

But you can if you want to. And we won’t tell you no, not to do it, but we’re saying that’s not what we mean.

Polly Mertens: 1:57

Yeah, yeah, it’s not what we mean.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:58

I think the bigger umbrella is curiosity, growth, possibility, possibility, something like that right personal growth, getting up to living a life that feels good to you, that brings you joy, that is like a way to fuel that life. A purpose-driven life, by the way, is from your own inner fire, so it’s however you really want to define that, but we’re here to stoke the fire that’s what we do here at everyday awesome stoke the fire.

Polly Mertens: 2:27

So let’s talk a little bit, let’s share with them. What are some categories of epicness? Yeah, why don’t you cover two of them, and maybe I’ll cover two, like you for sure sports and expeditions. I think like let’s define some of those or give some examples. I’ll maybe drop into travel and transformational experiences.

Samantha Pruitt: 2:45

Yeah, so some of the ways you could get up to an epic lifestyle are through adventure, or let’s start with endurance sports, actually, especially because you’re also doing endurance sports. So we’re both endurance sports athletes and we consciously choose that to be part of our lifestyle portfolio because of what that does bring to us. So, obviously, examples are you know, I’ve run a hundred milers and done stage races 150 miles, 200 miles, 250 miles. I’m currently training for an Ironman and I really love playing in the space of ultra endurance in particular. Um, and I used to be a sports producer of endurance races and I still work in that space. So, yeah, that is really a big part of the fabric of who I am today today.

Polly Mertens: 3:36

Yeah, and it that was not always the case, right? Right and so, like I said, meet you where you are. This isn isn’t oh, we’re here to say, oh, 100 milers, 250 milers, like tomorrow, or you need to be doing, or you even need to be doing any of that, like there’s other ways to have epic in your life, to have a life that feels epic to you, as you define it. So don’t think that it has to look like Samantha said her life.

Polly Mertens: 3:59

Right but and as you said that didn’t even look like your life 20 years ago.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:03

Not at all, far from it Not at all Right.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:05

Yeah, so I didn’t find endurance sports, specifically until I was almost 30. Brief story everybody may or may not have heard is I had a health crisis, so I had a mental and physical health breakdown and as part of that healing journey, I discovered moving my body was a thing to help me on my healing journey. And so I discovered endurance sports. But I was sharing a story with you earlier, specifically about ultra and expedition, and I was doing for a while, you know, running races, triathlons, et cetera. That was my entryway into endurance sports. You know, running my first 5k, which was hard as hell, by the way, and hurt so much I can’t even I mean I wasn sports. You know, running my first 5k, which was hard as hell, by the way, and hurt so much I can’t even I mean I wasn’t. You know I was figuring out.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:51

But when I transitioned from triathlon at a certain junction into ultra endurance and into expedition, I didn’t know these things existed but happenstance meeting while I was actually at a race a triathlon race, specific staying at an Airbnb, was the person checking me into the Airbnb, which was this beautiful, fit, older female. You know character. We started a conversation. She saw I was actually there to do the race. So you know we’re making convo. And she says oh, I have been part of an organization where we help put on these races around the globe. It’s called racing the planet.

Samantha Pruitt: 5:36

So many of you may have heard of racing the planet I maybe not had not at the time and again now, whatever 15, 18 years ago or however long ago, it was Long time ago. My head exploded in that moment, and also my heart and, I’m sure, my spirit, as to what was she talking about. I was so incredibly curious about what she was sharing with me, what she was sharing with me, and she explained. It’s basically these seven day adventure races on foot through the four deserts of the world. They go to the harshest deserts around the globe and these humans from all over the globe come together and they race for that period of time, and it’s predominantly self-supported, you know, we put up tents, we provide water, but they get themselves there across these great distances, in these extreme places.

Samantha Pruitt: 6:29

I was immediately sold because I am a hungry for growth and experience person, but my curiosity is really what sparked, and so I immediately went home, went online what the hell is this thing? Applied oh shit, to volunteer at one of these races. Now, I had no experience, I didn’t even really know what I was getting myself into, but I decided that this was something I wanted to get further investigation and take see if there was an opportunity, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 7:07

Do it. So I put her down this stranger, by the way, as my reference. I just met this woman 15 minutes ago. Well, she’s obviously a personal reference for me Long time friends, yep.

Samantha Pruitt: 7:19

Long story short, I was chosen to be a volunteer to help produce a race in the Sahara Desert of Egypt that year. Wow. So I took this tremendous leap of faith and courage and curiosity and all of the things, and I went and literally had the experience of my life in the middle of the Sahara Desert and I didn’t know anyone. I showed up to this event. I knew no one Right. So there were so many things that I had to work through emotionally, you know, doubt.

Polly Mertens: 7:55

Logistically. Yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 7:57

Logistically, but also like fear and doubt and I don’t have control and I don’t know what’s going to happen, and all of those kind of barriers.

Samantha Pruitt: 8:11

Unc, fear and doubt, and I don’t have control and I don’t know what’s going to happen and all of those kind of barriers, uncertainty. But I did it and in that moment of meeting that person, that happenstance moment of our lives intertwining for a brief second, it changed the entire trajectory of my athletic career, as a human being and my professional career as a human being. A five minute conversation To me, that’s what this is about is do you have the curiosity to be open, the willingness to be open, the courage to be open and see what is possible? And that’s when epic things happen.

Polly Mertens: 8:47

And I’m going to just, you know, chop up a little bit of your story to hone in on a couple of things, because a couple of things that would translate and I’ll maybe share mine after is you were lit up in that moment by this interaction, right, and I think, from a woo-woo side of things, that is a signal from your soul, because your soul is sending you signals. If you’re paying attention, act, do. This is a yes, I’m a hell yes for this. I want to lean into this.

Polly Mertens: 9:19

It maybe scares the crap out of my ego self. Hell, yeah, yeah. The little me is like you’ve never done. You know the litany of. You know internal who do you think you are? Conversations that continue, but I think that signal from your soul in that moment, and if you don’t get in the way of that, if you just keep leaning into that which you did, it’s like I’m just going to go online in the next 15 minutes and I’m going to act, I’m going to sign up, I’m not going to let doubt come. You know other people. Like don’t call your family or friends and ask their permission, for God’s sake, right, like yeah, this is your soul calling you.

Samantha Pruitt: 9:53

Oh, you should have heard those convos, by the way, when I had to go back and tell all these people, um, I’m going to the Sahara desert in the middle of summer and, um, you know, people could die and this is they’re like.

Samantha Pruitt: 10:07

Excuse me, but it literally changed so much of the trajectory of my life. And, of course, now you know, 18 years or whatever, it’s going on, 20 years later, like I’ve done so many ultras, so many adventure races, I mean I forged a whole career path in the industry, built a successful company, had massive social and economic impact in those ways, what on earth? Yeah, right, a moment, one moment, what?

Polly Mertens: 10:40

if you hadn’t listened to that soul’s call, exactly like if you said oh, maybe I should call my husband first instead of whatever you know.

Samantha Pruitt: 10:48

So that’s why I just want to always inform the husbands later. Yeah, partners to be notified at a later date.

Polly Mertens: 10:55

I’m just letting you, I’m putting you on alert that I’m doing this. This isn’t I. Can I have your permission? I’ve already got permission, clearly, from me which is well, that’s the biggest thing.

Samantha Pruitt: 11:06

Do you give yourself permission, right? And so you do under in sports also. Just using that as a category, I mean your entree way was well, wait, I just want to say so.

Polly Mertens: 11:17

The second thing I wanted to highlight there so you heard the call from the soul. You know your soul’s calling is like yes, lean into this. And then I love the next thing that I think is like a part, like at some point we’ll do like a how to, if you will. But your next step was take an action. I went online, I looked at the same and I just plunked my application. Or I said yes, or you didn’t wait six weeks, or let me wait until I get back home on Monday, like you had a race that you were there for this other thing, and then all of a sudden, you’re just like, oh, let me go over and apply for this thing.

Samantha Pruitt: 11:47

Yeah, and you know, I have become that person in the world as you’re well aware because we’re very closely connected. Like I put us down for all kinds of things and I am routinely putting myself like I’m in the middle of training for an Ironman right now and I’m already thinking about the next adventures after and beyond that, like I’m always moving into again, embracing the epic life. What other epic things can I get up to? That is who I’ve become in the world. It wasn’t who I was, it wasn’t how I was raised at all completely counter. It was not how I operated and how I was trained and programmed, et cetera, et cetera. But I became that person. There was some gentle shifts inside of my soul and spirit and then eventually I just became I don’t know how to do it Anything different now. Yeah, it’s who I am in the world. Yeah, how did you find endurance sports?

Polly Mertens: 12:39

Well, I just want to keep going back to wherever you are. If you’re listening to this and you notice those calls from your soul, maybe and it might sound different, you know like getting, if you had been, you might have been the person. I don’t know if I would have said yes to that in that moment. You know, even though I love a lot of epic stuff, you know, I’m not sure you know, going to the Sahara for seven days and racing the planet sounds fun, you know.

Samantha Pruitt: 13:10

But so just know that can look different, right, so what? We’re just trying to point out is, whatever you’re leaning as, whatever your soul is calling it maybe it’s an art show, maybe it’s. I mean, there’s so many places to find that curiosity so the so, what.

Polly Mertens: 13:20

We want to talk about little things. And so stories of epic lifestyle could look like sports like you just talked about, or expeditions actually. So you started in. You know that led to kind of the blending for you of endurance sports or sports in general. And I would just say, in the world of epic is whatever that is for you Like that could be, you know, a 5K. If you’ve never done that Right, you know that could be your epic. First it was yeah. If you’ve never done that right, you know that could be your epic. First it was yeah. That’s how it starts. So expeditions, and then for me a lot has been around travel, so getting urges and hints like, oh, I’m just supposed to, okay.

Polly Mertens: 13:53

Like when I was in college, um, I was at the last quarter of my senior year and I didn’t have a job after school. You know I didn’t have a job that I was going to go into and I didn’t have a job after school. You know I didn’t have a job that I was going to go into and I don’t even to this day I’m not sure where this came from. I was like I need to go to Santa Fe. I was like, oh, I don’t even know where I can go. You know this was pre-internet. It wasn’t like I was online looking at pictures of Santa Fe all the time or whatever. You know, like last week of school, packed up my bike, put it in the back seat and I had to go to AAA. This is before GPS. I had to go to AAA to get all the maps.

Samantha Pruitt: 14:33

To get to how would you know how to get there, polly, exactly.

Polly Mertens: 14:38

Because I didn’t have maps to get to you. I know this is really dating, but that’s where we were and that’s totally create technology, pre-GPS and all that stuff.

Samantha Pruitt: 14:45

Anyway.

Polly Mertens: 14:46

So, and then off I go to Santa Fe. And it was just, you know, by yourself, by myself, yeah, and then come back all that stuff Anyway. So, and then I do that regularly, it’s like, oh, I need to go, like. I remember, um, this is probably 10 years ago I just got like, oh, I need to go to Columbia. Okay, and it’s not really a highly, I mean, it’s not like Hawaii, Right.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:09

A lot of people are like oh, everybody’s going to Hawaii, your average tourist destination.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:12

No, but I was something caught my attention about Columbia and I was like that sounds amazing, I’m going to Columbia you know we did things down there, so I go where that soul inkling you know what you just reminded me of where a lot of people get lost, so we should point out the potholes along the way in google hell.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:37

Okay, so now that we are a digital world and everything can be looked up to the nth degree on the internet or on your little pocket phone, people swirl into the abyss. Looking at this and what about that, and maybe this other thing, and 50,000 read of blogs about it and look on it, and so they’ve kind of scared themselves to death, either and away from the concept of actually listening to themselves and following their own intuition towards epic right, or they’ve just gotten distracted by but there’s a hundred other things. So that isn’t listening to yourself anymore. You’re now listening to the input of the world and the online world of that which isn’t even reality most of the time and I think I had enough of a sense when I said, columbia, that you know, I have this, I have this thing.

Polly Mertens: 16:27

I call it travel karma that if I’m called to someplace and it feels like a yes to me, I trust that I will be cared for as I go on this trip. Right, and let me tell you, after I booked that trip, telling people yeah we’re going to go to Columbia. It wasn’t always like well, that’s a great idea, tell me how it goes. I mean you could die, yeah, yeah, I mean you’ll get kidnapped. And I didn’t go down those rabbit holes like you just talked about.

Polly Mertens: 16:52

I mean, if I had spent too much time reading up into the dark depths of Google, I’m sure I could have stirred up all kinds of stuff.

Samantha Pruitt: 16:59

I mean I’m not if we do that, we’ll go nowhere.

Polly Mertens: 17:01

We won’t even leave our house, but I also think that my, my travel commerce slash soul calling doesn’t send me down directions like oh yeah, go to a war zone. Like in in Columbia. Definitely, when I went, it wasn’t a war zone. Yeah, there was a lot of high security and things like that it’s. It’s a country that’s got some unrest and whatever. But yeah, you know my yeah. So I trust those inclinations, I feel them out, like yours was felt like a hell. Yes, I’m like get after it. I would say what.

Samantha Pruitt: 17:27

I got possessed pretty fast, but you know what I want to talk about in just circling back to like endurance sports and expedition and adventures. Sure, I do all that stuff now as a 55 year old woman this year. This is a normal part of who I am. But there was a progression also, yes, yes, so I made some choices early on to get healthy and get fit, in that there was a progression towards fitness and that part of that, part of that was endurance sports. And then it became right the 5k to the oh, there’s 10k, oh hey, what’s this thing called triathlon? Like?

Samantha Pruitt: 18:07

I didn’t have any of these skills. I knew nothing about this. This is not how I was raised. I wasn’t an athlete, right. So I slowly worked my way down the menu, if you will, down the epic menu of tasting, experiencing, showing up, trying new things, learning, meeting people, going to places. All of those things were doors that continued to open that I could have slammed shut at any time. Sure, there were horrible experiences, by the way, because I wasn’t good at any of this. I wasn’t, and so it wasn’t easy, but I continue to say, well, what if I try that? How about this? Maybe this right? My first triathlon. I was on a relay team dude. I could barely run the 5k portion of the sprint distance triathlon the shortest thing yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 19:00

And I am now an iron woman, like what? The trajectory from them to them? Or now, like choosing to be. Hey, you’ve done adventure races too. We got bored in the regular endurance scene, so we’re like what’s this thing wait?

Polly Mertens: 19:14

there, you don’t know where you’re going.

Samantha Pruitt: 19:15

You have to read a map you have to maybe jump off of ledges and swim across canals and whatever. I was single female, showed up to a race by myself to do this. I’d never done it before. Your story is probably similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we figured it out, didn’t we? Yeah, we figured it out, and some of that was insane. It’s like.

Polly Mertens: 19:35

There’s a quote and I wish it would all come back to me. It’s not, but it’s like the joy of your life is like your level of discomfort with uncertainty. Yes, your level of discomfort with uncertainty. Yes, it’s something about that quote. You know what I mean, like the level of uncertainty you can tolerate will give you, I think, greater joy.

Polly Mertens: 19:52

You know, you’re just like, oh well, that’s what’s happening now, right, instead of everything has to fit into a box. I know every minute, I know all the things, you know, everything’s planned out, you know. And there’s times, definitely, where I’m the planner of the trip and it’s like, oh, I want to know. And then sometimes I’m like I’m booking my first hotel and I’m not booking the next three weeks, like we’ll just figure it out, right. But that does, like you said, come from trying smaller bites of this, right. So we’re not necessarily saying throw yourself into the deep end, good luck, you know, swim if you can.

Samantha Pruitt: 20:22

It’s like no, I’m really into the planning part. Actually, I’m really into the training part. I’m really into the skill building piece, the learning piece, and all of that is makes me feel comfortable, makes me feel secure, makes me feel like I know what I’m getting myself into which is complete BS, by the way, because you don’t really know until you show up and do the thing. But I do the best of my ability to be prepared for the best possible experience, but then detach to the outcome and be open to what’s about to happen, right, like that’s a whole other thing. And you know that’s a whole other topic for another show, because now I’m studying Buddhism. So you know we’re going to talk about detachment. Tell me about some piece of your life which I consider to be radically epic. I’ve done a little bit of this, but nothing like you. The transformational work that you have done in your lifetime is next freaking level, lady, so good.

Polly Mertens: 21:20

Well, I think what I want to share just in the interest of kind of tagging on onto what you shared earlier, which is how that started for me- you know, like how you tip, dipped your toe into or had the experience of realizing that whole other world was there.

Polly Mertens: 21:35

So, uh, as you shared your backstory, so you know, 20 year addiction up to this point, 34 years old, um, and had a new friend in my life and we go out to lunch and you know, I’m sure you’ve experienced this where, like you, you, as you get to know somebody over a lunch or a dinner, you know kind of getting to know them, you just start to understand them or like have a philosophy or you know, like who they are, shows up and the way that this woman just was in the world was just different than people I’d experienced before and it was just like you know, how do you know those things or why, why do you look at it, the world, that way? You know, and I can’t even tell you in this what in that conversation that sounded like, but I just remember going, like literally what I remember was like I don’t know what she’s got, but I want what she’s got like that’s how it felt, wow right.

Polly Mertens: 22:28

It was like you’re playing in a world or you’ve had, you’ve had some exposure to something that I’ve never had exposure to and it’s made you different, like we’re. You know, you and I are different other people. It’s like, wow, I want to know some of what you know. And I said you know, you know how did you come about this? She’s like oh, I did this thing called the landmark form. I was like like, you. It was just like, I’m doing that, I’m doing that.

Samantha Pruitt: 22:53

I don’t even know what it was.

Polly Mertens: 22:55

But I saw the outcome.

Samantha Pruitt: 22:56

Exactly.

Polly Mertens: 22:57

I was like, oh, this is how you are having done the landmark form. I need to go try that. You know what.

Samantha Pruitt: 23:01

And you felt the outcome. Yeah. So, even if her words were not succinct or didn’t deliver some sage wisdom or empowering, she wasn’t selling me on it, right, she was being it. She was being it. Yeah, it wasn’t like this conversation In your presence, yeah, she didn’t, she didn’t.

Polly Mertens: 23:18

I was sold on it before she told me what it was. Because she told me what it was, because she was living it, and she just had to tell me what it was so that I could go do it Right. And within three months I did the landmark four and changed my total trip. You know, my addiction recovery came out of that. My work as a coach came out of that and then continued on in this world of personal growth. So I got a taste of, I would say, like what being conscious was. Was what? That, what I would say, the start of that. And then my whole spiritual journey unfolded from that and you know lots of things.

Samantha Pruitt: 23:48

So in that lunch, your life’s trajectory changed forever, in each possible quadrant, if you will, of who you are as a human being. Like I was saying about the Airbnb.

Polly Mertens: 24:02

Lady Ding dong, here’s your new future for the next 15 years. You didn’t even know you wanted it. Hey, you want a new future. You want to go to life? Okay, great. Oh boy, the way you’re about to blow up your life, it’s gonna look way different and like oh my gosh, that’s what’s possible? Yeah, and I think even I wanted to give name to these people. I don’t know what we call but like we’re just like talking about this. I was like messengers of yeah, possibility look for the messengers.

Samantha Pruitt: 24:31

Yeah, you know, and they can be subtle or they can be simple. They can be, you know everything you can possibly imagine, but if your eyes are open and, most importantly, your heart and your spirit is open, right, yeah, yeah, okay, so you have this lunch and it could look like having a conversation with somebody.

Polly Mertens: 24:51

I think it could look like just seeing a sign, like maybe there’s a oh you see a sign at the coffee shop yoga retreat, or you, you know, you get some something in the mail or something on Facebook, even you know. Like, come to like. I’ve been going to lightning in a bottle now for nearly 10 years and it’s amazing part of my life, Absolutely love it Like. You know. Where did that come from? Right?

Polly Mertens: 25:10

I was just looking for whatever, so like being, like you said, like once you start to have. So there’s this part of your brain called the reticular activating system, ras. If you know about it, it is a. It’s sort of what people would describe as you buy a red car and then all of a sudden you see red cars. That’s that phenomenon, right. So, messengers of possibility, or this growth or change. That’s like once you turn on and you activate, I’m open to growth in my life.

Polly Mertens: 25:38

I’m open to new things. You didn’t say I want to have a life of traveling the Sahara. You were just like, oh, like, what else is possible for me? Or I have more potential, or I’m open to new experiences. And wherever you are in your life, what would Epic look like for you and how could you start to activate the doorway, the opening, the invitation for those messengers, signs, you know the phone, call the coffee, coffee, date the airbnb person and then recognize?

Samantha Pruitt: 26:07

it.

Polly Mertens: 26:08

To me it’s a internal hunger for living well, but as we I didn’t have, I wouldn’t say that I went to that lunch hungry yeah, like I wouldn’t have. You know, I’ve lingered with this addiction for a long time, very actually resigned.

Samantha Pruitt: 26:28

So kind of the opposite.

Polly Mertens: 26:30

So what we are trying to do in this conversation why we’re even talking about this is we want to help people to crack open, unlock, you know like.

Samantha Pruitt: 26:40

So that speaks to the phases that you enter into. Epic right. You can come as a uncracked seed into the space and just the right temperature or pressure was produced in that luncheon to crack your seed. Or it can come later and you’re further along in the journey. Maybe you’ve done some things right, but you continue, like I’m saying using the word hunger, to be looking for that nourishment. So the seed is sprouted, right, the plant’s growing, we’re going, but like I want to keep growing, yeah, I’m not going to produce one or two flowers and then call it turn back into mulch.

Samantha Pruitt: 27:19

Yeah, I continue because I want to be the old Oak tree with all the branches and all the leaves and season after season after season of continued growth and, hopefully, production of well oats don’t produce fruit, but you know what I’m saying. Like being a producer in this space. It’s part of my personal evolution and so I love that we’re kind of picking this apart now so people can see they can come in at any junction and start this process. They can even take sabbaticals from it if you get a little tired or life gets complex. I’ve taken those moments You’ve taken those moments.

Polly Mertens: 27:54

This isn’t like every day for the last 15 years. Oh my God.

Polly Mertens: 27:57

We’d be exhausted, which we are sometimes, but it’s not saying it always and every day has to be Right, right Totally, but getting about it and getting up to it and not letting it die and not letting you know. And I think what you and I would say is some of the one of the things we looked at from, let’s say, a metaphor standpoint was you know, you and I had these circles. Like you know, you are the average of the people you hang around with Right. So let’s say, your circle was a 10-foot diameter circle and it had XYZ in it and then, all of a sudden, your 10-foot circle interacted with somebody who had a 30-foot circle.

Polly Mertens: 28:32

And you’re like oh my God, 30-foot is possible. Like oh my God, you can expand to the planet, you can whatever. Seven days, not one day, whatever. And for me what that looked like, you know transformation of understanding myself and all these things. It’s like oh, I’m not supposed to be a three-foot pot, I’m supposed to be an oak tree, you know a 30-foot wide, branch, expansion kind of oak tree.

Polly Mertens: 28:56

Like you start to see something new for yourself, right, and so getting yourself open to those interactions with other circles, other things that want to insert themselves for your soul’s calling, and you’ll know it because it will feel that good or it will feel like a yes.

Samantha Pruitt: 29:11

Yeah.

Polly Mertens: 29:11

You know it might scare the shit out of you.

Samantha Pruitt: 29:13

You know it might be like, oh my.

Polly Mertens: 29:14

God, I have to. What you know, like after you, you know, we’ll talk maybe some about things that we want to get up to and we’re going to get up to.

Samantha Pruitt: 29:21

It’s like that sounds like a crazy idea, but you know what’s cool analogy that you gave is like being in a six inch pot. So like you went to landmark forum being your first initiation into that kind of work, and so you were in the six inch pot that was called the landmark forum, well, or I would say my life to that point was like been in the six inch, yeah, and then the forum, like cracked that pot, put me in to the ground, you know, like new soil, like hey, there’s growth here okay maybe.

Polly Mertens: 29:49

What did you see though?

Samantha Pruitt: 29:50

yeah, well, I’m like expanding on that idea of maybe we start in a pot that feels relatively small to us or safe.

Samantha Pruitt: 30:00

It could be our family unit it could be our community, whatever that looks like, right, and that’s beautiful and wonderful, and the soil is rich and we’re growing there. But our roots grow beyond that and we desire for more, and the natural growth process would be more sunlight, more water, more nurtures, bigger, more growth, right. So then we break out of that and maybe into a bigger pot or into a garden at some point. When I was using my analogy of the wanting to be the tree, yeah, and be in the forest, right. So now I’m actually part of the earth as a whole, the entire planet, the global system, and I’m a tree in this forest immediately. Yes, exactly like.

Samantha Pruitt: 30:46

How cool to think of your life as that being a natural evolutionary cycle for a human being and that that, ultimately, is our greater calling. Eventually, I’ll go back to the earth, right, that’s a full circle life experience for me. That’s really good. So what stage is the listener at? Where are they at? And we’re not making wrong that any of it is right or wrong. We’re saying that you’re on this journey and path and we want you to really fully embrace that.

Polly Mertens: 31:13

Yeah, examine it. Just an examined. Just examine that and and it’s up to you to evaluate if you feel like you’re in a pot or if you feel like you’re in the ground, or you feel like you’re being watered regularly or you’re not. Who’s going to provide that water and nourishment If you have enough sun sight?

Samantha Pruitt: 31:27

yeah, who’s providing the sun? The fertilizer, if you will, Because there’s plenty of shit, so fertilize fertilize okay. And who’s providing the air and the water? Yeah, you need to take an active role in this. This is your life, so waiting for the gardener to show up and take care of you is probably not the right idea.

Polly Mertens: 31:49

you might not eventually make it to the forest right you’ll stay in the pot and I think some of what you were doing is you know, especially like you were getting up to little steps of growth in your life already it felt like a gradual yeah, and then it was like boom, you know next, next level.

Samantha Pruitt: 32:06

So well, I had no growth up until that breakdown. So to be clear, the beginning, 28, 29 years was not good, I mean I would. I would confess that I was in the business of dying at that point and up until that point, I had already had a near-death experience at age 16. So now I was having another near-death experience at age 28. So those things to me, as I was on the path of dying, and this was what it was going to look like for me, and I simply stood up and said no.

Polly Mertens: 32:43

Yeah, no, yeah, no. I’m gonna stop feeding myself bad fertilizer, you know so many things oxygen, get myself some sunlight.

Samantha Pruitt: 32:51

So lost so many things right. It was very self-destructive and very, you know, negative but, something occurred, the seed was cracked, and then the journey started, and then we continue, and that looks like different for every single person. Yeah, yeah the opportunities are there. So, all right, let’s talk about. We did touch on being aware of messengers in this space, and you called them. Something much more beautiful than that messengers of possibility.

Polly Mertens: 33:21

Messengers of possibility. Yeah, and noticing that and I would, really I think your story was beautiful, how it was just like, oh, this little interaction with someone at airbnb and you’re like stranger you know, you’re you feel that soul’s calling in that moment, like, yeah, like I said, just talking with this gal, I was like, whatever she says, I’m doing it, you know, and don’t think, yes, you’re gonna.

Samantha Pruitt: 33:44

Your brain definitely do not consult with the evil twin because she’s not invited to the party. No, and she will tell you this is a no yeah.

Polly Mertens: 33:54

So I think yeah, and we’ll talk about, like, how to get up to this a little bit but where I want to spend a little time right now is in like what are the gifts you get back from? Why choose this? I choose this. What gifts?

Samantha Pruitt: 34:05

do you get back what are?

Polly Mertens: 34:05

some of the gifts that you get back from. Why choose this? Why choose this? What gifts do you get back? What are some of the gifts that you’ve received from listening to that soul’s calling and doing these things that you’ve been?

Samantha Pruitt: 34:12

doing. Oh well, it’s endless. I could fill a room, I should fill this whole house with those gifts and those gifts being physical for my body and the health of my body and brain. You’re alive, yeah, I’m alive and I’m kicking ass and I’m now 55 and I feel like I have so much left. It’s ridiculous. It needs to be contained for a hot minute, right, also for my mind. So my mindset, my emotions, my thoughts, things that happen in my brain, if you will, and in the connectivity between the communication of my brain and body, and then, of course, in my spirit and in my heart, all of those things have been given life and new, endless life. So that’s a lot to contain into a list of things, but really so it’s added tremendous value to my life. So just to kind of say, in a broad sense, tremendous value to the meaning of my life, the functionality and purpose of my life, the drive and the passion behind my life.

Polly Mertens: 35:27

I mean it feels like to me. One of my favorite words, you know, is thriving.

Samantha Pruitt: 35:33

Thriving feels understated Okay.

Polly Mertens: 35:36

I don’t know what’s beyond that. I know, but like I think about this seedling, that you were at 16 or 28 when it could have gone downhill and you maybe wouldn’t be here, right? Yeah, that trajectory changed, the shifts that were made and how you feel now the threat. You know this little plant, you know kind of underwater, undernourished, not given enough sun, whatever you can picture that plant, it’s just like, oh, is it going to make it? And then now you’re the kind of plant that someone would walk by and go like oh my gosh, look at how vibrant, how alive, how flourishing. Obviously, life force is flowing through you, so good what about you.

Polly Mertens: 36:15

So mine would look like the gifts I’ve gotten back. You know, one of the things I think I’m here for is to be on a journey of self-discovery, right and so, and I think, if we all kind of wake up, that’s part of what we’re all here for, because you know our programming as, as children, whether recognized or not, uh, subconscious or not, isn’t necessarily our self. And so I say that self with a capital l’s s, you know, the capital s discovery of myself, the soul self, and and the potential for that soul self, right, not just what I prescribed to or what was modeled for me, and, like you said, like my upbringing, modeling was not anything to be excited about, inspired about at all, if you will.

Samantha Pruitt: 36:59

Not supportive.

Polly Mertens: 37:00

Yeah, yeah, and negative and like retroactive, you know, diseases and addictions and failures and hospitalizations and stuff like that. So that wasn’t what I saw for myself. So I would say that the gifts of continuing to unpack who I am and who I want to be in the world and the impact I want to make in the world, it’s been beautiful, a gift back to myself and I think, as humans, in the moments of gratitude, when I have the opportunities to reflect on my life, it’s those memories, you know, those special moments, the epic things that I did, the scary things that I overcame, the courageous moments, the touching moments.

Polly Mertens: 37:37

So just this life, that’s rich with experience instead of you know people. One of the things I was going to say is also fulfillment and meaning. Not that life needs to have meaning, you know, it’s up to us to choose that but a life of fulfillment, not success, a little different. You can have success, but without fulfillment is there meaning? There’s a little distinction. So fulfillment, ie at the end of this life or if I were to die tomorrow, regret like no regret oh wow, yeah, right and continue.

Polly Mertens: 38:14

We have to continue to be up to that, so that we don’t slide into home base having, let’s say, massive success according to some other you know, financial career, whatever, yeah, but the lack of fulfillment would be, I think, an empty life or life not fully utilized for all of its potential.

Samantha Pruitt: 38:33

Oh honey, a lot of people are walking around like that right now, and that’s why we’re talking right now.

Polly Mertens: 38:40

Hello, we’re calling you, and the other thing we talked about a little is I love that word opportunities, right.

Polly Mertens: 38:46

So you do one thing you go on this epic adventure called go to the Sahara and the people’s lives, that you interact with the things, that you touch the experiences and then what that leads to, right exactly, and the next turn in your road and the next branch to growth on your tree and the next root system that you expand into right like, how do you deepen and enrich and expand all the things so the opportunities for new friends, other places to see, all all that huge benefits?

Samantha Pruitt: 39:15

Places, people, opportunities. No regret, living like you just touched upon Fulfillment, right, feeling fulfilled, not having regrets. And then I would say and this is in the same circle of all that is like exploring your full potential, which is something we’re really big on here at Everyday. Awesome is each person we believe has so much more potential than they even are aware. Including us. Including us, oh hell yeah. And so one of the reasons we’re getting up to this podcast, this movement and, soon to be, these programs coming towards the end of the year, are, for this reason, start to express, explore, be on an expedition into their own selves, if they will, to understand and start playing in their own potential. It’s so huge. So if you decide to take on Epic as a way of being in the world, as a fuel source for your life, if you will, then that greater and greater exploration into your full potential will naturally come as part of the process.

Polly Mertens: 40:38

And I think you know some of what you know. I think who you and I are in the world, because we’ve grown from the six inch pot to the. You know 60 foot wide tree or you know wherever we are in our trajectory. You know we step into people’s lives or we people listen to this and we become that messenger of what’s possible for other people and you listening to this. You’re probably a messenger for some people.

Polly Mertens: 41:01

You know, like there’s people that are behind us on our you know the one, reach back and help the next one kind of a thing. So you know our programs designed around this pivoting that we want to help people do. Sometimes I find that I’m just waiting, like you and I. One of the things we talked about before we hit record is like we’re so in light, like once you get a taste for it, once you get a taste for transformation, once you begin to see the growth in yourself, once you begin to see like okay, I didn’t die, you know. Like oh.

Samantha Pruitt: 41:34

I got up to some fun stuff and yeah maybe it was messy, but it was fun.

Polly Mertens: 41:36

Yeah, oh look, I learned these things. Oh, I met these new people oh, I should try something else. Right, you start to get in a momentum you start to get into a new movement with yourself that you seek more and more of this. You know. For me, the transformation workshops, that was a 10, probably a 15 year journey wow and sometimes multiple times a year, like sometimes I was going to 4 and 5 a year. All kinds of different things all sorts of crazy places.

Samantha Pruitt: 41:59

Warrior this and wizard that.

Polly Mertens: 42:01

Tony Robbins this that sounds fun, you know, like that could scare the crap out of me, right? Yeah? And you know, as you said, you start with the 5k, you graduate to the 10k. You do you know. And so you said you start with the 5K, you graduate to the 10K. You do you know. And so you know I wouldn’t necessarily throw myself into the deep end of some of the things that I will now raise my hand for in this message and I hope you’re listening to this is we’re an invitation and a reminder to you to get up to stuff.

Samantha Pruitt: 42:40

Yeah.

Polly Mertens: 42:42

And whether you come to a program that we hold that. What I found with these transformation workshops they’d be three days or a week or something like that is it was a beautiful opportunity to have a confined space and a powerful transformation quickly, because you could go through, you know like you’re.

Polly Mertens: 42:59

You know, I would say, the 15 years of adventure, racing and things that you’ve done, like sometimes it’s a little more transformative than others, you know, and it takes a long time to do. You know, train for Ironman, like it’s like nine months. This is like you can go into a workshop for three days and like boom, you get some deep questions, you get some time by yourself, you really get confronted with things that you know that you want to be up to Right, so it can look like that, and so that’s why that trajectory, for me, was powerful and one of the things I want to say about your I’m just going to laugh out loud real quick at a funny story.

Samantha Pruitt: 43:31

I’m going to interact. The first spiritual or personal growth workshop I went to because I’ve been to some also, but not anything like what you’ve done A friend of mine who was so woo-woo, oh my gosh, and she was an older female, like sage wisdom, you know, mentor kind of a mind and she had this great lifestyle and I had no idea what the hell was going on, she’s reading all you know, Debbie Ford and, like all these people, Miriam Williamson, et cetera, et cetera.

Samantha Pruitt: 44:00

Um, and I was like I don’t know what any of that is, but I’m suffering. I know that there’s some emotional suffering going on. And so she invited me to this weekend long retreat up in the mountains of San Diego. I was like, what is this freaking hippie fest? What is this thing I’m going to? But I trusted her, so, in the comfort of her care, if you will, and mentorship, I bravely put my stuff in the vehicle and got in the car and I’m sure I was terrified about what was about to happen next.

Polly Mertens: 44:30

What were they going to do?

Samantha Pruitt: 44:31

Well, it wasn’t gonna have to walk over fire coals. Were they going to? I don’t know. You know it was drum circles, it was all these things. It was so freaking awesome, but that human in my life had gifted me tremendously this opportunity and those exist all around us too in more of a comfort zone, right, because I’ll take you to your first 5k. You’re doing your first Iron Woman. We’re doing that on a journey together, right? So there’s so many things that you don’t have to just be jumping off the cliff, hold a friend’s hand and then jump out of the airplane.

Polly Mertens: 45:07

And as that friend extends the invitation, say yes, say yes, say yes, say freaking, yes. Yes, and now the soul will tell you if it’s a yes for you.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:16

Yeah.

Polly Mertens: 45:17

Don’t say it. I mean it sounds like in that. That’s the first story with the woman at the Airbnb. You were a hell yeah, like get out of my way, I can’t wait the other one, probably because you hadn’t had a taste for a lot of transformation or whatever. You were more trepidation or wasn’t like a throw my hand in the ring.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:34

you know, I had the curiosity and I had the comfort of her. Yeah, and that was enough.

Polly Mertens: 45:39

I was like okay, I mean yeah. So yeah, do it with a friend, you know, whatever that looks like.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:43

So yeah, and she sent me down a path. You know I went under deepak chopra and all of these. I studied ayurvedic medicine. Like I went on this whole journey after that because of that two day hippie fest thing up in the mountains that we did with drums and all. I don’t even remember all this stuff that went on there. But I was like, what is this world? Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, I loved it.

Polly Mertens: 46:07

So tap into new experiences. Yeah, you know it might just be. You know mine was. I want to go to Columbia, right, and what was that doorway for me? What is your Columbia? What is your racing? The?

Samantha Pruitt: 46:22

planet. What?

Polly Mertens: 46:22

is your transformation workshop. It might be an invitation for some people to go into a woman’s circle that you don’t know right it might be who knows right.

Samantha Pruitt: 46:29

We should tell just a few things about what we’re up to before as we start to close. We should tell just a few things about what we’re up to before as we start to close. So recently, one of the things I signed us up for and I, you know, text you briefly. You had no idea really what it was about, but you said hell yes, well, there’s two right. There’s a couple of things, so these are examples of us like continuing to.

Samantha Pruitt: 46:48

We’re demonstrating, Continuing to invest in Epic, continuing to use that as a fuel for ourselves individually and then us collectively and Everyday Awesome in our community and being a representation for that community. So I signed us up for an audition to be on a survival race reality TV show and we did get a call back and we will have an audition. We’re not saying we’re going to be on the show, so we will not release that information yet. But, um yeah, are we survivalists?

Polly Mertens: 47:22

well, so you text me, no, no are we racers?

Samantha Pruitt: 47:26

yes, yeah. Are we adventure?

Polly Mertens: 47:29

yes, comfortable with the uncertainty and this is a survival show. And if that says yes, yes, it’s like what do I got to pack? What do we need to know before we go Right? Like you and I are quick learners. We’ve accomplished enough and have put our headspace together. You know, been through, you know, so we could get there faster.

Polly Mertens: 47:45

You know, and I think one of the things when you sent that to me, you’re like because we had first talked about Amazing Race, which is like oh, that just looks like a lot of travel and games. It was like oh, that’s fine, Okay, yeah, we’ll definitely do that. And you know how to dance, and then you yeah and eat weird things if you have to, that you’re going to make me do. And then the survivalist thing you texted me that and I go, yeah, sign us up for it. But I go.

Samantha Pruitt: 48:07

hey, by the way, slightly different threshold of yeah, we might get lost in the other one this one, this could end up in death.

Polly Mertens: 48:17

I was like, okay, well, yeah, sometimes when you put big things on the line, you get really big rewards too. Yeah, right, and you find out more. You know that growth. I mean some of, like one of the examples I’ll just give you. Uh, you know the things that these personal workshops that you talk about, walking on fire or whatever. So walking on fire, for me the first time it was like the first time?

Samantha Pruitt: 48:36

how many times have you walked on fire? I don’t remember, I don’t remember.

Polly Mertens: 48:39

Not more than a hundred. No, no, it wasn’t that many, it wasn’t but I’ve done some other weird things, and one of them was um you know, I’m at this retreat a week, type thing and we’re doing weird things every day, like nail beds and, you know, bending iron brushing bricks on your abs.

Polly Mertens: 49:00

Yeah, you know, like walking on fire looks like a cakewalk now. And this next one and this went to my like childhood stuff was so I grew up in the south and a lot of you know so I grew up barefoot running outside as a kid. You know kids used to do right. And uh, growing up in the south there were a lot of seashells that were collected from the and they made driveways out of them, okay, and when you walked on them with your feet you could get cut right. So, like I grew up with like trepidation around, like walking around barefoot in certain places and like you’d have to watch where you went. And so this next thing they’re like oh okay, good morning guys.

Polly Mertens: 49:36

And then they lay out the things that you’re going to be doing like picture you know if you’re going to fire, walk like oh, there’s a, there’s burning fire in front, you know.

Samantha Pruitt: 49:44

Like this is what you’re doing.

Polly Mertens: 50:01

So this one was no, like no. Yeah, I think it was like 10 feet of glass you had to walk across. And so my inner little child was like nope, oh, you know. And so thankfully they put people across it and they tell you about it. You know, like, how to not hurt yourself, like some people might get hurt, but this is how you can avoid it. And and I was just like you, just go and I didn’t get cut Like nothing happened right.

Polly Mertens: 50:14

But those are those experiences where it’s like, okay, well, if I’ve walked on glass, okay, what next? You know, like what else is there? Like, oh, we have to go from here to that and we could die or it could be really cold.

Samantha Pruitt: 50:23

You know what you touched on, that we should drive this home for our audience, because this is a really big selling point to the Epic Life. Is you continue? I continue to challenge our edge, exploring our edge, if you will, in a graceful tactical strategic way. Sometimes it’s messy, but conscientiously choosing to do that right to explore, and so we continue to learn more about ourselves in that way, and that’s really what living epic is right.

Polly Mertens: 51:05

Yeah, one of the things that I was starting to share earlier that I learned from those 15 years of lots of workshops and seeing it in my own life, right? So let’s say, in one year I had planned for one a quarter kind of thing, right, well, okay, I’m loving this. So you know, I go on this week thing and you just have these, like you know you just learn a lot and you grow and it’s amazing and the people you interact with, oh, it’s great.

Polly Mertens: 51:30

And then you go back into your quote life, right, everyday life, and you feel like you’ve leveled up and you’ve got some energy.

Polly Mertens: 51:36

Oh yes, you know, you’re like what do I do? And then you know the next quarter, so, like for a year it was kind of like going upstairs, right. So I went from stair one to stair two to stair three, and let’s call it mental, emotional, physical, spiritual ways. What I found is, when I would spread those out, or if I only had one per year, um, you kind of go backwards a little bit, because it depends on what I, you know and there’s a lot of things that we’ve talked about in our world of coaching is like who are you surrounding yourself with what?

Polly Mertens: 52:04

are your rituals, what are you committed to? How are you keep you know, like emotional fitness, even like we can revert back to a lot of childhood trauma and a lot of childhood yuckiness.

Samantha Pruitt: 52:15

Oh, dysfunction, old defaults.

Polly Mertens: 52:18

Old defaults.

Samantha Pruitt: 52:18

Right.

Polly Mertens: 52:19

And so I think what you were talking about, about the races that you’re already thinking about after this Ironman, is because what I learned is and you hear this with great goal setters is not goals like success, but like growth. Right Is plan the next adventure before you finish that one, so you don’t experience the dip. So you don’t go backwards, you don’t revert, you don’t feel like, oh, I don’t have anything on whatever, and you kind of get this lull.

Polly Mertens: 52:49

But, if you go yeah, and not to diminish the celebration, the appreciation for the journey that you were on soak up those wins and the gold and collect the nuggets that you got from that experience and allow it to propel you, allow it to take you up to the next level.

Samantha Pruitt: 53:05

It’s momentum. It’s momentum, right. It’s fuel, so it’s embers and then sparks and then flames, and now we’ve got a freaking bonfire. Yeah, okay, if the bonfire is burning in your life, you are on fire for your life. Why would you drag the hose out, yeah, and put water on your own or stop tending to it?

Polly Mertens: 53:27

just like let it or just let it peter out like, oh, that’s a good enough life. Oh, it was nice while it ran. You know it’s like no, what is your potential?

Samantha Pruitt: 53:36

Never use those words. Good enough around me.

Polly Mertens: 53:40

We got to wrap this up, so All right. This was so good, you know we really wanted to be an invitation to you guys. Whatever you’ve gotten out of this for yourself. That feels like a yes, or be looking for those messengers, right? You, that feels like a yes, or be looking for those messengers, right.

Samantha Pruitt: 53:54

You say it so gently. I say get off your ass and be epic. Okay, you’re very sweet about it all and I love that about you, but I am commanding some epic behavior from these humans and I want to hear about it. I want them to call us message us invite us. By the way, invite us. We will join your epic commitment. Your party, your thing, whatever you’re doing, We’ll show up Fly us out.

Polly Mertens: 54:21

Yeah, it’s going down.

Samantha Pruitt: 54:22

Yeah, I want to be there.

Polly Mertens: 54:23

Let’s create co-transformation together, a hundred percent For sure, especially if you have teams you want to like. Build stuff together, yes, yes, other yes, yes, and we can bring our awesomeness to your team and super fun. So, though I think you know, fast forward. Here we are to the, to the finale, the grand finale, not the finish, but the grand finale.

Polly Mertens: 54:40

the one thing and I’ll say mine if you have another one, but I think it’s. You know, we talked about the fulfillment, right, like the benefits of this life and getting up to things, is living, or let’s say, dying with no regrets. Dying with no regrets, like sometimes we put that finish line of our life so far out there. That’s like, oh, I got plenty of time, I got, you know, 50 summers to go. Maybe you don’t. What if you had two? What if you have 10?

Samantha Pruitt: 55:09

Exactly.

Polly Mertens: 55:10

You know how many more conversations like you talked?

Samantha Pruitt: 55:12

about.

Polly Mertens: 55:13

So what would living with no regrets look like for you now? What are the things that maybe you’ve put on the shelf, some dreams that you had, that maybe you’ve quieted you could reignite hearing this that need to come back to life and they need to be put into action. And what’s one step that you can take? You know, because, like you said, if you’re lit up by this and you’re like, damn it, I need to, it’s like what’s one step Sign up for that thing, make that phone call, make a commitment, put some money down, buy something, whatever.

Samantha Pruitt: 55:43

Sell something. Gather wood for the fire If the fire’s going out. Gather wood for the fire today.

Polly Mertens: 55:52

Okay, say some yeses to things that are scaring you. Yeah, so all right. All right. What do you want to remind people before we uh?

Samantha Pruitt: 56:00

my beautiful humans. Hey, how your life looks is not as important as how it feels. And remember every day is your opportunity to find your awesome. All right, let’s get busy.