Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I am Amanda. I'm Laura. And I'm Kendra. And just a reminder to scroll down and leave us a review. I will stop saying this once we get to 500. So if you're tired of that, just scroll on down and leave us a review. So this podcast today is more on the Unexpected side, I was sitting around thinking of what a great person Dolly Parton was and thought, let's talk about her.
So Dolly Parton, surely you know, but if you don't know, she's a country music legend and an American treasure. She's beloved by nearly everyone, regardless of politics, which is... A huge feat with as divisive as things are these days, she's an incredible philanthropist. Her Dollywood foundation includes a literacy program, which is called the imagination library, which I think a lot of it has to do with close to her hometown, but it sends one book per month to enrolled children from birth until kindergarten.
She also has single handedly. Improved the graduation rates in her own hometown. They used to be dismal, but she set up a buddy program where then she funds, I think, college or something like that and the graduation rates skyrocketed after she did that her foundation. Projects frequently bring jobs and tax revenues to previously depressed regions, and the list goes on and on.
Another thing that I love about Dolly is that she leads with integrity. At one point very early in her career, Elvis wanted her song, I Will Always Love You, and, but part of the deal with that, which you know he would have killed it, was he would take 50 percent of the profits from that. And she stuck to her guns, she said she cried a lot about it.
But she just knew that it was the right thing to do for her to not sell it to him. And later, when Whitney Houston did the famous cover of it, it ended up making her enough to buy Dollywood and all of the things that all of her other businesses as well. But like, I just imagining somebody who's just starting out and Elvis wants to buy your song and you're like, no.
I, I just really like that about her. So the point of today, anyway, is that Dolly drops some wisdom nuggets quite frequently, actually. And so we found a bunch of her quotes and we're just going to talk about them. The first one I'm going to talk about is, here's her quote, I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb.
I also know that I'm not a blonde, which, you know, she's famous for wearing wigs. But this. It illustrates the, the concept of she, she knows who she is and it doesn't matter that someone might think she's a dumb blonde. She knows without a shadow of a doubt that she isn't. And so one of the things that I like to say is that one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to let people be wrong about you.
It what other people's opinions of you. So this is a, I don't know who even said this, but. Other people's opinions of me are none of my business. She knew who she was. She knew that she wasn't dumb, and she knew that she wasn't blonde, and so people saying whatever they want to say about her didn't veer her off course, and I see that so often where, where if we get judged by another, it can really set us reeling, but she is so grounded in knowing who she is.
I love that. I think it's, it's a good lesson for us doctors because we are driven so much by external validation and what other people think. And it, it really can make us miserable. We can just follow Dolly's example, figure out who we are and just own it and love it. That reminds me of her quote, the magic is inside you.
There ain't no crystal ball. And we all have so much magic inside of us. But I just love how Dolly she just, she knows it. She knows that she's magical and she's able to help other people feel magical too.
Yeah. One of my favorites is, well, what I'm always impressed about Dolly is she was one of 11 siblings and she grew up, I think why she has such a heart for philanthropy and just seeing people succeed because she did grow up like a little farming community that Really everyone kind of made their own way and including where she grew up.
They had a very, very simple and small place on a farm. She did all the farming chores. She talks about getting out in her overalls and farm boots, which. Is not unlike where I live now, but I do not own our worlds, but anyway, so she just really comes from a simple time, but she had very supportive parents and she wasn't the only musical talent in her family, though, is what I've learned.
I watched a show on her that she had several of her. Siblings that they would play at the local county fair and just all the different kind of like, celebrations or what do you call them? Like, festivals and in their small town that they would have. So they would, they were performing as a family early on.
But I love when she said, it's hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world. And that just kind of goes with the fact that what Amanda said, like, She knew her worth from the beginning. She knew that you know, she wasn't a cheap imitation, that she was the real deal. The Washington Post did a little article on her and 1, 1 of the things they said in reference to her being and an inspiring role model was that. She was poor growing up. She dreamed of being a singing star, but could not afford voice lessons or even a guitar. So she made her own guitar from an old mandolin and rusty piano strings and performed on the porch for her siblings and a few pigs.
I just, I love that. I just think about this girl who has a dream, has literally nothing in terms of worldly possessions or opportunities to make that dream come true, but she does it. And I think she has this quote where she says, when I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they're not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can, because I know I'm going to have to live that day anyway.
So why not try to make the most of it if you can. That is the classic, she is an agent. She. Takes responsibility for her life and no matter what circumstances she's given she tries to make the most of it and She's just such a great role model. I think one interesting thing about her, you know, she's very well known for
Assets
She has multiple quotes where it's like, people say, how do you look so young? I say, well, good lighting, good doctors, and good makeup. Another quote is, you'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap. And then another one is Let me find it.
I'm a self made woman and I have the doctor bills to prove it. There's something so refreshing about she is doing what she wants to, making the improvements that she wants to make to her appearance, but she's not trying to fool anybody about it. She's not trying to pretend that she's better than anyone else.
She paid for what she paid for. And so you don't need to compare yourself. In a different way. I, I feel like she did it because she wanted to and yet she wasn't trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. She was still being incredibly authentic and humble and there's something about her authenticity that I, I have been trying to verify this.
I cannot find the article, but allegedly they can measure the vibration of certain emotions and authenticity vibrates even higher than even love. There's something about. Being a trustworthy, authentic person that, I don't know, is is bigger than...
Bigger than what happens usually. You know what it does is it creates safety for people. That, yeah. Because when we're authentic and we're vulnerable and share, you know, what, what isn't perfect about us, it opens a space for other people. To feel okay about their own imperfection and, and she's the perfect example of that, you know, she doesn't, she talks about not having much talent, but she worked hard.
, she just is that example of it's okay to not be perfect. And you can improve and you can work hard and learn and grow and become something new. She has butterflies all over Dollywood and I love the symbolism of the butterfly that we can become something different than where we start. Yeah, I love that.
I love that she talks about, you know, that is her authentic self because in the same breath She says every single diet I ever fell off was because of potatoes and gravy of some sort I mean, that's the authenticity like that. I love that. Yep She'll definitely tell you she's a fan of wigs and plastic surgeons, but then she also says, you know I tried diets, but they didn't always include potatoes and gravy.
And so she's just, she's, she's amazing. So she modeled her look after the town harlot who she thought was beautiful. She didn't care what other people's opinion was of her. She loved her look. And I love that, that she was like, she knew that lady probably was judged by a lot of people, and yet, she loved the look, and so she modeled her entire onstage persona, not persona, but look anyway, after this person who, despite what other people thought about her, she thought she was beautiful.
That's another example of like how she just made her own decision about what she thought about something and rejected what society was saying that I think.
Is is another reason why she's such a I mean, she's a thought leader herself Dolly one other thing that I love that she says was I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good hard rain. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great glorious pieces of good in the world.
That is one of the things we talk about often with our clients is that practicing gratitude and mindfulness and paying attention to all the things that are going right. That's. Undoubtedly, what helped propel Dolly to her current level of success and influence is looking for the things that are going well.
You know, the sensation of smell is hard to, if you are smelling something, it's hard to be anywhere else in your mind other than in the present. I'm trying to think of a way that that would be possible, but that's, that's interesting to smell the air after a good hard rain. That's going to bring you back in the present and out of.
ruminating about the past or being anxious about the future. It's appreciating the now and also just be aware that especially for us as physicians, our negativity bias in our brains and the mental filtering of looking for what is wrong makes us fantastic physicians who cares what's going right with the patient.
But man, if we carry that. finely honed skill into our lives outside of work, it can really throw us off. So her on purpose appreciating what is good in the world is a huge skill. And on that note too, she says, I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else.
And I think that is Such an empowering thought, an empowering quote to say, I mean, sort of like all of our journeys, we've told you our testimonies, you know, on, in different times on our podcast, but I mean, one of the things we find our clients just feel stuck. They, they feel like there's a limit to what we can do because, oh, we went to college and then we went to med school and residency, even to that finite amount of like, I have a label.
An emergency medicine board certified physician, and that's all I can do. And, you know, hopefully we've been able to throughout the time our podcast has been on the air, just inspire you to know that there are so many things out there that you can do that, you know, part of my burnout was my feeling stuckness, you know, and just.
Feeling so stuck and believing the lie that, well, this is all you can do. Dolly, she says it herself, just because people can't accept the fact we can do the fact that we can do something else. We can, but just the,
putting it out there and just knowing there are other things out there. Never limit yourself because you have some sort of like letters at the end of your name or You know some certification that you've paid money for that you just feel indebted to for the rest of your life There is nothing out there that if you are Dirt about that.
If you have a passion for go get it. There is nothing that will limit you except yourself
So we hope that you have loved this podcast. We thought this would be a nice break, and also, I mean, who doesn't love Dolly really? I mean, who does it?
We also want to tell you watch out for your inbox because there is a crazy Black Friday sale coming and so you definitely want to keep an eye on your inbox because it is coming soon and we're excited to announce our next webinar will be on November 16th at 12 p. m. Central Time and we hope that you'll join us.
So visit our website, www.thewholephysician.com to get more information. Until next time, you are whole, you are a gift of medicine and the work you do matters.
