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Live Like Dolly: The Power of Authenticity and Legacy · Revolution of Purpose Podcast

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What does it say about the way someone lived when millions of people
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who never met them feel like they lost someone that they love?
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Maybe the greatest legacy that we can leave isn't what
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we accumulated, accomplished, or achieved.
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Maybe it's how people felt because we were here. Today,
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I want to talk about the extraordinary legacy of Dolly Parton and why
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I believe one of the greatest ways we can honor her life
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is very simple, to live like Dolly. Welcome to
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the Revolution of Purpose Podcast. I'm your host, John Streit, and each week we bring
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you conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals
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who have aligned their life with purpose and created
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extraordinary results. So I'm going to live through it and accept it radically with grace
0:45
and hope and love. I mean, I would be proud to be in this council.
0:48
It was an honor. I had so much fun. Tune in every Monday for the
0:52
Revolution of Purpose solo show and every Thursday for Revolution
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of Purpose Conversations. Welcome to the Revolution of Purpose podcast.
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I'm John Streit, and this episode is going to be a little bit different because
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today I want to talk about Dolly. Like millions
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of people around the world, I've been processing the news of Dolly Parton's passing,
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and I'm just going to admit it, I cried. I never
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personally knew Dolly Parton, but I cried. I never
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sat down. I never had a conversation directly with her. I never shared a meal
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with her. She wasn't an actual member of my family, but somehow
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hearing that she had left this earth felt like I lost someone
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that I knew. And I know that I'm not alone in that. I've talked
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to people and I've watched people posting online who are
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experiencing genuine grief over the loss of someone that most
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of us never personally even met. And I've been thinking about that and thinking why
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that is. How does someone that we've never met make us
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feel like we knew them? How does someone become so loved
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that their passing creates a genuine sense of loss
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in people all over the world? I think
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the answer is actually pretty simple. Dolly made people feel loved.
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She made people feel accepted. She made people laugh.
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She made people feel like it was okay to be exactly who
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they were. And perhaps most importantly, she showed us
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what it looks like when someone knows exactly who they are
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and chooses to live that truth full out.
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That is why today isn't really an episode about death.
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It's an episode about life. It's about legacy, about identity.
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It's about love. And it's about the question that every one of
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us eventually has to answer: what will remain because
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I was here? One of the things that I've always admired most about Dolly
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Parton is that Dolly knew exactly who Dolly was. I mean,
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think about that— the hair, the clothes, the rhinestones,
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the accent, the humor, the faith, the music,
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even mountains where she came from. She didn't spend her life
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running from where she started. No, she certainly didn't spend
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time thinking that she should get permission for being herself.
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She was just Dolly full out. And there's something incredibly
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powerful about that because so many of us spend years trying
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to figure out who we're supposed to become. And we look around at everyone
3:20
else and what would they think? And will they approve? And am I too much
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for some people? And Should I tone this down? Should I change
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that? Should I hide this? Should I become more like
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that guy? More like that girl? But Dolly seemed to understand
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something that I teach constantly in my own coaching. Your identity creates
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your reality. I mean, she is the perfect example of
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that. Dolly didn't become Dolly because the world approved
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of Dolly. The world eventually fell in love with who Dolly Parton
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was because Dolly had already decided be Dolly.
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There's such a huge difference. She wasn't waiting for the
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world to give her permission. She wasn't out there taking a poll
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of what people would approve of or not approve of. She wasn't changing
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who she was depending upon who was in the room. Now,
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she knew who she was, and then she built a life from
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that identity. We talk a lot on this podcast about the law of
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identity transformation, you know, how we awaken to the
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possibility of being that person we want to be, and then we, we become that
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person, and then we do align action that fits that.
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And then by doing that, we create the life that
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we want to live. And so Dolly created an extraordinary
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reality herself, and she didn't do it by changing to
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become somebody else. She did it by becoming more fully herself.
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And there is a lesson in that for every one of us, because you see,
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your authenticity is your superpower. I've said
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this before and I'll say it again, your authenticity is so powerful.
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But I wanna take that idea even further today because your authenticity
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is not only about you. There may be people who need that light
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that only you can shine. Think about that. There are people who need
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to hear your voice, your story, your experience,
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your perspective, your kindness, your creativity, your humor,
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your encouragement. They need your gift. But if you spend
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your life changing the color of your light because you're worried about
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whether somebody else approves of it or not, then the people who are
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looking for your light may never recognize it. There are people who need
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what you uniquely carry. And Dolly understood
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how to shine. She could laugh at herself. She could be
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glamorous. She could be outrageous. She could be deeply intelligent,
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incredibly business savvy. She could also be a little crude
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or rude at times. She was hilarious when she would crack jokes.
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She could be a woman of faith while still loving people who didn't necessarily share
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the same faith that she came She was immensely successful while
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still remaining proud of the small-town mountains
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that she came from and the people that she came from,
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the people that helped forge who she was and who her
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values were. She didn't choose between these identities. They were all
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a part of her. And maybe somebody listening today needs permission
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to stop editing yourself. You don't need mine. You don't
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need your families. You don't need social medias. You don't need
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approval of the people who don't understand your dream. You be
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who you were created to be, because there is that superpower
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that lives in your authenticity. Another part of Dolly's story that really
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means so much to me is how she never seemed ashamed of where
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she came from. She grew up poor in East Tennessee,
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and when success came, she didn't just leave and never look back.
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She invested in the place that raised her. She created
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opportunities. She created jobs. She invested in education.
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She invested in children. She invested in family. She made
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where she came from better because she had been there. My friends,
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that right there is purpose. That is purpose in action.
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Success asks us, how much can I possibly achieve?
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But legacy asks us a different question. It says,
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how many people can be better because I achieved
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it? Those are very different questions. And Dolly's life gives us an
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extraordinary example of what happens when success
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and purpose meet. One of my favorite parts of Dolly's legacy is
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the Imagination Library. Dolly launched this program in
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her home county in East Tennessee in honor of her father who
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could not read or write. And the idea was beautifully simple:
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put books in the hands of children, send them directly
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into their homes, help children fall in love with reading before
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they ever enter school. And what started locally
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eventually became something that reached children now around
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the world. At the time of Dolly's passing,
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hundreds of millions of books had been given to children
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through the Imagination Library. At last count,
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332 million to be exact. Think about that.
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There are adults alive today who received Dolly Parton books
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as children. There are children going to bed tonight with
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one of those books sitting beside them. Their parents are reading them
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one of the books that she sent them. There will be people
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that Dolly never met whose lives are different because she
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decided that her success wasn't supposed to stop with her.
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And that is legacy. I read something this week that really struck
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me. There have been estimates that Dolly gave away enormous amounts
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of her wealth during her lifetime, with some reports suggesting that her
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generosity may have been one reason that she never became a billionaire.
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Now, I'm not particularly interested in whether that exact number is calculated
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correctly or not, but the point is bigger than the number. Dolly apparently
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understood something important about abundance. Having more gives
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you the opportunity to do more. According to Forbes,
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she was worth about $450 million in 2025,
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and at the time of her death, it's calculated that she's given away over $600
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million. Literally, she could have been a billionaire if
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she had invested all of that money. She could have been a multi-billionaire, but instead
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she gave it away. Instead, she created a legacy. Instead,
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she circulated her wealth to help other people and invested
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in people that she would never meet. And I just think that is beautiful.
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Please pardon this interruption to your podcast episode. This will not take but
9:36
a minute. Before we continue, I want to ask you something. Do you know that
9:40
you're capable of more, but your life right now just isn't fully reflecting the person
9:45
you know you can become? Then I want to personally invite you to schedule
9:49
a Shift Mindset call with me. This Shift Mindset experience is
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something that I created to help you identify one decision that you can make
9:57
that will shift your life. And when I say that this is a call
10:01
with me, I mean exactly that. This is a live,
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one-on-one, personal call between you and
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I. This is not prerecorded. This is not a member of my team.
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It is you and I having a real coaching conversation about your life. And it
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does not cost you any money. It is a 45-minute exchange of
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time. I'll give you 30 minutes of my best mindset coaching
10:22
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Every time you do that, every time you engage, you are helping to spread
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this message and inspire someone else to create their best life
11:00
through also living their own revolution of purpose. Now let's
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get you back to the Revolution of Purpose podcast. Another story that
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really captures this beautifully is that when Whitney Houston recorded
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Dolly's I Will Always Love You, the song became a massive
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global success. And because Dolly had maintained ownership
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of her publishing rights, that success created tremendous financial
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abundance for her. But here's the part that I love. Dolly later
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talked about investing some of the royalties that she earned from Whitney's
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recording into property in a historically Black area of Nashville.
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And she connected that investment back to Whitney. Think about
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the symbolism of that. Whitney Houston's extraordinary voice creates
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abundance from a song that Dolly wrote, and then Dolly takes
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some of that abundance and puts it back into the Black community.
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That's bigger than a business transaction. That is circulation.
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That is connection. That is understanding that what comes
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through us doesn't have to stop with us. You know,
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Dolly talked openly about her Christian faith.
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And as a Christian myself, there's something about the way that
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Dolly seemed to live her faith that deeply resonates with me.
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Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. And sometimes
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I wonder if we've made that far more complicated than Jesus
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did, because he didn't say, love your neighbor if they vote like
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you, love your neighbor if they worship like you, love your neighbor if they look
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like you, or love your neighbor if they love like you, or love your neighbor
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if they agree with you. No, Jesus said, just love your neighbor. And Dolly
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seemed to understand that. She had beliefs, she had
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convictions. She didn't have to abandon any of them in order to love
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somebody who believed differently. And this is important. You didn't
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have to believe what Dolly believed in order to be loved
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by Dolly. And you certainly didn't have to be a Christian to love Dolly because
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she built bridges. She seemed to look for what connected us
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rather than constantly looking for another reason to divide us.
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And that hits home for me because I learned that lesson very early.
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You see, my mom was a minister and an evangelist, and years
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ago she wrote a book called Legacy of Love. It's a collection
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of stories where she had experiences throughout her
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ministry, and she, towards the end of her life, with her friend Jeanne Moore,
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got together and they started writing them down. They started recording them.
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And, and she called it Legacy of Love. And I've always loved that
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title. But the older I get, the more I understand what the title
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actually means. My mom didn't just preach love to us. She demonstrated
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it. When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot ourselves, but that never
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stopped her from helping somebody who had less. I can remember one year
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as a child that my dad was out of work and it was Thanksgiving and
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the church had given us a turkey. And my parents gave it away to someone
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who needed it more. And then some other friend came and gave us a turkey,
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and my parents gave it away. I believe a total count,
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we went through like 4 turkeys, and we finally ended up eating lunch meat
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on Thanksgiving because my parents had given away every single turkey
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that was given to them. But that's just the type of ministry
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that they led out of their own heart. That was the legacy of love that
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they were building for us. If someone was going through a divorce or had lost
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their job, if they needed somewhere to stay, our home became their home.
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I can tell you multiple Christmases that we spent with people
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who were staying with us because they had nowhere else to stay on Christmas.
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She helped people that were experiencing homelessness. She, she taught
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me not to judge somebody based on the color of their skin or how much
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money they had in their bank account. And one of the things that I appreciate
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most today is the way she taught me about faith. She would take me to
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different churches and different denominations, and instead of showing
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me all the ways that they were wrong for the way they were doing things,
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She would point out all the things they did that were beautiful. She used
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to talk about the Southern Baptists and how they were so good at organization.
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And it is true, my dad was once on the committee over the committees of
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the Southern Baptists. Or she would talk about the Catholic Church and how beautiful it
15:10
was to listen to the nuns sing their prayers and, and the reverence
15:15
that they had. And she loved from liturgical services to
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Pentecostal evangelical services. Like, there were definitely things that she
15:23
didn't agree with. She wouldn't have been allowed to preach in over half of those
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churches. Churches. And today I wouldn't be allowed to go to over half of
15:30
those churches, but it didn't stop me from finding
15:34
the things that I could find that we had in common. And even
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today, I love to see people who may be very different than me,
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who may vote different than me, that may worship different than me, that may love
15:45
different from me, but I can still see the God inside of
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them because we are all children of God. We are all created
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to look just like our Creator. And even if we never get along
15:57
on anything else, we have that in common. And that is a
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legacy of love taught by my parents. She was teaching me about
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legacy. My dad was teaching me about legacy. And when I look at Dolly's
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life, I look at some of these same principles. They were different
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people, different lives, different callings, different legacies,
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but a common thread, which was to love people.
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And that brings me to something so important. You don't have to leave
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Dolly Parton's legacy. You couldn't if you tried. I can't
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if I tried. And we're not supposed to try. We are supposed to
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leave our own legacy. And maybe that's the question
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that I want you to sit with today. What will remain because
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you were here? Not how much money did you make, how many
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followers did you have, how impressive was your title.
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It doesn't matter how big your house was. It doesn't matter how many people
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knew your name. Those things aren't necessarily
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bad, but Dolly understood that there was more to all of those things that
16:58
equaled success. She built businesses, she created wealth. She became one
17:02
of the most recognizable human beings on the planet. But eventually
17:05
every life reaches the same point. And when it does,
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the question changes. It becomes, what did your life create
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that continues without you. Maybe you'll never start something like the
17:18
Imagination Library. Maybe you'll never have hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Maybe nobody will ever write articles about your philanthropy.
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That does not mean that you can't live an extraordinary
17:29
life and leave an extraordinary legacy. Maybe someone
17:33
believes in themselves today because you believed in them
17:37
first. Maybe someone didn't quit because you encouraged
17:40
them. Maybe your children love people differently
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because they watched how you love people. Maybe somebody learned how to forgive
17:48
because you forgave them. Maybe somebody who felt invisible
17:51
finally feels seen because of you.
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Maybe somebody who felt rejected experienced acceptance
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in your presence. Maybe your generosity changed the trajectory of
18:03
one family. Maybe your words changed one life,
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and maybe that person changes another person and another and
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another and another and another. You may never know How
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far your light travels. And y'all,
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that right there is legacy. I really want somebody listening
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to hear this part. Maybe you're thinking, John, I haven't lived that kind
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of life and I've made mistakes. I've wasted years. I've hurt people.
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I've been selfish. I've been afraid. I've played small. I spent
18:32
too much of my life trying to make everybody else happy. Okay. I hear
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you, but you are still here. And if you are still
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here, that means that your story is not finished. It is never
18:44
too late to begin creating your own legacy of love. You don't
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need millions of dollars. You don't need fame. You don't need
18:52
a platform. You don't need permission. Start today. Forgive somebody.
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Encourage somebody. Help somebody. Give anonymously.
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Call somebody that you've been thinking about. Tell somebody that you're
19:05
proud of them. Love somebody who sees the world diametrically
19:09
different than you do. Find the good in someone you've
19:13
been judging. Give to a cause that matters to you. And if Dolly's work
19:18
with children touched you, consider making a contribution to the Imagination
19:22
Library so those books continue reaching the children who need
19:26
them. But whatever you do, my friends, do something, because legacy is
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not something that you start creating when you're old. You're creating
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it right now, no matter what age you are. Every interaction
19:37
that you have, every decision that you make, Every act of kindness
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that you do, every time that you choose love over judgment, every time
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that you count to 10 before you respond in anger,
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every time that you choose courage over fear,
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every time that you choose authenticity over approval,
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you are leaving fingerprints of love on somebody else's
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life. You're building your legacy. And that's why I've realized something
20:05
as I've processed the grief. Of losing Dolly. Her light did
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not go out when she left this earth. Instead, it multiplied.
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It is sitting on bookshelves in children's bedrooms. It is in
20:17
families who received help after losing everything from the Gatlinburg
20:22
and Pigeon Forge fires. It's in East Tennessee. It's in Nashville.
20:26
It's in songs that people will still be singing generations from now.
20:30
It's in people who watched a woman from the mountains of Tennessee Refused
20:35
to apologize for being exactly who she was. And it's in
20:39
every person who decides that because of the way Dolly
20:42
lived, they're going to love a little more generously. They're going to
20:46
judge a little less quickly. They're going to give a little more freely.
20:50
They're going to dream a little bit bigger,
20:54
and they're going to shine a little brighter. That's the incredible thing about
20:58
light. When you use your light to ignite somebody else's,
21:01
yours does not diminish. There's just simply more light. And that's
21:06
how a life becomes a legacy. So yes, mourn Dolly.
21:10
I certainly have. Celebrate Dolly. Listen to the music,
21:14
watch the movies, laugh at her interviews.
21:16
Remember the rhinestones and the hair and the unmistakable
21:20
laugh that she gave us. But I think there's an even better way that we
21:23
can honor her, and that is to live like Dolly.
21:27
Not to act like Dolly, not try to become Dolly, but to
21:30
live authentically like Dolly. To live in love
21:34
like Dolly. Find the best in people and try to bring it out
21:38
of them. Build bridges without abandoning what you believe.
21:41
Pursue your dreams no matter where you start from.
21:45
Remember where you came from and reach back and help
21:49
as you get successful. And when success comes,
21:52
don't just ask what you can get from it. Ask what you can give
21:57
through it. Because someday all of us are going to leave this earth.
22:00
And when that day comes, our greatest accomplishment may
22:04
not be something with our name written on it. We may not have the money
22:08
to give a library to an Ivy League university, but we
22:11
can do something that writes love on the heart
22:15
of another human being. Dolly Parton created an extraordinary legacy,
22:19
but here's what I hope you remember. You don't have to create Dolly's legacy.
22:23
Create your own. A legacy that is unmistakably,
22:27
authentically, and beautifully your own. And if you're wondering when you
22:31
should begin, well, the answer is today. It's like that old adage. When's the
22:35
best time to plant a tree? Well, 10 years ago. When's the second best time?
22:39
Today. Because it is never too late to live a life of
22:43
greatness. It is never too late to shine your light.
22:46
It is never too late to create a legacy of love that continues changing
22:50
the world long after you've left it. So today,
22:55
today, live like Dolly. That doesn't mean act like Dolly
22:58
unless that's who you authentically want to be. I'll send you the wig myself.
23:02
But I mean, live like Dolly in the way that you fully
23:06
should, in the way that is most authentically you.
23:09
Thank you so much for watching on YouTube or for listening on your favorite
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podcast provider, Apple, Spotify, Amazon. I really
23:17
hope that you'll subscribe, like, comment, follow, and share this episode
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if it spoke to you, because every action that you take helps me
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to continue to spread the positive message of this podcast that
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helps people realize that they can live their purpose. It helps people realize that they
23:33
can reframe limiting beliefs and live their best life. So even
23:36
by sharing this podcast, you're helping continue to spread a message of
23:41
love and of hope. And maybe in Dolly's honor,
23:45
I hope that you'll do one thing today that makes somebody else's world a
23:49
little brighter. Give, forgive,
23:52
encourage, love, shine, live like
23:55
Dolly. And remember, do it by living your own
23:59
revolution of purpose. Thank you so much for spending this
24:03
time with me today. If this episode encouraged you, if it challenged
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you, or if it helped you see your life a little bit differently,
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would you do me a favor? Subscribe to the podcast, leave a
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purpose, and a life of greater meaning. And if you're
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ready to stop wondering what's next and start living with greater clarity and
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purpose in your own life, I would love to meet with you personally.
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Visit johnstreet.org right now to schedule your complimentary
24:38
live purpose and clarity call with me.
24:42
Until next time, remember, your purpose is not something you find.
24:46
It is something you awaken to, and then you choose
24:49
to live it. Go make today another step in your own
24:53
revolution of purpose.