There are moments in life that will have you feeling sorry for yourself—moments that often leave you asking, “Why me? Why do these things keep happening to me?” In this episode, April Shprintz commiserates with us, sharing how these all-too-familiar feeling happens to the best of us and how we can reframe these situations with the help of none other than Dolly Parton. Find out Dolly’s mic-dropping reframe that will have you feeling empowered and ready to tackle any challenge. Turn your struggles into stepping stones and embrace a mindset that turns “Why me?” into “Watch me!”
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Dolly Parton’s Mic Dropping Reframe
Storytime
I am so glad you’re here. I’ve had a little bit of a week when it comes to my car, and I’ll tell you that I have wanted this particular car for years and years. I’ve had it for a while, but it was one of those things that I wanted since I was younger. It is a Porsche Cayenne. It’s a gold SUV. Several weeks ago, I noticed that it had gotten some kind of road something, had flown up and done a big crack across the bumper and messed up the paint.
Literally, just a week ago had it fixed. I had an awesome guy who came in and it was very reasonably priced and he did it right at my house and it looked absolutely beautiful. Then I kid you not, I came out of the gym and someone had sideswiped me. I now had a different part of my car that was kind of all ganked up. Now, not a huge deal, it can be fixed, but I started for a moment to feel very sorry for myself.
“I just fixed this. Why do these things keep happening to me? Why am I creating this momentum that I don’t want?” I took a deep breath and I was like, “You have got to reframe this because in some way, shape, or form, this has happened for you, not to you. You’re going to figure that out later. For now, you have got to find a way to feel better about this.” I thought about the fact that ever since I was a very little girl.
I have wanted a lot of different things, but two things that I could think of that related to this situation. The first one is I wanted money until money didn’t matter. Things that would have been a catastrophe when I was younger were just an inconvenience. I’m there. I also wanted nice things. I have nice things and I enjoy them, this vehicle being one of them. What I reminded myself is I had both of those two things that I really wanted.
The last thing I was going to do was let a minor inconvenience ruin my day, and take my mindset into the sewer because those are the things I could focus on. Focus on the gratitude of having the two things that were so important to me for so much of my life that I enjoy so much now, instead of this small thing. Now I would like to tell you that this is my own idea. I would like to tell you that I did this without any help, but it’s just not true.
Focus on the gratitude of having the two things that are so important to you instead of this small inconvenience. Share on XDolly Parton’s Mic-Dropping Reframe
I’m going to tell you that I picked this up from Dolly Parton because she had a mic-dropping reframe. This was years and years ago, but I thought of it today when all of this happened. She was on a movie set years and years ago, a movie called Steel Magnolias, maybe 20 or 30 years. I don’t know, she was very young. There were lots of stars who were involved in that movie and they were shooting it in an area that was super hot. Everybody was complaining about the weather and how hot it was.
I remember Julia Roberts telling this story and saying, “I had ice on my wrist. Everyone’s saying it’s hot, it’s terrible. It’s so awful. This is just the worst shooting conditions we’ve ever been in.” Basically, everyone but Dolly has complained. Julia says to her, “Dolly, it’s hot. Just say it, it’s hot. We’re miserable. This is terrible. Just go ahead and say it.”
Dolly said, “Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to be famous and I have wanted to be rich. I am both of those things. I am not going to complain about it being hot.” Now, that is not a Dolly accent at all, but I just slipped back into my Southern roots when thinking about it. I absolutely loved that reminder.
What is it that you can focus on at the moment when you’re in a situation, whether it be inconvenient or really upsetting or something that seems terrible? What are the things you can focus on that you have always wanted, that you have right now, that can keep you afloat and keep you from complaining about those things? Just remembering that story helped me go back and think of the things that allowed me to not be upset about this, that I’m going to have to have my car in the shop again to get it fixed.
The gratitude instead is that it’s just an inconvenience, it’s a nice vehicle that I want to take care of because I, enjoy it and it’s not worth letting that ruin my day or even a whole bunch of time in my day. How many things like that happen to us and how many opportunities are you going to have this week to use Dolly Parton’s mic drop reframe?
I challenge you to use it. If you do, I want to hear from you. You can always reach out to me on my website, WinningMindsetMasteryPodcast.com. All the way down near the bottom, there’s an Ask April section. You can talk to me personally and privately. You pre-record it and send it to me. I will respond to you myself and let you know what I think of your reframe or what I think of what you learned about this. Here’s to your success.