In Adam Grant’s podcast Worklife, he asked Dolly Parton, country music angel, if she ever experienced burnout. She laughed, “I don’t have time to burn out, I’m burning up!” 

I paused the podcast for a second. “I don’t have time to burn out. I’m burning up” If you know anything about Dolly, you know she has passion for what she does; it ignites her soul and keeps her burning. 

With her energy directed towards her songs, Dolly’s fire isn’t easy to put out. “Creativity begets creativity,” said Dolly.  Her work is a calling. She claims wouldn’t do anything else, even if it meant being a waitress, recording demos and playing gigs for free. She is a writer, a storyteller and she intends to keep going till she can’t. 

Dolly seemed like an interesting case study for how to pursue work passionately without burning out. Her non-traditional career path might offer us some key insights to how we pursue our work. After talking about burnout for so long, I want to know how to burn up without burning out. 

‘I love the music. I was born to be a singer and a songwriter“ 

Dolly Parton bleeds songwriting. She loves her music; she feels called to her music. Dolly Parton started singing when she was a little kid, and she moved to Nashville in her late teens, writing songs and sending in demos until she rose up the ladder. 

The music industry, however luxurious we want it to be, is a grind. Even for a successful musician like Dolly Parton, the demands placed on artists seem to brew a perfect burnout scenario. 

So why is Dolly Parton burning up and not out?  

When I was researching for this article, one of the most congruent models with Dolly’s term ‘burning up’ was the resilience model.

After a study of four predictors (mental toughness, emotional balance, physical endurance and purpose), three were considered significant in reducing burnout: 

• Mental toughness
• Physical endurance 
• Purpose 

Together, these traits can help protect against burnout. I’m inclined to believe they can protect the passion and joy burnout squelches. 

Mental toughness involves ‘reframing problems’ and ‘embracing life.’

For Parton, she sees problems as solvable and has genuine affinity for life; It’s inspiring. Her love for connection and for people creates a level of mental resilience that can protect against burnout. Her work is fun, and she frames her life so that it stays fun. 

Physical Endurance is about nutrition, sleep and exercise. 

While physical endurance showed less correlation than purpose and mental toughness, It still served as protection against burnout. We will talk about Parton’s rest further down, but she seems to create space for physical rest as well as spiritual rest. 

Dolly’s calling is music 

Most importantly, Dolly finds purpose in her work. Purpose “at work is associated with several positive outcomes including productive workplace behaviors, increases in employee well-being, and greater job satisfaction.” 

But you can still burnout on purpose

Purpose, however, is not an absolute cure to burnout. Without boundaries, mental toughness and physical endurance, you can still fall prey to burnout. 

According to a Harvard Business Review article, “burnout can show up when leaders equate long hours with getting ahead” and when people put work above their physical and mental health. Burnout can happen when we neglect community and are too focused on sales goals and competition.

Purpose needs to be rooted in boundaries, and it should be bigger than your nine to five job. Purpose should be a top priority in our work, but not without other things like rest, enjoyment, and the ability to reframe problems. Otherwise, we will burn out our purpose and our job. 

Professionalism over perfectionism 

Dolly emphasizes professionalism over perfectionism. She is a professional and so she tries to put out the best work she possibly can, but that doesn’t mean she waits till everything is absolutely perfect. 

Perfectionism can lead to paralysis. You become unable to present imperfections, so you end up doing nothing. 

I see so many college students struggle with perfectionism, and people struggle in the workforce, too. In a Wall Street Journal article, one man recounted spending three days just crafting a perfect email. Instead of sending a nice and professional email, perfectionism paralyzed him. 

She doesn’t have to be perfect, but she does need to be professional. I hope to take that advice into my writing. My writing doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be proofread, easy to read and well organized. 

I won’t labor over every single sentence, but you will read something professional and tidy. The same goes for work and school. I hope my work is professional, and if it’s not perfect, that’s ok. 

Spiritual life and groundedness

Dolly’s family exposed her to the importance of God and a strong spiritual walk. She told Adam Grant she had learned “all the good lessons” from the bible like loving your neighbor, and judge not lest you be judged.

When looking for rest and help in hard times, Dolly leans on prayer. Understanding your spiritual life and relationship with God can root you so you experience wonder, awe and appreciation of blessings. “I count my blessings far more than I count my money,” said Dolly while attributing her humility to her faith. 

Dolly Parton slows down so she can continue to work hard 

One of the better predictors of not burning up is self-care. Dolly Parton mentioned several things she does in the episode to avoid getting too tired: 

• Goes home 
• Cooks 
• Reads
• Keeps up with her spiritual walk 

She and her husband travel in their RV to different national parks where they have a picnic. Dolly works hard but still takes a rest. 

When we can find a job that allows us to work passionately and rest passionately, we’ve got a real winner. 

So I think we can go ahead and burn up, as long as we avoid burning out

Having passion, love and purpose in our work can lead to a more meaningful life than just showing up to a job you hate, but there’s a balance. 

You have to find time for your community, for your family (Dolly said her nieces and nephews help her avoid burnout). Purpose alone does not beat burnout, but purpose combined with boundaries, mental toughness and physical endurance can lead to a far more meaningful and balanced work experience. 

It’s not always about work-life balance. It’s about having purpose and meaning in both your life and work. Since work is a part of life, it’s silly to act as if it’s a completely separate entity, but we can understand how to burn up like Dolly Parton- with love and passion. 

I sat in on a talk at a PRSSA meeting last night where Rachel Scoggins, a PR professional, explained that work and life are not easily separated but if you love what you do and you feel a passion for it, you can be satisfied in your work and your life. 

For Rachel, she connects with people every day in her job, which is what she loves most about life. And Dolly said, “work is fun.” I could see Rachel felt the same way. Work can be fun. You can finish the day tired but not drained. 

I think I can find a model where I can set boundaries at my job, have a passion for what I do and have a passion for living life outside of work. 

We will see. Right now, I feel relatively balanced and these blogs give me a good outlet to “burn up.”