So guess what,
fellas…
It’s the New
Year coming up. Yea, so maybe I don’t provide the most shocking news. But it’s
news none the less.
Given the “new
beginning” so many suggest at this time of year, thanks to the restart of the
calendar, I thought I’d give my own take on what it means to make a resolution.
Now really all
the stuff about people starting with a fresh slate and stuff is nice, but it’s
not really true and it could actually damage your chances of improving (which
is probably what you really want to
do).
What you should
do when you want to improve yourself is find an area you’re lacking in, examine
your current performance, and see how to
improve. That’s realism − not putting yourself down, not comparing yourself to
others, not believing you’ll never leave your mother’s basement. You just look
at what your life is achieving and see how you improve that.
A new beginning
suggests a fresh slate but really you don’t want that −
all the terrible mistakes that you’ve made, the bad things that have happened to
you, have given you information on how to live better, the things not to do. By
‘starting anew’ you’re suggesting you’ve wiped away all the good learning
experiences you’ve had, too. And that’s not good.
Alright − despite the rap against new starts,
it’s not I don’t believe in them. I’d just rather call them constructive
stages.
So, let’s look at the man behind the site,
Elvis Presley − he had many constructive stages. You see, a stage is just a
place where noticeable growth has occurred. In Elvis’s case, they were:
- Sun studios
- RCA
- Army
- Movies
- ’68 Comeback
- Early Las Vegas
- Late Las Vegas
The seven stages of Presley. Now, an eighth
could be mentioned, the pre-Sun era, but that doesn’t really serve the purpose
of this post.
Elvis made lasting changes in the
professional area of his life during these stages. Now, if you don’t understand
the breakdown of Elvis’s life, here’s a
summary:
At Sun, he was young and starting out; by
RCA he’d improved his singing style and was capable of getting better recordings
to a larger audience (this was also when he got his first effect through
television on the Ed Sullivan show and elsewhere). Then, the army, where he
brought out recordings without his original line-up of Scotty Moore on guitar,
D. J. Fontana on drums and Bill Black on bass. There was a real concern that
he’d be forgotten by the time he came out. When he did return, he was welcomed
and was in better shape than probably any other time in his life. Then, the
movies. Elvis made a million dollars a movie, and looked like a real star. But the
plots of the movies slowly went down hill and Elvis almost began to parody the
hard-hitting rock singer he’d been before hand. Then, the ’68 Comeback special
− thinner than he’d been in years and in his first jumpsuit, Elvis showed he
could still sing and perform as grittily as ever before. It was the beginning
of his move back into show business. Then, in the Early Vegas phase, he grew
his hair and sideboards, updated his jumpsuits and recorded new songs. He was the toast
of Las Vegas. Then, by the Later Vegas stage, he was still big, but more of an
American icon than the rock 'n' roller he’d been before. The Aloha from Hawaii special
signals his start into this phase. His marriage broke up, he put on weight and
often stopped charting in the top ten, but he still toured a lot and his voice
was better than perhaps ever. He died at the end of this phase.
End
of Summary
So, that’s a summary of Elvis’s life, all
the different improvements and fall backs. Notice how career wise, Elvis often
kept moving forward, despite not charting at the end of his life (which was a bit of a low point in his life, anyways). It was only
his personal life that suffered - but that's the subject of another post.
Now, look − despite what I’ve said, it’s
not always easy to change. If you haven’t got a good enough incentive (it’s too
painful the way you’re currently living or you don’t realise how good the place
you’re going is), you probably won’t change, not positively. There’s a phrase
Tony Robbins has, that change does not equate to progress. Progress is when
you’re moving in the direction you want, change is just the way things weather
as you get older, how you look, what happens to your friends, the changes in your
family.
Now, Elvis, not talking about his personal
life, often made progress. A lifetime of progress. That’s why he could die so
young and still be so remembered − he made such a difference in the short time
he was around that people did remember him when he passed on.
To make meaningful progress, you need
goals. Those are your resolutions. I want to lose weight, I want write a book, I
want to get married. You then make those specific, so you and your subconscious
mind know what to look for: I want to lose twenty pounds, I want to write a
book about a swashbuckler in the Caribbean, I want to get married to a tall blonde. To make the resolutions
even more effective, you choose dates − I’m going to lose twenty pounds in six
months. Then you consult someone who’s a professional in that field (weight
loss in the previous example) and make a plan to lose that weight.
But it’ll still be hard − you’ll need to
take action. I believe Tony Robbins also said that most people give up their
resolutions within the first two weeks of their embarking on them. You must
keep moving forward, like Elvis did with his career, even when you want to
quit. You’ll gradually create new habits and that’ll create new growth.
So, if you fail at first? Try, try again.
New Years is given special significance but really you can start a goal at
anytime. If you’re goal’s fallen flat on its face by the first of February, you
better start all over again and keep taking action so you don’t lose what you
put in before. Eventually, if you keep pushing, you’ll make it.
One final tip in making it happen − I find
self-improvement often difficult because of the mind-set more than anything
else. Once I needed to learn a piece of music, Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D,
for an audition. It was harder than anything else I’d ever played before on
flute. But my brother listened to me and said, “Alex, you’re making this too
hard. Instead of focusing on the judges, make it like a game, a challenge you
want to accomplish to prove your mastery of the flute.” So, yea he was born to
be a Chinese philosopher over me… Anyways, I followed his advice. Soon I
realised the piece wasn’t as hard as I thought it was when it first overwhelmed
me. I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear I can play that piece much better now.
Take it easy, maintain action and have fun.
You’ll accomplish your resolutions and give yourself confidence to bring about much more in the New Year.
Elvis’s
Lessons:
Elvis had seven
major stages of growth; the Sun years, the RCA years, Army, Movies, his Comeback, Early
Vegas, and Late Vegas. Like his ‘new starts’, it’s a good time for you to make
a new start because of the New Year. Really you can restart at anytime, though.
You need to hold on to form the new good habits – many lose their battle with
self-improvement in the first couple weeks. Look at it like a game, a challenge
to be overcome, like what my bro said to me when I’m learning a new piece of
flute music. Then, with perseverance, you'll make this coming year better than those in the past.
P.S. Here's Elvis with some powerful, soul-lifting music for the New Year - "Peace in the Valley".
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