Here's to Thanksgiving Day, Time to Eat, Love and Play

Helloo0O Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome back to Graceland Ontario, your one stop location for linking the success lessons of Elvis Presley back to your own life. Today, we'll be talking about, what else, Thanksgiving!

This is a little strange for me - up here in Canada, Thanksgiving's always in October. But, given my larger American base, I figured I postpone this post until your one came along.

Thanksgiving is different depending on the country you celebrate it in. In Canada, apparently it could date to when Martin Frobisher landed in Hudson's Bay back in 1572. He had a meal of thanks for the survival of his crew after their long journey. Another story is the settlers Samuel de Champlain brought with him to the Canadian province of Quebec started it with a successful harvest.  In the U.S., the Plymouth story is the most well known, when Pilgrims in modern-day Massachusetts had a meal of thanks, also to celebrate a good harvest. Their feast became annual and turned into Thanksgiving. Elsewhere, such as the U.K., the idea morphs into Harvest Festival, which farmers would celebrate for a good crop.

All in all, the message remains the same - be grateful.

Nothing like a basic concept to catch on. Yet, Thanksgiving so often becomes an expression for different activities - football, family, dinners. Those are great, but one must remember to be grateful for those things and not take them for granted.

"Yea, yea," you say. Your parents used to tell you to  be thankful for your food cause the kids in Africa didn't have it. Then your teachers told you to be grateful for having such an incredible education system (what did they expect? That you'd suddenly like math homework). Gratitude, like many good things, probably has a pretty poor connotation in your books.

And I don't blame you. I never took the word too seriously either. It's long, it's hard to say and it never used to mean much to me.

But then something happened. I don't recall what it was - maybe when I read my first self-development book, Dr. Robert Schuller's You Can Be the Person You Want to Be. Or when, after years of heartbreak, I finally learnt how to ride a bike. But suddenly, gratitude became so important.

I recall being told that gratitude simply meant great attitude. And really, when you're grateful, everything seeems better. It's like something that was ok for years, maybe brushing your teeth, maybe Mum's pea soup, all of a sudden tastes ten times better. Heck, even holidays like Thanksgiving seem better than before. Why? God knows. Perhaps you just appreciate it more than you used to.

Now let's look at our friend Elvis Presley. He was grateful, had a great attitude, and it doesn't take much for  someone who didn't even know him to tell. I mean, look at his shows. He's always thanking people, shaking their hands and kissing them. You don't do that unless you really appreciate someone, unless you're really grateful they're your fan.

And then, there's that smile. It doesn't matter when you see him in his life or where - whether it was during the Ed Sullivan show, on a movie set, after the '68 Comeback Special or three months after his divorce. He was always beaming. You see, when you're really grateful you can't contain it. It's like a force just trying to burst out of your system. And when it does, it does it in different ways. The most notable one is smiling. But, it also reflects in your body language, in what you say, in how you perform. I mean, wouldn't it be great to do a better job at work simply because you enjoy life more? It's a win win situation.

Furthermore, Elvis gave back. Wait a second, you're thinking. Isn't gratitude about being glad about receiving? Well, yes. But it also makes you want to give back, to make other people happy. To make them feel gratitude, too. Because when they're happy as well, they're gonna make you feel even happier and then you're gonna make them feel happier and then they'll make you happier and then you'll make them happier and then - I think you get the point.

But how do you get a great attitude?

My number one tip is to make a list about all the great things that happen in your life. The easiest way is to write three things that you're glad happened in your life everyday - a journal.

Another way is think about why you're glad you know somebody. It can be a parent, a teacher, a boss, a friend, a cashier at the local market. All that matters is you think, "Why do I like this person?" The answers will make you happy. And the best part? You can go out and tell that person later and make them feel better, too!

Thanks so much for reading, have a frickin' awesome Thanksgiving, enjoy the football, enjoy the family, enjoy the food and see you next week for the start of our Christmas series!

Elvis's Lessons:

Remember to be grateful, to have a great attitude. It's the name of the Thanksgiving season after all. But too many people forget this. Elvis was grateful. He loved his fans, smiled and gave back to the community. To build your gratitude muscles, you can write a short journal everyday or think of why you love somebody - and then tell them!

Have a great Thanksgiving and see you next week for the start of our Christmas series!

P.S. If you like this post, drop a comment below or email me at alexghilson@gmail.com. I'd love to meet you and discuss this post over this Thanksgiving weekend.

P.P.S. If you're interested seeing Elvis singing a song of gratitude, here he is with a version of "How Great Thou Art".

If you like this post, you might also like these other FR.EE Graceland Ontario posts:

• Elvis and the Photographer: A Story of Gratitude
• Cool Down!
• Life's a Haunted House and We're all In It
• Getting Into It
• Getting Others to Believe in You (the Elvis Way)
• Doing All You Can

Who Wants to Be Called "Fat"?

Thank you success-searchers and Elvis fans for tuning into Graceland Ontario! Today, we’re going to turn to fitness, how it influences your chances of success and how Elvis modeled this.

I got an email only the other day from a woman who she felt “cheated” when she found a guy she’d gone on a date with had been hiding his large stomach under his suit. She proclaimed no out-of-shape guy would have any romantic chance with her. Of course, she was marketing a fitness product.

Now even if I told you (and I am telling you) there are a large number of systems on creating attraction that have nothing to do with your physical shape, the woman does have a point. I mean, being fit in no way ensures attraction, in business or life, but it can be a nice simple way to spark it. And no one’s going to complain about doing things the easy way (when there is an easy way), are they?

Elvis time! When Elvis was young, he was in decent shape. Not a barrel of bones, like James Stewart, but he was fit. He tried out for football in high school and later took up karate (Elvis was a black belt).

And remember, people weren’t just attracted to Elvis’s singing and music; they were attracted to Elvis. They screamed and mobbed him. Sure this had something to do with his awesome persona, but his looks also played their part.

Elvis was thinner during his stint in the army and heavier during his mid-movie career, but he kept in pretty steady shape.

Between 1968 and 1970, Elvis might have looked his best. He was lean and handsome, exceptionally for a man in his 30’s. But going into the late 70’s, he packed on the pounds fast. Really, he wasn’t even that bad compared to some people in their early 40’s, only bad compared to his old self.

Now I won’t once again point out the correlation between Elvis’s declining body and his declining career, but I will mention something else; you ever notice that whenever someone wants to be mean to Elvis, they never say “that punk who messed things up” or “that has-been who dressed up in leather”. These would reference when he was in the 50’s or 60’s, when he was in good shape. No, they say “‘fat Elvis’, the guy who was so heavy he died of a heart attack just getting up from his toilet”. Brutal, eh?

You know what’s even worse? Even though Elvis was in pristine physical shape through most of his life, they always colour over everything else with the ‘fat’ tag, even in the times when he wasn’t. Heck, even when he was in better shape than plenty of others.

It’s not my place to tell you what to do. I can only advise based on what I see, and that’s it − a bunch of narcissistic hypocrites who rip apart others based on looks and then, like the woman I mentioned earlier, sell products about it.

So what do you do? Start exercising. Doesn’t have to be much (I’m a big fan of walking) but do something. And watch your diet. I don’t mean go on a fad diet; I mean eat wholesome foods with nutrients in portions that make sense. And drink lots of water. When I started getting my health act in gear, nothing helped more than plain ol’ tap water.

You can learn from the past, from others who experienced pain first hand. A good body is not the key to success, but it and the discipline it takes fostering one helps. After all, who wants all their achievements tainted with ‘fat’ preceding their name?

Elvis’s Lessons:

• Getting into shape can help your career as well as your overall lifestyle. It doesn’t have to be extreme; a little walking, watching what foods you eat and drinking water can go a long way to shaping you up.

P.S. If you need some positive and negative inspiration, here's a video of Elvis singing "Jailhouse Rock" when he was in his best shape, in 1968, and another when he was in his worst, in 1977. They're useful for comparison.

P.S.S. When I was getting in shape, this free website was a lot of help. It's called Scooby's Workshop, named after its founder. I hope it can help you do the same.