Rick Astley...Still Got It? And What That Has To Do With YOUR Future Success...Intrigued? You Should Be!

So last night my lovely Lady and incidentally my best friend in all the world, went to a concert.

It should be patently obvious from the title who was in concert, unless you are Titlephobic, drunk or on a "read 67 posts without reading the titles of any" rampage. It was the epic soul/gospel/funk voiced Rick Astley.

Even if you don't know any other song, everybody knows...Never gonna give you up!

Now you are probably thinking what a nice guy, he accompanied his Lady when she wanted to see Rick...Nope I didn't get Rick-rolled into the task. The tickets were a Birthday gift for me from my Lady as I have always loved Rick's amazing, powerful voice.

So I thought about writing a post talking about the concert BUT I have really been enjoying writing posts recently on goals, self-improvement and empowerment and then it hit me like a bolt straight outta 1987, maybe there's a way to combine the two things...You see there was a recurring thought I kept having while I watched an amazing set. Rick's voice was every bit as good as when he was a young lad in the mid 80's even though, here he now was performing at 52 years of age.

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How is that possible, age affects us all, right? Surely at that age there would be some noticeable decline, right?

Several reasons for that struck me as I pondered this question.

• He enjoys what he does so much that genuine love for his craft keeps him fresh, enthusiasm tells when you do anything, right?
• He is naturally gifted, genetically lucky.
• I'm a fan and hear him as better than he actually is, through subconscious choice.

I suspect a different reason although I imagine that 1 and 2 do play some part. I sincerely believe that he wants to always appear at his very best when he sets foot on stage in front of his fans and he makes a great effort to do several things.

• He works on his craft continuously. practicing, rehearsing songs he has sung sometimes for as long as 30+ years so that his performance never becomes stale.
• He creates new arrangements of older songs to keep them relevant and fresh, sometimes giving them a completely new style.
• He embraces his weaknesses, like that trademark, bad dancing and mentions this often, it is clear he does not worry about them.
• He obviously looks after himself, fitness, appearance, sharp dress-sense. Does what is needed to protect that amazing voice.

The key thing though is that in my opinion he realises that age is little more than a number and takes steps to keep himself young in mindset and appearance.He literally does not accept the inevitabilities of age. The mind is a powerful tool, the most powerful tool we have at our disposal it can create with great success or destroy with misplaced feelings words and the self-talk we hear constantly in our mind. I also believe he always wants to be seen to give his best, literally 100% of what he has to give without compromise. I imagine he is extremely proud of how amazingly he is still able to perform without any loss of stage presence or vocals at all. Almost as though the worst thing he could imagine a fan saying as they left the arena is

"Oh Wow! Rick was great, but you should have seen him 20 years ago when he was really good."

I reckon the guy keeps ahead of the game constantly and keeps finding the ways to be at the top of his game.

There's a message and possibly a rallying cry for us all there, right?

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Be careful of the perception you have of yourself...If you accept your own personal standards slipping and using get out of jail free card such as...

• It's fine and expected I am getting older now.
• I wasn't great today, but that's OK as I worked really well yesterday.
• I'm too old to keep my body in shape.
• I have let myself go a bit recently, but it is normal at this age.
• I don't have time to look after my diet!
• Everybody knows I am terrible at whatever so I don't even try.

Know who you are and understand what you have to give the world. Take care of yourself so you can be ready for success. When you become skilled in your specialist area, don't rest on your laurels, don't let your ego tell you how great you are. Always try and improve, refine and renew your methods...Don't be afraid to try new things, tools, methods to become even more accomplished.

You are never perfect you are constantly evolving, growing and adapting, this is how we have grown and survived as a species for so long.

Finally! I need listen to my own advice for this part...

• Keep yourself fit and ready.
• Hold onto any enthusiasm for anything you want to achieve.
• Stay mentally tough and resilient.
• Beware of alcohol, smoking poor diet...Just be wise with your choices and practise moderation.
• Get enough sleep...I cannot emphasise this strongly enough.
• Don't have too much sleep...Right? :wink:

Try and be the very best version of you that is possible, every single day. Try and find joy from somewhere everyday ((even the bad ones.)) Whatever you find to put yourself to, whatever task you undertake, do it with every fibre of your being. try and stay as relevant as you can at all times...A Billy Ray Cyrus impersonator will have a limited career. Right?

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