Morning Cereal

Start your day with inspirational quotes, followed by a fun journey through nostalgic facts from this day in history. Then, we dive into James Clear, Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits shows how tiny, consistent improvements in daily habits—focused on systems rather than goals—compound over time to produce remarkable personal and professional results.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quote to spark your motivation
  • Fun Morning Cereal trivia question of the day
  • A dive into the Chapter 6 Atomic Habits
Whether you're a leader, communicator, or just someone looking to improve your relationships, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
Tune in now and let’s grow together!
Resources:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery.
 
All photo’s utilized in this video are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by Wikimedia Commons license and are free to copy, distribute and transmit.  No photos have been altered.

What is Morning Cereal?

Good morning, and welcome to Morning Cereal!
Pull up a stool, grab your favorite cereal, and let’s kick-start your day with a spoonful of inspiration, nostalgia and personal growth. Join your host, Shaen Inglis, as he highlights the music, movies, and moments that made the 80s, 90s, and 2000s unforgettable—kind of like digging for toy at the bottom of the cereal box. Each episode, Shaen also reviews a chapter or so from top wellness books, offering practical insights to help you set a positive tone for your day. Start your mornings right—no cartoons required!

Follow and subscribe to the Morning Cereal podcast and visit our Life Happens, Live Balanced channel and our website at shaeninglis.com to check out and follow our other podcasts. You can also follow Shaen @ShaenInglis on Instagram, YouTube, etc. Feel free to share the Morning Cereal with someone who could use a little fun and motivation to start their day right.

Good morning and welcome

to your morning cereal.

Okay, good morning and welcome to Friday.

You did it again, you made it.

Was there ever any doubt in your mind?

Well, you are going to

want to put on your walking

or running shoes this morning,

not because we're gonna

make a quick getaway today

or we are walking to

Calvary on this Good Friday,

but because today is walk to work day,

which sounds

fantastically healthy, right?

Unless your commute involves

highways or really bad weather.

So maybe walk down to CVS

and get some of that Easter candy today.

Now the answer to yesterday's trivia

question, monoliths.

That's the term that describes

large single standing stones, monoliths.

Well, it is now time

for the essential vitamins

in your morning cereal.

Today's quote, and it

is from birthday girl,

she's turning 44 today, Kobe Smulders,

who said this quote, "You

can't control everything,

but you can control how

you show up," end quote.

All right, your morning decode,

your life, it might be chaos,

but your attitude is still

your home court advantage.

Let go of the uncontrollable.

All right, well, let's go ahead and hear

now from the experts.

It is time to pour in some

atomic habits by James Clear.

And today we are unpacking

the intro to chapter six,

which is motivation is overrated.

Environment often

matters more, all right?

And if you've ever

blamed a lack of motivation

for not following through on something,

this chapter is about

to let you off that hook.

In the best way possible, here,

Clear argues that behavior

change is less about willpower

and it's more about the environment.

In fact, he says this quote,

"The most common form of change

is not internal, but

external," end quote.

Now, that means your surroundings

are quietly shaping your

decisions all day long,

whether you realize it or not.

So think about it.

If your phone is next

to you, you'll check it.

If snacks are visible,

you'll likely eat them.

I got a big problem with that.

Now, if your running

shoes are buried in a closet,

you're probably not gonna go for a jog.

These aren't failures of yours.

They're not failures of discipline.

They're predictable responses to cues.

Clear explains that humans

are incredibly responsive

to visual triggers.

What we see influences what we do.

That's why

environmental design is so powerful.

Instead of trying to resist temptation,

you should remove it.

Instead of relying on motivation,

you make good choices the default option.

Now, he also highlights that

habits are context dependent.

We associate behaviors

with specific locations

and situations.

That's why it's easy to

fall back on these old patterns

when you revisit familiar environments.

Your brain is simply

just following learned cues

that it already knows.

So he says this, "Stop

trying to resist temptation.

"Make it invisible."

That's one of the

most practical strategies

in this whole book.

If you don't see it, you don't crave it.

If it's not

available, you don't act on it.

So the deeper message here is feeling.

You need to become a

more disciplined person.

You need to become a better

designer of your environment

because when your

environment supports your goals,

your good habits become easier

and bad habits, they

become inconvenient for you.

All right, here it is,

your Friday takeaway.

Don't rely on motivation.

Design your

environment so the right choices

are easy choices.

All right, friends,

whether you're walking to work

or walking to get the mail today,

just keep moving forward.

It is now time for the prize

on the bottom of the cereal boxes,

the morning cereal

trivia question of the day.

What poet started one

of her most famous poems

with the line, "I'm nobody, who are you?"

End quote.

All right, hey, thanks for listening

to morning cereal today and this week.

We will see you back here on Monday

for the answer to the trivia question

and more sugar for the soul.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Easter this Sunday.

And may you find the golden Easter egg.

And until then, have a fantastic day.

Don't forget to follow and subscribe

to the morning cereal podcast

on the One Life Live It channel.

You can find more episodes and videos

by visiting our YouTube channel

and the website at

seaningless and at seaningless.com,

where you can also

follow our other podcast,

the Mr. and Mrs. English podcast

and the Life Happens podcast.

And these other podcasts will dive deeper

into everyday issues, self-improvement,

well-being, business and finance.

And we welcome special guests too.

So join us.

It'll be a good time, I promise.

Thanks again for listening.

Have a fantastic day and

we'll see you tomorrow.