Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to
Thursday. It's the day that apparently
that just wants us to
forget our problems and dive face first
into dessert. Now, I can
get down with that. And
that's right, today is National Coconut
Cream Pie Day. It's also
Give Someone a Cupcake Day
and Have a Coke Day. So if your blood
sugar isn't spiking just hearing that,
you're doing it wrong.
It's also No Socks Day, which means
you're legally allowed to free the dogs,
as my kids would say.
But preferably while enjoying sweets on a
porch somewhere, right?
Oh, and it's Reward Yourself
Day. So go ahead, eat the cupcake, eat
the cake, eat the pie, barefoot with a
Coke in one hand and
zero regrets. You've earned it. Probably.
All right, well, that sounds
pretty good. But we all know,
sometimes life just throws stuff at all
of us. But that pit in your
stomach, that racing heart
kind of pressure, that's often self
inflicted. And today's quote
comes from coach Bill Cowar,
who said, "Pressure is something you put
on yourself." Bill is
saying that we are in control
of that voice, right? We can ease up, we
can choose focus over
frenzy, progress over pressure.
So today, maybe loosen the grip a little.
Let the pressure be a
motivator, not a monster.
All right, well, today's news facts and
birthdays are for May 8.
We're going to start back in 1886,
because as you probably already guessed
it, Coca-Cola was invented on this day,
thus, Coca-Cola Day.
Well, according to legend, Dr. John Styth
Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, he
produced the syrup in a
brass pot in his backyard. It was first
intended as a patient
medicine. And now everyone in the
world knows Coca-Cola as one of the most
recognizable brands.
Then moving up to 1978,
Reinhold Messner and Peter Habler climbed
Mount Everest without
oxygen. Now, prior to the Italian
and the Australian Mountaineers ascent,
it was thought to be
impossible to conquer the world's
highest mountain without supplemental
oxygen. Okay, skipping up to
1980, that's when the World
Health Organization on this day announced
that smallpox had been
eradicated. Vaccines,
science, that's a good thing, folks. Look
at this picture. We
don't have that anymore.
Okay, off my soapbox. Lastly, in 1984, on
this day, Moscow
announced that the USSR would not
take part in the 1984 Olympics in Los
Angeles. Now, four years
earlier in 1980, the United States
had not sent any athletes to the Summer
Olympics in Moscow. Well,
happy birthday to you if today is
your birthday. You share a birthday with
singer Enrique Iglesias.
He's 49 today. And coach Bill
Cower, he's 68. And the number one song
on this day in 2000 was
"Maria Maria" by Santana featuring
the product GNB. Now, "Maria Maria"
dropped in 1999 and the song was a
genre-melding move that
fell totally on brand for a generation
that was raised on MTV and
Mashups. It was produced by
Wyclef Jean and the track spent a
whopping 10 weeks at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 2000.
And it was riding the wave of Santana's
supernatural comeback album,
which also gave us the song
Smooth with Rob Thomas. And let's be
real, if you were driving around in a
Honda Civic like me back
in 2000 with a six-disc changer in Y2K,
this track was definitely
on one of those burned CDs.
Well, you don't have to put the CD into
the CD changer because
right now we're going to hop
straight in to our book review. And as
you know, we're reading
through Stephen R. Covey's classic,
"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People." And we're cracking
open part two, chapter one,
and the section called "Proactivity
Defined." Sounds serious, but
you know how Covey likes his
definitions. But stay with me. It's going
to get good here. Now,
when most people hear the word
proactive, they think of someone who sets
goals or maybe responds to
emails before lunch. But Covey's
take goes a whole lot deeper. He says
being proactive is more
than just getting stuff done.
It's about claiming ownership of your
life moment by moment.
Here's the quote that really hits,
quote, "Between stimulus and response,
man has the freedom to choose," end
quote. So let's break that
down. Something happens. Maybe your boss
snaps at you, or your kid
spills OJ on your laptop, or
someone cuts you off in traffic. That
never happens. That's the
stimulus. Then there's your
response. Now, most of us, if we're
honest, we react instantly,
emotionally, without thinking.
But Covey says that's the biggest mistake
we can make because in
between what happens and what we
do, there's a space, a brief pause. And
in that space is our
freedom, our power to choose how we
will respond. He calls this ability
self-awareness. And he says it's one of
the traits that separates
us from animals. We talked about that
earlier this week, right? Dogs bark, cats
scratch, humans. Well,
we can pause. We can reflect. We can
choose, hopefully. Okay,
here's where we go even a little
bit deeper. Covey says, quote, "Proactive
people carry their own
weather with them," end quote,
which means if you're proactive, it
doesn't matter if the world is raining
stress or sunshine on you.
You decide how you show up. You can be
calm in chaos, focused in
noise, and kind in the middle
of someone else's meltdown. Or on the
flip side, Covey describes reactive
people, the ones who let
their environment, moods, or other
people's opinions dictate
their day. They say things like,
"I have to," or "That's just who I am."
But proactive people
speak a different language,
like, "I choose," or "I prefer," or
"Let's figure this out." They live by
values, not by moods.
They act based on principles, not
impulses. And if you're wondering what
this has to do with you,
here's the kicker. This power to choose,
it's not reserved for CEOs
or monks on a mountaintop,
it's yours already right now. It's in how
you talk to your spouse
before work. It's how you
handle that frustrating email. It's how
you show up today, especially
on a random Thursday in May.
Okay? So as you move through your day,
remember this, life's going
to throw things at you. Some
good, some chaotic, some just plain
weird, but you don't have to react on
autopilot. Between what
happens and what you do, there's a
choice, and that's where your growth
begins. Okay, that's it
for today's bite of the seven habits.
Tomorrow, we'll keep it
going, but until then, carry your
own weather, stay curious, and start your
day with intention. Hey, thanks for
joining us. We'll see
you back here tomorrow,
and have a fantastic day.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to
the Morning Serial
podcast on the One Life
Live It channel.
You can find more episodes and videos by
visiting our YouTube channel and the
website at Shawningless
and at Shawningless.com, where you can
also follow our other
podcast, the Mr. and Mrs.
Inglis podcast and the
Life Happens podcast.
In these other podcasts, we'll dive
deeper into everyday issues,
self-improvement and
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.