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 Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 
In Part 2, Habit 2, we’ll explore Covey’s timeless advice on building authentic connections, the art of influence, and creating positive interactions in every area of life.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quotes to spark your motivation
  • Fun historical facts from this day in history
  • A dive into Part 2, Habit 2 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
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:
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. Free Press. 
 
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 morning cereal

Okay, good morning

and welcome to Thursday.

Well, it's the day after the midweek and

it's the day before

Friday, on a short week.

So if you really think about it, today

should be hump day and

tomorrow should be Thursday.

Either way, that's getting too confusing.

I'll take a short week any day and

welcome Friday tomorrow.

But first, well, it's National Mount

Everest Day and that's

commemorating the first successful

summit back in 1953.

climbing Everest?

Difficult.

Climbing out of bed this morning?

Nearly impossible.

And also requiring a big celebration

today is it's National

Paperclip Day, which means

it's time to show some

love to the office MVP.

And let's not sleep on all the things

that we MacGyver with paperclips.

Oh, and if you're feeling a little bit

wild today or just love

big lizards, it's National

Alligator Day too.

So pucker up buttercup.

Actually, just run.

Run fast.

Well, today's quote is from someone who

might wear crocodile boots.

And I'm speaking of rocker Gwen Stefani,

who said, "Being honest

and real and sensitive

is what makes people attractive."

And Gwen is reminding us that

authenticity beats perfection.

Whether you're navigating a career pivot,

parenting, or just picking a playlist for

your commute, showing up as yourself is

still the power move.

Well, today's news facts and

birthdays are for May 29th.

And we're going to start back in 1886

when on this date, American

pharmacist John Pemberton,

he began to advertise his patented

medicine Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.

Then in 1917 on this date, this was the

birthday of the late

President John F. Kennedy.

Then skipping up to 1942 on this date,

that's when being Crosby,

he recorded White Christmas,

which would become the best-selling

Christmas single in history.

Now I might need to fact check that.

I'm pretty sure Mariah Carey's "All I

Want for Christmas is Up There Too."

I'll get back to you on it.

Then lastly, in 1953, as we mentioned

earlier, Edmund Hillary and

Tenzing Norgay, they became

the first climbers to reach the summit of

Mount Everest, the

highest mountain in the

world.

Well, happy birthday to you.

If today is your birthday, you share a

birthday with Melanie Brown.

She's also known as Scary

Spice from the Spice Girls.

She turns 50 today.

Noel Gallagher, the lead guitarist and

songwriter for Oasis, he

celebrates his 58th birthday

today.

Then Melissa Etheridge, she's a

Grammy-winning rock singer-songwriter.

She's 63 today.

And lastly, Danny

Elfman, he's a composer.

You would know a lot of his work.

He worked on "The Nightmare Before

Christmas," and you would

definitely know he was the one

who did the Batman theme.

He turned 71 today.

Well, the number one song on this date

back in 2005 was "Holla

Back Girl" by Gwen Stefani.

Now, this track marked Stefani's first

solo number one single

in the United States, and

it showcased her transition from "No

Doubt's Front Woman" to

a solo pop, I guess what

we'll call an icon at this point.

Now, the song's catchy cheerleader chant

and its minimalist

production made it a standout

hit of the year.

And Gwen says of this song that it was

like her fight song.

And when asked what the true meaning of

the song is, Gwen says

she would never say what

it is, but she would only say, and this

is a quote, "I won."

Well, we're all winners here because

we're in the middle of

diving into Stephen R. Covey's

"The 7 Habits of

Highly Effective People."

And today, we're focusing on part two,

habit two, re-scripting,

becoming your own first

creator.

And Covey invites us to take a hard look

at the inner scripts

that govern our lives,

those mental narratives often written by

others that we unconsciously follow.

Now, these scripts are shaped by our

upbringing, our experiences,

and our emotional triggers.

And unless we challenge them, they

quietly dictate our

responses and our actions and

even our sense of identity.

So we cannot forget that we are

self-aware creatures, and we are also

capable of imagination

having conscience.

As such, Covey says that we have an

incredible potential within each of us

because self-awareness,

when combined with imagination and

conscience, quote, "empower

us to write our own script,"

end quote.

Covey recalls the story of King Faroq in

Egypt, who despite his

wealth and his power, he lived

a hollow life driven by

external symbols of success.

And it was only later in his life, even

after being in prison,

that he actually realized

the deeper truth of success, quote, "Real

success is success

with self, not with the

trappings of status or

achievement," end quote.

And that's the

foundation of this chapter.

Before we can achieve public victories,

we must first rewrite

the private scripts that

define how we see ourselves.

Many of us carry ineffective scripts

handed to us by our

parents, by teachers, or these

social norms today.

And they're scripts that often say we're

not enough, that our

value is tied to productivity

or that we're too old

or too broken to change.

And these scripts, they lead us to react

instead of act, to

shrink instead of grow.

And we become so tangled in problems and

daily pressures that

we lose touch with the

values that we once held dear.

Covey points out that when we become

problem centered rather

than principle centered, our

true priorities get buried.

And we end up chasing

urgency instead of meaning.

So what's the good news here?

We have the power to

re-script or shift our paradigms.

The process of re-scripting then is about

peeling back those

layers of limitation and

rediscovering the core

values that inspire us.

It's about shifting from a mindset bound

by a limited past to one

empowered by a limitless

potential.

Quote, "Our most important work," Covey

writes, "is always ahead

of us, never behind us."

So when we operate from vision and values

rather than wounds

and habits, we gain the

clarity to create a

new internal blueprint.

When we get too buried under those layers

of problems and to-do

lists, we tend to lose

sight of those values

and we become reactive.

That's when our interactions with our

children or our spouse or

our friends and family, our

coworkers, at times, those reactions do

not reflect or even

resemble what our core values

are or the way we

actually feel about them.

Instead, tie yourself to your limitless

potential instead of your limiting past.

Okay, here's the takeaway.

You are not your past.

You are your potential.

Rescripting is the act of rising above

old definitions of

yourself and authoring a life

based on intentionality,

principle-centered choices.

It's a conscious decision

to live forward with meaning.

And just like keen for rope learn, true

victory is not

conquering the world but mastering

yourself first.

Okay, that wraps up today's

episode of Morning Serial.

And as you navigate your Thursday,

remember that you have the

power to reshape, re-script

your life's narrative.

Also remember that kissing

alligators is a bad decision.

Thank you for joining us today.

We'll see you back here tomorrow.

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 seaningless

and at seaningless.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.