Good morning and
welcome to Morning Cereal.
Okay, good morning and
welcome to the middle of the week.
It's Wednesday everyone.
Now here are must vegetarians.
Today is national bacon lovers day.
We're honoring the unofficial breakfast
meat MVP that also goes
well with that club sandwich
at lunch and it really goes pretty good
with a hamburger for dinner.
Thank you pigs.
All right, vegetarians,
you can now rejoin us.
It's also national radio day celebrating
the medium that once
brought us dedications and
school cancellations.
Simpler times.
Well, now a quote from Demi Lovato to get
you going this morning.
Demi Lovato said, "You are stronger than
you think and braver than you seem."
Now I bet if you really dig down, you'll
find out that you've
got a lot more grit than
you give yourself credit for.
All right, well, today's news facts and
birthdays are for August
20th and start back in 1882.
That's when Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture,
well, it debuted in Moscow.
Then moving up to 1920, that's when the
professional football
association, the PFA, well, don't
recognize that.
It was formed by Jim
Thorpe as the president.
Well, later it became the National
Football League, right?
Nice to see football
on TV again right now.
Go Broncos.
Then lastly, we're going to mention on
this day in 2000, the
PGA Championship for men's
golf.
Well, Tiger Woods, he would win back to
back PGA titles after a
three-hole playoff with
Bob May.
And he became the first player to win
three majors in a
calendar year since Ben Hogan
did it in 1953.
Well, happy birthday to you.
Today is your birthday.
You share a birthday
with singer Demi Lovato.
She's 33 today.
Actor Andrew Garfield.
He's only 42 today.
Actors Amy Adams.
She's 51 today.
And Robert Plant, the
lead singer of Led Zeppelin.
He's 77 today.
And now the number one song on this date
back in 2008, "I Kissed
a Girl" by Katy Perry.
Now, this pop anthem, it sparked
controversy and I guess a lot of
conversations as this
was Katy's first single.
And it had a little bit of some cheeky
lyrics and a catchy beat, right?
And with that, it shot to number one and
it became really a staple
of the late 2000s radio.
Here's a fun fact for you.
It was written in just 15 minutes.
And who doesn't like Cherry Chapstick?
Well, I'm reading a book and I liked it.
And that book is Stephen R. Covey's "The
7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
And in the sub-chapter "Understanding and
Perception," Covey is
drawing attention to
a fundamental flaw in
most human communication.
And it's the way our personal perceptions
filter everything we hear and we see.
Talked about it a little bit yesterday.
Covey explains that when we interact with
others, we rarely
engage with reality as it
truly is.
Instead, we engage with
reality as we interpret it, okay?
That interpretation is
colored by our experience.
Our emotions at that time and our
expectations at that time.
Covey says that, quote, "Most people do
not listen with the intent to understand.
They listen with the
intent to reply," end quote.
Now this is at the heart of the problem.
Instead of truly focusing on another
person's perspective, we listen through
our own autobiographical
lens, thinking about how what's being
said connects to our own story.
And we're starting to prepare our
responses or we're
silently maybe judging whether or
not we agree with what they're saying.
So the result is that genuine
understanding rarely takes place.
Perception, Covey
stresses, is not the same as truth.
Two people can hear the same words and
walk away with entirely
different impressions.
I know I've had that happen.
I'm sure you have too.
But it's simply because our frames of
reference are different from each other.
So for Covey, this means that seeking
first to understand
requires a deliberate suspension
of our own biases.
We must enter another's frame of
reference, not to agree
with it or approve of it, but
to see it accurately for what it is.
And that actually hearkens back to some
of Dale Carnegie's habits as well.
Well, Covey also explains that
misunderstanding is costly.
When we assume we understand but we fail
to check our
perception, we often rush into
decision.
Then we misdiagnose problems or we give
advice that misses the mark.
And this is why Covey insists that
effective communication
begins with empathic listening,
right?
The practice of listening to both words
and feelings with the
goal of grasping the meaning,
not formulating a reply.
And Covey also underscores that empathic
listening is not passive, okay?
It requires effort,
humility, and discipline.
And it means setting aside the urge to
control the conversation,
instead allowing the other
person's perspective to fully emerge.
Now, only once people feel understood,
Covey would argue, that's
when they will open themselves
to influence or to dialogue.
And the lessons of this sub-chapter,
understanding and perception, it's clear.
If we hope to be effective in our
relationships, we must first
acknowledge how limited and
subjective our own perceptions can be.
By making the choice to listen with the
intent to understand, we
create the conditions for
trust and clarity and cooperation.
All right, thanks for hanging in there.
Here's your takeaway.
True understanding is not automatic.
It begins with recognizing the limits of
our perception and then
making the conscious choice
to listen for meaning, not for a reply.
All right, so whether you're frying some
bacon today or just
trying to get that radio just
dialed in just right,
anybody remember doing that?
Well, today is about
craving connection and clarity.
Thanks for tuning in.
Join us tomorrow for some
more nostalgia and morning zine.
Hey, have a fantastic day.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to
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You can find more episodes and videos by
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Inglis and at ShawnInglis.com, where you
can also follow our
other podcasts, the Mr. and
Mrs. Inglis podcast and
the Life Happens podcast.
And these other podcasts will dive deeper
into everyday issues,
self-improvement and
business and finance, and we
welcome special guests too.
So join us.
It will be a good time.
I promise.
Thanks again for listening.
Have a fantastic day and
we'll see you tomorrow.