Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and
welcome back to another Monday.
Hope you had a great
weekend, but despite that,
I was kind of hoping we'd get a second
Sunday here in a row.
So I did a little research
and apparently that's
never happened before.
So with that not being a possibility,
let's get after it then
and make this a great Monday.
Today is Holy Monday.
It's the second day of the Holy Week
following Palm Sunday.
And today is also National Ex-Spouse Day.
This day is curiously
inserted into the calendar
exactly two months after Valentine's Day.
And it has become a time to reflect
on the positive moments
you shared with your ex.
That's correct.
Look, you married them.
There must've been
something you liked, right?
That is before they snapped.
I mean, think of them fondly for this day
before celebrating the
fact that they are now gone.
Well, hey, let's move on to the quote.
Let's see how long it
takes you to figure out
where this quote comes from today.
Here's the quote.
"I figure life's a gift
and I don't intend on wasting it."
Well, that's from the
character Jack Dawson
from James Cameron's Titanic.
Jack's right.
We have one life, we have to live it.
Well, today's news facts and
birthdays are for April 14th.
And we're gonna start back in 1865.
And that's when US
president Abraham Lincoln
was shot by John Wilkes Booth
at Ford's Theater in Washington.
And unfortunately, Lincoln
passed away the next day.
Well, this continues to be a tragic day
on this day in history because in 1912,
the RMS Titanic hit the
infamous iceberg today at 1140 PM.
Obviously, as we all know,
it ultimately led to
the sinking of the ship.
All right, no more
tragic facts for this day.
The next fact for this day is in 1981.
And that's when the first
space shuttle, Columbia One,
it returned to Earth after
two days and six hours in space.
And then next on this date back in 1986,
that's when the heaviest hailstones
ever recorded hit Bangladesh
with hailstones that were
weighing about 2.2 pounds.
Apparently a total of 92
people died as a result.
Dang it.
That was another tragic fact.
All right, no more, I promise.
Let's move on to our
last fact from today.
You remember Napster?
Well, on this day back in 2000,
Metallica filed a lawsuit
against person-to-person
sharing website, Napster.
This lawsuit
eventually led to the movement
against file sharing programs.
Happy birthday to you.
Today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with
actress Sarah Michelle Geller.
She's 48 today.
And actor Adrian Brody, he's 52.
And the number one song
on this date back in 1985
was "We Are the World" by USA for Africa.
Now, I know everybody knows this song
because every popular artist at the time
was involved in the project.
I guess everyone except
for maybe Prince and Madonna,
those are two big
names that weren't in it.
But interestingly,
with all those big artists
showing up to record at the same time,
there was actually a sign
outside the studio that read,
"Check your egos at the door."
And I guess it worked for the most part
as they recorded all night
and they finished the song in one day.
Well, we won't take all night here,
but let's spend a few more
minutes on our book review.
We are reading Stephen R. Covey's
"The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People."
And in this first chapter, "Inside Out,"
Covey is discussing the differences
between character traits
and personality ethic.
And he's unpacking how our behaviors
are based on our
perspectives and our experiences,
our paradigms.
Yet, if we want to improve
our lives in a material way
beyond just having a better attitude,
we need to adjust our
paradigms to change the foundations
from which our
attitudes and behaviors flow.
Covey's next sub-chapter is,
"The Principle Centered Paradigm."
And as the name suggests, quote,
"The character ethic is
based on the fundamental idea
that there are principles that govern
human effectiveness."
End quote.
Here, Covey refers to a popular story.
Perhaps you've heard the one
about the captain of a battleship
that sees a light coming his way.
It's on a collision
course with his battleship.
And multiple times, the
captain of the battleship
and the other ship, the other light,
they go back and forth.
You change course.
No, you change course.
And despite the battleship's warnings,
the other ship says for the battleship
to change course instead.
Well, in the end, the other light
turns out to be a lighthouse.
Well, Covey says these
fundamental principles
are unmoving, like lighthouses.
Quote, "They are natural
laws that cannot be broken."
Covey says these foundational principles
are in every one of us.
Remember the maps in our heads?
Our own paradigms
through which we see the world.
Well, these maps of
ours are only our paradigms
that we have laid over
these foundational principles.
And the principles, as
Covey says, exist in all people.
They are not limited to a religion.
They are part of, quote,
"Enduring social
philosophies and ethical systems.
"They are self-evident
and can easily be validated
"by any individual.
"They seem to exist in all human beings,
"regardless of social
conditioning and loyalty to them."
End quote.
And this is even though
they may be less evident
in some people.
Okay, so what are these
foundational principles
that Covey is referring to?
Well, here's some of them.
Their fairness, integrity and honesty,
human dignity, service,
quality or excellence,
and potential.
Now, there are a few others
that Covey mentions as well,
and tomorrow we'll just dip
a toe into each one of these.
But Covey's just given us a taste here
of these profound foundational qualities.
And we'll also begin
tomorrow, the next sub-chapter,
entitled Principles of Growth and Change.
Remember people, one life, live it.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
Come back tomorrow and
have a fantastic Monday.
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
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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.