Good morning.
And welcome to your morning cereal.
Well, hello and welcome to Friday.
Well, we're in this kind
of in-between holiday haze
that we've just got another week or so of
that we're just kind
of making it through.
Not that I'm complaining,
I really enjoy this time.
We're lucky enough to
have a little extra time
with the family over this time period.
Well, I guess we've got
the weekend coming up here
and some of us might be
looking at end of the year parties
or planning for a New Year's Eve
celebrations next week.
So like I already said,
we're kind of in this
holiday celebrating mode
and I hope you and your family
are really enjoying the time as well.
Okay, well, let's go ahead
and jump into today's episode
with today's quotes where we
give one fun nostalgic quote
from the 80s, 90s or
2000s and then a second quote
to tease our book
review later in the episode.
I'm hopeful one of the
quotes will speak to you
and jumpstart your day
in a positive direction.
Also, it's national fruitcake day.
So that's already a big win for us today.
All right, the first
quote is from Hope Floats
and it seems to fit on a
lazy Friday between holidays.
So here it is.
"My life has no big
meaning or direction or purpose
and I'm happy."
I like that.
Sometimes it's harder to
be happy than we think.
Okay, and today's teaser
quote from the book review is,
"I've asked too much, too much."
As usual, we'll unpack
that here in a minute
during the book review segment.
But first, let's jump into
our usual dose of nostalgia
and fun facts from this day in history.
Today's nostalgic and historic news facts
are for December 27th.
In 1831, Charles Darwin
set sail on the HMS Beagle,
beginning the voyage on
which he would formulate
his theory of evolution.
As a side note, that's the answer
to a trivial pursuit question.
So pocket that little tidbit of info.
In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened up
at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
In 1947, the first airing of NBC's
Howdy Duty Show took place.
I vaguely remember
seeing the show as a kid.
I'm not sure if those were reruns
or if it was still
running at that point in time.
In 1975, Queen scored
their first number one album
in the UK with A Night at the Opera,
which included their
first number one hit,
Bohemian Rap City.
In 1981, Edmonton oiler Wayne Gretzky
became the fastest NHLer to
get 100 points in a season.
It took him 38 games.
I honestly can't
believe Wayne Gretzky facts
are from the early 80s.
Time flies.
Okay, in 2008, Taylor
Swift began a seven week run
at the top of the album
charts with her album Fearless,
featuring the title track, Love Story,
and You Belong to Me.
And speaking of Tay Tay,
how are those Kansas City Chiefs doing?
Okay, moving on to birthdays.
Happy birthday, today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with a
somewhat short list today.
Here's the first one.
There it is.
Shay Mooney is a
singer from Dan and Shay.
He'll be just 33 years old.
That's incredible.
Timothy Chalamet from the
newest Wonka movie in Dune.
He's even younger.
He's 28 today.
And Shelly Ann Fraser Price,
you might know her as the gold medal
winning Jamaican sprinter.
She's 37 years old today.
So happy birthday to everybody.
And now to my favorite
segment of the morning serial,
the music of the 80s, the 90s, and 2000s.
Okay, and this song
was number one in 1995.
I know I say it on
every episode, I feel like,
but I guess because
they're all number one songs,
but you can definitely
recognize these songs
in the first bar.
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This is One Sweet Day by
Mariah Carey and Boys Da Men.
This song actually held the
number one spot for 16 weeks,
which broke Whitney Houston's I Will
Always Love You record.
We talked about that yesterday.
In fact, the One Sweet
Day record would stand
for an incredible 23 years
as the longest number one
at the top of the
billboards for 16 weeks.
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The early to mid 90s
were my high school years,
so these songs just really take me back.
So you might be asking,
what song broke the record?
That stood for 23 years.
Well, it was this song.
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Old Town Road by Lil Nas X.
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Another great song, don't get me wrong.
It's on my playlists.
I think it's on my workout list too.
All right.
Well, and finally, here's the anthem song
from the number one movie in 1984.
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Another easy one to recognize,
but the name of it
would be hard to remember.
I would never have remembered it.
This is probably another quiz answer.
Anyways, it's Axle F
by Harold Falton Mayer,
and it's from the
number one movie in 1984,
Beverly Hills Cop.
I need to rewatch
that movie at some point.
I did notice that it's rated
R when I was preparing this,
so I can only imagine what's in it.
Right now, most PG-13
movies from the 80s are rated R
by today's standards.
All right, great song, great movies.
Okay, well, let's move
on to some enlightenment
in the book review
segment of Morning Serial,
where we take a few moments
to reflect on lessons learned
from the current book we're reading.
And currently, we're
reading through Dale Carnegie's
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
It's a timeless book that's
consistently on must read lists
and it's packed with rock solid advice
for all of us to use
and build healthy foundational concepts
and actions to live by.
All right, well, we're
finishing up chapter one today.
And it's entitled, If
You Want to Gather Honey,
Don't Kick Over the Beehive.
On the last show, we
discussed how the art
of dealing with
people is a learned process
and that it also includes self-control
to implement these skills.
We ended yesterday
with Carnegie pointing out
that we need to rise above our emotions,
above a situation, and
take a measured approach
to our actions and how we speak
and how we treat other people.
And ended with a quote
from Thomas Carlisle saying,
"A great man or woman shows his greatness
by the way he treats little men."
So this is a quote
that does hit home for me.
And I'm sure you're like
me in that we don't wanna be
the person that's
known to be quick to anger
or the person that just
snubs or blows somebody off
and skips right past them.
We don't want to be the person
that is always
defensive or one upper, right?
But we do want to be the
person that adds positivity
to whatever situation we're in.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm not an all rainbows
and unicorns kind of guy
all the time because there are times
when we do need to be more aggressive
and that's what the influence
part of the book is all about.
And we're gonna get to that.
So the final pages of
chapter one are dedicated
to a very popular classic poem entitled,
"Father Forgets" by W Livingston Learned,
which Carnegie uses as
a request to the reader
to consider before you
criticize other people.
And in this case,
specifically your children.
I'd encourage you to
Google Father Forgets
by W Livingston Learned
and read the whole poem for yourself.
It will take four minutes of your time.
And if you have kids, it
will definitely hit home.
And I will say it brought tears to my
eyes when I read it.
Okay, to summarize this poem,
one night a father
has a sudden realization
and he slips into his young son's room
while he's still sleeping.
And the father reflects
on the moments of harshness
towards his young son
throughout that particular day.
The father acknowledges his impatience
and his critical
behavior, scolding the young boy,
often for small mistakes,
nagging about his actions
and expecting perfection.
This is a quote from the poem
where the father is speaking to himself.
Quote, "What has habit been doing to me?
The habit of finding
fault or reprimanding."
End quote.
And as the father watches his son
peacefully sleeping,
he's overcome with remorse and love
as he realizes that he has, quote,
"Expected too much of youth.
I was measuring you by the
yardsticks of my own years."
End quote.
That is as true then as it is now.
I know as a father to my own children,
I hold them
accountable to tasks or behaviors
that I would expect of
an adult, not of children.
And likely when I was their age,
I was doing the same thing
that was age appropriate.
Back to the poem, the father,
as he's sitting besides his sleeping son,
he recalls his son's innocence
and pure love during the day
in between the father's constant scolding
as the son excitedly
waved goodbye to go to school,
but he didn't stand up straight enough.
And when the son came into
the father's office for a hug,
but dad was annoyed at the interruption.
And still, despite failure after failure
in his father's eyes,
the son still was spontaneously excited
to rush across the
room for a kiss goodnight.
As these thoughts flowed
through the father's mind,
the father felt ashamed.
And even though his
son may not understand,
the father's epiphany that night,
the father pledged to be a better dad.
Ending the poem with, "I
have asked too much, too much."
It's a powerful poem,
one that I think we can all relate to,
definitely if you have
kids, but even if you don't,
I read this book years
before I had children,
and I remember thinking
it gave me some perspective
on how my parents raised me.
So the poem serves as a reminder
to prioritize compassion
over criticism and parenting.
And that strategy also relates
to how we deal with other people.
Carnegie ends chapter
one with this, quote,
"Instead of condemning people,
let's try to understand them.
Let's try to figure out
why they do what they do.
That's a lot more profitable and
intriguing than criticism.
And it breeds sympathy, tolerance, and
kindness," end quote.
And Carnegie provides this final quote
from the English writer, Samuel Johnson,
who said, "God himself, sir, does not
propose to judge man
until the end of his days," end quote.
And that's a great point.
Take any one of us,
and at any given moment,
we may be having a win moment or a loss
moment in our lives.
I know we would not want to
be judged and characterized
solely by a single bad moment,
as though that's how
we live our whole life.
And I'm guessing that's how most other
people feel as well.
So Carnegie says, "If God judges a man
by the sum of his life, then
perhaps so should you and I."
That's pretty good advice,
and it's how Carnegie
brings us to the first principle
in how to win friends
and influence people.
And that is, quote, "Don't criticize,
condemn, or complain,"
end quote.
All right, nice work.
If you joined us for the last few days,
you've made it through chapter one
in "How to Win Friends
and Influence People."
Great job.
Tomorrow will begin chapter two,
which is entitled "The Big Secret of
Dealing with People."
So be sure to tune back in tomorrow
as we dive into chapter two.
(upbeat music)
And don't forget to follow and subscribe
to the Morning Serial podcast,
and The Life Happens
Live Balance channel.
You can find more episodes and videos
by visiting our YouTube
channel, At Shawningless,
or our website at atshawningless.com,
where you can also
follow our other podcasts
that are coming in January.
That's when our first
Mr. and Mrs. Inglis podcast
and The Life Happens podcast will hear.
So join us on those
other podcasts as well.
Thanks again for
listening, and have a fantastic day.
We'll see you tomorrow.
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