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 1, Chapter 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 1, Chapter 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 Monday.

Well, I hope you had

a great weekend. Now,

I had a great one. I spent most of the

weekend in Austin with my oldest son. We

had some soccer showcases and we just had

a really good time, but it's always

nice to come home. And as usual, now that

it's Monday, we're hitting the ground

running, right? But this Monday, the

clock is ticking even a

bit faster, for some of

you maybe, and that's because it's

biological clock day. So in the event

that applies to you, you had better get

working on it. Well, today is also global

pay-it-forward day. Now, I paid for a

stranger's tank of gas last week, so just

in case someone's looking to pay that one

forward, I'll be at 7-11 on Highway 14

tomorrow. So if you're in the area or,

well, you know, you get the hint. And

lastly, it's National Superhero Day. So

celebrate your

favorite superhero. There's

so many of them to pick from, but I'm

just gonna tell you who mine is. Mine's

always been and it always will be

Superman, right? So with that in mind,

today's quote is about taking action and

trusting in the

outcome. And the quote is,

"Sometimes you have to take a leap of

faith first. The trust part comes later."

You know who said that? It probably

sounds familiar to you because you've

seen the movie, but that was Superman and

it's very apropos on this National

Superhero Day. Well, today's news facts

and birthdays are for April 28th and

we're gonna start back in 1937. That's

when the first commercial flight across

the Pacific was operated by Pan Am. Then

we're gonna move up to 1988 and if

you're watching here on YouTube, look at

this picture over my right shoulder.

That's Aloha Airlines Flight 243 and you

might remember seeing this on the news,

but miraculously this flight landed after

losing the roof on a 35-minute

fight from Hilo to Honolulu when an

18-foot section of the fuselage just

tore off. That would be crazy scary. Just

look at that picture. And finally on this

date back in 2003, here's an old name but

a goodie, Andre Agassi. He recaptured the

world number one ranking and in doing so

at the time he became the oldest top

ranked male in history. He was just 33

years old in 13 days. Now that record was

broken in 2024 when Novak Djokovic was

ranked number one and he was 36 years

old in 321 days. And then finally on this

date also in 2003, Apple launched the

iTunes Store and in 2010, seven years

later, the store sold its 20 billionth

song. Now I still use the iTunes Store

but I've been told that that's showing

my age now. I still feel like I should

own my music. I don't

know. I guess that's

just old school. Well happy birthday to

you. Today is your birthday. You share

a birthday with actress Jessica Alba.

She's 44, actress Penelope Cruz. She's 51

today and colorful golfer John Daly. He's

59 today and comedian Jay Leno. He's 75.

And the number one song in this date back

in 1984 was Against All Odds. Take a

look at me now by Phil Collins. Now if

you're a regular morning serial listener

then you know how much of a huge fan I am

of Phil Collins. And this is just

another great song from Phil. This song

won the Grammy for best pop vocal

performance in 1985 but perhaps more

importantly it also helped me through

some heartbreaking breakups in junior

high and high school. Phil was always

there for me and this was his first of

his seven number one hits. Many of which

like I said helped me through many a

heartache. Great songs. Alright well no

heartbreak in our book review. That's

because we are reading Stephen R. Covey's

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective

People. And we are in Covey's second

chapter The Seven Habits in Overview

where Covey is discussing how important

and influential habits are in our lives

with habits defined as quote the

intersection of knowledge, skill, and

desire. And these habits are on a

maturity continuum and they consist of

growing from dependence to independence

to interdependence. And layered on top of

that respectively growing from the

paradigms of you taking care of me versus

I can take care of me versus we can do

it together. Right? So today we're gonna

finish up Covey's sub chapter The

Maturity Continuum. And recall on Friday

Covey was pointing out that in this

natural growth of maturity continuum from

independence to interdependence

that quote interdependence is far more

mature and more advanced concept end

quote. In fact Covey believes people that

are still in the dependent stage all

about themselves and blaming others that

they aren't mature enough quote they

don't have the character or own enough of

themselves end quote to choose on

their own to become interdependent. So

Covey says interdependent people have

the opportunity to share themselves

deeply and meaningfully with others and

in doing so they have access to the vast

resources and potential of other human

beings. And because a person or we need

to be masters of ourselves before we can

move into interdependence the first three

habits that Covey will cover later in

this book those habits deal with the

concept of self mastery. Now these are

the habits that lead to quote private

victories and if you recall Covey said

that private victories precede public

victories so these must come first. And

once we master our independence only then

do we have the right quote

foundation for effective interdependence

end quote and it is at that time now

where our inner character base now is

prepared for quote personality oriented

public victories. So those would be

things like teamwork cooperation and

communication which are Covey's fourth

fifth and sixth habits. So what Covey is

saying is that the first second and third

habits lead to our private victories

and then we're ready for our fourth fifth

and sixth habits which lead to our

public victories. So Covey here is quick

to note that you don't have to move into

the forest or to isolate or become a monk

to perfect habits one two and three

before you can move on to habits four

five and six but he wants you to more

understand that this is a sequence that

this growth process is most effective

and quote in harmony with the natural

laws of growth end quote. So what about

the seventh habit right the name of the

book is seven habits. Well that habit is

renewal quote a regular balanced renewal

of the four basic dimensions of

life end quote. So what Covey is saying

is that the seventh habit embodies all

the other habits by keeping them top of

mind by practicing them routinely and

continuing to improve them constantly on

a quote progressively higher plane end

quote. This process is not like math once

you learn it you know it right this

process is more like stretching if you

stop stretching you lose flexibility so

you need to keep on stretching. The

seventh habit helps keep us flexible so

it keeps the other habits prioritized and

effective in our lives. All right nice

work that was a long subchapter laying

some serious foundations for what is to

come and tomorrow we're gonna start a

short subchapter entitled effectiveness

defined. So don't forget on this Monday

to fight for truth justice and the

American way that was another Superman

quote for you if you didn't catch it.

Anyways thanks for joining us today come

back 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.