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 1, 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 1 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 Friday.

And be sure to make the most of it

because this is the

final Friday of April.

I don't want to put too much pressure on

you, but I'm going to

go ahead and put a little

bit more pressure on you right now

because today is National Arbor Day.

So celebrate it by

planting a tree if you can.

Over 500 million trees have been planted

since the first Arbor Day back in 1872.

Well it is also World Penguin Day, so I'm

not sure they will

appreciate Arbor Day or

the fact that it's National

Hairball Awareness Day too.

But perhaps they will appreciate the fact

that it's National Lingerie Day.

You know those penguins?

They're frisky little critters.

Well today's quote embraces the natural

flow of life, which

sometimes is easier said than

done.

Well Al Pacino said quote, "If something

is working, don't fix it."

End quote.

Well today's news facts and

birthdays are for April 25th.

We're going to start back in 1953 and

that's when the double

helix structure of DNA was

first announced in academia.

Then we're going to skip all the way up

to 1990 when on this date

the Hubble Space Telescope,

it was released into orbit.

And now that the Hubble Space Telescope

was unhindered by the

impurities and the distortions

of Earth's atmosphere, the nearly eight

foot telescope, it has

delivered some of the most

spectacular images of the

far reaches of the universe.

Well lastly on this date in 2011, the

largest tornado outbreak

ever recorded hit the U.S.

with a total of 358 confirmed tornadoes.

Well happy birthday to you.

If your birthday is today, you share a

birthday with actress who you had at

Hello, Renee Zellweger,

she's 56 and

basketball player Tim Duncan.

He's 49 today and actor and of course my

favorite godfather Al Pacino.

He's 85 today.

Well the number one song on this date

back in 1993 was "Informer" by Snow.

Now this song did not define the decade

and it wasn't super huge

but I think you'd remember

it if you heard it.

So again real quick you can check out the

Instagram page for the

clips of these songs.

Like the Canadian singer Snow, he wrote

this song while he was

in jail for a fight he was

involved in and apparently he wrote the

song to entertain his fellow inmates.

Well it was entertaining enough to top

the charts at number one for seven weeks.

Well let's entertain ourselves here just

for a few more minutes

in our book review segment

and as you know we're reading through

Stephen R. Covey's "The

Seven Habits of Highly Effective

People" and we're 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" end quote.

And Covey is acknowledging that it'll

take tremendous effort to

change these deeply embedded

habitual tendencies.

And yesterday we talked about how these

habits were on a maturity

continuum that consisted

of growing from dependence to

independence to interdependence and

respectively growing

from the paradigms of "you take care of

me" versus "I can take

care of me" versus "we

can do it."

So continuing in Covey's sub-chapter "The

Maturity Continuum"

it's fairly obvious that

as we grow the maturity level of

independence is more

than that of dependence.

And here Covey warns us that although

independence is a quote "major

achievement" it's not

the supreme goal.

And again Covey is aware that the current

social norms quote "put independence on a

pedestal as though communication,

teamwork, and cooperation

were somehow lesser values"

end quote.

He feels that interdependence has

seemingly gotten a bad rap

as the current norms view

interdependence as turning away from

everything that tells us

how strong and successful we

are to be independent.

To describe this Covey uses terms like

becoming liberated or

asserting themselves or doing

their own thing.

And Covey warns us that this quote often

reveals more fundamental

dependencies that cannot

be run away from because they are

internal rather than external end quote.

So for example these internal

dependencies would allow us

to ruin our emotional lives

because of other people's weaknesses or

quote "feeling

victimized by people and events

that are out of our control" end quote.

Covey is just saying to be careful that

your independence is true

quote "true independence

of character empowers us to act rather

than be acted upon" end quote.

And again independence is great but quote

"it is not the ultimate goal in effective

living" end quote.

There are a lot of great people out there

who are great

individual producers but Covey

says quote "independent people who do not

have the maturity to

think and act interdependently

they won't be good leaders

or team players" end quote.

And they could struggle to succeed in

things like a marriage or

family or an organizational

reality.

So remember the natural order of life on

this planet and in humans is

to be highly interdependent

right.

Here's a longer excerpt from the book

that I think spells out

and it sums up what Covey

is talking about regarding the

differences between both the good

qualities right of dependence

and further along the

maturity continuum interdependence.

Here's the quote "Interdependence is far

more mature a more advanced concept.

If I am physically interdependent I am

self-reliant and capable but I also

realize that you and

I working together can accomplish far

more than even at my best

I could accomplish alone.

And if I'm emotionally interdependent I

derive a great sense of

worth within myself but I

also recognize the need for love

forgiving and for

receiving love from others.

And then finally if I'm intellectually

interdependent I realize

that I need the best thinking of

other people to join

with my own" end quote.

Well thanks for sticking in there with us

I know we're jamming a

lot of great information

into about a three or four minute book

review process here but I

hope you're sticking with

us and I hope it's

making good sense for you.

Well stick with us because on Monday

we're going to finish up

this longer sub chapter

of the maturity continuum before we move

on to the next sub chapter which is

called Effectiveness

Defined.

Hey thanks for joining us today enjoy

your weekend we'll see

you back here on Monday

refreshed and restored

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 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.