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 Wednesday.

Now I know it's hard to believe that

we're already to the

middle of the work week and

I think it's even harder to believe,

however, that we are at

the end of April already.

I mean, what a great month.

We've been moving into spring and now

we're just around the corner from summer.

Good times.

But maybe even harder to believe is the

fact that there is a national denim day.

And there is.

And it happens to be today.

So good news for those of us that grew up

in the 80s and the 90s

because we can go get

out our old jean jacket that was acid

washed or favorite pair

of blue jeans from the 80s

that were acid washed too, maybe.

I don't know.

But let me just say this.

There is no cheating allowed.

Those jeggings do not

qualify for national denim day.

And today is also national

hairstyle appreciation day.

And if your neighbor has a bad hairstyle,

it's okay to tell them

because today is also

national honesty day.

So the universe continues

just to bring it all together.

And lastly, I learned how to play mahjong

this last weekend at

a soccer showcase that

we're at with our team down in Austin.

So I want to say happy national mahjong

day to the mahjong moms.

That was a bit of a tongue twister there.

But I also want to say thank you to that

group of moms for letting

me into your group, sharing

some wine with me and having some laughs.

It was a lot of fun.

Well our quote today is not one of the

mahjong moms, but Amy

Grant is a mom and her quote

is about positivity and resilience.

And Amy Grant said quote, "More important

than talent, strength or knowledge is the

ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy

the pursuit of your dreams."

End quote.

All right.

Well, let's move on to today's news facts

and birthdays and they're for April 30th.

And we're going to start back in 1859.

And that's when Charles Dickens, a tale

of two cities, his

story was first published

in weekly installments that ran from

today through the end of

November in a periodical

called All the Year Round.

It's a great book.

And now moving to a great toy, on 1952,

the Mr. Potato Head toy

became the first toy advertised

on television on this date.

Then lastly on this date in 2009, you

might remember that

during the Great Recession,

the Chrysler Automobile Company, they

filed for Chapter 11

bankruptcy on this date.

Eventually they combined with Fiat so

that they could stay in

business so that we could

all buy our favorite Chrysler's.

Well, happy birthday to you

if today is your birthday.

You share a birthday

with actress Kirsten Dunst.

She's 43 today.

Actor from Christmas Vacation and the Big

Bang Theory, Johnny Galecki.

He's 50 today.

And NBA great and a member of the Detroit

Piston Bad Boys that

gave my Michael Jordan

such a hard time in

the 90s, Isaiah Thomas.

He turned 64 today.

And the number one song on this date back

in 1991 was Baby, Baby by Amy Grant.

Now this song, which is a love song, it

just has an air of innocence and fun.

And it really takes me back to those

innocent years of youth.

But for Amy, it was her second number one

hit following her

duet with Peter Satera on

the song The Next Time I Fall.

And this song, Baby, Baby,

it received three Grammy nods.

Well, let's give a nod to some

self-improvement here.

We are reading through Stephen R. Covey's

The Seven Habits of

Highly Effective People.

And we are in Covey's second chapter of

The Seven Habits, an

overview, where Covey discussed

how important and influential habits are

in our lives with

habits being defined as the

intersection of

knowledge, skills, and desire.

We all know that now.

And these habits we all know are a

maturity continuum, right?

It takes us from growing, from dependence

to independence to

interdependence, right?

And these habits we learned yesterday can

be highly effective

when properly implemented

in our lives and properly balanced.

So today, Covey's next sub-chapter here

in chapter two is three kinds of assets.

And he doesn't keep

them a secret from us.

The three assets Covey describes are

physical, financial, and human.

And the first asset Covey discusses is

physical, and he

compares it to a lawnmower.

Remember yesterday, we talked about the

need to take care of both or

balance both the production

and the production capability.

Well, Covey did not take care

or maintain of his lawnmower.

This would be his production capability.

And therefore, the lawnmower did not cut

the grass well anymore.

This would be the desired

result or the production.

And Covey says if he would have

maintained the lawnmower

along the way, it would have

continued to work and

produce its best results.

But since Covey had let it go without

maintenance, it was

basically not effective anymore.

And it would now cost far more to bring

the lawnmower, the

physical asset, back into its

peak performance.

So Covey's point here is if we ignore the

maintenance on

physical assets, whether they

be a lawnmower, a car, a computer, our

furnaces, our body, or

even our environment, it can

have a tremendous negative effect on the

effectiveness of those physical assets.

And you'll find that this is similar to

the second asset, financial assets.

Covey says, "Our most important financial

asset is our own

capacity to earn," and that

we must "continually invest in improving

our own production capability."

If we ignore this maintenance or this

growth of ours, then we

expose ourselves to being

"locked into our present situation,

running scared of our

corporation or our boss's opinion

of us, economically dependent and

defensive, and again, it

simply isn't effective."

Lastly, Covey talks about human assets.

And the way human assets fit into this

P-slash-PC balance is

just as fundamental.

And Covey believes more important,

"because people control

physical and financial assets."

Covey covers his human assets subject a

bit more in depth

before he finishes out this

sub-chapter.

So we're going to

finish that out tomorrow.

So come back for that as we dive into it

a little bit more, and

then we're going to finish

up that sub-chapter, which brings us, I

think, one or two

sub-chapters away from part two

of the book.

So we're making really good progress.

Well done.

Okay, if you're feeling extra frisky

today with your denim,

give those pant legs a little

tight roll at the bottom.

Hey, 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 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.