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 James Clear, Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits shows how tiny, consistent improvements in daily habits—focused on systems rather than goals—compound over time to produce remarkable personal and professional results.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quote to spark your motivation
  • Fun Morning Cereal trivia question of the day
  • A dive into the Chapter 1 Atomic Habits
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:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery.
 
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 your morning cereal.

Okay, good morning and welcome to Friday.

And not just any Friday, you

probably already knew this,

but it is Friday the 13th today.

And it's our second of

three of them this year.

So maintain the status quo today,

avoiding black cats,

walking under ladders, all that stuff,

or just refusing to leave

the house entirely, whatever.

But it is also

National Good Samaritan Day,

a day that's dedicated

to doing something kind

for someone else, help a

neighbor buy someone a coffee,

or at the very least,

hold that elevator door

for that person that you're just

pretending not to see.

All right, well,

speaking of helping people out,

the answer to yesterday's trivia

question, Esperanto.

Esperanto is the most widely spoken

artificial language,

spoken in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

And now it's time for

the essential vitamins

in your morning cereal today's quote.

And it is from birthday

girl, Michaela Schrifrin.

The Olympic skier,

she's turning 31 today.

And she once said, quote,

"Winning doesn't always mean being first.

Winning means you're doing better

than you've ever done before," end quote.

Now here is your morning D code.

Success isn't always

about beating everyone else.

It's often about beating yesterday's

version of yourself.

All right, well, let's go ahead and hear

from the experts now.

It is time to pour in some

atomic habits by James Clear.

And today's section is called, "What

Progress Is Really Like."

Now, James Clear, he

challenges a common misconception here

that we all have.

We believe that

progress should be linear.

We expect improvement to look like a

steady climb upward.

More effort equals more results,

but real life, it rarely works that way.

Instead, Clear explains

that progress often follows

what he calls the

plateau of latent potential.

Now stay with me here.

In the early stages of any habit,

whether it's fitness,

a business, writing,

or learning a new skill,

you often see little

or no immediate results,

which is why many

people, they quit early.

But what's actually

happening is that improvement

is compounding beneath the surface, okay?

Clear writes this, quote,

"Breakthrough moments

are often the result

of many previous actions

which build upon the potential

required to unleash a

major change," end quote.

Now think about an ice

cube that's sitting in a room

that's slowly warming up.

At 28 degrees, nothing happens.

At 31 degrees, still nothing happens.

But at 32 degrees, suddenly it melts.

Now, the work done in

those earlier degrees,

it wasn't wasted, it

was necessary preparation

for the breakthrough,

for the ice to melt.

Now, Clear explains that

habits behave the same way.

The early stages feel invisible,

but they are quietly building momentum.

He also notes that people

often fall into what he calls

the valley of disappointment.

I love what he calls things like this.

This is the moment when

expectations and results

don't match yet.

People assume that the

system just isn't working.

When in reality, they

simply haven't reached

the tipping point yet.

Clear writes this, quote,

"Your work was not wasted,

it is just being stored,"

end quote.

And that is incredibly powerful.

Small improvements compound,

just like interest in

a bank account, right?

We keep comparing it to that, right?

A 1% improvement each day,

it may not feel dramatic,

but over time, it produces some

remarkable transformation.

So the key lesson here is

patience with the process.

Instead of expecting instant results,

successful people, they trust

that small, consistent habits

are quietly shaping future outcomes.

All right, here it is.

Your Friday the 13th

takeaway is stay consistent,

long enough to push through the plateau,

because breakthroughs usually arrive

right after people give up.

All right, serial squad.

Whether you're dodging bad

luck on this Friday the 13th

or just trying to finish

that first cup of coffee today,

remember that small habits today

are quietly building

big results tomorrow.

All right, now the prize from

the bottom of the cereal box,

the morning cereal

trivia question of the day.

Here it is, name five, just five of them,

of the 12 European

countries where the euro

replaced the local currency in 2002.

All right?

So hey, thanks for

listening to Morning Cereal.

We will see you back here on Monday

for the answer to the trivia question

and for more sugar for the soul.

So have a great weekend.

Good luck to you and

your March Madness teams,

unless of course you're

playing the Kansas Jayhawks,

then Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

But until then, have a fantastic day.

(upbeat music)