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)