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 Thursday.

Now, I know what you're

thinking, blah, blah, blah, Sean.

Well, that's okay because today is

national blah, blah, blah day.

Well, let's just probably keep that

between the two of us though.

And today is also national high five day.

So there we go, air high five to

everybody watching on YouTube.

Today is also

national cheese ball day and

I've got a good buddy that lives out in

Colorado and he knows I am not gonna let

national cheese ball day go by without a

shout out to him and

his Costco sized cheese ball crates or

totes that he used to eat all the time.

High five to you, your

body survived those days.

Okay, well, let's go ahead and move on to

our quote for today and

this will be the second quote that we

have from Jennifer Garner.

And she's now joining Jim Carrey as a

multiple quote giver here on Morning

Cereal.

Well, Jennifer Garner said, quote, beauty

comes from a life well lived.

If you lived well, your smile lines are

in the right places, end quote.

Thanks, Jen.

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

and birthdays and they're for April 17th.

On this day back in 1970, Paul McCartney,

he released his first

solo album called McCartney.

Then on the same day in 1970, Apollo 13

safely returned to Earth following

those major issues that made them abort

their moon landing mission.

Then in 2002 on this date,

the TV show General Hospital.

Do you guys remember watching that?

Maybe your parents watching that?

Well, in 2002 on this day,

it aired its 10,000th episode.

That's ABC's longest

running soap opera and

it's the longest running

program still in production today.

The soap began airing in

1963 and as of two days ago,

it aired its 15,690th show.

So just by comparison, everybody knows

how long The Simpsons

have been on, right?

They've been on the air since 1989.

They have been extremely lazy and only

released 785 episodes.

Well, finally, back in 2011 on this date,

based on the novels by George RR Martin,

the show Game of

Thrones premiered on HBO.

Well, happy birthday to you

if today is your birthday.

You share a birthday with

singer Victoria Posh Spice Beckham.

She's 51 today and

actress Jennifer Garner.

She's 53 today.

The number one song on this date back in

1999 was No Scrubs by TLC.

This is a classic song from the last year

of the 20th century.

It's about men who have

nothing going on for them,

but hit on women just the same.

Sadly, that's probably not

just a 20th century problem.

Too many cheese puffs.

Okay, well, let's move

on to our book review.

And as you know, we're reading through

Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of

Highly Effective People.

And in this first

chapter entitled Inside Out,

Covey is discussing the differences

between character

traits and personality ethic.

And he's unpacking how our behaviors are

based on our perspectives

and our experiences,

what he calls our paradigms.

And Covey describes the idea that despite

our individual paradigms,

within each of us exists an awareness of

certain innate foundational principles

like fairness, integrity, and honesty

that cannot be broken

and they're self-evident one degree or

another in every one of us.

And yesterday, we began Covey's

sub-chapter Principles

of Growth and Change.

And Covey was laying the groundwork that

it is these types of

foundational concepts

that we must build real

change upon and step by step.

This process of growth is difficult to

rush or shortcut, no matter what it is

you're trying to learn.

Covey gives a quick example of learning

to play the piano, right?

You can't rush that.

There's no shortcut that can teach you to

play the piano better, faster.

And it's similar and just as difficult

and you cannot shortcut

emotional growth as well.

So Covey tells a story of a situation

between himself and his young daughter,

where at her birthday party, she was just

clutching all of her presents,

refusing to share them

with her party guests.

And Covey was embarrassed as he was

attempting to get her to share with the

other kids at the party.

He started feeling the pressure and felt

the judgment from the

other parents that were there.

So Covey asked his

daughter twice to share.

Then he reasoned with

her, quote, "If you share,

they will share their

toys with you," end quote.

All emphatic no's from his daughter.

Now Covey with his growing embarrassment

and having no

influence over his daughter,

Covey then tried bribery,

offering a piece of gum.

Again, a no from his daughter.

Then Covey, now getting

upset, he resorted to, quote,

"fear and threat," saying, "unless you

share, you will be in

real trouble," end quote,

to which the daughter

quadrupled down now with a no.

They were her toys and

she didn't have to share.

Finally, Covey resorted to force and

simply just took some of the toys

and gave them to the

other kids to play with.

And as Covey reminisced on this, what he

viewed as a failure

of himself as a father,

he thought, quote, "Perhaps my daughter

needed the experience of

possessing the things before she could

give them," end quote.

Covey felt his desire not to feel judged

by the other parents

affected his parenting and he did not

provide the proper

patience and understanding.

Here's Covey's

primary point of the story.

To compensate for his own deficiency of

patience and understanding, he, quote,

"borrowed strength from

his position and authority

and forced her to do what he

wanted her to do," end quote.

This borrowed strength, Covey is

referring to, builds weakness in both

people in the situation,

in the borrower, it, quote, "reinforces

dependence on external factors to get

things done," end quote.

And in the person that's being forced to

acquiesce, it builds weakness, quote,

"stunting the development of independent

reasoning, growth, and internal

discipline," end quote.

And it ultimately, quote, "builds

weakness in the relationship," end quote,

"as fear replaces cooperation and sows

seeds of defensiveness."

Lastly, Covey discusses the idea that

kids and people in

general need to, quote,

"gain a sense of real possession before

they can give back and share naturally,

freely, and spontaneously," end quote.

Before someone can properly give and

share in a marriage, in a family,

they need to, quote, "possess themselves

their own sense of identity and

self-worth," end quote.

Now, that's definitely a

concept that makes you think.

Well, come back tomorrow because we're

going to dive into

Covey's next sub-chapter,

the way we see the

problem is the problem.

Well, high five on some self-improvement

this morning and another

high five on making it to

Friday Eve. 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.