Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning
and welcome to Thursday.
And good news if you haven't left for
work today or if you
haven't logged in yet.
Today is national.
Don't go to work unless it's fun day.
Sounds great, but my grandmother would
never let me hear the
end of it if I skipped out
our work.
So I guess we'll just
have to make work fun today.
Well, it's also national find a rainbow
day and we've got some
rain in the area today
so I might actually be able to
participate in finding a rainbow today.
But lastly, if all else
fails, it's world party day.
So grab your gazoos and your crazy
glasses and let's hit the rave.
I think I just really
showed my age there.
That's what I think a world
party day makes me think of.
Oh well.
Well, here's a question for you.
Do people still say
kill them with kindness?
Well, Cobie Smulders may not think it's
happening as much as it used to.
She said, "Kindness is something that I
feel is leaving us a bit.
People are getting more self-involved."
And that's a sad state if
that's true folks, right?
We need to bring back kindness.
All right, well, let's take a look at
today's news facts and
birthdays for April 3rd.
And we're going to start back in 1882
when on this date,
Jesse James was murdered by
his own gang for the reward money.
Well, that wasn't kind.
Then in 1924 on this date, actor and
Superman's dad and
everybody's favorite godfather, Marlon
Brando was born.
Then in 1953, the first issue of the TV
Guide was published
with the cover featuring a
picture of Lucille Ball's newborn baby.
You can see it right here if you're
watching on YouTube.
Then in 1973 on this date, the very first
mobile phone cell call
is made from downtown
Manhattan, New York City by Motorola
employee Martin Cooper.
And he called Joel Engel at the Bell Labs
headquarters in New Jersey.
Now apparently his first words were,
"Joel, I'm calling you from
a real cellular telephone,
a portable handheld telephone."
It would be about 25 years later that I
bought my first cell phone.
Well, lastly in 1996, this is the date
that federal agents in
Montana apprehended Ted
Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
Well, happy birthday.
If today is your birthday, you share a
birthday with actor Alec Baldwin.
He's 67.
Comedian Eddie Murphy.
He's 64 today.
Actress Jenny Garth from 90210 fame.
She's 53.
Actress Cobie Smulders from How I Met
Your Mother and the MCU.
She's 43 today.
And singer Leona Lewis.
She's 40 years old today.
And the number one song on this date back
in 1982 was, "I Love
Rock and Roll" by Joan
Jett in the Blackhearts.
Now everybody knows this song, right?
I mean, put another
dime in the jukebox, baby.
Everybody knows this.
But interestingly, the writer of the song
was based in England
and he wanted that line
to be put another coin in the jukebox to
make it more universal.
Well, this is also another song that
Weird Al Yankovic
recorded a parody of with his
title, "I Love Rocky Road."
Well done, Al.
I do too.
Well, I also like some self-improvement.
And today we start in earnest reading
Stephen R. Covey's The 7
Habits of Highly Effective
People.
And recall, we are beginning the first of
four parts in this
book called, "Paradigms
and Principles."
And this first chapter
is entitled, "Inside Out."
And Covey begins this chapter laying the
groundwork about why he
wrote this book, that over his
lifetime in both his personal and
professional settings that
he's known, "many individuals
who have achieved an incredible degree of
outward success, but
have found themselves
struggling with an inner hunger, a deep
need for personal
congruency and effectiveness
for healthy, growing
relationships with other people."
And Covey gives a few examples of things
people might say like,
"I just can't seem to keep
a promise I make myself.
And what's really important to me?
And they won't listen to me.
What can I do?
Or I still don't feel I'm living the
happy, productive,
peaceful life I want to live.
And lastly, I always wonder what other
people really think of me and my ideas."
So we are all human, and I'm sure at
least one of these
hits home for you, right?
Or perhaps you have
something similar you're thinking of.
Well, Covey says, "These are deep
problems, painful
problems, problems that quick fix
approaches can't solve."
Covey tells a quick story about how he
and his wife were
concerned with their son.
Their son wasn't being very successful in
school or on the athletic field.
And they tried to be supportive, but this
didn't help and they
could see his self-esteem
as being affected.
Covey at that time was studying
expectancy theory and
self-fulfilling prophecies, leading
him to focus on just how important our
perceptions are, how they
are formed, and how they are
the lens through which we see this world.
And if he and his wife were being honest,
the perception they had of their son was,
"That he was basically
inadequate, somehow behind."
And because of this, despite their
actions and words, what
they really communicated to
him was, "You aren't capable.
You have to be protected."
Covey and his wife concluded, "We began
to realize that if we
wanted to change the situation,
we first had to change ourselves.
And to change ourselves effectively, we
first need to change our perceptions."
There they are again,
perceptions and perspectives.
Both Covey and Carnegie are big on
identifying these and then
reacting appropriately from
there.
Well, we'll dive deeper into this
tomorrow in Covey's
sub-chapter, The Personality and
Character Ethics.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
Be kind today, people,
and come back tomorrow.
And of course, 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
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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.