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

Wednesday. It's the middle of the week.

How are you feeling?

Does it feel like you're on the downhill

side of the week or is there still a

horizon or two to chase?

Well, if the week still has a heavy lift,

perhaps this will help lighten your load.

Today is National Unicorn Day.

I'm guessing you probably already knew

that, but what better way to lighten the

load than to celebrate the most popular

mythical creature ever, one that

symbolizes happiness,

fantasy and

wonder. It inspires childlike wonder and

magic or maybe they just look cool on

birthday cakes and t-shirts.

Either way, Happy National Unicorn Day.

By the way, do any of you remember the

80s cartoon called The Last Unicorn?

It had like a scary red bull in it. It's

kind of anime. Well, not

the point. Enjoy the day.

Here's the quote of the day from Andrew

Lloyd Webber who's talking about paying

attention to the details and

seeing things through. He said quote,

"What strikes me is that there's a fine

line between success and failure.

Just one ingredient can make the

difference." End quote.

Well, today's news facts and

birthdays are for April 9th.

We're gonna start back in 1959 when on

this date the Boston Celtics

ended their sweep of the

Minnesota Lakers in four games.

This would be the first of Boston Celtics

record eight straight titles.

Next, do you remember flying TWA

Airlines? If so, you're showing some

maturity if you do. Well, on this date in

2001, that's when American Airlines

officially completed its acquisition of

Transworld Airlines and became the

world's largest airline.

Then in 2005,

then Prince Charles, he

married Camilla Parker Bowles.

And as we all know, Charles was formally

married to Diana, Princess of Wales.

So this would be his second marriage,

making him the first member of the

British royal family

to have a civil wedding.

And then lastly in 2012, The Lion King

became the highest ever

grossing Broadway show.

And can you guess who it overtook? It

overtook the Phantom of the Opera, one of

my personal favorites.

Well, happy birthday to you if your

birthday is today. You share birthday

with actress Kristen Stewart. She's 35.

Actress Cynthia Nixon. She's 59. And

actor Dennis Quaid. He's 71.

And the number one song

on this date in 1987 was

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by

Starship. Now, this song appeared on the

soundtrack of the 1987 movie Mannequin.

And it was nominated for Best Original

Song Oscar. It was a great song.

Although it lost the Oscar that year to

the song "I've Had the Time of My Life"

from the movie Dirty Dancing.

These are some serious 80s classics here.

Well, how about we dive into our book

review of the classic Stephen R. Covey's

"The Seven Habits of

Highly Effective People"?

And as you recall in this first chapter

inside out, Covey is

discussing the difference between

character traits, which focuses on

character qualities like integrity,

temperaments, patience, modesty,

versus personality ethic, which Covey

believes is persuasive in today's society

and it teaches more superficial

quick fix techniques.

Covey is pointing out that the character

of who we are speaks much

louder than what we say we are.

So still in chapter one and moving into

another sub chapter here,

"The Power of a Paradigm".

Covey dissects the social paradigm, which

he describes as the way we perceive the

world, the way we

understand and interpret it.

He uses the illustration of thinking of

paradigms as a road map in our head in

how we see the world.

If we have the wrong map, then

diligence to work harder or a more

positive attitude, that's not going to

get us to the right destination, right?

Covey says we have two

primary maps in our head.

The first map is the way

things are, our realities.

And then the second map is the way things

should be, those are our values and

quote, "We interpret everything we

experience through these mental maps" end

quote. These realities and values that we

see the world through,

we assume that we are seeing things that

the way they are and then quote, "Our

attitudes and our behaviors

grow out of these assumptions" end quote.

So here's the rub, each of our mental

maps of reality and our values can be

different from someone

else's because these mental maps,

our realities, our values have been

conditioned over a lifetime of

experiences by quote,

"Influences in our lives, family, school,

church, work, environment, friends,

associates, current

social paradigms" end quote.

You follow, right? If the realities and

values that these maps in our heads in

which we perceive our worlds are all

specific to our individual

experiences, then quote, "Two people can

see the same thing, disagree, and yet

both be right. It's not logical,

it's psychological" end quote. Think of

the different news

channels right now, right?

Oftentimes stating the same facts and

Kovey says quote, "Each person's

interpretation of these facts

represents prior experiences and the

facts have no meaning whatsoever apart

from the interpretation" end quote.

That people have been conditioned, right?

These people have been conditioned to see

those facts from their prior experiences.

So the question then is, are any of us

really objective? Kovey suggests quote,

"We see the world not

as it is, but as we are,

or as we are

conditioned to see it" end quote.

So can we be objective? Yes, we can be,

but we must become more aware of our

basic paradigms, our mental maps, right?

The reality and the values that influence

our own experiences and behaviors,

and then become more open to the larger

picture that other perceptions and

perspectives exist outside of our own.

So Kovey brings this back around to

personality ethic, you know, positive

thinking and techniques,

and he points out the flaw saying quote,

"To try and change outward attitudes and

behaviors does very

little good in the long run

if we fail to examine the basic paradigms

from which those attitudes

and behaviors flow" end quote.

Well, there's a lot to digest there about

making change in ourselves on a deeper, a

more foundational level.

So come back tomorrow as we jump into the

next sub-chapter, the

power of a paradigm shift.

Hey, happy hump day folks. 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.