Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Friday.
Well, congrats on making
it through another week.
And I gotta tell you,
it's been a tougher week
than usual in my household.
And if you've had a tough week as well,
then a big congratulations to you as well
for making it to Friday.
Some weeks are just
more trying than others.
Well, I mean, thank goodness it's
International Care Day.
I'm feeling better already.
That makes everything
better, I guess, right?
Somehow?
Well, my kids will love this.
Well, kids everywhere, really,
because it's also
National Picky Eaters Day.
So enjoy today because tomorrow, kids,
you're gonna need to
eat your vegetables again,
but you need to eat your carrots today.
Well, let's jump into a
quote today from Bill Gates
who said, quote, "It's
fine to celebrate success,
but it's more important to heed the
lessons of failure."
End quote.
Good point and thanks, Bill.
Well, today's news, facts,
and birthdays are for April 4th.
Starting back in 1968,
that's when civil rights
activist Martin Luther King,
he was assassinated on this date.
Then in 1973 on this
date, the World Trade Center,
it opened up in New York City.
And at the time, they were
the world's tallest buildings,
each at 110 stories.
Then in 1975 on this date,
Bill Gates and Paul Allen,
they founded a little software company
called Microsoft.
Then on this date, actor Heath Ledger,
he was born in 1979.
Well, happy birthday to you
if today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with Tony Stark.
I mean, I'm sorry,
actor Robert Downey Jr.
He turned 60 today.
And the number one song
on this date back in 1986
was "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco.
And this song, as you
probably would have guessed,
is inspired by the classical composer,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
And this song is actually
the first and the last song
by a German artist to hit number one
on the Billboard top 100.
And it was Falco's only
number one hit as well.
And I went back and read the lyrics
and shockingly, they aren't very deep.
They talk about the
composer liking to drink.
He had lots of debt
apparently, and he liked women.
And everyone apparently
shouted, "Rock me Amadeus."
That's about it.
Catchy though.
Okay, well, let's head into
this Friday and this weekend
with a review from Stephen R. Covey's
"The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People."
And in this first
chapter entitled "Inside Out,"
yesterday Covey started talking about how
if we want to change
a difficult situation,
that we first should
look to change ourselves
and our perceptions.
Covey has sub
chapters within his chapters
and the first one is entitled
"The Personality and Character Ethics."
And what Covey
unpacks is very interesting
in this sub chapter.
During his studies, he
found success literature
or self-health books
in the last 50 years.
And really it's the last 75
since this book was written.
He found them to be filled with social
image consciousness,
techniques and quick
fixes that he looked at
as social band-aids to help solve
problems temporarily.
However, before that period of time,
so the previous 150
years, self-health books,
Covey found that the
success literature focused
on character ethic, which were the
foundations of success.
And they were things like, quote,
"Integrity, humility, fidelity,
temperance, courage,
justice, patience,
industry, simplicity, modesty
and the golden rule," end quote.
Now there's a major
difference between the two
and we are living in the
time where people have valued
the personality ethic more.
Focusing our perception of
success on our own public image,
quote, "Lubricating the
processes of human interaction,"
end quote, "with
attitudes, skills and techniques,
focusing on, quote, "Positive mental
attitudes," end quote.
And living by sayings like,
"Your attitude determines your altitude."
These are cheap, temporary fixes
that merely offer lip service
and teach a positive attitude
is all that is necessary for success.
However, Covey says
that prior to World War I,
society taught and
valued the character ethic,
which quote, "Taught that
there are basic principles
of effective living and
that people can only experience
true success and
enduring happiness as they learn
and integrate these principles
into their basic character," end quote.
Now that's good stuff and
we'll continue to dive in
even deeper tomorrow.
Now, remember these character trait words
as you go through your day today,
as you go through this weekend, right?
Integrity, humility, fidelity,
temperance, courage,
justice, patience,
industry, simplicity, modesty
and the golden rule,
all good things to live by
and to remember top of mind.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
Have a great weekend.
We'll see you back here on Monday 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
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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.