Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Monday.
And I hope the fourth
was with you yesterday.
That's a nod to Star Wars
if you didn't realize it.
But why look back?
Today is Cinco de Mayo,
which celebrates Mexico's victory
over the second French empire at the
Battle of Puebla in 1862.
So cheers, enjoy the
celebrations and the margaritas.
But back to Star Wars.
Today is revenge of the fifth day.
Now, I don't have time
to explain that to you
if you don't already get it.
But if you know, you know.
And we're gonna stick with
the Star Wars theme here, okay?
Our quote today is a
well-known movie quote
emphasizing the importance of commitment
and decisive action rather
than just making an attempt.
Today's quote is from Jedi Master Yoda.
He gave us the sage
advice to, "Do or do not.
There is no trying."
Wow, that Yoda, he is so wise.
And making a guest
appearance on Morning Serial?
What an honor.
Thanks, Yoda.
Well, today's news, facts,
and birthdays are for May 5th.
And we're gonna start way back in 1891,
when on this date, Music
Hall, which is now Carnegie Hall,
it opened up in New York City.
And Tchaikovsky was the guest conductor
of the New York Music Society of
Orchestra on that night.
Then we're only gonna move two years
up the timeline to
1893, when on this date,
that's when the Panic of
1893 caused a large crash
on the New York Stock Exchange.
I'd say we kind of know
that feeling these days.
Then in 1904, Cy Young, he
pitched the first perfect game
in quote unquote modern baseball
as the Boston Americans beat the
Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.
So two comments, not
sure that's super modern
and secondarily, if you're
watching this on YouTube,
I don't wanna say, you know,
but these baseball players
say they're such good athletes.
I mean, Cy Young, I'll
just leave that one alone
for right now.
So moving on, lastly, in 1921,
the perfume Chanel
number five was released
by fashion designer Coco Chanel.
And this scent is still available today,
and it's considered one of the world's
most iconic fragrances.
Well, happy birthday.
If your birthday is today,
you share a birthday
with singer Chris Brown.
He's 36 and singer Adele, she's 37.
And the number one song
on this date back in 1983
was "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.
Now, when we talk
about classic 80s songs,
this is a full stop classic.
And I actually find it
really hard to believe
that it came out in the early 80s.
1983 seems not that long
ago, but a long time ago.
But because this is
such a generational song,
I thought I might dive
into it just a little bit more
for perspective, okay?
"Beat It" was the
number one song 42 years ago,
which is hard to believe.
But 42 years before Michael's
song "Beat It" was number one,
the number one song was in 1941 was
"I'll Be Seeing You" by Frank Sinatra.
That was the same year as World War II,
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
And Mount Rushmore was
actually completed that same year.
Wow, talk about the sands of time.
Well, the music video was a huge hit
and it helped usher in the MTV era.
The song also had a bit of a bump
due to the fact that Eddie Van Halen,
who was huge at the time,
he played the guitar solo on "Beat It."
As you probably know, the
song won multiple Grammys
and it's one of the
best-selling songs of all time.
Okay, well, we're reading through
one of the
best-selling books of all time.
And it's Stephen R. Covey's
"The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People."
And we're in Covey's second chapter
and we're gonna finish it today,
which is "The Seven Habits, An Overview."
And this is where
Covey has been discussing
how important and
influential habits are in our lives,
with the habits being
defined as the intersection
between knowledge, skill, and desire.
These habits, as we know,
are in a maturity continuum.
They consist of growing
from dependence to independence
to interdependence.
And these habits can be and should be
highly effective in your life
if you use them properly and you
implement them in your life,
but you have to remain
balanced with them, right?
We talked about the production
to production capability balance.
That's the balance
between the golden eggs
and the goose that lays them.
And recall, the goose is an asset
and Covey's talking about
maintaining these assets
that we have, right?
Physical assets,
financial assets, human assets.
So that's a quick summary of
probably the last couple weeks
that we've been getting
through this second chapter.
So today we're gonna
finish up part one of the book,
which is "Paradimes and Principles."
And we're gonna finish
up chapter two as well,
which is "The Seven
Principles, An Overview."
So in these final two
sub-chapters of chapter two,
Covey is pleading with the reader
to not approach this
book as just a good read
and then to put it back on the shelf.
So don't use it like a regular book,
just a read and then be done with it.
No, this book was written
and it's designed to, quote,
"Be a companion in the continual process
"of change and growth," end quote.
The habits in this book are incremental,
but they're not entirely linear, right?
Meaning you don't have to master a habit
before you can move on to the next one
and then move on to the next one.
But as you get better
and you start maturing
through the habits, you can
go back to previous habits,
right, to, quote, "Gain
deeper levels of understanding
"and implementation and
expand your knowledge,
"your skills and your
desires," end quote.
So while making your
way through this book,
Covey also suggests that you should
approach the material
as though you're going to teach it
or share it with someone else.
And in doing so, it will help you expand
your perspective of the material.
You'll gain a deeper understanding
and it'll also increase your motivation.
Here Covey quotes Marilyn
Ferguson, who said, quote,
"No one can persuade another to change.
"Each of us guards a gate of change
"to be opened from
the inside," end quote.
And Covey asks the reader to
open their gates for learning,
to understand and live his principles.
And in doing so, quote, "Your
growth will be evolutionary,
"but the net effect will be
revolutionary," end quote.
Here's an example.
The net effect of being open to change
in the first three habits will be, quote,
"Significantly increased self-confidence,
"knowing yourself in a
deeper, more meaningful way,
"your nature, your deepest values
"and your unique
contribution capacity," end quote.
And by living out Covey's principles,
your, quote, "Sense
of identity, integrity,
"control and inner
directedness will infuse you
"with both exhilaration and peace.
"You will define yourself from within
"rather than by people's opinions
"or by comparisons to others," end quote.
And lastly, if you open
yourself up to this journey,
Covey says you will,
quote, "Discover and unleash
"both the desire and the resources
"to heal and rebuild
important relationships
"that have deteriorated or even broken.
"And good relationships will improve.
"They'll become deeper and more solid,
"more creative, more
adventuresome," end quote.
So understand that
change and self-growth,
they take time and they require patience.
But Covey says, quote,
"Self-growth is tender.
"It's holy ground.
"There is no greater
investment," end quote.
Finally, Thomas Paine said, quote,
"That which we obtain took easily.
"We esteem too lightly.
"It is dearness only which gives
everything its value,"
end quote.
All right, starting part two tomorrow.
That's entitled Private Victory
and we jump headfirst
into our first habit.
So thanks for joining us today.
Have fun and be safe
celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
We'll see you back here
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
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deeper into everyday issues,
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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.