Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Monday.
And also, welcome to March.
And as I mentioned on Friday, we can look
forward to March Madness this month.
It's the NCAA basketball tournament.
I'm sure everybody knows that.
But because of that, March is also known
as the worst month
for worker productivity.
And maybe better for our frame of mind,
especially if you're a Jayhawk alum like
me, March symbolizes
new growth and transformation as we move
from winter to spring.
And that's a nice way to start the new
work week, right, in the new month.
But tomorrow, I'll tell you how March
actually got its name.
And it's not nearly as
good of a feel-good story.
Hey, happy clean Monday.
It's also National
Simplify Your Life Day.
And national, I want you to be happy day.
Prediction, this is
going to be a great day.
It's also going to be a great week and a
great month for all of us.
All right.
Well, we're going to need some seriously
positive quotes today to live up to that.
One fun, nostalgic quote, and then a
second quote to tease our
book review later in the
episode.
Hopefully, one of these quotes will speak
to you and jumpstart
your day and your week
in a positive direction.
Okay.
The first quote is,
"Never bend your head.
Always hold it high.
Look the world straight in the eye."
End quote.
And you know who said this?
This is a quote about standing tall,
believing in yourself,
confidently facing this world.
This was a quote from Helen Keller.
Look, if she can overcome and find
success and find
happiness, shouldn't we all be able
to do that as well?
And today's teaser quote from the book
review is, "I had the
satisfaction of controlling
my temper, the satisfaction of returning
kindness for an insult."
And as usual, we'll unpack that here in
just a few minutes during
the book review segment.
But first, let's jump into our usual dose
of fun and historic
facts from this day in
history.
Today's news facts and
birthdays are from March 3rd.
Okay.
In 1887, Anne Sullivan, she began
teaching six-year-old
blind and deaf Helen Keller.
Then in 1911, American actress Jean
Harlow, she was born and she was
considered the original
blonde bombshell.
Then on this date in 1923, the first
issue of Time Magazine was published.
On this date in 1931, the Star-Spangled
Banner, written by
Francis Scott Key during the War
of 1812, well, it was officially adopted
as the national anthem
of the United States by
an act of Congress.
Then moving all the way up to 1985, on
this date, the very
first episode of the sitcom,
Moonlighting.
You remember this series, right?
It was with Sybil Shepard and Bruce
Willis, and it was a
breakthrough role for Bruce Willis
who played a
wise-cracking private investigator.
Then moving to 1991, on this date, you'll
remember LA police officers.
That's when they beat up Rodney King.
Then in 2005 on this date, adventurer
Steve Fawcett, we just
mentioned him last week,
but he became the first person to
complete a solo nonstop
circumnavigation of the globe
without refueling.
He landed in Kansas after
more than 67 hours in flight.
Then lastly, on this date, all the way
back in 2024, Caitlin
Clark, she became the all-time
leading scorer in NCAA basketball,
ultimately scoring 3,951 points.
I guarantee she really wanted to get to
that 4,000-point mark,
but she surpassed Pete
Maravich's record of 3,667 points.
I think most people acknowledge the two
are hard to compare
because they came from different
eras and there are different rules, but
they are both incredible feats.
Well, happy birthday to you.
Today is your birthday.
You share a birthday
with singer Camila Cabello.
She's 28 today.
Actor Jessica Beale.
She's 43.
Actress Julie Bowen of Modern Family.
She's 55.
And former US track
star Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
She's 63 today.
The number one movie on this date back in
1995 was The Brady Bunch.
Not sure if you saw that one.
I'm pretty sure I saw it, but this was
obviously a movie
inspired by the popular 1970 show
The Brady Bunch Sitcom.
Now, that's a nostalgic throwback to
being a kid and watching
those zany Brady kids get
in and out of trouble.
So cheesy though.
It was the highest level of cheesiness.
Well, the number one song on this date
back in 1983, and
prepare yourselves, I'm going
to say it, it's a classic.
It's Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.
It's hard not to have a lot of Michael
Jackson nostalgia as the
80s were his biggest decade
and he put out some of the
greatest songs of all time.
Billie Jean being no different.
This was actually the second song
released off of Michael's
Thriller album, which had
other songs like "Beat It", "The Girl Is
Mine", "Pretty Young
Thing", "Wanna Be Starting
Somethin'", and of
course the song "Thriller".
And the Thriller album is still
considered the best selling
album of all time with over
70 million copies sold worldwide.
Let's move on to some thrilling personal
growth in the book
review segment of Morning
Serial.
This is where we take a few moments to
reflect on lessons learned
from the current book we're
reading and currently we're reading
through Dale Carnegie's
"How to Win Friends and
Influence People".
It's a timeless book that is consistently
on all the must read
lists and it's packed
with rock solid advice and actions for
all of us to use and
build healthy foundational
concepts to live by.
Yesterday we finished up chapter 8 of
part 3 and that chapter
is entitled "A Formula
That Will Work Wonders For You".
And earlier in this book review we talked
about understanding the
other person's perspective
and in this chapter Carnegie
doubled down on that philosophy.
Remember, every person we meet is
primarily interested in
their own world and in their
own issues and concerns.
The one thing Carnegie wants you to take
away from this book is
"an increased tendency
to think always in terms of other
people's points of view and
see things from their angle
as well as your own."
In a chapter entitled "A Formula That
Will Work Wonders For
You", Carnegie's principle
8 was "try honestly to see things from
the other person's point of view."
Which brings us to today and today we're
beginning chapter 9 of part
3 with that chapter entitled
"What Everybody Wants".
And Carnegie begins this chapter by
giving us a magic phrase
that will stop people in
their tracks, it will calm them down, it
will stop arguments, etc.
And this is the magic phrase, "I don't
blame you one eye Oda
for feeling as you do.
If I were you, I would
undoubtedly feel just as you do."
And Carnegie says this statement is as
true as the ocean is blue.
Why?
Because if we were truly the other
person, then we'd have
had their experiences, we'd
be in their environment, we've had their
temperament, their
perspective, and you would truly make
the same decision or have
the same feeling as them.
Because you'd be them and not you.
That reminds me of some saying from Ace
Ventura, but I digress.
Carnegie would suggest that each of us
have very little to do with what we are.
And Carnegie says, "And remember, the
people who come to you irritated,
bigoted, unreasoning,
deserve very little
discredit for being what they are.
Feel sorry for the poor devils.
Pity them, sympathize with them."
Carnegie believes that the vast majority
of people out there are
just thirsting for sympathy
and that we should give it to them.
Carnegie tells a personal
account here to illustrate.
While Carnegie was on a radio show
discussing the author of
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott,
he had twice mistakenly mentioned that
she was from Concord,
New Hampshire, when Concord
is actually located in Massachusetts.
Well, he received a lot of flack for the
geographical blunder and one was
particularly scathing.
And Carnegie's humor comes out again
saying of the woman that
just tore him apart in a
letter.
He said, "Thank God I am
not married to that woman."
Even though Carnegie's first human
impulse was to hit back
and write her back telling
her, "Although he had made a mistake in
geography, she had
made a far greater mistake
in common courtesy."
And then he would rip
into her after that.
But as many of Carnegie's principles have
taught us, we shouldn't give in to those
initial human impulses.
We should be disciplined to act in a
higher way, taking the higher road.
Well, Carnegie decided to call the woman
who wrote him the
nasty note the next time he
was in her town.
And he was determined
to make a friend of her.
Carnegie actually states it was a bit of
a game to him to see if
he could win her over.
And I'm sure there's some pathology in
that, but we'll unpack that later.
Carnegie gives an account of that call.
And in summary, he right up front
apologizes and he lays it
on a bit thick that he could
be so stupid to make the unforgivable
mistake to say the wrong
state on the radio show.
And to thank her for taking the time out
of her busy, important person's schedule
to let him know and saying that he hopes
she writes him again if
he makes another blunder.
I summarized that and there was some back
and forth discussion
between those highlights.
But she was immediately embarrassed and
backtracked, saying she was ashamed that
she wrote the letter
in those terms.
She was proud of her state and her
family's prominence there.
And she was distressed that the author
wasn't properly described
as being from her state.
So she apologized for losing her temper
in the letter and she
was impressed at how he
accepted her criticism.
Carnegie had apologized and sympathized
with her and in return,
she had apologized and
sympathized with him.
Carnegie said, "I had the satisfaction of
controlling my
temper, the satisfaction of
returning kindness for an insult."
And that that felt infinitely better than
losing his temper and
just telling her off.
That high road is hard
to take in the moment.
But I agree there is some satisfaction in
being the bigger
person if handled correctly
and maybe not handled like a Karen might
want to handle it on their high road.
There's a big
difference between that, right?
And what Carnegie is discussing here.
Well we're going to finish chapter nine
tomorrow and learn
Carnegie's ninth principle.
So come back for that tomorrow and
apologies to all the
Karens out there that I may have
just offended, including
our personal friend Karen.
You know we love you.
Well it's going to be a great day today.
Helen Keller also said, "Optimism is the
faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done
without hope and confidence."
Attack this Monday.
Shoot, attack this life
with optimism and confidence.
Thanks for joining 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 seanenglish.com where you can also
follow our other podcast,
the Mr. and Mrs. English
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.