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 2, Habit 3, 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 2, Habit 3 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.

Well, if you've already spilled your

coffee and lost your keys or

argued with Alexa, good news.

It only gets better from here.

So don't sleep on this hump day, right?

Because it's stacked here

with quirky celebrations.

And if you feel like

panicking already, that's okay.

Because today is International Panic Day.

Because who doesn't love a

good scheduled meltdown, right?

Well, it's also Clean Your Aquarium Day,

so even your fish have

something to look forward to today.

High expectations.

And lastly, and most importantly, it's

International Day for

countering hate speech, right?

So maybe a little spa

music on the highway today.

Well, speaking of quirky,

but we love him for it, right?

Our quote today provides perhaps some

surprising wisdom from

Blake Shelton, who said, quote,

"You can't take life too seriously.

You've got to laugh,

even in tough times."

End quote.

And sometimes a deep breath and a little

humor goes a long way.

Well, today's news, facts,

and birthdays are for June 18th.

We're going to start back not too far

back in 1984, when on this date,

The Karate Kid. It hit theaters and it

gave us the eternal

wisdom of wax on, wax off.

Then moving up to 1996, this was the day

Nintendo 64 was released in Japan.

And it kicked off a new era

of joystick thumb injuries.

Then moving up to 2000 on this date, this

is when Tiger Woods, he won the U.S. Open

by a record 15 strokes.

In 2005, Batman Begins. It was released.

It was the rebooting of the Caped

Crusader with Christian Bale.

Probably my favorite

series of the Batman movies.

And finally, in 2010 on this date, Spain

beat Switzerland, 1-0

in the World Cup Finals.

All right. Well, happy birthday to you.

If today is your birthday, you share a

birthday with Richard Madden.

He's an actor from Game of Thrones. Big

Bang Theory, you might remember him.

Breaking Bad, okay. He's 39 today.

Country singer and TV personality that we

all love to hate. Just kidding. We love

you, Blake. Blake Shelton. He's 48 today.

And lastly, music legend from The

Beatles. If you didn't know that,

wherever you've been.

Paul McCartney. He's 82 today.

Well, the number one song on this date

back in 1983 was Flashdance. What a

feeling by Irene Cara.

Now, this song has one of the most iconic

and recognizable synthesizer intros of

all time, dare I say.

A synth pop powerhouse from a movie that

made leg warmers cool for the ladies. I

don't think for the guys ever.

And it taught us that welding and dancing

go surprisingly well together.

Well, the song won an Academy Award and a

Grammy. And from what I hear, it still

makes people want to leap

dramatically in their kitchen.

Well, now flipping to our book segment,

we're going to dive into habit three of

Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of

Highly Effective People.

And we're looking closer at the sub

chapter Quadrant Two. And here Covey

introduces his powerful

time management matrix.

Dividing tasks into four quadrants based

on urgency and importance. Okay.

So starting with Quadrant Two, this is

where the magic happens, right? It holds

the quote important but

not urgent activities.

Things like relationship building,

planning, prevention and personal growth.

Covey says, quote, effective

people are not problem minded.

They're opportunity minded. They feed

opportunities and starve

the problems, end quote.

And that's what Quadrant Two is all

about. Carving out time for the big

picture stuff that builds character and

effectiveness over time.

It's the quadrant of deep work, strategy

and vision. It's the antidote to being

reactive all day long.

So most people, Covey notes, live in

Quadrant One, which is

urgent and important.

That means they're chasing crises and

deadlines all day long. While others,

especially time wasters, they float

around there in Quadrant Number Three,

which is urgent but not important at all.

Or Quadrant Four, which is neither urgent

nor important. Don't

get stuck there, right?

The goal is spend as much time in

Quadrant Two as possible. So this

requires that independent will and

discipline that we've been talking about.

And it's not about rigid scheduling, if

you recall, it's about aligning your

daily actions with your deepest values

and long term priorities, right?

It also ties directly into Habit Two,

which helps you define

what matters in your life.

Without that personal mission statement,

right? Your Quadrant Two choices, they

really don't have any anchor.

Okay, so here's your takeaway. Schedule

the important things before it becomes

urgent and make time for thinking, for

connecting, for growing.

Because in Covey's words, quote, "The key

is not to prioritize what's on your

schedule, but to schedule your

priorities," end quote.

Okay, well, whether you're panicking

because you've got your arm stuck in that

little fish tank or not, just remember,

today is a great day to shift gears into

your own Quadrant Two.

Alright? Hey, thanks for starting your

morning with us. We'll see you back here

tomorrow. And as

always, have a fantastic day.

And we'll see you tomorrow.