Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Monday.
Well, if you're watching this on YouTube,
you've noticed that
I'm back in three-quarter
zips because old man winter decided to
have one last fling down here in Texas.
Now I know if you happen to live north of
Texas, you're not
feeling our pain because
I get it.
Winter routinely lasts
well into the spring.
I grew up in Colorado, I get it.
But let me just tell you,
we are so weak down here.
We need that warm weather
back and we need it now.
We're going to lose
our stuff again, people.
Okay, well, now that I got that out of my
system, that aside,
today is National Motherhood
and Beauty Day.
So we can and we definitely should
celebrate our beautiful
wives and our mothers.
And we can do it with
some beer and coffee cake.
And that's not just a random pairing.
No, no, no, no.
It's like a game show, right?
Let's tell them what they won.
Well, Bob, it's also National Beer and
National Coffee Cake Day.
Well, how can this Monday get any better?
Well, how about a quote from the
character John Nash, who
said, "Perhaps it is good
to have a beautiful mind, but an even
greater gift is to
discover a beautiful heart."
You know the movie?
That's from the movie A Beautiful Mind.
Okay, today's news facts and
birthdays are for April 7th.
There's not many of them, so don't blink
or you might miss them.
The first one here is back in 1963.
That's when Jack Nicholas at the tender
age of just 23, he won his
first Masters Tournament.
Then skipping all the way up to 2016, and
my wife will love
this one, that's when the
longest ever captured Python was found in
the Penang Island of Malaysia.
That Python measured 26 feet in length.
Well, happy birthday to you
if today is your birthday.
You share a birthday
with actor Jackie Chan.
He's 71 today.
And actor Russell Crowe, he's 61 today.
Well, the number one song on this date
back in 1985 was One
More Night by Phil Collins.
Now, this is one of my favorite Phil
Collins songs, and it was
Phil Collins' second number
one hit following his song Against All
Odds, Take a Look at Me Now.
And I'm pretty sure this song was on
repeat after all of my
junior high and high school
breakups.
And of course, I mean that
in the most innocent way.
Come on, people.
Well, let's jump into our book review.
As you know, we're reading through
Stephen Covey's The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective
People.
And in this first chapter entitled Inside
Out, yesterday, Covey
discussed the differences
between character traits, which focuses
on character qualities
like integrity, temperaments,
patience, modesty, versus personality
ethic, which Covey
believes is persuasive in today's
culture and it teaches more
superficial, quick type fixes.
Now, remember, two days ago on Friday, we
had talked about
Covey and his wife and the
relationship with their son, right?
And he and his wife were concerned about
their son's ability or
maybe his lack thereof to
be successful at school
or on the athletic field.
Well, Covey and his wife decided that
instead of telling their
son what to do, instead of
looking at their son with the perception
that he was failing,
they obviously didn't
say this, but that was the perception.
That was the picture their actions and
their words were painting
to him and to themselves.
Instead, Covey and his wife decided to
focus their efforts on
themselves, quote, "not
on our techniques, but on our deepest
motives and our
perception of him," end quote.
They also made an effort to see their
son, quote, "in his own
uniqueness and saw within
him layers and layers of potential that
would be realized at his
own pace and his own speed,"
end quote.
So, they made the decision to get out of
their son's way, stopping
trying to lead him, stopping
comparing him, and stopping trying to
judge him all the time.
And instead, to take on a role that
affirmed him, that just
simply enjoyed him and valued
him so that he could develop his own
internal sources of security.
And at the same time, they also tried to
sever the strings of
their own self-worth that were
dependent on what would be considered
their son's socially
acceptable successes.
And Covey believes that the support and
the belief that he and
his wife provided their
son helped lead him, their son, to their
son's own feelings of,
I'm quote, "fundamentally
capable," and this inner confidence or
character trait eventually
led their son to socially
impressive accomplishments.
This experience was Covey's real life
experiment and introduction to the,
quote, "vital difference
between the personality ethic and the
character ethic of success," end quote.
Now, tomorrow, we're going to continue
unpacking these fundamental
concepts that I found incredibly
interesting.
So, come back for that tomorrow.
I don't know where you're at this morning
or where you're at this
week, but keep your heads
up, people.
It's going to be a great week.
Hey, thanks for joining us
today 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.