Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Friday,
the first Friday of March.
It's hard to believe we're staring down
spring break vacations starting here in
just a couple of weeks
and I hope you and your family are able
to take some time off and get some real
rest and relaxation.
That being said, morning cereal will be
taking a break the
week of the 17th as well,
but we'll be back the
following week of the 24th.
Hey, thanks for tuning in this Friday and
you must have known
today is National Cereal Day.
So you're getting your
morning cereal for sure.
Let's see here. The cereals that I can
remember growing up
with were Cookie Crisp,
Captain Crunch, Count Chocula, Cinnamon
Toast Crunch. Some of those
are still in our pantry today.
And of course, any Wheaties boxes that
had Michael Jordan on it back
in the day, I had all those.
Now, I never ate the Wheaties cereal
inside. That was terrible,
but I still have those boxes.
Well, it's also National Be Her Day and
National Day of Unplugging.
So depending on what mood you find
yourself in this morning, you have one
that works really well.
Okay, let's do some quotes. 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
in a positive direction. Okay, the first
quote is from actor
Brian Cranston and he said,
"I learned long ago to focus on things
you can control and don't
even pay attention to the
things you don't." Brian's right here,
right? This is a popular
one in my household. I'm
constantly reminding my children and
sometimes I have to remind
myself that I can only control
myself. So I shouldn't lose my mind or
shouldn't worry or
shouldn't lose time just trying to
control a situation or someone else that
I have no control
over. So control yourself,
make sure you're making the best
decisions, right? Can't
control other people. Hey,
thanks for the reminder, Brian. And
today's teaser quote from the book review
is, "This is the day of
dramatization. Merely stating a truth
isn't enough. The truth has
to be made vivid, interesting,
and dramatic." And as usual, we'll unpack
that here in just a minute
or two during the book review
segment. But first, let's jump into our
usual dose of fun and nostalgic facts
here from this day in
history. But first, let's jump into our
usual dose of fun and
historic facts from this day in
history. And today's news facts of
birthdays are from March
7th. We're going way back. We're
starting in 161. That's when Marcus
Aurelius became emperor of Rome. And as I
recall from my history
classes, actually, maybe it was something
else, he was fantastic. I
think that was according to
the movie Gladiator. I really liked him.
Then we're going to skip up
almost two millennia. That's
when on this day in 1926, the first
two-way transatlantic
telephone call took place. And it
happened between the post office in
London and Bell Laboratories in New York.
Then on this day in 1965,
state troopers used nightsticks and tear
gas to attack American
civil rights activists as they
crossed a bridge in Selma, Alabama during
their attempted march to the state
capital in Montgomery.
Then on this date in 1987, boxer Mike
Tyson, he became the
youngest heavyweight champion ever
by defeating James Smith in 12 rounds.
Then on this date in 2009,
despite only being 17 years old,
the Brazilian soccer sensation Neymar, he
made his professional debut for Santos.
Then lastly, in 2010, American director
Catherine Bigelow, she
became the first woman to win an
Academy Award for Best Director. And she
did it for directing The
Hurt Locker. Great movie.
Well, happy birthday. If today is your
birthday, you share a
birthday with actor Brian Cranston.
He's 69 today. And actress Rachel Wise.
She's 55. And finally
golfer Tom Lehman. He's 66 today.
And the number one song on this date back
in 1988 was Father Figure
by George Michael. Again,
another great song. And it was one of
four number one singles on George
Michael's album titled
Faith. And at that time, he was the only
British male artist
who have ever done that.
Okay, well, let's move on to some
personal growth in the book review
segment of Morning Serial.
As you know, 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 in all
the must read lists and is
packed with rock solid advice and actions
for all of us to use and
build healthy foundational
concepts to live by. Now, yesterday, we
finished chapter 10 of
part three with that chapter
entitled An Appeal That Everybody Likes.
And in chapter 10, Carnegie
taught us that most people
among us are idealists. And they will
take action based on some
reasoning that the action has some
noble appearance to others, right?
Despite the fact that the actual action
and the reason behind it
might be a bit selfish. Carnegie says,
quote, the fact is that all people you
meet have a high regard
for themselves, end quote. And they like
to think of themselves as
unselfish and noble. So Carnegie
says that when we are trying to appeal to
other people, we should try
and appeal to these secondary
reasons with principle number 10 being
appeal to the nobler
motives. Okay, today we're going to
start and finish chapter 11, which is
entitled The Movies Do It, TV Does It, So
Why Don't You Do It?
And if you're wondering what this chapter
is all about, well, so am
I. Let's get into it here.
Carnegie originally published this book
in 1936, and he opens
this chapter stating, quote,
this is the day of dramatization, merely
stating a truth isn't
enough. The truth has to be made
vivid, interesting and dramatic, end
quote. Well, if Carnegie
thought 1936 was dramatic,
I wonder what he would think of today's
world with our social media, with
influencers, TV personalities,
our politics and our news. The need to
stand out from the crowd
to gain others' attention
in today's world has only been amplified
since Carnegie's days. And
as such, his point is still
very applicable here. And Carnegie says
about making the truth more
interesting, more dramatic,
making ourselves more interesting and
more dramatic, quote, you
have to use showmanship.
The movies do it, television does it, and
you will have to do it if you want
attention, end quote.
Here, Carnegie gives examples of how this
drama plays out in our
daily lives, pointing to TV
commercials, even back then, showing one
brand of detergent,
removing all the stains and being
perfectly white while the other leaves a
gray mark, or a car racing around the
corner or through the
mountains, right? Users of products are
so happy when they're using
this product and smiling while
the other product are frowning. And
Carnegie was giving examples of
commercials in his day,
and we all still know commercials are
like that today. Carnegie
gives another example of a rat
poison company using live rats in a
window display that drew the attention of
the crowd passing by.
And lo and behold, sales increased three
times. Now you might not be
able to do that exactly today,
but is that really any different than Red
Bull having a man
skydive from the edge of space?
Not really. If you want people to take
action for you or buy
what you're actually selling,
or even metaphorically selling, you need
to grab their attention.
And to this point, Carnegie
suggests that we think outside the box in
our personal lives and not
sit idly by doing the same
thing as everyone else. If you want the
interview, do something
outside the box, write a handwritten
letter. If you want kids to clean up,
make it a game. Think
outside the box rather than just
arguing your point and shoving your
perspective down other
people's throats. Don't just present
yourself in the same manner as everyone
else if you want to stand out.
Dramatize yourself. Dramatize
the facts in a different way. Find ways
to appropriately, and
I think using the word
appropriately here is appropriate, but
find ways to appropriately
utilize showmanship to set
yourself apart. Okay, here it is. In a
very short chapter 11, which was
entitled, "The Movies Do It,
TV Does It, So Why Don't You Do It?"
Carnegie's principle number
11 is, "Drama ties your ideas."
Sometimes we fall into the ho-hum of
daily life. Adding a little color, a
little spice sometimes
is needed, and it's appreciated when it's
appropriately applied.
Well, you can check the
box of getting something done today. You
can check the box of
getting your cereal, your morning
cereal, so nice work. And if you can
celebrate National Day of
Unplugging by unplugging at some
point today, I hope you can do that. It's
a beautiful Friday, so
enjoy it. And don't forget,
on Monday we're going to dive into the
final chapter of part three
with that chapter entitled,
"When Nothing Else Works, Try This." Hey,
thanks for joining us
today. Thanks for joining us this
week. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll see
you back here on Monday, and of course,
have a fantastic day.
The Life Happens 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.