Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and
welcome to Tuesday, May 27th.
And after a long Memorial Day weekend,
it's now time to shake
off that barbecue haze
and get back into the groove.
That's hard to do sometimes,
but today might be a little bit easier
because it's National Grape Popsicle Day,
which is very specific.
So I'm going to allow cherry
and pina colada popsicles as well,
because you know it's
getting hot right now
and we're all starting to
feel that heat of summer.
So grab one of those frozen treats
and get a little bit of a cool down.
Well, it's also
National Cellophane Tape Day,
you know, Scotch tape,
because where would we be
without the sticky stuff
that holds our lives together?
Okay, well, let's
jump into today's quote.
And today's quote reminds us that tools
and circumstances are secondary.
It's your mindset, it's
your skills and your guts
that determine just how far you'll fly.
All right, here to see if
you can place this quote.
Quote, "It's not the
plane, it's the pilot."
End quote.
You probably guessed it,
that's Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell
from the movie "Top Gun Maverick."
Well, it's a perfect quote
for a post-holiday Tuesday
reentry into the real world.
Hey, thanks, Mav.
All right, today's news facts and
birthdays are for May 27th.
We're going to start back in 1937,
when on this date,
the Golden Gate Bridge,
it opened up to pedestrian
traffic in San Francisco,
becoming an iconic symbol
of engineering and design.
Then in 2018 on this date,
the South Korean boy band BTS,
they became the first K-pop group
to top the US
Billboard 200 with their album,
Love Yourself, tier.
And then lastly, on
this date back in 2022,
"Top Gun Maverick," the sequel,
starring Tom Cruise, Miles
Teller, and Jennifer Connelly,
you know, my second wife.
Well, the movie was released 36 years
after the original film.
And in my opinion,
probably one of the
best sequels of all time.
All right, well, happy birthday to you
and I hope today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with Chris Koffer.
He's an actor known for his role on Glee.
Well, he's 35 today.
Andre 3000, the musician
from OutKast, he's 50 today.
And then Paul Bettany, he's the actor
who is the voice of Jarvis, or
you might know him as Vision.
You may also remember him in a movie
from way back called A Knight's Tale.
Well, he's 54 today.
And then lastly, Lee Merriweather.
She was the original cat woman
and she was a former Miss America.
She turns 90 today.
Well, the number one song
on this date back in 1990
was Vogue by Madonna.
Now, this dant anthem
not only topped the charts,
but it also, apparently,
according to the Google,
brought back the
underground ballroom culture
into the mainstream.
Well, with its iconic
black and white video
and its stylish choreography,
Vogue remains a defining moment
in pop culture history today.
And I primarily
remember the voguing dancing
with your hands by your face.
You know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's often the go-to
when someone puts you
on the spot to dance.
Well, we're gonna vogue our way
right into today's book review segment,
Dancing into the Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People.
Well, we are in part two, habit two,
begin with the end in mind.
And specifically, the sub-chapter today
is by design or default.
And fair warning here,
Kovey, as usual, isn't
pulling any punches, right?
This section tackles one
of life's most common traps,
drifting.
Now, Kovey challenges us to ask ourselves
whether we're
actively designing our lives
or just reacting to
whatever the day throws at us.
He writes, quote, "If we do not develop
"our own self-awareness
"and become
responsible for first creations,
"we empower other people in circumstances
"outside our circle of influence
"to shape much of our
lives by default," end quote.
Now, that's the heart
of this sub-chapter.
And it's bringing back a lot of ideas
that we've been covering
over the last couple of weeks.
The idea that living by default
means letting external
forces write your story.
If you don't intentionally
clarify what matters to you,
Kovey warns that your life will be shaped
by the loudest voices around you,
either your coworkers or culture,
schedule, social media,
or whatever crisis
screams loudest that week.
Kovey uses the metaphor of
first and second creations.
Remember these, right?
Everything is created twice.
The first creation is
the mental blueprint,
then the second is the physical outcome.
And if you're not
deliberate about that first creation,
the mental blueprint,
then you'll still end up with a second,
but it might not be what you like.
Kovey explains that
proactivity from habit one
isn't just about reacting better.
It's about stepping
into the architect's chair.
That means drafting your own
personal mission statement,
all things we've
talked about here recently,
something grounded in
timeless principles.
They're not public opinion.
Kovey writes, quote, "The extent to which
we accept responsibility
for that first creation
is the extent to which we become
effective as individuals,"
end quote.
Kovey even addresses the idea
that many of us have
been scripted by default,
by our upbringing, by
society, by old paradigms.
So what do we do?
The solution isn't to just blame,
but the solution is to rewrite it.
And that rewrite only
happens through self-awareness
and deliberate values-based
decision-making, all right?
Here's the takeaway.
Whether you're building a house, a
career, or a legacy,
you're either the
designer or someone else's.
Life by default might be convenient,
but life by design is
where fulfillment lives.
So don't just survive the week.
Start shaping what you want
the next one to look like.
All right, that wraps up
today's episode of Morning Serial.
As you step into the short
work week after a holiday,
remember to stay proactive and
intentional in your actions.
Well, thanks so much
for joining us today.
We'll see you back here again tomorrow
as we start to get back
into that regular rhythm
of a work week.
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. English podcast
and the Life Happens podcast.
And these other podcasts will dive deeper
into everyday issues,
self-improvement and wellbeing,
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.