Good morning and
welcome to Morning Serial.
Okay, good morning
and welcome to Tuesday.
And if your snooze button is on a hot
streak this morning,
consider this your halftime
pep talk.
Or, if you're like me and you've been up
for quite a while
already getting the kids
off to school and then headed into work,
well, come to think
about it, they should have a
day to celebrate parents like us.
Well, guess what?
They do.
And it's today.
Today is Working Parents Day.
So a round of applause for those of you
juggling everything life
throws at you while managing
your calendar and your inbox.
I definitely feel your pain.
And this morning we have a quote from
Nick Jonas who's going
to keep us moving from one
calendar event to the next.
Nick Jonas said, "Be who you are.
Do your thing and work hard.
The right people will come around."
Translation?
Bring your honest effort.
The fit will find you.
All right, today's news facts and
birthdays are for September 16th.
Starting back in 1620, that's when the
Mayflower departed from
Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrims
and about 30 crew
headed to the New World.
Then on this day in 1869, golf's first
recorded hole in one was scored by Tom
Morris at Prestwick's
eighth hole in Scotland.
Then moving all the way up to 1908,
that's when General Motors
was first founded in Flint,
Michigan, setting the stage for assembly
lines that would help
shape the 20th century.
And here's a fun TV throwback for you.
If you're rewatching 80s
cop shows, this is your week.
Miami Vice premiered
on September 16th, 1984.
And then lastly on this day in 1997,
Apple Computer renamed
co-founder Steve Jobs as
interim CEO.
Well, happy birthday to you
if today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with
singer and actor Nick Jonas.
He's 33 today.
Funny actor and comedian
Amy Poehler, she's 54 today.
Singer and actor Mark
Anthony, he's 57 today.
And the magician, the illusionist David
Copperfield, he's 69 today.
Now the number one song on this date back
in 1985 was "St. Elmo's Fire," "Man in
Motion" by John Parr.
Now this is one of the
greatest songs of all time.
Now I know you've dance-ercised to this,
or at least it's on
your workout playlist.
But what you may not have known was that
"St. Elmo's Fire" was
written after Parr met
a disabled Canadian athlete, Rick Hansen.
Well, the single hit number one on the
Hot 100 became an 80s
power anthem time capsule
of these big drums, bigger choruses, and
even bigger hair, as
the 80s were known for.
Well, fresh off a power ballad about
grit, Kobe's
social-emotional dimension is the
people side of sharpening the saw.
And Kobe is insisting that relationships
are the primary source of life's greatest
joys and stresses.
So renewal here means tending the trust
accounts we keep with others.
One of his core lines, "Trust is the
highest form of human motivation."
That isn't a slogan, it's a strategy.
Low trust
environments produce initiative.
Low trust ones produce compliance at
best, sabotage at worst.
Now, Kobe's approach starts inside out.
Private victories, which are habits one
through three, if you
remember, make public victories,
and those were habits four through six,
that make those possible.
And Kobe urges us to make emotional
deposits, understanding
the individual, attending to
little things, keeping commitments,
clarifying expectations,
and apologizing sincerely when
we're wrong.
Kobe writes, "Apologizing takes a great
deal of character strength."
Why is this?
It's because it trades
your ego for connection.
And that swap, it
compounds interest, right?
Communication is the daily workout.
If you remember, Kobe's habit five was
seek first to
understand, then to be understood.
This is the breathing pattern here.
When we listen empathetically, people
feel seen and problem
solving accelerates.
When you recall, Kobe cautions here
against what he called the four
autobiographical responses,
evaluating, probing, advising, and
interpreting, because they satisfied our
need to speak rather
than their need to be understood.
The fix here is curiosity, reflect
feelings, name concerns,
and only then collaborate.
Finally, Kobe connects his thinking
dimension to win-win thinking.
That was habit four.
And synergy, habit six.
Differences aren't
obstacles, they're raw material.
Principles, fairness, integrity, and
respect, keep the team on
course when personalities
pull in different directions.
So what's the maintenance plan?
Daily deposits, small acts of kindness,
clear expectations,
weekly check-ins, roles, goals,
and regular resets, right?
Forgiveness and fresh starts.
All right, here's the takeaway here.
Treat every conversation like a chance to
grow the trust account.
Compound interest beats quick wins.
All right, working parents, we see you.
We tip our hats to you.
And may your coffee be strong this
morning in your calendar's kind.
Hey, thanks for starting your Tuesday
with morning cereal.
We'll see you back here tomorrow.
And have a fantastic day.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to
the Morning Cereal
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
podcasts, the Mr. and Mrs.
English podcast and
the Life Happens podcast.
And 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.