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 James Clear, Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits shows how tiny, consistent improvements in daily habits—focused on systems rather than goals—compound over time to produce remarkable personal and professional results.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quote to spark your motivation
  • Fun Morning Cereal trivia question of the day
  • A dive into the Chapter 3 Atomic Habits
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:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery.
 
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 Syria.

Okay, good morning

and welcome to Tuesday.

Nicely done.

You've made it through Monday's chaos,

which some of us now are back in school,

which is good because today is

International Day for Achievers.

So good on you.

Take a bow.

Today is all about

recognizing progress, big or small.

Now the answers to

yesterday's trivia question, Westeros.

Westeros is the name

of the main continent

in Game of Thrones.

All right, now it is time

for the essential vitamins

in your morning cereal.

Today's quote, and

it's from a birthday boy,

Peyton Manning,

turning 50 years old today,

who said, quote, "The

most valuable player

is the one who makes the

most players valuable."

End quote.

Your morning decode,

it's not just about being

an individual performer.

Someone who raises the

performance, confidence,

and the value of everyone around them,

well, they're often the best team member.

All right, well, let's go ahead and hear

from the experts now.

It is time to pour in some

atomic habits by James Clear.

And today we are

diving into chapter three,

how to build better

habits in four simple steps.

All right, here, Clear lays out

one of the most practical

frameworks in the entire book.

It's the idea that every

habit follows a four-step process,

that cue, the craving, the

response, and the reward.

Now, this isn't just theory, right?

It's a blueprint of how

behavior actually works.

So as you recall, the cue

is what triggers the habit.

It's the signal your brain picks up,

like your phone

buzzing, the smell of coffee,

or even boredom, right?

The cue says, "Hey, pay attention.

Something's about to happen."

Then next comes the craving,

which is the

motivational force behind the habit.

And Clear explains

that we crave the change

the habit deliver.

Now, you don't crave the

scrolling on your phone,

you crave distraction,

or maybe even connection.

Then we go ahead and move on to response,

which is the habit

itself, the action you take.

This is where behavior actually happens.

And then finally, there's the reward,

which reinforces the habit.

If the reward satisfies the craving,

your brain remembers the pattern

and is more likely to repeat it.

Clear writes this, quote, "The cue

triggers the craving,

which motivates a

response, which provides a reward,"

end quote.

Now, what makes this framework powerful

is that it allows you to

reverse engineer habits.

You wanna build a good

habit, you make the cue obvious,

you make the craving

attractive and the response easy,

and the reward satisfying, right?

Clear also explains that habits

are not just random behaviors.

They are built through

repetition of this loop over time.

A little bit like how he's

repeating these behaviors

in these four cues, right?

So he writes this,

quote, "When the habit loop

is repeated enough

times, it becomes automatic,"

end quote.

And that's why habits feel so ingrained.

They've been reinforced

hundreds or even thousands of times.

The real insight here is that once you

understand this loop,

you can begin to design

your habits intentionally

instead of just reacting to them.

Small tweaks like placing

your gym shoes by the door

or removing distractions,

that can dramatically

change your behavior.

Okay, that was a little bit

of a review from chapter two,

and your Tuesday takeaway is this,

understand the habit loop

and you can start

designing better behaviors

instead of leaving them to chance.

All right, friends, go

achieve something today,

even if it's just staying

consistent with one small habit.

But first, the prize from

the bottom of the cereal box,

is the morning cereal

trivia question of the day,

what is the measurement for energy?

All right, hey, thanks for

listening to morning cereal.

We will see you back here tomorrow

for the answer to the trivia question

and more sugar for the soul.

And until then, 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 will dive deeper

into everyday issues,

self-improvement and well-being,

business and finance, and we

welcome special guests too.

So join us, it will be

a good time, I promise.

Thanks again for

listening, have a fantastic day,

and we'll see you tomorrow.