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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 cereal
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
It's the middle of the work week and it's
also the Chinese New Year's
also known as the Spring Festival
But it's simply the beginning of the
Chinese New Year and if you feel the
earth trembling beneath your feet
That's because it's estimated that nearly
25% of the earth's population
Celebrates the Chinese New Year in the
event you had forgotten
like me in the United States
We base our New Year's on the Gregorian
calendar, which tracks the
earth's orbit around the Sun
Whereas the Chinese New Year's uses a
lunar solar calendar that tracks the
moon's orbit around the
earth the more you know
It's also a national cornship day and
national puzzle day. So it's a win-win
for a hundred percent
of the earth's population
Okay, it's time for
today's quotes one fun
Nostalgia quote and then a second quote
to tease our book review
later in the episode as always
I hope one of these quotes speak to you
and jumpstart your day
in a positive direction
All right. The first quote is never doubt
yourself never change who you are
Don't care what people
think and just go for it
Again sage words there about being
confident and pursuing your dreams
But does it help or hurt this quote to
know that it's from Britney Spears?
That's for you to decide and today's
teaser quote for the book review is
listening was not mere silence
but a form of activity and
As usual one packed out here in just a
minute or two during
the book review segment
But first let's jump into our usual dose
of fun and historic facts
from this day in history
today's news facts
are for January 29th in
1595 William Shakespeare's play Romeo and
Juliet is thought to have
been performed for the first time
But it was officially
published two years later in 1957 in
1845 American author Edgar
Allan Poe his poem The Raven
It was first published and it appeared in
the New York Mirror. It went on to become
one of the best-known
poems in American literature
Then in 1892 the Coca-Cola Company. It
was incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia
Finally to the 20th century in
1919 the 18th Amendment to the United
States Constitution was ratified and it
went into effect the following year
better known as prohibition and
On this day in 2002 US President George W
Bush delivering his
State of the Union address
He described Iraq Iran and North Korea as
an access of evil for their attempts to
develop nuclear
chemical and biological weapons
And just to make sure I don't have two
really bad transitions into
birthdays two days in a row
The number one and number two television
shows on this date in 2002 would have
been friends in CSI
crime scene investigation
And now a much nicer
transition into happy birthday
If today is your birthday, happy
birthday. You share a
birthday with John D Rockefeller in
1874 he was born
Magnum PI Tom Selleck. He's 80 today
Oprah Winfrey. She's 71 and Greg Louganis
He's 65 you might remember him as the
diver that hit his head in the Olympics
Okay now to the music and the movies of
the 80s 90s and 2000s
The number one song on this date in 1999
was baby one more time by Britney Spears
And for those of you doing the math it
was nearly 27 years ago when this song
was released back in
1998 and just to pile it
on just a little bit more
That's nearly as far back as Marty McFly
went back to in the
movie back to the future
The song baby one more time was
originally called hit
me baby one more time
But bands passed on the song and the
title was changed because people were
worried how the words
hit me might be interpreted
The writer suggested that it was just
slang for call me either way
The song landed as Britney's debut song
and first number one song
And if you remember the video of
schoolgirl Britney dancing in the
hallways of the school
You may have noticed that the video was
shot at Rydell High School
Or at least that's what they called it in
the movie grease when the pink ladies and
the greasers ruled the school
It's actually Venice
High School in Los Angeles
and the number one movie on this date in
1977 was King Kong
King Kong was the remake of the original
oversized monkey movie from 1933
Apparently it opened up to mixed reviews
and it did modestly at the box office and
it made back over triple its budget
From what I understand a large amount of
the budget and time was spent building on
some of these full-size
King Kong features like his
Head and his hands and in the end they
primarily used a man in a suit because
they just couldn't
get the robotics to look
Right movie magic has
come a long way since then
Okay, let's move on to some personal
growth in the book review
segment of the morning serial
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
on all the must-read lists and it's
packed with rock solid advice and actions
For all of us to use and build healthy
foundational concepts to live by
Yesterday we began chapter four part two
and that's entitled an easy way to become
a good conversationalist
Carnegie started this chapter out by
telling a story about himself being
labeled the most interesting
Conversationalist by someone else when
Carnegie hardly said a word and just
listened attentively
And we learned that attentively listening
to another person can be
very flattering to that person
We ended yesterday with a quote by former
harvard president
charles elliot saying that
Exclusive attention to the person who is
speaking to you is very important.
Nothing else is so
flattering as that end quote
And elliot was known as a great listener
novelist. Henry james
described him this way for quote. Dr
Elliott listening was not mere silence,
but a form of activity end quote
And james continued to describe just how
attentive with
positive body positions, etc
That dr. Elliott had while listening and
that he quote seemed to be listening with
his eyes as well as his ears
He listened with his mind and attentively
considered what you had
to say while you said it
At the end of an interview the person who
had talked to him felt that
he had had his say end quote
Carnegie again points to the fact that
what he's talking about
here isn't rocket science
It's quote self-evident as he puts it but
yet the practice still
escapes the average person
We simply are not a
culture of good listeners
Which may be further exacerbated today
given the speed of the
world in which we live in
And the truncated sound
bites we've grown accustomed to
And to this point of the average person
lacking listening skills
Carnegie gives an example of a sales
clerk in a store who wouldn't listen to a
customer that was trying
to return a damaged item
basically fighting with the customer
about return policies
And at the last second the manager swoops
in to save the day by calmly listening to
the customer and
making the situation right
Ultimately keeping a long-term customer
But we've all been in that situation
where we just feel like the person on the
other side of the
counter or on the other side
Of the phone just isn't hearing us and
active listening isn't just important at
work or out in the world
But active listening is just as important
for interpersonal relationships as well
Carnegie gives another example of a
mother who worked very hard to make sure
she actively listened when one of her
children spoke to her
One night one of her children said that
he knew that his
mother loved him very much
And the mother replied that of course she
loved him and asked if he ever doubted
that and the child responded quote
No
But I really know you love me because
whenever I want to talk to you about
something you stop whatever you're doing
and you listen to me
end quote
Note to self set the phone down when the
kids are talking to you
Carnegie goes on to say that an active
listener can actually potentially calm
even the most upset of
people down by being patient
Listening and sympathizing as Carnegie
puts it quote a listener who will be
silent while the irate fault finder
dilates like a king cobra
And spews the poison out
of his system end quote
Here Carnegie tells a story about a
company that was trying to handle as
Carnegie puts it quote
The most vicious customer who ever cursed
a customer service
representative end quote
In fact, this was a long-standing issue
the customer cursed at the
representatives. He refused to pay bills
He wrote letters to the newspapers and
even filed complaints and
suits against the company
So pretty bad
But as the story goes it took four
separate personal visits to the customer
from the company's top troubleshooter
Where he sat and listened. He said yes
He sympathized with the
customer's issues for hours at a time
And by the fourth visit the customer was
almost on friendly terms with the
company's rep and Carnegie says quote
In reality what he had really wanted was
a feeling of importance
He got this feeling of importance at
first by kicking and complaining
But as soon as he got this feeling of
importance from a
representative of the company
His imagined grievances
vanished into thin air end quote
And the story still rings true today
It's similar to when we
ask to speak with a manager
Oftentimes we just want to find the
person who is willing to listen to our
issue and sympathize with us
As someone who has managed
people and as a business owner
I learned early in my career that the
best way to deal with
someone who is upset
Is to listen to them attentively make
sure they feel heard
In whole and then sympathize with them
understand their perspective
I never made promises
But I did hear them
out and they felt that
And that was nearly always more than
enough to move the issue forward enough
to identify the positive next steps
Okay, listen up. Just kidding tomorrow
We'll finish chapter four and learn
carnegie's principle number four
So be sure to come back for that and hear
a story of how a man was
able to start his career
By getting celebrities to write him back
Okay, get out there and have a great day
today. You're almost to
the downhill side of the week
Maybe put the phone down one extra time
today to give somebody your undivided
attention when listening to
them. You'll both appreciate it
Okay, join us tomorrow as we finish
chapter four 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.