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 2 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 your morning cereal.

Okay, good morning

and welcome to Thursday.

Stay strong.

We are almost a Friday people.

Helping you through

the day today, however,

is the fact that today is

national, let's laugh day, right?

Which just might be

the easiest national day

there is to celebrate.

There are no decorations required,

no complicated recipes or hard

discussions to have.

It's just a reminder that

sometimes the best therapy

is a good laugh and that

one friend who sends you

the right memes at

exactly the right moment.

All right, well,

before we get rolling today,

the answer to yesterday's trivia

question, the mayas,

the Maya civilization built

the kitchen, it's a pyramid.

And now it's time for

the essential vitamins

in your morning cereal.

It's today's quote and

it's from birthday boy,

Bruce Willis turning 71

today who once said, quote,

"Don't worry about falling down,

worry about not

getting back up," end quote.

Now here's your morning

decode, failure is not final.

The fall itself does not define you,

your response to it does.

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's review

begins chapter number two.

How your habits shape

your identity and vice versa.

So, Clear introduces one

of the most powerful ideas

in the entire book here.

Lasting change happens when habits become

part of your identity, right?

Most people focus on

outcome-based habits.

For example, I wanna lose weight,

I wanna run a

marathon, I wanna write a book.

But Clear explains

that real transformation

comes from identity-based habits.

Instead of saying, I

want to run a marathon,

I am a runner.

The behavior shifts from something

that you're trying to achieve

into something that reflects who you are.

Clear writes this, quote,

"The goal is not to read a book,

the goal is to become

a reader," end quote.

So this shift might seem small,

but psychologically it's enormous.

When a habit aligns with your identity,

you're far more likely to stick with it.

Every action you take becomes a vote

for that type of person

that you want to become.

Clear explains that

identities are essentially built

from repeated evidence.

Each time you perform a behavior,

you reinforce the belief about yourself.

Clear writes this, quote,

"Every action you take is a vote

for the type of person you

wish to become," end quote.

Now I know he repeats that a lot,

but I think it makes a lot of sense too.

So again, if you write regularly,

you start seeing yourself as a writer.

If you exercise regularly,

you start seeing yourself as

someone who values fitness.

But the opposite is also true, remember.

Repeated negative

behaviors reinforce identities

we don't necessarily want.

And Clear also

emphasizes that identity change,

it definitely doesn't happen overnight.

It happens gradually,

as small actions start to accumulate.

Each habit is like a

tiny piece of evidence

that shapes how you see yourself.

The powerful insight here

is that when people

focus only on outcome,

habits can feel like chores.

But when habits reinforce your identity,

they feel meaningful, all right?

Eventually the

behavior, it becomes natural

because it reflects

who you believe you are.

And Clear ends this section by

introducing the idea

that identity change

follows a two-step process,

which we will explore in

the next episode tomorrow.

But for today, your Thursday takeaway is,

focus on becoming the type of person

who naturally

performs the habits you want.

All right, friends, laugh a little today.

Keep casting those identity votes.

And remember, every small habit

is quietly shaping the

person that you become.

All right, now it's time for the prize

from the bottom of the cereal box,

the morning cereal

trivia question of the day.

What country has won the

most Olympic gold medals?

All right, thanks for listening to

morning cereal today.

We will see you back here tomorrow

for the answer to the trivia question

and for more sugar for your 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 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 will be

a good time, I promise.

Thanks again for listening.

Have a fantastic day and

we'll see you tomorrow.