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.