Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and
welcome to Wednesday.
Well, today has a
nice mix of celebrations.
It's National Buttermilk Biscuit Day,
so consider starting your
day with a warm flaky treat,
or if you're feeling a bit
more on the adventurous side,
it's also dance like a chicken day.
So it's a perfect excuse
to shake your tail feathers
and bring some joy to
your midweek routine.
Well, let's also bring some good vibes
and some wisdom with today's quote.
And it's from the Jedi
Master himself, George Lucas.
And he said, quote,
"Dreams are extremely important.
You can't do it unless you imagine it."
End quote.
And George is
reminding us that imagination
is the engine of progress.
If you want to build something great,
whether it's a film, a
business, or just a better day,
it all starts with a dream.
Okay, well, today's
news facts and birthdays
are for May 14th.
And we're gonna start back in 1948,
and that's when on this day,
Israel declared independence,
marking the
establishment of the state of Israel.
Then on this day in 1973,
the United States launched Skylab.
It was the first space station
for the United States into orbit.
Then in 1998, and I'm
guessing by how many people watched
this, you were probably one of them.
But on this day,
Seinfeld's final two-part episode,
the finale, it aired on
NBC to 76.3 million viewers.
With commercials
priced like the Super Bowl
at $2 million for every 30 seconds.
And what's crazy is I love Seinfeld.
I own the DVD collection.
I know, I know.
I still need to see the finale.
I just need to put it on my to-do list.
And then lastly, we're
gonna go all the way back
to last year, just last year in 2024.
That's when Google unveiled their new
generative AI feature
at its annual conference.
And it forces users
to view the AI overview
at the top of the Google search results.
We've all seen this, right?
But this is despite the
fact that those search results
are widely known to
be factually incorrect
up to 60% of the time.
So just be careful when
you're using those facts.
Maybe do just a little bit more digging
than just the Google used to require.
All right, well, happy
birthday if today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with retired NFL-er
and the world's biggest
slash maybe the oldest frat boy,
Rob Gronkowski, the Gronk, he's 36 today.
Then Mark Zuckerberg,
founder of Facebook,
he's only turning 40 years old.
I can only imagine what the last 20 years
of his life have been like.
And then Kate Blanchett, she's an
Oscar-winning actress
known for her roles in
"The Lord of the Rings"
and "Blue Jasmine."
She's 56 today.
And then George
Lucas, the iconic filmmaker
and the creator, as we
all know, of "Star Wars."
He turns 81 today, incredibly.
Well, the number one song on
this date back in 1985 was,
"Don't You Forget
About Me" by Simple Minds.
This iconic track
gained fame as the theme song
for the film "The Breakfast Club,"
becoming an anthem for
teenage angst and rebellion.
Now it's got a catchy chorus
and it's got a very memorable melody,
which helped to get
to the number one spot
on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,
solidifying its place
in pop culture history.
Well, we are currently
solidifying our understanding
of Stephen R. Covey's classic,
"The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People."
And today we're diving
into part two, chapter one,
the subsection titled,
"Direct, Indirect, and No Control."
And this part of the book
is all about understanding
the different types of
problems that we face
and probably more importantly,
how we respond to them effectively.
Now we've mentioned some of these
in yesterday's morning serial,
but we're gonna dive a
little bit deeper in them today.
If you remember, Covey divides problems
into three broad categories,
direct control, indirect
control, and no control.
Each category represented a
different level of influence
that we have and each
calls for a different strategy
to deal with.
Now, direct control
problems are those related
to our own behavior, how we act, speak,
how we react or fail to act.
These are the most
straightforward to address, right?
At least in theory,
because they fall entirely within our
circle of influence.
As Covey puts it, quote,
"Problems involving our own behavior
are direct control problems.
They are solved by working
on our habits," end quote.
And this is the core of habit number one,
which is be proactive.
If we want to grow,
we must take ownership of our actions
and commit to improving them.
So indirect control problems
involve the behavior
of other people, okay?
That's coworkers, our family
members, bosses, neighbors.
Maybe that's slow
driver in the fast lane.
Well, we can't
directly change these people,
but we can influence them.
According to Covey,
the solution here is
changing our methods of influence.
That means improving
our interpersonal skills,
which is what we're doing right now.
It means developing empathy
and modeling the behaviors
we wish to see in others.
Now this taps into habit number four,
which is think win-win
and habit number five,
seek first to
understand, then be understood.
And we'll cover those as
we get through the book,
but influence is slow work,
but it can be incredibly effective.
Then there's the most
frustrating category.
Those are the no control problems.
These are the things
we simply can't change,
like the weather, the
economy, traffic, or the past.
But Covey doesn't leave us helpless.
He writes, quote,
"We can't control
everything that happens to us,
"but we can control how
we respond," end quote.
And these are the moments
where our attitude
becomes our superpower.
Rather than reacting
with frustration or despair,
we can choose
acceptance, peace, and purpose.
That's where habit one shows up again,
reminding us that
between stimulus, right,
remember this, and response,
we always have the power to choose.
So Covey's framework
helps us channel our energy
more wisely.
By recognizing which
type of control we have
over a problem,
we avoid spinning our
wheels in frustration
or falling into victimhood.
We take the wheel when we can,
we influence when appropriate,
and we let go when necessary.
And that's not just good habit building,
it's just good living, right?
So that's gonna wrap up
today's serving of morning cereal,
but remember, you can
directly control your ability
to do the chicken dance today.
But don't take it too far,
dancing like a chicken can easily,
easily get out of control.
So dance cautiously.
Well, thanks for tuning in today.
We'll be back here
tomorrow with more insights,
history, and some fun.
And until then, 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 Shawningless
and at Shawningless.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.