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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.
Okay, good morning and
welcome to Monday on a holiday week.
No less somehow making this Monday feel a
bit more doable, right?
Right?
Or are we all just trying to fit
everything in to take some time off?
And now we're even more
stressed out. I don't know.
Let's just take a deep breath and turn to
someone who can no doubt toughen us
up. Our quote this morning comes from the
endlessly quotable Samuel L. Jackson,
who said, quote, if
you don't have courage,
you may not have the opportunity to use
any of your other virtues.
End quote. Now, if that doesn't provide
you with a shot of backbone this
morning, I don't know what will believe
in yourself. People find that courage,
put yourself out there.
Or Mr. Jackson might have some other
choice words for you. All right.
Here are your four moments
that matter for December 22nd,
historic moment in 2001, Richard Reed.
Probably don't know that name. You would
know him as the shoe bomber.
This is the day he attempted to detonate
explosives hidden in his shoes on an
American airline flight
from Paris to Miami. Luckily,
alert crew and passengers stopped him and
the plane landed safely in Boston.
Okay. Today's special day.
It's national short person's day,
giving a little extra spotlight to the
vertically challenged
heroes of the world.
Now, if you're wondering if today is
another day to celebrate yourself, well,
you have to be below five three as a
woman and five seven as a man.
And here's a little
Monday factoid for you.
The shortest person in the
world is Iranian Afshin Ji,
and he stands just two feet
and 1.5 inches tall. Well,
the number one song on this day way back
in 1958 was the chipmunk song
Christmas Don't Be Late by David Saville
and the chipmunks. Now,
I know you know this novelty holiday
track. It's a seasonal classic,
but did you know that all four parts of
this song were performed by one person,
Ross Bagdasarian Sr.
Well, happy birthday to you.
Today's your birthday.
You share a birthday with singer and
American auto winner Jordan Sparks.
He's just 36 today. Pop singer, who's all
about that bass. Megan trainer.
She's just 32 today and acclaimed actor
from Schindler's List and Harry Potter.
Ralph Fiennes. He's 63 today.
And Beegee's brother, the late Robin
Gibbs, who was born on this day in 1949.
Okay. Book review time. We are in Mel
Robbins, the let them theory.
And today we're starting a new chapter,
Chapter 14, which is entitled,
people only change when
they feel like it. Now,
if you've ever tried to upgrade someone
else's life more than they wanted it,
this one will hit home for you.
Mel Robbins opens this section by naming
one of the most exhausting
habits many of us carry, trying to manage
other people's choices.
Now we rewrite their
schedules in our heads, right?
Mentally edit their relationships and we
endlessly replay conversations,
hoping we'll eventually land on the magic
words that finally quote, fix them.
Right? Well, the hard truth that she
offers is right in the chapter title.
People only change when they feel like
it. Not when you're worried enough,
not when you're nagging them enough, or
not when you're disappointed enough.
Mel connects this to the
let them theory directly.
When you believe your happiness depends
on someone else's behaving a certain way,
you've handed your power over to them.
Robbins reminds you that quote, people
hold no power over you unless you give it
to them, end quote.
And constantly trying to engineer their
growth is one of the sneakiest ways to
do exactly that. In the
intro to this chapter,
she invites you to pause and notice where
you're carrying a quiet wish list.
I wish they'd be more ambitious. I wish
they'd communicate better.
I wish they'd stop drinking, stop
scrolling, stop
avoiding hard conversations.
Instead of doubling down on control,
Mel asks you to see those wishes as data
about you and your needs,
your boundaries, right? Your values.
This is where the let me side of the
theory becomes crucial.
Let me tell the truth about how this
behavior impacts me.
That me set boundaries instead of
silently hoping they'll read my mind.
Let me decide what I
will and won't tolerate,
regardless of whether
they change. In other words,
your work is in your lane, not in theirs.
And Robbins doesn't minimize how painful
it is to watch someone you love self
sabotage or stay stuck, right?
The intro to this chapter
acknowledges that grief,
but it insists that trying
to force their transformation,
it usually breeds
resentment on both sides.
Accepting that you can't control their
timeline doesn't mean you don't care.
It just means you carry enough to stop
playing a role you were never meant to
fill. So as this chapter begins,
she's basically handing you a permission
slip to step out of that unpaid change
manager job and step back into being a
person with choices. You can stay,
you can step back, you can
set limits, or you can leave,
but you cannot do their
inner work for them. All right,
here is your Monday takeaway.
You find your peace not
by perfecting other people,
but by accepting that real change is
voluntary and choosing how you
show up in the meantime. Well, as you
move through this Monday,
remember you can't
control how tall you are.
You can't control how other people act,
but you can absolutely
control your attitude,
your boundaries and how
you treat people around you.
Think of the chipmunks.
They're small, a little ridiculous and
somehow unforgettable.
And they bring a kind of unapologetic
energy into your day. All right.
Well, thanks for starting the morning
with morning cereal.
We will be back here
tomorrow with more stories, quotes,
and moments that matter. And until then,
have a fantastic day.
We'll be 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.