Lessons on living from Matthew McConaughey. A reflection on Greenlights.
Alright. Alright. Alright.
Greenlights is a testament to McConaughey’s astounding highs, lateral thinking and RELENTLESS optimism.
No matter how sweet Matthew leaves his fans feeling, this man is anything but vanilla. Character and might, fire filled belly; it is obvious from the other side of the screen that, each new role Matthew plays is the shedding of an old skin.
Despite this external change, the essence, the snake remains the same; despite the role Matthew redefines the terms of his existence. He rewrites his own script.
Reading Greenlights, as someone who has always loved McConaughey, was enlightening. Not only did it stick and leave a scent with me personally, it also highlights the relentless optimism needed to turn red lights into green lights; it shows the strength of mind and will necessary to go after what you want in life.
The book is filled with gems and poignant ‘bumper sticker’ one liners.
So what stuck? What scent did it leave?
Value of Values
The aim of the game here is to know what you stand for. What’s important to you?
Or as Peter F. Drucker put it “what kind of person do I want to see in the mirror in the morning?”
Drawing from McConaughey’s wisdom, in my opinion, there are necessary steps to discover and live by our values.
“The first step that leads to our identity in life is usually not I know who I am, but rather I know who I am not. Process of elimination.”
The starting point is exploration; it is figuring out who were not, before coming to find parts of who we are.
Once you’ve figured out who you are and what you stand for, take responsibility of protecting your identity.
The process of elimination must remain by your side. There will always be excess in life, our primary task then is to refine down each moment to the essential.
A process described by Chris Guillebeau in London Writers’ Salon interview;
“Find a way of life that works for you and protect it. It should be exciting and meaningful, and you can nurture it through discipline and gratitude.”
The scent the ‘Value of Values’ left with me is that I am at phase one. Figuring out who I’m not, my values and my standards; breaking ground and laying the foundations. Don’t rush it.
“We have to be thrown off balance to find our footing.”- McConaughey
“The future is the monster”
This may seem contradictory to McConaughey’s advice to ‘begin with the end in mind.’
There is a distinction to make here.
The difference between the monster and the end is the degree to which something is known. The future is unknown, uncertain; a leap, three jumps and two left slides away from what you know.
‘The future’ is infinite and immeasurable.
The end, however, is measurable, it is finite.
Notice how there is no timeframe attached to the end or the beginning. Work backwards from what you are trying to achieve. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.
The only thing that matters is that you DON’T HALF-ASS IT.
(This is what stuck.)
Tie your fucking shoe laces before you run down hill
Simple: stop sabotaging yourself.
If you are running a green light. If you’re on a streak it’s because you got yourself there. There is no need for you to stop at a green light. RUN THEM DOWN.
This is a particularly difficult concept to grasp when you’ve had a rough start to life. You’re used to things being hard, you’re used to pushing, in some ways you associate it with the success you’ve found.
Really all you’re doing is slowing yourself down. Adding extra resistance where there doesn’t need to be any.
In this case we should be like cyclists; shaving all existing hairs to reduce resistance.
The chapter Running Downhill stuck with me because right now I am running a green light and I’ve made it yellow purely through resistance, purely through self-doubt.
And the scent, well, that’s simple: tie your fucking shoe laces before you start running downhill. Pack your insecurities in. Tie your anticipation up; tighten your grip on your expectations. And….
LET HER RIP.
Relentless Optimism.
“the insight isn’t the work. The work is the work. The work is sitting with the insight long enough that it can change you.”- Tim Grahl
There is only one thing that is amiss. There is one thing I would have liked to hear more about from Matthew; the red lights.
The book is filled with adventure, realisations and discoveries. But it does not depict the extent of the difficulty of chasing down these adventures and realisations; there is no change from red to green.
It doesn’t get dark and twisty. There isn’t the vulnerability of the red lights or the yellows.
I place the lack of emphasis on the red lights down to one thing: relentless optimism.
The art of catching more green lights, by nature, is to be able to perceive a situation with relentless optimism; it is the ability to turn something on its head, to make lemonade from lemons.
This is an asset because it stops the victim mentality.
What I noted here was that it isn’t because it isn’t discussed that the red lights didn’t happen.
McConaughey’s deliberate spiritual ‘time outs’ illustrates to me that he has mastered the art of sitting in the shit long enough for the insight to come and then doing the work of sitting in the insight long enough for the change to take place.
Relentless optimism isn’t denial, it is the cultivated ability to work through the realisations; it is patiently waiting at the red light for it to turn green, instead of running red lights.
Relentless optimism depends on one thing:
Receiving Truth
Our lives, Matthew argues, are ruled by busyness and excess. His remedy? Receiving truth.
When you come to a red light, put yourself in the place to receive the truth. It is okay to stop.
In fact it is necessary to stop and re-evaluate. Our ability to do so will define the people we see in the mirror in the morning.
Without re-evaluation there is no sure way to correct the ways we fail to live by our values. Without re-evaluation there is no process of elimination.
Note: you are not seeking out truth. You are opening your mind to truth. You are putting yourself in a position to receive it.
Fundamentally, life is a choice.
“It isn’t about win or lose, it is about do you accept the challenge”- McConaughey
Whatever lies in front of you: Do you accept the challenge?
To conclude…
This book teaches the art of a calculated ‘winging it’ without a bird or a plane.
But the bottom line is this: just keep livin. Alright, Alright, Alright?
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