Matthew McConaughey: Greenlights: Listener Favorite

EPISODE 191

Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights is not a conventional memoir. As he neared age 50, the Oscar-winning actor revisited the journal he kept for 35 years to see what he could learn from it.

Matthew McConaughey describes a greenlight as a sign you should continue with what you are doing. You may believe these signs come from the universe, God, or by chance. All that matters is you pursue this greenlight when it emerges.

“This is a book about how to catch more YESs in a world of NOs and how to recognize when a NO might actually be a YES. This is a book about catching green lights and realizing that the yellow and the reds eventually turn green.” – Matthew McConaughey

INTRO

With a memoir based on journals, why did Matthew start making a journal in the first place?

Find your patterns to success (2m19)

AWARENESS OF CHALLENGE

What happened after Matthew started saying ‘no’ to Rom Coms

Only red lights help you grow (4m18)

Matthew gives us some realistic career and life advice

Enjoy the process (3m54)

POSITIVE HABITS

Words that were banned in the McConaughey home

Never say never (2m08)

Why you should own your responsibility and achieve freedom

Earn your way to success (2m16)

OUTRO

Matthew closes the show with a positive affirmation

Look in the rear view mirror (38s)

READING LIST

Greenlights: Mathew McConaughey

Greenlights . You can find it here on Blinkist.

Clip Credits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLkjaTjJXLY&ab_channel=TimFerriss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ZcE5GQP9c&ab_channel=MotivationHub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YluMtr-Lp6I

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Parsons: Hello and welcome to the moonshots podcast. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by the man with the plan, Mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning Mac.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Hey, good morning, Mike. I think maybe it's not just a man with a plan today. It's a man who is driving down the road. And he's only seeing

Mike Parsons: green lights that are somewhat familiar.

And I think it is only appropriate for us to let our listeners in on the secret that we are going to one of the most surprising shows of the year.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, I totally agree with that statement. Actually, it's great to dig back into Matthew McConaughey book Green Lights, which was quite a surprise for us, Mike, because he had revisited a number of his journals that he had kept for not one, not two but 35 years.

Throughout his career. It's almost over 30 years of going through different jobs, different reflections on his life. And it's a fascinating little demonstration of not only, I think, journals, but also how an individual can change.

Mike Parsons: Yeah. And listen, I can only imagine the printout that he would have had because after doing this show and studying this book, I printed out four years of journals and it was like a three inch pile.

And it was really the aha that we got from green lights that wasn't just per se. You should write a journal, but I think what Matthew McConaughey really opened up to us and we're going to go through it together on this show. Today is the fact that you can go back and reread it. And there's so much in that practice to reread your journal.

And I thought, oh my gosh, I never do that. And I've started to do it. And it's pretty provocative. Isn't it?

Mark Pearson Freeland: It really is. I remember certainly digging back into my journal. Last time we reflected on GreenLights by Matthew McConaughey. And it was a really interesting experience. Something that we will learn from Matthew, which is a bit of a harsh truth, and we certainly experienced it ourselves.

You often only journal when you're feeling a bit down or something's gone wrong and you need to have a bit of maybe it's. A bit of a whinge or yeah, you got to clean your mind a bit, but actually Matthew makes the case for also journaling when you're feeling pretty positive, because then you can reflect back and see those as he calls them patterns to success, he can see and reflect on the red lights that he thought were a real blocker in his life.

And there's a fantastic story, Mike, around where Matthew says no, which I can't wait to dig back into, but he says all these red lights eventually turn to green. And I think that's a really interesting and powerful way of recontextualizing blockers that we all run into during our lives.

Mike Parsons: I think that what we have for the next hour is the chance not only to remind ourselves why we should journal, and that is something that you and I talk about a lot as a great practice to unlock the best version of yourself. But to actually go back and reread it and find the patterns of your success and what you will have in that is the capacity to better understand yourself, find out what you really want in life and to make those dreams, ambitions, and aspirations come true.

And, I think we should leave them hanging. There is an amazing story where. Through the power of journaling, Matthew McConaughey was able to make one of the toughest, hardest decisions that I think most of us would have crumbled under. And he recounts the story in our show and it's so powerful and unlocking, just this huge insight into why journaling can just make you such a wiser, stronger, better person.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, that's right. So look, I think we've made the case for Matthew McConaughey is green lights. Let's jump in. I would

Mike Parsons: Just say here, let's get ready to be surprised about the power of journaling and I think Matthew McCarney. Hey boy. Get ready for thinking better. All right, mark set up this clip.

Yeah,

Mark Pearson Freeland: I love it today. We're Dean to green. So let's start off with why. Again, writing a journal in the first place and how he found his patterns to success.

Matthew McConaughey: My diary started off I think most people's diaries. Do you write things down when you're not in a good place or you're lost? And my early diary entries where the, why, what, where, when house, the existential question of what is going on, does it matter?

Who am I? Oh my God, this shit. So my girlfriend broke up with me. I lost it, and started off with that. So I've noticed that I started writing down when I was in times of distress or disillusioned. And then. I started to say wait a minute, you gotta just augment a book by hook or by crook, you read it three times a day.

I was like we're going to write in my diary everyday, McConaughey. And so when did I, when do most of us, including me not write in our diary when things are going great. Oh, I've got to figure it out. I'm not going to need to take time to go be introspective and write down my thoughts.

Everything's green light. No, I said, hang on a second. We're going to spend our life keeping a diary. The original use of a diary is to dissect failure or disillusion. I think there's some prudence in dissecting success. Let's dissect what's going on when things are going well, that's, let's write in this diary when you feel like everything's clear and you feel strong and confident.

And you feel like yourself. So I started writing in my diary when things were going well, and then starting to map out certain things and found that what that did is when I would get in a proverbial rut later, I could go back to that diary and look at what I was writing? What was I doing? When I felt like everything was lickety split and I had it, everything handled and I found consistency.

I found it from what I was eating to, who I was hanging out with how much sleep I was getting two beauties in the world that I was noticing and really were affecting me how I approach people, how I was approaching today, how I was approaching conflict that was approaching and taking in things that work success and I've found consistencies.

And then, sometimes going back in those days, Reading what I was writing when things were going well, would help get me out of a rut later on in life when I wasn't doing so well. And I remember this early on in college, it's a reason that my buddy, as I mentioned early, Rob builder said, you should go into storytelling.

Mike Parsons: Wow. The power of journaling. Did he just make a case [00:07:00] for it? And Mark, it is so true that we tend to only visit the diary when things ain't so good, but he just told us that, Hey, it's when things aren't so good, you go back and read the times when you're working. In a good place and you can see what you were thinking, what you were doing, and then you can start to recreate those habits and get back on track.

Bam. That was strong.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Bam. All right. That was a pretty good lesson in how to journal actually. And to be honest, I've certainly only. Began journaling when times were tough. I think I'm stressed or missing home or whatever it might be. And it's pretty tempting. Isn't it to only actually, when you're feeling a little bit low, like Matthew says your girlfriend broke up with you or whatever, but actually to go back and reread the good times. Is a really kind of big value. It's a call to action, really, to tell you to go out and ride, even when the going is good, because the value that you'll get in the future is so much higher.

And I don't know, Mike, it's interesting. I'm, I've never really gone back and visited my own journal. And I think what Matthew is doing right here is encouraging me to go and do that. Do you tend to go back to your journal?

Mike Parsons: I'm going to meet. I'm exactly the same view in the eye. So I've already got a homework item, number one from this show, and we're only a few minutes into it, but I think it was very powerful.

When I found journaling, it was something that was just a relief. Ryan Holiday, who we studied on the show, said it very well. The diary is for the author, not for the reader, meaning it's just all about whatever you need to write. However you need to write, just write. But where my kind of hade takes this, another step is he'll go back and read it and read the good times and you'll find a pattern to your success because then you're like, oh, damn.

I was exercising more thinking about this more. I was hanging out with these people, whatever it is that drives your performance and you really. Reaching your potential. It serves as a great, very traceable way to go back and say, you know what, I'm not doing that right now. I'm going to reinstate that practice.

I think this is just a. It's almost the completeness of journaling. It's, the, in the moment, it's the purge, but afterwards it's the reflections where you can go back and decode what actually works for you because it all becomes a bit of a

Mark Pearson Freeland: haze. Doesn't it? Yeah. It's the reflection, isn't it.

Sometimes when you're caught up in the moment, you're less likely to maybe even remember. You might scribble something down, get it out of your system and move on. And then the good times come. So you forget about that bad. And I think what's really difficult is to then remember the journey or the struggle that you went through and you came out the other side, you're alive.

You're stronger because of that challenge. And. What I love is the completeness, as you're saying of journaling it down, but then going back to revisit and say, okay what was I eating? I think that's a really interesting tactic that McConaughey has called out here.

Yeah.

Mike Parsons: Yeah. I, and I think there's just presents to all of our listeners and to us, mark.

We can look at the success of Matthew McConaughey and we're going to decode some of the challenges he went through and how journaling helped him later in the show. But I think it's safe to say, the guy has written a bestseller, not bad. Oh, by the way, the guy's got an academy award. He's got the Oscar.

Oh, that's two for two. You and I have talked about this before. There are not many people. That can really rise to the top in two totally different professions and, writing a book about journaling and portraying a cowboy diagnosed with aids. Totally different things, yet he has succeeded in both. So I think this is so exciting for us to learn how he did it to decode. How might we do it too? So for this show, we're going to really. Have a bit of a cold shower and awaken to how to think about challenges. And then we're going to look at some of the positive habits that we can all take on board so that we can have a little more green light in our life.

That sounds pretty

Mark Pearson Freeland: good. Doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. And whether you're in a situation of collaboration with your team, whether you're a leader, whether you're somebody with a family, it feels to me as though there's a lot that we can learn from our economy's ability to jump between different sex.

Mike Parsons: Totally agree. I totally agree. Now he tells us a lot about green lights, but he also talks about Redlands too. Does it anymore? Yeah.

Mark Pearson Freeland: So the idea, and I don't want to give it away. I'm going to let them kind of introduce themselves. Is this great visual metaphor for challenges and what we're going to dig into now, Mike is McConaughey explaining a little bit about what he did.

With challenges. We've talked about stoicism, we've talked about obstacles being the way and celebrating those difficult moments. But before we really get into reflecting back on what we've heard from perhaps other entrepreneurs, innovators, authors, as well as I'm going back through a member of Mr.

Joe Rogan, let's actually hear this wonderful story from a kind of, Hey, that really brings to life. What red lights mean. What are the benefits of persevering and also seeing the benefit of an obstacle, being an opportunity. And this is Mike, I can't wait to hear this again. This is Matthew telling us why.

And what happened when he started saying no to romcoms

Matthew McConaughey: romcom offers came in to my agent for about the next six months, but nothing but romcom offers and I didn't even. Unless it was a major offer. A w I just said no. And I, they just stopped at my agent's desk, Jim doll. No. And then one of them came through. That was like a gargantuan offer for it.

And my agent said, it's a pretty damn good script too. And so I said we'll send you that. Let me read it.

And I remember this, the offer was like $8 million and the script is pretty good. But it was still a code of Aramco. And I remember reading it and going, no, thank you. I remember feeling emboldened and strengthened by saying no. Thank you. Great. Sticking to my guns. No romcoms six months into this drought.

No, not caving in now. Don't half-ass it McConaughey. So they come back with a Timane dollar off. No, thank you. They come back with $12.5 million. Now I go. Dot ellipsis alerts. Nah, no, thank you, man. They come back with a $15 million offer. Wow. You know what, let me have another reread of that script.

And I re-read that. At $15 million, the same script that I've been offered for eight may, not the $50 million offer script, which was the same exact words as the $8 million offer script. The 50 minute doc script was better. It was fun. It had possibilities. It had angles. I had ideas. I could make this work, this is work, but I said no, thank you.

That got the signal across Hollywood that McConaughey was taking a serious sabbatical. And so don't even send him the wrong color. So for the next shoot, 12, 14 months. Nothing came in nada, zilch, not an offer for anything. I checked, talked to my agent every couple of weeks and just be like, nothing came in nothing.

So now we're 20 months into this desert. Do any work? I didn't know what I was going to be in to know if I was going to change my career. If I was going to become a teacher coach or go back to being a lawyer. I didn't know. I didn't think so, but I was writing more. I was talking about forest winters. I'd put a forest winter on mice.

And I was pretty content. I wasn't, waking up every morning and going, did an offer come in, did something new, come in. I was past that. And then all of a sudden 20 months in 2021 months into this desert, I could start getting some offers that are interesting things. William Friedkin killer Joe, Daniel's paper.

Boy, Jeff Nichols wrote mud for me. Steven Soderbergh called it magic. Richard Linklater. And I go do Bernie together. True. Detective comes around all of a sudden to the Dallas buyers club. No one still wants to put a bunch of money up for a 1980s period drama that age, but all of a sudden Makani Hey, all the directors were no directors would do Dallas buyers club with me.

They wanted the script. They loved the script. They didn't want to do it. God. All of a sudden we find a John Mark fellow who wants, who says, no, I'd like to do it with McConaughey. So what happened. Was that 22 launch or whatever at that drought at desert, I UNbranded I didn't rebrand unbranded me being away.

Me being in Texas, not being on a beach, getting pictures of me, shirtless on a beach, not being in romcoms. I was out of the world. I was out of the industry's view. I was not in your living room. I was not in your theater. I was not in any of the places that the world would expect to see me and how to see me.

Where was I? I was gone. Where is McConnell? Hey you're gone long enough. All of a sudden I became a new, good idea, and I just started hammering them. The family came with me everywhere. I went and just started laying down work. That really turned me on what.

Mike Parsons: Story, Mike. I think that must be one of the best stories we've heard.

Any moonshot legend shared on this show. That one is just seriously epic.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's such an epic journey that he went through. And remember, this is going back to when he was in the prime time of his career, probably late 20. Maybe even earlier than that. And he was on our screens in so many films, but that typecasting that he fell into, it was stopping him going out and achieving what he really wanted.

Wasn't it? So really that, that epic story we just heard is the benefit of patients, the benefit of reflecting on what matters to you, and then having the perseverance to go out and stick to your guns and try to make it.

Mike Parsons: Yeah, building on that. I would say he had the strength to say no. And we see that as a pattern to a lot of successful people that it's not only the ability to choose the right things, but it's also their ability to say.

No, thanks that doesn't, I'm not on that mission. And I will then go a level deeper. I think he had such a strong understanding of his purpose and who he wanted to be as an actor. And I will even go another level and say he achieved that through journaling without a doubt, the clarity. Did you hear that deal?

What, where did it, what did it start at and where did it finish

Mark Pearson Freeland: on the numbers? I think it started at $8 million. And then ended after that interchange of his game back and forth saying no, essentially [00:19:00] playing hardball. I think it ended up at 50.

Mike Parsons: All right. So I just want everybody listening right now.

Somebody had a one-time project that would net him sufficient money for him, his family, his children's children to all live well. And he said, no, he said, no, Mike, this is seriously stamina and strength that most of us, Could you imagine, just imagine someone is offering you that

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's just mind blowing, isn't it?

And

Mike Parsons: he's And then he was unemployed as an actor for just under two years as a result of this. But I would argue that it was through his daily practice of journaling, that this gave him the fortitude to stay on track. Just like Elon Musk, who wrote the final check to empty his bank accounts to keep space X and solar city alive.

Like that. That's when you know what you're about. And I would argue that journaling is one of the single best tools to know what you're about, who you are, throw in, read green lights from McConnell. Hey, maybe take a dash of, start with why and Simon. No, what you're about. So did you have the power to do the things that are right, but also the fortitude to just say no, this was seriously one of the greatest lessons I think I've learned on this show.

Mark. It's

Mark Pearson Freeland: awesome. It is the perfect review of journaling. And I love, I just want to go back to something you've just said, because that really stuck with me. It gave him the fortitude to not only start saying no, but to that. Live with the decision, the fact that he turned it down and then he went into the wilderness.

I think, the valley of darkness for a couple of years, he probably questioned whether he'd made the right decision, but having the ability to refer back to. His decisions, what mindset he was in, why he said, no, I know that is, is huge because sometimes when you know, we're making decisions in our lives, we'll probably question a few of them and think, oh, maybe I reacted too strong or maybe I didn't react strong enough.

And it's only possible because we don't have a film. Running around. Similar to how Joe Rogan said, it's as though you've got a film crew, the journaling is the record, isn't it? It's the record of what you felt like, maybe what you've done and what an interesting idea to sit with something for maybe two years when you've turned down $15 million and then say, okay where was I?

24 months ago? Why did I do this again? It's just really. Really rich story

Mike Parsons: that is another thing that came up a lot in the timeless classic series was this idea of difference between the journey and the destination. And what we've got now is more goodness from Mr. McConaughey.

We're going to listen to him, talking about understanding the difference between the destination and the journey. And there's a lot of good stuff inside of there. So let's get into none other than Mr. McConahey, as we study his book. GreenLights and let him tell us about the process.

Matthew McConaughey: I'm going to talk to you about some things I've learned in my journey.

Most from experience, some of them I heard in passing, many of them I'm still practicing, but all of them I do believe are true. Life is not easy. It is not. Don't try to make it that way. Life's not fair. It never was. It isn't now. And it won't ever be, do not fall into the trap. The entitlement trap of feeling like you're a victim, you are not getting over it and getting on with it.

So the question that we've got to ask ourselves, Success is to us. What success is to you? Is it more money as fine? I got nothing against money. Maybe it's a healthy family. Maybe it's a happy marriage. Maybe it's to help others to be famous, to be spiritually sound, to leave the world a little bit better place than you found it.

Continue to ask yourself that question. Now your answer may change over time and that's fine, but do yourself this favor, whatever your answer is. Don't choose anything that will jeopardize yourself, prioritize who you are, who you want to be, and don't spend time with anything that antagonizes your character.

Be brave, take the hill. But first answer that question. What's my hill? We have to define success for ourselves. And then we have to put in the work to maintain it, take that daily tally to our garden, and keep the things that are important to us in good shape. It is just as important where we are not.

As it is where we are. Look, the first step that leads to our identity life is usually not. I know who I am. I know who I am. That's not the first step. The first step is usually knowing who I am not. When you do this, when you do put it down, when you put it down, go in there and you quit giving them your time, you inadvertently find yourself spending more time and in more places. That is healthy for you and brings you more joy.

Why? Because you just eliminated the who's, the where's the Watts and the winds that were keeping you from your identity. Adjust, there are too many options. I promise you that too many options will make a tyrant of us. All right. So get rid of the excess, the wasted time, and decrease your options. If you do this, you will almost accidentally.

Put it in front of you. What is important to you? I process the elimination, knowing who we are is hard. It's hard to give yourself a break, eliminate who you are not first. And you're going to find yourself where you need to be. Instead of creating outcomes that take from us, let's create more outcomes that pay us back.

Fill us up. Keep your fire lit, turn you on for the most amount of time in your future. We try our best. We don't always do our best. The architecture is a verb as well as, since we are the architects of our own lives. Let's study the habits, the practices, the routines that we have that lead to and feed our.

Our joy, our honest pain, our laughter, our earned tears. Let's dissect that and give thanks for those things. And when we do that, guess what happens? We get better at discerning. Choose it because you want it, know it because you want to, you're going to make mistakes. You got a home. And you've got to make amends, and then you've got to move on, guilt and regret kills many men before their time to turn the page off the ride.

You are the author of the book of your life.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And there's a lot in that clip. That's a nice summation of a number of speeches that he's done because Mike w what we didn't mention is that he's also a, I believe he's a professor. Now.

Mike Parsons: Yeah, he studied to be a lawyer, but I go back to that clear.

What he just talked about is learning to be better every day. Being the best version of yourself by making better choices every day. That was almost like he was talking about our show. That's exactly what we're trying to do together here. Only you, me and all of our listeners. We're all just trying to be a little bit better every day.

And at the root of this, the foundational practice of this is the journal.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's the only way to be able to reflect back, to know what success means to you, right? Because as he's calling out, it can change. What matters to me right now might be different to what matters to me in six months, time, a year, 20 years.

But you can only have that action of reflection when you've created the format or the capability to then refer back to it.

Mike Parsons: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's, if you have, if it becomes the record, then you can enjoy the process of just 1% better every day. And the beauty of the process is that you do it for long enough and all of a sudden you go damn actually made some real progress.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And then in its own way, that'll give you the confidence, the courage, the reassurance that you've made, the right decision. So by doing it now, you will pay dividends in the future and you will be able to go back and study those habits. You're right. The 1% better. It's the perfect demonstration of that.

Isn't it. By the act of journaling, I can refer back. I can see how I can get better and I can therefore make it. Be that a little bit

Mike Parsons: happier. Totally. And boy, he can get on and do his sermon, Connie. That was a pretty gusty speech to you he gave there, he was like, like giving a sermon on a Sunday.

He was like a region there who was really getting into it. And I was too, I thought it was fantastic.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of fun to hear McConaughey speak. He is, I think, as he caught out in that first clip, we heard [00:29:00] he's a man. He tells a good story and that's why I think he's so unique in the individuals that we've dug into previously because of his capabilities at, performing on screen, as well as this additional element that he's released at the end of last year.

GreenLights is showing them. Everybody's a little bit deeper, we've all gone. Something that can create a product or an environment for us to learn from in the world. And it's really interesting how many surprises you and I have when we think about the concept of moonshots, who we can learn out loud from.

We just, the list is exhaustive.

Mike Parsons: Oh, you should see the future episodes list on, on the sidebar is like an epic. And for any of our listeners, if you want to see what's coming up, what people have recommended to us for you, our listeners have suggested head over to moonshots.io. And while we talk about that, there's another thing.

It's just part of the process of us getting better at Manchester. And that is we're going to launch the moonshots at mark. We need a little bit of encouragement. Don't we, if we're going to do that,

Mark Pearson Freeland: We do look listeners. It is not up to myself from Mike to decide what is valuable for you. We want to hear from you.

You tell us not only who you'd like us to cover and as. We invite you to pop over to www.meanshots.io, to check out our future shows. We listen to every single recommendation that you guys give us. And on the same line of thinking, we want to hear from you with regards to creating a moonshots application.

This will be your playbook that you can pop in your pocket that all inspires or maybe guides, or at least helps some of your mindsets and those habits that we talk about on the show regarding, improving yourself decision-making as well as perhaps even leadership. We want to know from you, whether this is worth building.

Mike Parsons: So I think our call to action mark is. We need you to sign up for the beta and we want to thank a whole bunch of people who have done it. There's Fernanda, Robin Haymitch, Claire, Sarah Bettina, Thomas, Sharon, Michael, Samantha, Jason barod. Andy Dimitri. Thank you. We really want to make sure we're building something that is going to.

They have value. It's going to have some cool stuff. It will be more interactive. And how you can listen to the show. You can vote from the app for future shows, and there's going to be a whole training section, which is built around the idea of improving yourself, your decisions. And your leadership too.

So if you want to give us the signal, the bat signal, mark, where did they send out the signal that they want to do this

Mark Pearson Freeland: pop over to the homepage? www.moonshots.io, click on the top of banner, the moonshots app, sign up for our free beater and we'll keep a record and we'll give you a shout out and we'll get that a little bit closer to going out and creating the moonshots.

Mike Parsons: Now we've got that. And we're getting into this idea of positive habits, listening to our show rating and reviewing our show. If you can and share it with friends, making suggestions or Mr. McConnell, Hey, the author of green lights. He has a lot to say about positive habits. Does.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, he does.

And as you were briefly mentioning in the backend of the last clip, Mike, this idea of 1% better we've really dug into this on the show before with our habits series, but these sorts of habits. McConaughey is really reinforcing, I think are just as valuable. And what's really nice is a couple of personal stories of his own approach.

As we've heard previously, when he started saying no to romcoms, there's some more stories that he's going to give us, which I think are really valuable when we think about habits. And this first one, Mike is a little bit of a reflection back to when he was growing. And the idea of words being banned in the house.

So this next clip we're going to hear, we're used to telling us why you should never say never,

Matthew McConaughey: but the real words that we got, either punished for a war forbidden or hate and can't. And I remember my dad, I remember one Saturday morning when I was. 12 my Saturday morning chores, where do you know, mow the lawn?

We shine his shoes and sweep the borders and get the car off the corners. I'd get up very early on a Saturday morning to do that. So I could have my Saturday afternoon to play. And I went out to try and start up, push a lawnmower and it wouldn't start Paul again. Wouldn't start pulling again. We'll just start checking the gas.

Yeah, it's got gas tanks going on. Damn it. One was dark. I remember going into my dad inside and I go dad, then I can't get the lawnmower started. Slowly turned his head to me and I saw Mueller's mate. You start to grit his teeth and he goes, you, what? And I knew enough right then to not say the word again.

And I said I, I. And he got up and I didn't finish my sentence. He slowly walked with me out of his bedroom, through the kitchen, through the garage, around the back to the shed where this lawnmower was that I was not getting started. Hey, without seeing a word, he nailed down, looked at it, checked the gas better than any way.

He found the little tube where the gas was not transferring and it had been disconnected. So they, so he reconnected that pull a few times and. And they're over a new now running push lawnmower. He looked at me, put his hands on my shoulders for the first time since I said I can't get it started.

He put his hands on. My shoulders, looked at me and very sternly said, he goes, he sees seven. You were just having trouble with Walmart and boom. And I remember from that day that lesson was like, oh, even if you're unable to do something on your own. You can still go seek help or get assistance.

So you're still only having trouble, even if you on your own cannot do it. That was a tie in those words still to this day, if I let him slip, I have to look over my shoulder like, oh, to get me,

Mike Parsons: Mike, what do you think? The benefit of this idea? Like never say never and never say this word hate.

What does that really do for us? Where is he really? What is he really teaching?

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think he's teaching us to have patience. I think it's patience. I think it's resilience. I know McConaughey calls out to find support from other people. And every challenge can be surmounted. If you find, maybe a professional in some, but really for me, that clip speaks to don't give up.

Don't find that you can't turn on the lumbar and say, ah, life is against. This is the end of, this is the end of ife I give up. Instead, what he's saying is, okay, have that little bit more perseverance and resilience to keep on pushing, find that solution, maybe work that harder a bit harder, but just stick with it.

Mike Parsons: He's almost going a little Carol Dweck, isn't it? Yeah.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's the growth mindset. Don't fall into that fixed mindset. Yeah.

Mike Parsons: Yeah. Teach you like, what would you do different when you hear a kind of haze saying this

Mark Pearson Freeland: for me, it's the triggers, much like Carol, we were talking about noticing.

When your mind or your behavior is falling into a traditional or fixed behavior or mindset. So in that case, let's go back to the lawn mower. If it doesn't start, what would a lot of us do? We'd say, ah, I need to buy a new lawn mower, or we'd say, I'm not going to learn the monitor. I'm not going to mow the lawn today after all, you'd find an excuse and close down on it, but in.

If you can notice it is okay, here's an opportunity that I need to go out and fix this machine. Isn't starting, or I've got a problem at work or at home instead of falling into the natural passage of saying, Nope, that doesn't work. And it never was. Going out and trying to find that solution, noticing that's your trigger, noticing that's your standard behavior.

And instead choosing to guard and continue finding the solution. That's for me, the big lesson from never say never.

Mike Parsons: And it's how we perceive the limitations of ourselves and what we saw. For example, with Michael Jordan, when we studied him, he made a decision, I will be the best basketball player on the planet.

And he never said never. So there's some really interesting patterns here, this idea of general. Very much a stoic. So check out our Ryan holiday series. If you're interested in that, enjoy the process and be more present. That's kind of the power of now and echo toe and this idea of mindset.

This is total Carol Dweck, who we just did recently in the timeless classic series. And what's underpinning all of this, which is beautiful, which is so typically. The journal, the ultimate weapon in being the best version of yourself, but you don't get there without hard work. You don't get there with some toil.

So you need to be able to, put in the time, put in the effort and sometimes. You have to take a little bit of responsibility. You have to put in the work to enjoy freedom. So let's have a listen to Matthew McConaughey talking about earning your way to success.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That

Matthew McConaughey: there's a responsibility to freedom and that there is freedom and responsibility, and that earns your way.

We remember the stuff we earn, the stuff we experienced more than what the teacher tells us or what someone gives us for free. We just do it. We broke them, proverbial, sweat on it, whether it was mental or physical, whatever we built it. We understand, we feel how we got it, how we achieved it. I, we got what we wanted, those stick with us.

Whether we forget them intellectually, they were written in our lineage and they build resilience and they and they build. A healthy, true optimism. Going forward to know that, oh no I've worked with something for and achieved it. Delayed gratification. Oh, they're choices I can make today for myself that will pay me back later in life.

So there are choices we make. If you're going to say right now, I'm going to lie, cheat and steal to get what I want. And I got it. I got an immediate green light for me. That's a battery powered green light. That's not a solar powered green line. Because now everywhere I go, I have to look over my shoulder to see if someone's there that I lied, cheated, or stole from.

And I'm doing that. I'm stealing whose time? Now I'm not free. I'm not free. I don't have the freedom. I didn't create freedom in my life. Because I chose to be an, I made an irresponsible act that I left crumbs. And now I've got reasons to look over my shoulder and the more things we do to create in our future, that we gotta look over our shoulder.

The most precious thing we have in our lives is time that we're stealing from her. So it's not puritanical. It's just it's actually, self-serve, it's a very selfish choice. And I'm a fan of the word selfish. I've read it, helped redefine it. But I believe that there are selfish choices we can make that are the most selfless, that there are selfless choices that we can make that are the most selfish choices.

Those two are not a contradiction and we see them next. Responsibility is his appreciation of the past. It's building a lineage. It's investing in ourselves, it's investing in something we started to build yesterday that we want to take into tomorrow. There's a response that gives us freedom.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think what I'm getting from that clip is the concept of responsibility being something that only I have control over and I'm going to get out of.

My life or current situation, whatever I've put in. If it's the Lumo, not starting. If I work hard at it, I'll get it started. If it's a career, I'll get out of it. What I've put in through the collaboration that I've done, the products that I've made and. I quite like this comparison that he's drawing for us here, selfish and selfless being connected choices.

And I think again, not to bang on the drum repeatedly, but I think you only really get insights into both of those. When you start journaling, what are those selfish acts? What are those selfless acts and how are they together? How are they comparative? I feel. Matthew's again, reiterating here through the investment in your behavior.

Now maybe you can reflect back on it. You can see what you've done right. When you've done it wrong. And therefore you can go out and have that freedom that he mentioned in that clip, because you've created enough of a pathway to identify it in the future. What, what did you get from that clip?

Mike?

Mike Parsons: It reminds me a lot of Jocko Willink. Joe Rogan, who was all saying, likes to embrace the discomfort. And Joe Rogan goes to S for a long time, a lot of effort to say things feel better when you've put in the work, when you've earned it. And so the reflection that I have is that the connection I'm making is I think journaling makes you aware of your progress.

And when you don't feel like you're hitting a lot of red lights, it's a place where you can go to the gym and turn the red lights into green lights so that you can persevere. That to me is the connection I'm making. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. Yeah. It definitely does.

Definitely does.

Mike Parsons: For me, I think if I didn't journal. I wouldn't be aware of myself as much. I wouldn't be aware of my journey as much. And I would fail to see signposts opportunities or bad, essentially, red lights coming up that I can navigate. I feel like it's just an essential way for clarity of the mind.

And I think that with the intensity in which modern day work Has I think it's, I can build a wind up. And I think journaling is how we unwind, how we can put our minds to rest, how we can be more present in the work, how we can go and do deep work when we've really done that. Otherwise.

Without that journal, I think we flounder about, because we're just so overwrought with data and decisions and, it's really a wonderful thing. The journal, I think I'm GLA to number one here, but before we wrap up the show, we do have one last and final clip from Mr.

McConaughey himself. Do you want to set this up for us as we bring it? The story to completion around Matthew McConaughey and GreenLights. Yeah

Mark Pearson Freeland: he's raised and reflected a few times on obstacles and challenges. He's reflected on having the ability to look back and see the decisions that you've made.

So this final clip is Matthew McConaughey talking again about green lights, as well as red lights and how reflecting [00:45:00] and reflection back on your decisions are only possible. When you look in the rear view.

Matthew McConaughey: Green lights. Ultimately I believe that in the rear view mirror of our life, every red and yellow light will turn green and that may not even be in this life.

Tim, I think a lot of things that happens for people in this life tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, 10 years from now on our deathbed. But I, if it doesn't happen, then I think it can happen in the next life for our kids or for our kids' kids, our grandkids. It's a lesson, maybe realize. 3, 5, 10 generations from now.

It may become a green light for some hardship that we go through in this life.

Mike Parsons: Looking back, this has to be this single biggest gift that I think he's given us. What's new for us? All of us moonshot is every single one of us who are trying to be the best version of ourselves, whether you're one of our listeners in Thailand, the UAE, Austria, the Netherlands.

Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Austria, New Zealand and Netherlands, Japan doesn't matter where you are. I think every single one of us know that we've got to put in the work and do the journaling, but I think what you've just beautifully presented to us, mark is this clip of Matthew McConaughey saying, go back to.

Because in the journal is not only the moment R and the release that it gives you, but it's the capacity to see what actually does work for you. So go back and then find those positive habits and make sure you reinstate them, or you have the discipline to keep them. So did you truly. Your full potential.

What a great message from somebody who was the king of rom-coms at Wednesday?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, what he's calling out in that final clip is the idea of legacy and, the legacy that you're going to leave behind for [00:47:00] your partner, children, grandchildren, so on and so forth. And again, you're only going to.

Be able to consider your legacy in enough detail to make it matter. When you do that, a little bit of journaling and that reflection, nobody's going to do it apart from you. You need to take ownership to go out and choose what's right. For me, what success means to me and ultimately what you want to leave behind as a legacy.

And I think that's a wonderful little analogy there. When I look back at that rearview mirror. Am I going to look back and say, yep. You know what? All of those red lights turned green. All those obstacles made me who I am today. Or am I going to look back and say, huh, I could've done that bit better.

I think what he's really calling out here is to start with a solid foundation informed by reflection and journaling and compartmentalization that comes with. Journaling and the act of reflecting on your day. And look, he's a man. Who's still pretty famous. He went into the wilderness for two years, but he's still on all of our big screens right now, his knees.

So he's doing something right?

Mike Parsons: Oh, he most certainly is. And what w what another perfect reminder mark, that we can learn so much. From so many different people. It's breathtaking. It's like staring out into space and every single person is like a star that has a lesson to teach us.

It's. It's so exciting. I just think our future episode list just gets longer. Doesn't it? Yeah,

Mark Pearson Freeland: it does. And the next week, Mike we're Dean, we're continuing our thinking. A better series by going into a, another recommendation and this recommendation, I believe it was from Mr. Terry Bean and the book by Dan, and Millman the way of the peaceful.

Mike Parsons: Wow. Not so familiar with the work. Can't wait to study all of that research. Can't wait to pull together the clips on that. And what a fantastic series twisting, turning and pivoting around challenging us. Hopefully not only informing us, but inspiring us to mark. If you go back. Now, and you look at your reflections upon GreenLights, what's the one, what's the one that's going to, as you work today, what's the one that's really gonna stick with you, cause for a thing.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You know what I'm not going to choose the obvious one, which is, Hey, everybody go and journal because I think the listeners have probably heard us say that a few times. Now I'm going to invite those of us who, who do keep journals to go and read. Some of the entries I've for one, who've never gone back to read any of my previous entries because it was a mental decision that I'd made, but actually McConaughey is calling out the opposite.

So that's what I'm going to go and do, Mike,

Mike Parsons: I am totally with you on this one. That was the biggest one for me. I have been journaling for so long. I have almost no. Ever gone to re-read it. And the only time I tend to is when I write something that is somewhat related to work.

I was like, oh, that was some pretty good thing. I'm going to go back and find that and search through Dave and then I'm like stuff and I'll just write the whole thing again, but no, you're absolutely right. Reflecting on it. So you can see not only what wasn't working, but what was working. And that's another part of this great insight that you to our listeners can get from Matthew McConaughey, Facebook, green lights, or mark.

Thank you. That was pretty good, but isn't it. Yep. I've

Mark Pearson Freeland: really enjoyed today's episode because it pulls together a lot of the strands that we've uncovered through other innovators and entrepreneurs, and it just brings it into a really vivid story led.

Mike Parsons: It does indeed. So thank you to you, mark a thank you to you.

Our listeners, the moon shot us. That's right. Every single one of you is on a mission to be the very best version of yourself. So delighted and grateful to be part of that. And today we learned from the man himself, Mr. Matthew McConahey and his book and his work green lights and what a standout it was.

And it really starts with this idea of being aware, going out into the world and find the patterns to your success. Not only reflecting on what doesn't work, but what does work. And if you take your purpose and you stick to it, you journal it, you write it. You two will have the strength to say no.

So that frees you to go out into the world and every single day to enjoy the process. And that process starts with having some very positive thoughts. Never say never. And make sure that you earn your way to success. Thrive, dwell, enjoy the hard work, because if you do, you'll have the capacity to look in the review, you'll be able to ask yourself, how will I be remembered?

You will have the opportunity to create your legacy. And that, as we know here on the moonshot show, is the best version of yourself. So we are delighted to be part of that journey with you. Today. So that's it for the moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.