Matthew McConaughey’s 6 Truths To Get What You Want In Life EP 1422

https://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today!https://www.lhlivin.com - Sign up for Matthew McConaguhey's free Live event - The Art Of Livin’, Monday April 24th, 2023 at 10am PT. In this very special episode, Lewis meets Matthew McConaughey to discuss life, love, his prolific acting career, and his new project – The Art Of Livin’. This isn't your ordinary Matthew McConaughey experience. It’s not a movie, it’s not a book tour, it’s not an interview (or anything in between). After the success of his book “Greenlights”, McConaughey was inundated with people asking him to go even deeper into the Greenlight method. They wanted to know more about how you recognize and respond to green, yellow and red lights as you navigate life’s highway. McConaughey doesn’t claim to get it all right, to be making straight A’s in all areas of his life. But, he has figured out a thing or two about the art of livin’. In this episode you will learn,The micro actions to get more of what you want in lifeHow to not only love yourself more, but emote selfless love in the worldHow to find joy in the past, present and futureThe currency of less is more vs. more is moreFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1422Listen to Matthew’s previous episode Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Lewis Howes?

  My friend, I am such a big believer that your mindset is everything. It can really dictate if your life has meaning, has value, and you feel fulfilled, or if you feel exhausted, drained, and like you're never going to be enough. Our brand new book, The Greatness Mindset, just hit the New York Times Bestseller back-to-back weeks. And I'm so excited to hear from so many of you who've bought the book, who've read it, and finished it already, and are getting incredible results from the lessons in the book. If you haven't got a copy yet, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book I wish I had when I was 20, struggling, trying to figure out life. 10 years ago, at 30, trying to figure out transitions in my life, and the book I'm

• 0:46Lewis Howes?

  glad I have today for myself. Make sure to get a copy at lewishouse.com/2023mindset to get your copy today. Again, lewishouse.com/2023mindset to get a copy today. Also, the book is on Audible now, so you can get it on audiobook as well. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode.

• 1:11Matthew McConaughey?

  Before you were ever an actor, before, what are you? What were you? Before you were McConaughey, before you were Texan, before you were an American, before you were an actor, before you were a movie star? That's when I was like, okay, what other truth do we know, McConaughey? Tell you what, another truth I'm realizing right now is that...

• 1:29Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 1:53Lewis Howes?

  Everyone, I am so excited for today's episode. We have the inspiring and iconic Matthew McConaughey, like you've never seen him before. But before we dive in, he is giving a live virtual free event called The Art of Living on Monday, April 24th at 10 a.m. Pacific. To sign up for free right now, you can go to L H L I V I N dot com. We'll put the link below for you to check it out and register. But it's going to be a full day with Matthew McConaughey live virtually. But before then, let's dive into this episode on the School of Greatness.

• 2:34Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Matthew McConaughey in the house. Good to see you, sir.

• 2:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Good to be here with you.

• 2:42Lewis Howes?

  Very excited about this.

• 2:43Matthew McConaughey?

  In person.

• 2:44Lewis Howes?

  We did a, we did a

• 2:45Matthew McConaughey?

  That was a real handshake.

• 2:47Lewis Howes?

  We did a virtual a couple of years ago. My audience loved it and they want more. And I think the world wants more of you. And I'm so grateful that you have continued to step out from your industry of being, you know, a world-class actor and creative artist and being, expressing yourself more. Sharing your art, your poetry, your stories, your lessons and your truths. So it's been a beautiful journey to watch you continue to impact lives, not only on screen, but also off as yourself. So I'm really grateful that you're doing this.

• 3:20Matthew McConaughey?

  Cool. Thank you. I'm glad it's landed that way.

• 3:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 3:25Matthew McConaughey?

  For, for you. It's been challenging and gratifying for me, but that it started with the book. You've written books, you know, what I, what I wanted to do is when, when I'm acting, I'm going, I have five filters between my raw expression and what you see on screen.

• 3:41Lewis Howes?

  Five.

• 3:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Someone else's script, someone else's character, someone else behind the camera, someone else directing, someone else editing. That's five filters between me and the raw expression. What, wrote the book, I said, I want to get rid of some of those filters. Now, a book is one filter. It's still a written word.

• 3:56Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 3:57Matthew McConaughey?

  But, and the ultimate is like when people do stand-up or performances are like this, we're live. This is no filter. And so that's what I wanted to do where I could direct my own story, be the main character in my own story, edit it through my lens and

• 4:14Matthew McConaughey?

  It's stuck in a way, which was nice to hear the reverb and hear people here come back to me about what they got from it. Questions they still have about it, um, and how it helped them along their own path in some ways. Did you have any fear doing this? Yeah. Really? Yeah. What was the biggest fear? I don't like looking back over my shoulder, man. I, I, uh, I mean, I haven't even seen all my movies. Really? I like making them more than I like watching them. You know, so to look back over fifty years of my life, forty years of writings, was a scary proposition for me. Cause I feared I'd be in, having some embarrassments. I feared I'd be shamed about, feel shameful about some things.

• 4:58Matthew McConaughey?

  And I always had, I'd always, I've always written and had the journals, but my, my excuse was, oh, you know, postmortem, maybe Camilla, my wife will dig that out. And read them. Writing. Oh, this is worth putting out. It was always an excuse, right? And, um, finally I got the confidence to go, you know what? No, go, go away. Take those boxes of journals and those chests of journals and go see what you got. And I looked at them and I was embarrassed about last. Yeah. What was the thing that you were most embarrassed about?

• 5:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Being a wise, thinking I knew stuff,

• 5:31Matthew McConaughey?

  proclaiming I knew stuff when I would contradict myself right after. Or I had, you know, times where I would say, ooh, very, I look back, I was very arrogant. Very, you know, but I, but I, I've come to, I've come to understand now that I was doing that to find an identity. And revol- it's youth and the revolutionaries of youth do that. You try it out. Let's test it. I know this. It fails. Okay. To the next. Something I don't think we should forget as we get older. We just start to understand context and innuendo and two things can be true at the same time. When you're younger, it's black and it's white. And so I had things that I was embarrassed about that. And what I, what happened after about ten days of writing the book and going through some embarrassment and quite a bit of shame,

• 6:17Matthew McConaughey?

  um, where I also didn't walk the walk, talk the talk to myself even. Um, I, I, I started to notice that, oh, actually.

• 6:27Matthew McConaughey?

  If you wouldn't have been that sort of all-knowing and what I would call arrogant at this point, you wouldn't have put yourself in the position to learn better or to get humbled. Or to find out, oh, I thought I had it figured out. I didn't. So I was like, okay. So all of a sudden, the embarrassment turned into chuckles. So now I'm starting to laugh at myself. You stepped again, man. You talked, you didn't back it up. You ate crow. And that rhythm happened a lot through, through my life. And I think it happens to, to, to, to all of us in, in certain ways. And I think one of the things that people got from the book that I got from writing it was people come to me and said, look, I'm taking more risk now. And I think that's, that's part of it. But when we fail, which is why we so many of us don't take as many risks.

• 7:13Matthew McConaughey?

  It's never really, not never, but almost always never as really bad as we thought it was going to be.

• 7:17Lewis Howes?

  When we fail at the risk, yeah.

• 7:18Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah. When we fail at doing, it's never the, the, the, the letdown's never in a real measure as bad as we thought it was going to be. And the people that are going, they're on the sidelines for a reason. You play football. They're over there, they're in the bleachers with the whistle in their mouth for a reason. But the ones that are on the field trying out stuff with you are the right there next to you going, hey, man, me too. I blew it over here or I blew it here, but thanks for taking the shot. Thanks for trying. That's what we're doing. And I think a lot, that's something that a lot of people got from the book. So. The shame and the embarrassment turned into humor. And then I noticed that I consistently stepped in the same path. There's quite a few times. I think I've evolved somewhat, but I'm still working on the paths of it.

• 8:04Lewis Howes?

  When did you feel like you were the most wounded? Wounded, like internally wounded, where maybe you had, you thought you had it all figured out or you thought like I'm successful, but really on the inside, maybe you felt like you were full of, you know.

• 8:18Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh, well, there's been a few, but I'll say, look, Australia, the year I had there, you know that story from the book. That was a really tough year, but that was not a year when I thought I had it figured out. That was a big year. The early questions of youth are why, why, why, why? You learn some things. You start to define your hows and wins and your wares and. But when I was rolling in my career later on in life and was like your girlfriend, Marta. Uh, rolling rom-coms in, in, in, uh, in, in Hollywood.

• 8:52Matthew McConaughey?

  I was enjoying them, but I didn't feel like they were feeding me back. I didn't feel like they were the right kind of challenge for me. And it came to me at a time when I, Camilla and I had fallen in love and she was pregnant with our first son.

• 9:06Matthew McConaughey?

  So all of a sudden, life's vital, man. It's like real, right? My laughs are louder, my tears are wetter, my, my joy is bigger, my pain is deeper. Rom, that's not where rom coms are built. Rom coms are built to be buoyant up here. Keep it light, bounce cloud to cloud. Don't go so deep or so high. They're built that way on purpose. But my life was extremely, getting extremely dramatic and I liked it. And I would, I said, I started to feel like, well, what am I doing in my career? I remember saying this, I'm like, just an entertainer? And I made sure to look myself in the mirror and go, and if you are, is there anything wrong with being just entertainer?

• 9:46Matthew McConaughey?

  That's okay too. But I, I just wanted to see if my career could challenge the vitality of my life that I was living at the time. So I tried to find dramas that I wanted to do that more represented the man I was becoming. Hollywood was saying, no, thank you. You stay in your lane, McConaughey. We got other people that'll do those. So I'll take a, I'll take a massive pay cut. We said, no, thank you. Stay in your lane. So because I couldn't do what I wanted to do, I pulled up and quit doing what I was doing. And I took a one-way ticket out of Hollywood, not knowing if it'd be a one-way ticket or a return ticket, but not knowing how long I was going to be driving without work.

• 10:26Lewis Howes?

  It was twenty months, right?

• 10:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Twenty months without, without any work.

• 10:30Lewis Howes?

  That's unbelievable. When was the time where you felt like, or, or when you felt like people stopped talking about you? Or you weren't as relevant, where they stopped calling you for auditions?

• 10:39Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:39Lewis Howes?

  You weren't in the gossip news or whatever?

• 10:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Hell, no, I wasn't. And I remember, I'm coming from Hollywood at that time. I was living in Malibu. Living on the beach and my rom com run was parlayed with paparazzi getting shots of me on the beach all the time. So McConaughey shirtless on the beach was synonymous with McConaughey and the rom coms. It was like, his life is his rom coms. Rom coms is his life, right? So I moved Camilla to Texas and we, and no beaches there, um, no paparazzi there. The first six months, all I got offered was rom coms. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So then they said, okay, we got the message. They quit offering rom coms. So what they offer? Nothing. Wow. I call it eight months. I hadn't heard from my agent.

• 11:25Matthew McConaughey?

  He says, buddy, you hadn't heard from me because I hadn't heard about you. Call it 10 months. He goes, man, I hadn't even heard your name in two months. I called a year. He's like, uh, buddy, hadn't even heard your name. No one's interested. So I'm like, okay. And I start thinking about, do I need to start another, find another career and another vocation? No. Oh, yeah. Really? Like stop acting all in all? Well, I didn't know. I, I knew I had already made the, the covenant with myself and my wife that I was not going back. Was I wobbly at that time? Was I looking for some, something to achieve and find some significance and purpose? Right. Thankfully I've got a young child on the way.

• 12:08Matthew McConaughey?

  Or was probably maybe at 12 months born, just born at that time. So that's given me real resonance and purpose to keep me at least. Focused somewhere. Focused on something I could rely on being, having meaning and value, but still I needed my own personal thing to get off to. My own craft and I, and I, and I didn't have it.

• 12:27Matthew McConaughey?

  What was I gonna do? So, you know, I can make it wind chimes. You know what I mean? But seriously, I was like, and I've said this before, the old bottle of my favorite spirit started looking a little bit better earlier in the day. Cause the days were long, bro. The days were getting long. And Monday and Saturday were melding into each other. And you know what a lifelong Saturdays can do to us? Make a tire in our house, bro. So I was looking for.

• 12:52Lewis Howes?

  But you were on the top, man. You were like.

• 12:54Matthew McConaughey?

  I was the top, uh, rom-com. Yeah, that was my, I, I, I owned that lane. And I was the go-to rom-com guy. But I was not gonna go back and do that. I'd made the truth that I had, that 3 a.m. truth that hit me and stuck with me for months before I made the decision to step out of Hollywood. I knew it was true. It was a quiet truth and tears had been shed on my wife's shoulder with myself going, this is a decision we're making in my soul. We're gonna make it and stick to it.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  And no matter, I think you talked about, you know, I think there was like someone offered you 15 million or somewhere around there.

• 13:24Matthew McConaughey?

  Right around month.

• 13:25Lewis Howes?

  Testing you.

• 13:26Matthew McConaughey?

  Eighteen.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  And it starts testing you. It's like, hell, five million, 10 million, 12 million. And then you said it starts to.

• 13:32Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, I'll tell you the story. So, um, a year goes by, nothing. And I said, I'm starting to think about different vocations, but I'm gonna stick to my guns. Fifteen months, 18 months.

• 13:46Matthew McConaughey?

  Another rom-com comes in, but my agent says, this one's really good and check out this offer. They offered an eight million dollar offer. Let me read that.

• 13:56Matthew McConaughey?

  Now, before, first year, I wouldn't even read it. No.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:59Matthew McConaughey?

  No to the genre. No. But I read it.

• 14:03Matthew McConaughey?

  Pretty good, man. No, thank you. They come back, 10 million dollar offer. I said, no, thank you. They come back with a 12 million dollar offer. I said, no. Thank you. They come back with a 14.5 million dollar offer for the same script.

• 14:18Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 14:18Matthew McConaughey?

  That they sent first with the 8 million dollar offer. And what did I say?

• 14:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Let me read this again.

• 14:26Matthew McConaughey?

  And I read it again, and it was funnier.

• 14:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:29Matthew McConaughey?

  I read it again. It was funnier. It was, I could see myself in that character. I was like, this is, could be a pretty good idea, buddy. What are you, da, da, da, da, da? But I ultimately said no. And when I said no to the 14.5, I think what it did is it sent an invisible sort of lightning bolt through Hollywood execs that McConaughey just turned down 14.5. He hasn't worked in 18 months, and he just turned down 14.5? What's he up to?

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 14:55Matthew McConaughey?

  What's that guy doing? He's on to something. To turn that down.

• 15:01Matthew McConaughey?

  It shifted. It was like, he's definitely not bluffing. Okay, so one of two things could happen. Okay. Thanks for your run in Hollywood, McConaughey. See you next life. Or what did happen is two months later, I get a call for the Lincoln Lawyer, Killer Joe, and Mud, and True Detective, Dallas Buyers Club, all these things. And so what happened is I became, I unbranded in those eight, in those eight twenty months. Where is he? Now he's turned down the fourteen five. Wait, this guy's making affirmative action. That, that, that isn't a recessive move. That's like, Talia, that's like, you're doing what?

• 15:46Matthew McConaughey?

  What you got going? So all of a sudden, I became a new Good Idea for possibly these dramas I was looking for. Because I've been gone so long. Because you didn't, I wasn't getting recorded on the beach, shirtless, mountain boat. I wasn't in your theater, your home, in a rom-com each night. I was persona non grata for a while. Well, when you're gone long enough, you get forgotten, or you become a new, novel, Good Idea, maybe for what you were looking for. And that's what fortunately happened to me.

• 16:16Lewis Howes?

  I love this because you talked about planting gardens to attract butterflies as opposed to chasing them. You also talked about this idea of being the target versus...

• 16:27Matthew McConaughey?

  The target draws the arrow?

• 16:28Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 16:29Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 16:30Lewis Howes?

  So is that kind of what you were doing? It's like you were, you were, you know, tending to your own garden, your own inner world, you're developing yourself, shedding the old skin, and becoming a new during that time, and allowing the right things to come to you?

• 16:43Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, I was definitely doing the first. But I couldn't rely on the second. Okay, I was definitely tending my own garden.

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  How do, how do we learn to have that trust and the faith that there might be something great coming to us? When we draw a line in the sand, and we say we're not going back to this personality we had, these habits, these behaviors, this industry that we were in, that served us so well for so long. But now I'm saying no to that old way of being, and trusting that something greater is going to wash over me. How do we? Trust, because it could have not happened for you.

• 17:17Matthew McConaughey?

  It could have not happened. We might not be sitting here right now. I might not have gone on to do the work that I've been doing since then. I might not have had the courage to go write the book. I might, I might be that high school football coach that I was thinking about being. Yeah, I might be that wildlife guide in Africa that I was thinking about being. I might be that conductor of a symphony that I was thinking about becoming and not sitting here. How do we trust it?

• 17:41Matthew McConaughey?

  I think, look, to, when the decision came to me, it came, I was, I was in a position to hear the truth. I was, I was in, I was in, my, my heart was looking and my mind were looking and I was giving myself room to cut out all the outside stimulus.

• 17:59Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 18:00Matthew McConaughey?

  And you know how, when those truths come, they land like a lightning bolt and a butterfly at the same time. But you know they're true and they're true for you when they land. And you go, oh, that was a direct line. Whether you're religious or you're called the prime mover, the way maker, the universe, whatever you want to call it. That was a direct line and that, that's true to me. And then comes the hard part. Trust in that truth when the sun rises and you're back in the middle of the masses, then they're all going, hey, try this. What are you doing? And they, they weren't there for that truth last night. Their truth, that they think of you was the same one you had the day before, but now your truth's different.

• 18:41Matthew McConaughey?

  So trust in that and not letting your onion get peeled, because that's what happens. It starts to strip away. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's why, I think why people have, you know, church once a week. Cause you're good on Monday, but come Friday, you don't need to, you know what I mean? You start to forget the things, you know, um, that's why we need to update, maintain ourselves with our mental health, spiritual health and physical health. Understanding it is one thing, but then keep it in action and trusting in it, uh, and have the patience to trust it to another. So it hit me in a clear way that I knew it was true.

• 19:17Matthew McConaughey?

  I had someone in my life, Camilla, that was close to me that I could share and understood it and understood in the way that I shared it with her. She was like, okay, I hear you. You're not negotiating. You're not asking me a question. You're sharing with me the truth for you, so I can be by your side and say this, so I can be by your side and make sure you stick to it because I know how important this is to you.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  What was that truth that you heard or that came to you at that time?

• 19:42Matthew McConaughey?

  That I. Needed to do something different, more. I needed more to fulfill me. At that point, that.

• 19:52Matthew McConaughey?

  While I was happy that I was getting off so much to the vitality in my real life. More so than my work. I even looked in the mirror and said, well, it's gotta be one way or the other. Congratulations, because a lot of times, I've had the times where you're getting off to your work more than your real life. Right? But I was like, I believe my work can challenge the vitality of mine. I hope that my life is more vital than my work. For as long as possible, please. I hope, I hope it is. But I think I can get my work to challenge the vitality. And make me sweat my boots in the right way, in the same way that my life is. To give me the joy and the pain and all that, the way my life is. And so.

• 20:33Matthew McConaughey?

  I was like, well, we'll bet on it and don't make it non-negotiable, make one bet and stick to it. And you know, it's sometimes it's endurance. So trusting that, I was never, I never questioned going back on my decision.

• 20:46Lewis Howes?

  No matter, no matter how much money. Twenty million, thirty million, hundred million, you'd be like, this is not worth it.

• 20:51Matthew McConaughey?

  No, because as the number, trust me, when that number went from eight to ten, twelve, fourteen point five. I started getting a little.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Ooh, maybe I got a little.

• 21:00Matthew McConaughey?

  Was like, here we go. Here we go.

• 21:03Lewis Howes?

  You want me.

• 21:03Matthew McConaughey?

  It didn't go from eight to six to four to two.

• 21:05Lewis Howes?

  Right, it went up.

• 21:06Matthew McConaughey?

  It went up and I was like, okay, I got, I'm getting leverage in this. And I realized when I turned down the fourteen five, I said, I got a sneaky suspicion, this may give me a little leverage. Because that's a big number.

• 21:19Lewis Howes?

  And that's for, you know, there's a small community of the agents and the managers and the directors in Hollywood. And everyone's got to hear that you turned this down.

• 21:27Matthew McConaughey?

  I was sure hoping so. And I believe they did. Now Hollywood could come tell me how much my hypothesis on that is true. But I've heard from quite a few whispers, like, no, you turned that down. People went, double took and went, he did what? Which.

• 21:48Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't know, made me more attractive in a new way. You know, or maybe, you know, when someone does that and you're like, oh, they got their own thing going. They didn't just remove themselves and sitting out there wandering in the desert. They're on to something. I don't know what it is, but you can become more attractive. In a way, I think I became more attractive for that reason. They were like, turn a fourteen five, he's got something going on. He's got a point of view. He's doing this for a reason. He's got some purpose with which he's doing this.

• 22:14Lewis Howes?

  Now, you had, you had your first, uh, first kid right around then or a year before then?

• 22:18Matthew McConaughey?

  No, right, right in there. It's about a year, little over, a little less than a year into that.

• 22:22Lewis Howes?

  One of the things I respect and admire about you is, yes, your career is incredible, but the fact that you, you know, have been in a loving, committed relationship for, I don't know.

• 22:32Matthew McConaughey?

  Sixteen years.

• 22:33Lewis Howes?

  Sixteen years. You've got three kids.

• 22:37Lewis Howes?

  And you have found a lot of fulfillment in the richness of living, not just in making money and the career and the success and the fame. It's one of the things I respect about you. It's one of the things me and Martha were talking about this morning. About how you, you know, you, you could have had, you could have been the bachelor forever.

• 22:53Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 22:55Lewis Howes?

  Where do you think your life would have been in that year, had you not had the loving, committed relationship? Child as well, first child. Where do you think temptation would have led you? Or do you think you would have made the same decision with the sand on the ground? Or was it having a committed, conscious, loving relationship and partner and teammate? That allowed you to have the courage to act with that line of sand?

• 23:22Matthew McConaughey?

  Well.

• 23:25Matthew McConaughey?

  The only reason I pause here is because I'm trying to wonder how little of credit to give the relationship. Because I'm not going to say it's a hundred percent, but it's up there. The relationship, having her and be now about to become a father, which was the only thing I ever wanted to be, had great resonance. For me, I one had a relationship which gave me just singularly with Camilla gave me more the license and courage to fly, but now I'm going to become immortal, so to speak, with a child coming into the world. It's one thing I ever dreamed of being, become a father. That's is at the top of my list since I was a kid.

• 24:05Matthew McConaughey?

  Now I'm like, well, this is what I'm doing. This part of life has always taken precedent before anything I did since. Got famous, won this or won that. My career was always in front of a Hollywood career, always. That's what I mean by JK living. That's why Jake just keep living has always been sort of a mantra. What at the end of the day, argue with that, end of the day, that wins out. I've always wanted to have a life that I'm leading first.

• 24:37Matthew McConaughey?

  And I became an actor and a movie star and famous, but not, oh, I'm an actor, movie star and famous. So now what do I do? How do I live my life according to that? No, I wanted to keep those in order.

• 24:49Lewis Howes?

  If you didn't have that relationship at that time, where do you think would have happened?

• 24:52Matthew McConaughey?

  That's a good question. What would have happened?

• 24:55Lewis Howes?

  You think it would have been more tempting to take the money instead? Let me just.

• 24:58Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, I mean, yeah, the nights would have been even longer. The, the, the, the, I think it would have definitely got more wobbly. I would have really had to.

• 25:11Matthew McConaughey?

  I mean, I believe I could have pulled it off. I'm glad I didn't have to find out if I could pull it off on my own. I might have, I might have run off to the monastery.

• 25:21Matthew McConaughey?

  And still be there.

• 25:24Matthew McConaughey?

  I, I, I, um. You know, or, because I had, I look, I had very somewhat reliable temptation from people very close to me going. What's your malfunction? My brothers and family were like, what is your major malfunction?

• 25:43Matthew McConaughey?

  What are you doing? You own this land and the wrong, but why are you making a straight line crooked, which is lying on the always use? Why are you making this complicated? Do you know how many people would?

• 25:53Lewis Howes?

  Dream of this.

• 25:53Matthew McConaughey?

  Dream even be doing this and so. I did have that understanding, which I bring up in the book about being less impressive, more involved. I was very thankful. I was never disrespecting. The rom com. I was just like. I don't know. I didn't make this up this feeling in me.

• 26:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you're a new season.

• 26:09Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, more and I it's there's a new chapter to come. So I don't what would I've been do what would I be doing now? If I didn't have Mila and and she she we didn't have our first child on the way.

• 26:20Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't I don't know that to that eight that twenty months would have felt like twenty years.

• 26:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:24Matthew McConaughey?

  If I'd if I'd have stuck with it. And would I've had the patience, would I had the fortitude, would I've been able to stay still? In the long. Lonely. Nights where I didn't feel like I had purpose. Or I didn't feel significant. Where I didn't have a newborn child in a relationship to look at and go. Cause I knew then I was like, you put time into that, you cannot go wrong.

• 26:46Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:47Matthew McConaughey?

  I looked at my newborn child. I looked at come. I was like, you put time into this. You are in the black.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 26:52Matthew McConaughey?

  You there there is no debit. No matter how you can't overdo that.

• 26:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:56Matthew McConaughey?

  So that gave me something. If I didn't have that.

• 27:00Matthew McConaughey?

  No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

• 27:01Lewis Howes?

  Sixteen years you said you've been together, right?

• 27:03Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 27:03Lewis Howes?

  Sixteen years. There's a. There's a lot of men that are driven men. I'm in LA, so I see this in LA where they they feel like they need to be single for a long time, or they need to jump from. Partner to partner or.

• 27:17Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 27:17Lewis Howes?

  Have multiple partners at the same time, all these different things. No judgment, no right or wrong here, but I'm curious. What have you learned about sixteen years in a relationship that has taught you about? How much more successful you can be in other areas of life?

• 27:29Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 27:29Lewis Howes?

  Versus. Single life when you were also extremely successful, but but maybe there was something missing. You know, emotionally or spiritually.

• 27:37Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 27:39Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna piggyback on where you first started. I don't, I've got friends that are poly. And I've got friends that are perpetually single and.

• 27:50Matthew McConaughey?

  To see them when they do pull it off and still have a healthy spirit and a healthy body and a healthy mind, I applaud it. Right on. I do, I have seen a lot of them have to, ooh, I gotta recalibrate. I got. You know, I got, I got off. I got spread too thin. Energy. You know, a little bunch of little campfires, but no bonfires, right?

• 28:14Matthew McConaughey?

  You can do it. I think, I think a person can do it on their own. I think a person can do it in solitude. I think a person can do it even with a relationship with just themselves. If you, it can be done.

• 28:30Matthew McConaughey?

  But when you have a relationship that you're committed to, that you wanna make work, that it's part of your. And especially when you have a child that is not only you're committed to, is dependent on you. That goes to the top of the value system. And so, career choices can go into the two hole, or maybe the three hole. Now, I would argue that I got better at my career. When it went to the two and three hole and wasn't in the one hole. Because I didn't, and I feared this, I was like.

• 29:06Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, I was having a family and the fact that when we had kids, my wife said, if we have kids on one condition, Matthew, when you go, we go. So my family was with me. She said that to me. I remember going through my mind, wait a minute. I'm an artist. I'm a lone wolf. When I go to work, I'm in my airstream all alone. It's me and my dog, maybe. But nobody else. And as I'm saying that in my head, this other little smarter voice comes in and goes, Nadia didn't say, yes ma'am. And I said, yes ma'am. It was the greatest decision I've ever made. Cause seeing my kids, or leaving before they woke up and seeing them when I got home after work.

• 29:38Matthew McConaughey?

  Was the was a beautiful energizing reset for me at the end of the day that filled me up with real life and made me more creative. Going into work the next day. To tell a child when you're doing something like True Detective and they go, what was the scene about today? And you go, I better tell a good parable because I can't tell them the real thing. It's some heavy R stuff, right? So I I became a better storyteller and how I'd make it a nursery rhyme. Or something. But you're living for something for for for someone else and something more. And you know, for Camilla and I, I live in for the covenant that for her and I. To do what we can to to stay together and keep promoting the e- e- each other and ourselves in a relationship and then to have the kids. I'm living, you live for something else and that empowered me and made me better as an individual.

• 30:23Matthew McConaughey?

  And when I go out the door, I have more courage. Because I know I've got that stability at home.

• 30:28Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Where do you think you would have been if you would have been in a relationship, you know, five, 10 years prior?

• 30:33Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 30:34Lewis Howes?

  And it'd be 25 years opposed to 16, do you think you would have been better in your career? Or you'd made that shift sooner or do you feel like? You know, being the lone wolf, you had its time and its place and its.

• 30:44Matthew McConaughey?

  I think it had its time and its place. I'm not arrogant enough to say, oh, if I go back and change time. Um, I mean, I've thought about that. I I I I was with and dated seriously some some wonderful women before I met Camilla. Um, I think it wasn't the time for me and it wasn't the time for them for us to take it further. To take it as far as say, could be married or something, but.

• 31:10Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, I often wonder what if what if it was, what if I felt like it was time? That I never did. What if I did?

• 31:19Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, do we meet the right person sometimes, but it's just not the time for us?

• 31:24Matthew McConaughey?

  Do we, or is it, it's the the two plays, it's gotta be the right person and the right time for each person, but. I I I know I I would, I cannot go back. You know, going forward to mystery, looking back to science. When I connect the dots, I don't dare to go back and go, if I had changed 10 years earlier, I'm thinking about who I was dating, if we'd got married, I mean. Who who who knows? I I don't thi- I don't think it would have been the same realization 10 years earlier. I was a different man.

• 31:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:52Matthew McConaughey?

  I was di- I was seeing the world differently.

• 31:56Matthew McConaughey?

  And we'll never know, but I don't, I don't, I think it was the right time for me when this happened. And my single years were the right amount of time for me when I was there. And those relationships before that that ultimately ended, that was the right time for them to end.

• 32:13Lewis Howes?

  So how old were you when you met your wife?

• 32:15Matthew McConaughey?

  Sixteen, fifty-three, forty, thirty-seven.

• 32:19Lewis Howes?

  Thirty-seven. So when you were thirty-seven, before the moment you met her.

• 32:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  I think you met her at a bar on Sunset.

• 32:25Matthew McConaughey?

  Club on Sunset.

• 32:26Lewis Howes?

  Stars Club on Sunset.

• 32:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Club.

• 32:28Lewis Howes?

  Let's call it that morning.

• 32:30Matthew McConaughey?

  Don't go to many clubs. Glad I went to the club this night.

• 32:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it was good. Let's call it that morning or that season right before you met her.

• 32:37Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 32:38Lewis Howes?

  What was it that made you feel loved?

• 32:40Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 32:40Lewis Howes?

  Then?

• 32:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 32:41Lewis Howes?

  And what is it today that makes you feel the most loved today?

• 32:46Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay. What has it made me feel the most loved before?

• 32:48Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 32:49Matthew McConaughey?

  Than her? Okay.

• 32:51Matthew McConaughey?

  When I was spiritually strong. And, look, I was.

• 32:58Matthew McConaughey?

  I had some relationships that were loving relationships that, or I loved the woman she loved and cared for me. And those were real.

• 33:07Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 33:09Matthew McConaughey?

  I also had a season where it was just affairs. It wasn't about love. It was lust.

• 33:17Lewis Howes?

  It's fun, yeah.

• 33:18Matthew McConaughey?

  It was fun. And it was, it was healthily, it was a healthy, fun transaction. And we laughed and kept it light. And that was all it was ever gonna be. And we're not even, you know, and that was okay too.

• 33:31Matthew McConaughey?

  I am happy to say that through most, most of that, I was able to keep somewhat spiritually strong.

• 33:37Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  How did you stay?

• 33:40Matthew McConaughey?

  And had no, and didn't really have trouble sleeping alone in my own bed. Cause I, I've had those times, I think we all have, if we've had this single life, where there's times where if you're, if you're rolling like that, especially if it's like affairs and flirt popping around here and there, boy, all of a sudden, you end up in bed alone. You can't sleep. And you're like, whoa, wait a minute. Now I'm the company I can't stand being with? If it's only me, that would always be a trigger for me, like, you better bend a knee and go.

• 34:11Lewis Howes?

  Go inward.

• 34:12Matthew McConaughey?

  Catch your breath and go inward here. So.

• 34:17Lewis Howes?

  So what made you feel the most loved before you met her?

• 34:20Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, what was it? I mean.

• 34:22Lewis Howes?

  Was it the success or the?

• 34:24Matthew McConaughey?

  No.

• 34:25Lewis Howes?

  Chase, was it the, you know?

• 34:27Matthew McConaughey?

  No, it wasn't the chase and catch. I knew what I, I knew what that was. I, that, that always felt like a stop and not a stay.

• 34:38Matthew McConaughey?

  To me, it was a season.

• 34:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:40Matthew McConaughey?

  I understood it to be a season. And I gave myself freedom and license to have that season as healthily as I, as, as I could. Um, I don't think I was any more shallow.

• 34:53Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 34:54Matthew McConaughey?

  Um, I didn't think, oh, this is all there is.

• 35:02Matthew McConaughey?

  I did have a dream where I thought, where I was eighty and eighty-eight year old bachelor, but had a lot of children.

• 35:12Lewis Howes?

  You did?

• 35:12Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, and it wasn't a nightmare.

• 35:14Lewis Howes?

  Eighty-eight year old bachelor? You had a lot of children, that wasn't a nightmare?

• 35:18Matthew McConaughey?

  And it wasn't a nightmare.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 35:20Matthew McConaughey?

  And I woke up from that dream not going, yippee, that's what I'll do. I did wake up with it going,

• 35:29Matthew McConaughey?

  that's possible.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 35:31Matthew McConaughey?

  As soon as I said, that's possible.

• 35:37Matthew McConaughey?

  I did quit looking so hard. And when I quit looking for her so hard,

• 35:46Matthew McConaughey?

  that's what you get.

• 35:46Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 35:48Matthew McConaughey?

  Because before that, I will say, in my thought of, I do wanna find someone to fall in love with and start a family.

• 35:58Matthew McConaughey?

  I mean, every red light, bro.

• 36:00Lewis Howes?

  In LA?

• 36:01Matthew McConaughey?

  Possible, possible. Produce section, you know what I mean? Possible, poss- every, you know, you're just like-

• 36:07Lewis Howes?

  Yolanda class, Whole Foods.

• 36:08Matthew McConaughey?

  You're just checking, you know, everywhere. And it, I was looking, I was leaning in, leaning in and, and said, well, maybe that could work, like that script, well, maybe that could work. You know, um, and then when I had that dream, it did, it was like, oh, on a spiritual sense, I was like, well, you might end up being an eighty-year-old bachelor. And if you've got spiritually, if your spiritually strong, your relationship with God's strong, that's, that's okay. It didn't make me go, that's what I wanna do.

• 36:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 36:34Matthew McConaughey?

  But just saying, that could be a reality for you. Let me exhale and I quit looking everywhere and everybody's like, I quit looking in the pros and was like, and I, what happens when you do that? You become more attractive, you allow yourself to be loved, you allow yourself to see someone who actually you might love. But mainly you allow yourself to be someone that can be loved and you're not selling, you're not soliciting yourself. You're not in a rush about anything. You want to meet somebody. You also, what you look at, you want to see how they move, how far back are the shoulders, how do they talk, what do they say in between the lines? Not what they say, what they say in between the lines. And I remember when I saw Camilla walk across the club that night, it was the way she moved.

• 37:17Matthew McConaughey?

  I saw history, I saw dignity, I saw somebody that was not for sale. I saw somebody that, that, that, that, that didn't even, that, that when I called her over was not happy to meet me, wasn't over the, wasn't, wasn't impressed with my vocation. And she knew who I was, wasn't impressed with that, she was about a lot more than that. So I, my eyes were open to seeing what I wanted and needed. And I also was able to, in that moment, completely be myself, not oversell myself, not undersell myself.

• 37:51Lewis Howes?

  Did you feel like you needed to oversell yourself before then? Even though you had all the success and the fame and the hits and the money and?

• 37:57Matthew McConaughey?

  I think, I think when, just to sped, it's a sped up process, you know? Especially if you're like, in, you know, if it's a, more of a string of short-term relationships, it's like, it's not overselling, it's just like, let's skip the, let's skip a lot of the real stuff, let's skip a lot of the, the, you know what I mean? I don't want to take that, come on, we're just here, we're laughing, we're having a good time, you know what I mean? Um, and that's all, that's all we're both in this for, so you know? So you speed up the process a little bit. So I don't know, when you say, what did I love? It wasn't my fame, did I, did I feel more, did I feel more loved if my movie did well?

• 38:42Matthew McConaughey?

  And more people came up and was like, that was great? Sure, sure. But that was never my. Top source of affirmation of feeling love.

• 38:54Matthew McConaughey?

  Did I feel less loved, movie bombed, or people were like, ah, sure. But that was never my.

• 39:00Lewis Howes?

  Main thing.

• 39:01Matthew McConaughey?

  The, the source of my lack of confidence or lack of significance. It was maybe I was spiritual and then I always had, I always had family at this time. Being my brothers and my mom and stuff, there was always that.

• 39:14Matthew McConaughey?

  That I knew was a hundred percent reliable. Uh, but maybe I'd say spiritual and then your follow up question to what makes you feel more loved now.

• 39:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, when do you feel the most love now?

• 39:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh, the. Good night group hug with my. Three kids and my, my wife. After we've just talked about what our day was like, what we're looking forward to tomorrow. And we've had a few fun disagreements and somebody said something real honest that you didn't have the courage to say maybe a week before.

• 39:43Matthew McConaughey?

  And for the first time, noticed that if they shared that, they weren't going to get in trouble. That they were just going. And to see them growing on you got the courage, we've me and then to feel like a dad and know me and your mother giving you a place to feel like you can go.

• 40:00Matthew McConaughey?

  We, I, I, I did like her and it, and, and, and, and my heart hurts because she doesn't like me. To be able to, for a child to be able to say that to you. It's like, okay, we're doing something right. There we go. That's a feeling. Of love to have an honest talk, not just about all of the happy times, but about the stuff that sucks in my kids' lives as well. And even from my wife to share it and it not be like.

• 40:22Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 40:22Matthew McConaughey?

  To be like, yeah, we're going through this and one thing we know is we're going through it together. That, that, that's.

• 40:29Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. That's beautiful. One of the things that you talked about. It. In the book, in the last couple of pages was this list of goals that you wrote down.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  One of them.

• 40:43Matthew McConaughey?

  Isn't that wild?

• 40:44Lewis Howes?

  Ten goals in life, nineteen ninety-two.

• 40:46Matthew McConaughey?

  Ninety-two.

• 40:46Lewis Howes?

  One of them becoming a father and, and number two, finding and keeping the woman for me, the woman for me.

• 40:52Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 40:52Lewis Howes?

  Um, and you had ten of them. I'm curious. How important is it to write down our visions, our dreams, our goals? In order to manifest what we want in our lives? Because this whole book is a

• 41:05Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 41:05Lewis Howes?

  A journal of you writing down

• 41:07Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 41:07Lewis Howes?

  Everything.

• 41:08Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 41:08Lewis Howes?

  And all ten of these, you've accomplished all of them. And you're still accomplishing and living into them.

• 41:14Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 41:15Lewis Howes?

  So how important is it to write down our dreams, our goals? Our values in order to manifest and attract them?

• 41:20Matthew McConaughey?

  I think it's a lot more important than we give it credit for. Look, writing things down, it seems like this old fashioned sort of archaic things. Type it, it's on the screen, put it on, put it in a Word doc, save it, put it in a folder.

• 41:35Matthew McConaughey?

  It, it can be lost back there, to actually write it with the hand.

• 41:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Does, is a different kind of objectivity you get. Cause it's come out of you, you've put it down, now you're looking at, it's outside of you. It's freed up now, it's alive, it's moving now. More so than having that goal by your bedside every night.

• 41:58Matthew McConaughey?

  Which is, can be good. But to write it down, if you're writing down true goals, they're, they become written in your lineage, they become written in your body. Whether you know it or not, in your subconscious, they do. It's a way to get it into your subconscious, to write it down, now it's out of me, it's on a page, I'm objectifying it now, I'm looking at it. So now I'm having a dialogue where before it was just Socratic. But now I'm having a dialogue and it starts to reciprocate. Those ten goals, I wrote those down in the top bunk in the Dell House, University of Texas, nineteen ninety-two, my roommate was Monty Wills. I remember the night I wrote them down.

• 42:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:37Matthew McConaughey?

  I never looked at them again. I found those in writing this book and found out that, oh my gosh, all ten you actually did and, and, and four you're still doing.

• 42:46Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy.

• 42:46Matthew McConaughey?

  I never looked at them again.

• 42:48Lewis Howes?

  Thirty years later, you found them.

• 42:49Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 42:49Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy.

• 42:52Lewis Howes?

  But they all happened.

• 42:53Matthew McConaughey?

  They all happened.

• 42:56Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't think they happened if I don't write them down. I don't think they do.

• 43:02Matthew McConaughey?

  So that practice of writing something down that you into, that you want, or that you yearn for, and to add to it, or subtract from it along the way if you want to, or just write it down, fold it up, tuck it away, so you can find it thirty years later when you go wanna share a journal, or write something about it, like I did. Um, I don't think it happens, but then just go back and see the invisible contract I made with myself.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, I love that.

• 43:33Matthew McConaughey?

  Cause obviously I did, cause I mean, I, those ten, people go, you've done all ten. I said, well, no, I'm in the middle, I'm still, I have to maintain, I'm still maintaining for it, but I have engaged, some of them I've just done, but I have engaged, I am in full engagement with all of them, and...

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  Well, it's an invisible contract until it becomes a, a physical written contract.

• 43:52Matthew McConaughey?

  Right.

• 43:53Lewis Howes?

  You know?

• 43:53Matthew McConaughey?

  But it's with yourself, I guess, it becomes, there's an invisible way it becomes subconsciously non-negotiable with yourself.

• 44:00Lewis Howes?

  And here's the interesting thing, on this, I don't, is this exact image, or is this a recreated image?

• 44:05Matthew McConaughey?

  No, that's it.

• 44:06Lewis Howes?

  This is the photo of it, or you signed it?

• 44:09Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 44:09Lewis Howes?

  And that's what I think is actually really important, because you did create a contract with self.

• 44:13Matthew McConaughey?

  Right.

• 44:13Lewis Howes?

  You signed the goals at the bottom. You have ten goals in life, nine, one, ninety-two, and you bottom, at the bottom, you signed it, and I think that's really important in creating a, you know, uh, this contract with self, is putting your name on something that you write down from the ideas in your mind into paper, so that you can actualize this in life. And I think that's what's beautiful. And you were like, what, twenty years old when you did this?

• 44:36Matthew McConaughey?

  Twenty, twenty-one, and, and folks, anyone who thinks, oh, that sounds like, you know, Mike Tyson talking about Mike Tyson when he's himself, I'm in the third person, do it. Don't worry, sign your stuff to yourself, you know what I mean? Write, just write to yourself and sign it. It's a great practice to do, you know, you are then, you are then getting a third-person, objective view of yourself, where, so you will have a better chance of subjectively creating those, and activating those things and having them happen.

• 45:06Lewis Howes?

  One of the things in here, um, number seven, stay close to mom and family. I know there's a period, I think you said six or eight years where you pulled away from your mom. I think you're still close with your brother, but you pulled back because she was kind of.

• 45:18Matthew McConaughey?

  Loving my fame.

• 45:19Lewis Howes?

  Loving the fame and it was making it about her as opposed to supporting your son.

• 45:24Lewis Howes?

  So that was something that kind of came and went and you you danced with, but you know, now it's seems like you guys are, you know, in a great place.

• 45:30Matthew McConaughey?

  She's living with us four years now. She's ninety one.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  And then also you had number eight, won an Oscar for the best actor. How do you at twenty twenty one? Write down a goal of winning an Oscar when I think.

• 45:41Matthew McConaughey?

  And I wasn't even acting at that time.

• 45:42Lewis Howes?

  That's nuts. You didn't even do the first movie yet?

• 45:45Matthew McConaughey?

  No.

• 45:47Lewis Howes?

  Why did that come in your mind? Why was that even a thought, a dream, a goal?

• 45:52Matthew McConaughey?

  So this is, I believe, right after I had soon after I had called my father to say, I don't want to go to law school anymore. I want to go to film school. Now, looking back.

• 46:01Lewis Howes?

  And he said a great line back to you.

• 46:03Matthew McConaughey?

  He said a great line.

• 46:04Lewis Howes?

  He said, don't half ass it.

• 46:04Matthew McConaughey?

  Don't half ass it.

• 46:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:06Matthew McConaughey?

  Which was three, whatever, four, however many words is the best words I've ever heard from the man who I ultimately really wanted my ultimate approval from. And he didn't give me, he gave me a lot more than approval with that line. He made a kick in the backside, privilege, freedom, responsibility, kick, go do it.

• 46:25Matthew McConaughey?

  And I suppose, I know consciously, but probably subconsciously too, there's things that I've done where I wanted to let something slide and those words came on my mind like, uh-uh, no way.

• 46:37Matthew McConaughey?

  That'd be half assing it. So those words have lived with me.

• 46:42Matthew McConaughey?

  I I decided I want to go to film school.

• 46:47Matthew McConaughey?

  And I went back through these journals and I find something like that. I was like. Dude, you always wanted to be an actor.

• 46:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh, interesting.

• 46:54Matthew McConaughey?

  Like you just wouldn't admit it. And I remember. Always being sheepish about, someone go like, well, you just want to, why don't you perform? I'm like, nah, I don't, I don't. Something about it, and I had felt fraudulent then. Something about being behind the camera to go to director's school, learning story felt like, well, that's my. I'll sneak in the back door to the acting, right? But that's the better way. And I, I'm glad I went that path. But I think I wanted to, and I've talked to my buddy Rob Benner, who I bring up often in this book about it. He was like, yeah, you were wanting to. You, he told, remind me of talks we'd have late night. And he was already NYU film school. He was like reminding me of, yeah, you were already wanting to.

• 47:36Matthew McConaughey?

  At this time, when you first went to film school. So. I write that down to myself. I'm, I'm not afraid to write it down to myself, but I'm afraid to say anything like that out loud. I'm not, I'm afraid to even say, I would, I'm interested in going into acting at this point.

• 47:52Matthew McConaughey?

  But yet, I write down, I want to, I want to win an Oscar for best actor.

• 47:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So when you saw this paper, you'd already won.

• 48:03Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 48:03Lewis Howes?

  These goals, you s- you know, for the first time after, I guess, on close to thirty years, you'd won it, I think, I don't know, six, seven years prior to that.

• 48:10Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 48:13Lewis Howes?

  What did that feel like when you read this and you saw win an Oscar for best actor?

• 48:17Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh, I was, I was like, ah, are you kidding? Get out of here, Camilla! Check this out! Are you kidding me?

• 48:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 48:26Matthew McConaughey?

  And then I went, whoop, right back to the night. And I remember sitting in the top bunk.

• 48:32Matthew McConaughey?

  We'd just come from the arcade, me and Monty Wills, our roommate, he was in the bottom bunk, I was in the top bunk. Like a two Thursday night. I've been journaling, I wrote in this little journal, and I remember.

• 48:47Matthew McConaughey?

  That night.

• 48:49Matthew McConaughey?

  Other people were actually going out for a late, we'd been out, kind of partying, other people went to the next party. And I decided to come home and sort of Monty.

• 48:57Matthew McConaughey?

  I was in the top bunk, I couldn't brush my teeth, went up. From shores, kind of bed, kind of covers, sat up there and had a little window right here. And I have a little diary on the little window seal with a pen.

• 49:07Lewis Howes?

  Bunk bed?

• 49:08Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah. That we made. We made these bunk, we were the first bunk beds in the Dell House. And, um. Pulled over and I wrote it. And I think I had a, I think I even, um. A form of a headlamp, if they even had headlamps. I loved headlamps, still do love headlamps. Um, and written that and I wrote that down.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  Curious, if you didn't create this contract for yourself, do you think you would have accomplished all ten of these goals and dreams for your life? Or would some of them maybe fall through the cracks because you didn't create that, turn the invisible contract into a physical written contract and make it real?

• 49:44Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't know, I mean, I have to believe that writing them down

• 49:49Matthew McConaughey?

  subconsciously led to me, actually. I knew what they were. I couldn't recite them to you because I never looked at them again. But I knew what they were. And it tells me I had good goals because I actually, they were true. I mean, we all write down goals that we go like, later on, no, you were bullshitting yourself. You were just writing down what you think someone wanted you to say. And this particular night, I obviously wrote things down that had real, I mean, I told my future in a way.

• 50:22Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't, trust me, when I write, every time I put a pen to paper, I batted a thousand on this one. I went ten for ten. I don't go ten for ten all the time. You know what I mean? But writing down the right ones, if I, even without looking at it, I doubt I would have pulled these things off.

• 50:42Lewis Howes?

  How do we learn to listen to the true highest version of ourselves? And write the right goals and follow that path? As opposed to chasing the, you know, the stuff that leads to a lot of red lights? And actually create a lane of green lights for us? Obviously, you had obstacles to overcome on this journey, and that's part of the human condition, but you actualized all these. How did you, you know, you were listening to yourself and you authentically said, become a father, finally keep the woman from me, keep my relationship with God, and chase my best self is your first four. You didn't say, become a billionaire, have twenty mansions, have three, you know, Maseratis.

• 51:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 51:28Lewis Howes?

  Which, what do you think a twenty year old might, I mean, that's probably what I was thinking when I was twenty. You know, it's like, how did you think about this?

• 51:36Lewis Howes?

  You know, the first four and the sixth one take more risks. It's like stay close to mom and family. Then number eight was a more material thing. Win an Oscar. It wasn't win an Oscar first.

• 51:46Matthew McConaughey?

  Right, right. Um, we gotta ask ourselves what we we all, I think we all agree, we all want more. We have dreams, we have goals. We gotta ask ourselves first.

• 52:00Matthew McConaughey?

  More what?

• 52:03Matthew McConaughey?

  And that starts, I think, by going and answering that question, what do I value the most? And so look at the things that you already got in your holster that you value. Cause you don't wanna be reckless with those things and cast them off and let all the weeds grow around those. Then often you can't even recognize that garden. So. Yeah, I think that the first things were about. Taking care of things that I that I valued. They were very personal. They would take care of myself. They would take care of my mom, take care of the family. Take care of my relationship with God. They were very, very, very personal. Things to me that I knew and believed would be lifelong maintenance journeys. And that things that I believed at that time that no, taking care of those is never gonna go out of style for you, bud.

• 52:48Matthew McConaughey?

  Pick out the things that are not, not, not the fads because we'll write things down. Those three Maseratis.

• 52:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:52Matthew McConaughey?

  Hey, man, you get twenty years from now, you may not like Maserati, like a Bugatti, you know what I mean? So I'll write Maserati. You know what I mean? Watch out what proper nouns we're using. Cause they, some of them may be just fickle. You know what I mean? So those are the proper nouns, family, God, myself, Jesus. Those are things that I. Gave value to and gave me value and meaning in my life. And so I was like, I. I was already in the, I was already in the midst of those and those are things I said, I'm not gonna forgive these. And I'm not gonna, no matter who I become, I'm not gonna say, oh, these are no longer on my plate. I don't need to worry about these. Like you said, the Oscar, that's a new one. That's something that was out there.

• 53:29Lewis Howes?

  That's big.

• 53:30Matthew McConaughey?

  Um, becoming a father, that's out there. But I, I, since I was eight years old, the one thing I knew I wanted to be was a father. Um, I knew I wanted to meet the right person, right woman for me.

• 53:43Matthew McConaughey?

  Didn't matter, hadn't mattered yet, at that point, it's far from it.

• 53:50Matthew McConaughey?

  So, start with the things that we got in our saddle that you do already give about, that already give you meaning and value in your life. And double down on those, project forward, and if that happens, what will, what will, what, what I, what I dreamed it to become?

• 54:09Matthew McConaughey?

  And then, if you're gonna talk about, I think, when we're talking about a career,

• 54:18Matthew McConaughey?

  we gotta ask ourselves, first, I think this would be really valuable for everyone, ask ourselves first, what do you have an innate ability for, an innate talent for?

• 54:30Matthew McConaughey?

  And what are you willing, is that the same thing you're willing to work here?

• 54:37Matthew McConaughey?

  And then, thirdly, which is a little bit more of an asterisk, is that something that the world would demand?

• 54:45Matthew McConaughey?

  If we're gonna go straight capitalism, supply and demand, but we often look at things, and I've done it, I'll bust my hump for it, but I'm like,

• 54:57Matthew McConaughey?

  I'm really not that good at it.

• 55:00Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay, or I've got something that, sometimes we have things that we're really good at, we're like, I just, but I, I kinda just a natural, I don't wanna work at it.

• 55:11Matthew McConaughey?

  If you can find something that you have an innate ability for, and we love doing things we have an innate ability for, right? Have an innate talent in our DNA for, and then go, now I'm ready to educate myself, learn, hustle, go after, seek, create opportunities, bam bam, it's gonna be in the prism of my, how I measure every situation where I am going forward. Hunt it down, and do what you gotta do to get better at it, and then if it's hopefully something that the world can demand, you're

• 55:39Lewis Howes?

  That's a sweet spot.

• 55:39Matthew McConaughey?

  Now you're, now you're, now you're paying your rent, man. We got food on the table, now, now, now we're rolling, now we're waking up with some purpose, now we're waking up with, um, you know, yeah, it's gonna be a hard day today, but I don't, I can't, I'm not dreading Monday morning, you know?

• 55:56Matthew McConaughey?

  Maybe wanna sleep in, but I got, I'm building something, I'm building something here, I'm in construction.

• 56:03Lewis Howes?

  One of the things that you, I want to connect that to this thought here. 622, Matthew 622, "If I be single, the whole body will be full of light."

• 56:12Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 56:12Lewis Howes?

  I believe that's your favorite passage.

• 56:14Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 56:16Lewis Howes?

  You went on a journey, you know, after the, it was either in the middle or at the end of the tail end of your rom com, you know, stardom. And you went to, on a trip, went on a journey with yourself.

• 56:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 56:27Lewis Howes?

  I think for 28.

• 56:28Matthew McConaughey?

  22 days.

• 56:29Lewis Howes?

  22 days, in the Amazon.

• 56:31Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 56:33Lewis Howes?

  And there was a moment in the book where you talk about, essentially you had to kind of have a coming to, you know, moment with yourself where you had to shed all the identities that you were holding on to. Your rings, your heritage, your background, your clothes, your, "I'm famous, I'm a rom com guy, I'm an actor." You had to shed all of it.

• 56:51Matthew McConaughey?

  Yep.

• 56:52Lewis Howes?

  And what was the thing that you found when you let go of your identity in the outer world?

• 56:57Matthew McConaughey?

  That I was a mammal.

• 57:02Matthew McConaughey?

  A mammal, and for me, as a believer, a child of God. That's it.

• 57:09Matthew McConaughey?

  I baseline it.

• 57:14Matthew McConaughey?

  And the mammal, we can all agree on, right? The child of God, that was for me and any other believers, but the baseline it. I got rid of, I remember my dad's ring, which had an M on it, gold melted down from my mom and dad's clash rings and gold from my mom's teeth. Meant a lot to me.

• 57:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:31Matthew McConaughey?

  But it was an identity marker. I'm a McConaughey, this is about my dad, I had my American cap that I'd worn for two decades. I'm an American. Get rid of that, got rid of all these little talismans that were identities and titles that meant something. They weren't random, they were healthy ones.

• 57:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:48Matthew McConaughey?

  But I stripped them all off. It was like, "Bull?" And no, you're not famous, and no, it's not, you were, what, before you were ever an actor, before, what are you? What were you? Before you were McConaughey, before you were Texan, before you were an American, before you were an actor, before you were a movie star? Before you were a celebrity?

• 58:07Matthew McConaughey?

  Well, well, come on, get it all off. And I, and it was a purge, basically. And I ended up, that was, I was a naked sweating mammal.

• 58:20Matthew McConaughey?

  I was like, you're a man with a child of God. And that's what you are. So we've stripped off all the accoutrements. We've stripped off the ornaments. Here we are. And that is the night that I was like, this happened a couple of times in my life. And I think this is important for us all to do at some point. That's when I was like, okay.

• 58:44Matthew McConaughey?

  And what other truth do we know, McConaughey? Tell you what, another truth I'm realizing right now is that

• 58:52Matthew McConaughey?

  you're the only son of a can't get rid of. So we're gonna duke it out for the rest of our life here? Or we're gonna figure out how to get along?

• 59:03Matthew McConaughey?

  What are we gonna forgive right now? And what are we gonna say, the buck stops here, no more, I'm not putting up with it. Cause I'm tired of playing grass with yourself, McConaughey. Cut the shit, man.

• 59:15Matthew McConaughey?

  Let's get along. I can't get rid of you. Everybody else, every other relationship out, there's a choice. You're the one person I don't have a choice to hang out with. So let's work this out.

• 59:25Matthew McConaughey?

  And

• 59:28Matthew McConaughey?

  just like going back and seeing the embarrassment and shame turn into giggles. I began to go like,

• 59:34Matthew McConaughey?

  man, maybe you're being too hard on yourself on this thing. You know what, get that monkey off your back. You're a human, man, forgive yourself. And these other things, dude, you've been a repeat offender. It hadn't been paying you back. You've been regretting that choice every time you make it and you keep fricking making it. Cut the, man, evolve, turn the page. No more. And next morning,

• 59:55Matthew McConaughey?

  I remember even the, the Sherpas and stuff in Peru. I came out of the tent and they also going, la luz, la luz. Light? The light, light. And they were talking about me and the way I was moving. And I went for a walk. And for the first time during that trip,

• 1:00:18Matthew McConaughey?

  I didn't give a damn where I was around about what was around the next corner.

• 1:00:22Lewis Howes?

  You weren't thinking about the destination?

• 1:00:23Matthew McConaughey?

  I wasn't thinking about the destination, getting to the Amazon. And how it's been 11 days, when are we gonna get there? Mind you, this 11 days prior, I had not really been present in the trip because I was thinking about the result, getting to the destination so much. And then this morning after that night, I'm walking, I'm not even thinking about what's around the next corner. And when I did turn the corner,

• 1:00:48Matthew McConaughey?

  I was stopped by this sea of atomic, plugged in neon blue, like a puddle, like a bubbling puddle in the middle of my jungle path. And it stopped me. And I looked at it, I've never seen colors this, this neon and bright. It was like it was not man-made. It was glowing. I'm completely so, just I know I wasn't, this is straight-eyed, right?

• 1:01:16Matthew McConaughey?

  And it stopped me and as I stared at it for about 30 seconds, all of a sudden it started to flutter and rise and

• 1:01:26Matthew McConaughey?

  dissipate. It was tens of thousands of these Amazonian butterflies.

• 1:01:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:01:34Matthew McConaughey?

  And I stayed there for a minute and then this

• 1:01:39Matthew McConaughey?

  little word, words came into my brain from Prime Mover that said, "All I want is what I can see and what I can see is in front of me."

• 1:01:52Matthew McConaughey?

  I was free, I was light, it was magical. I walked, I turned the corner, went down the trail. And there was the Amazon, I finally made it. I made it to the river. Right after that moment.

• 1:02:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:04Matthew McConaughey?

  Did not know if I was still days away, weeks away, what.

• 1:02:10Matthew McConaughey?

  Now, stuff like that happens,

• 1:02:14Matthew McConaughey?

  we gotta listen.

• 1:02:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:16Matthew McConaughey?

  Those are some of those truths that come that you go, "Nobody else was here to witness that." "That was not for the whole class, that was not on the speaker, that was not on the bulletin, that was not on the nightly news, that was not even at church on Sunday with the congregation, that wasn't at school, that wasn't sitting around the dinner table with mom and dad, learning lessons." "It wasn't from a mentor."

• 1:02:40Matthew McConaughey?

  That was for me in this moment.

• 1:02:46Matthew McConaughey?

  I must heed that truth.

• 1:02:50Lewis Howes?

  You've been on this journey of a lot of people seeing you on screen and your personalities on screen and your talent in characters, but now over the last three to four years, you've been revealing yourself more and more through your book, through all of your amazing content online, all the interviews you've been doing and all the solo content, which I think is amazing. Please keep doing that.

• 1:03:09Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh, good. Thank you.

• 1:03:10Lewis Howes?

  I think it's amazing, these lessons that you share. But you're doing something coming up with a couple buddies of mine, Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins, where you're creating a live virtual event.

• 1:03:21Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:21Lewis Howes?

  Called The Art of Livin', L-I-V-I-N. And we'll have all the information linked up below, so you guys can just click on a link and get there and get registered. But if you guys go to L H Livin' dot com, it'll take you right to this event. It's a free event. Full, I think about a half day. You, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Trent Shelton, Marie Forleo are putting on this experience. And I really call it an experience. I've watched some of the videos you guys have made behind the scenes. It's gonna be incredible. So if you are listening, watching, or seeing a clip of this right now, run to L H Livin' dot com, sign up. It's a hundred percent free. And you're gonna be sharing a lot of wisdom and truth and lessons that you haven't shared in here

• 1:04:05Lewis Howes?

  and expanding upon it and new stories.

• 1:04:07Matthew McConaughey?

  You're gonna be expanding a lot on this where, you know, Dean and Tony came to me and said, look, we loved green lights. And as I wrote in the book, it's an approach, it's like book. And they said, would you be interested in getting into the process? Like making it even, make it tangible tools for people to use that they can measure in circumstances. I was like, yes. So that's what we've been doing. That's what we're gonna get into the hood of on the 24th. Is how to make it something transformational, hopefully for you individually, where you can see, oh, this is how I can utilize this in my life.

• 1:04:39Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:04:39Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, I talk about the green lights, yellow lights and red lights and their approach to them in there. That's the biggest question I've been asked since I put the book out. Well, the green lights. I'm in the left lane. How do I trust this is a, this is, this is as good as it's supposed to be? Is this the right truth for me?

• 1:04:55Matthew McConaughey?

  Red lights. I can't stand it. What do you mean there's a gift in the red light? How's there a gift in the frigging red light? There is. Yellow light. How do I, the one where I gotta make a choice to either slow down and put the pedal to the metal? What do I do? It's coming up. I feel it. I don't know what I do. Do I call an audible? Like, tell me to make the choice? All, explaining those things, we're gonna explain a lot of the science satisfaction, which will lead to the art of living. And the art is individual. The science is something we can each use and utilize and share, but the art will be yours individually for how you can use it and this, and make it through this, this dance called life we're all in.

• 1:05:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm excited to attend myself and be there. And if you are feeling stuck, or if you feel like you're on the sidelines, if you feel like you've got a really good life, but you know there's something greater. Or if you feel like you're just moving and grooving and, and life is happening and it's all manifesting and attracting in a beautiful way. This is for people who are in every situation in their life to keep on track. If they're already moving and grooving, if they're at a good life, but they're not getting to that greatness that they want. It's for them and it's also for people that are stuck or feeling like they're on the sidelines. So make sure you sign up. It's gonna be an amazing free virtual event. You can watch it on your phone, at home, on a TV, anywhere it is. It's free. Sign up lhlivin.com and we'll link all that up as well.

• 1:06:14Lewis Howes?

  You know, the last story you just told, you know, had the entire room just like in awe and in shock and just silent here as you were talking about this truth that you realized from within, essentially. Came through God and you realized from within. No one was around you.

• 1:06:31Lewis Howes?

  And I, and I mentioned this quote before that, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light."

• 1:06:37Matthew McConaughey?

  Right.

• 1:06:38Lewis Howes?

  Matthew 622. What does that mean to you? If thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light? And that light came to you at that moment and these Sherpas were saying, you know, la, la luz, la luz. You were radiating light after this came to you. Why is this your favorite passage? And, and what does it mean for you? And how can we start to step into that?

• 1:07:08Matthew McConaughey?

  The mandorla, this is what the mandorla is. So we, we, we, we see, we're, we so often are seeing life in contradictions, right? Future, the past, heaven, hell, technology, culture, and we see them as contradictions. And when in truth, that's, that's two eyes, right? And there's judgment on either side and there's a duality there with the truth.

• 1:07:40Matthew McConaughey?

  Is in that third eye.

• 1:07:42Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 1:07:42Matthew McConaughey?

  Where they overlap. And that's not a shade. So we go, oh, that's a shade of gray. No, it's not a shade of gray. What the verse is saying, what I get from is that's where all the colors live. All the colors of the truth live. That passage, when I always tell myself, keep a high eye. It's, keep the high eye. It's third eye. It shows up in all the religions too. It shows up everywhere. Um, it, it, it's, it's a way of perceiving the, the truth, I think, which lives in the paradox. And paradox is a word that some people go, oh, don't get into paradox. That's too, I don't know, academic or whatever. No, paradox is where it's, it's,

• 1:08:23Matthew McConaughey?

  both are true. Two things can be true at the same time. It's today, we could utilize it. It's like, if I seek to understand you and where you're coming from first, I'm probably gonna, before I seek to be understood. Uh, we don't usually, it has to do with listening, has to do with how we see things. It's how, it's, it's how we judge. Um, we, it's very easy and especially today, I think we love to be judge and jury on others and ourself. It's a very arrogant thing for us to do. And this passage, if I be single and not a dual contradiction and seeing the contradiction, things have gone, oh, this is true and that's true.

• 1:09:06Matthew McConaughey?

  And instead of or, right? Uh, there's, that's where the truth lives, I believe. Um, and it doesn't mean.

• 1:09:14Matthew McConaughey?

  That you just straddle the fence and you're noncommittal about anything.

• 1:09:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:09:18Matthew McConaughey?

  That's not what it means. It doesn't mean you're, you're just Mr. Inbetween. So that's true and that's true and it's all okay? No, you can then have judgment, but see both first. See the overlap of the truth and understand it from both sides and then be understood and you can then have judgment. But see it through that lens first. We go, we just don't do it. We come in with one eye. Or we. Me, us versus them. Me versus you. My idea versus yours. Left versus right. Democrat versus Republican. Even. How far can you go? Can you go down to right versus wrong, good versus bad? I mean, we, we see him as contradictions and they're, and they're not. We all, we all know. We all got a little good ass, a little bad ass.

• 1:10:03Matthew McConaughey?

  It's a choice we make where we then have judgment. So that passage has.

• 1:10:13Matthew McConaughey?

  Elevated my POV quite a bit and after, and it was one that I daily remind myself of. Um, if I'm getting a low eye on somebody, if I'm condescending people, if I'm objectifying people. I'm like, whoa, whoa. High eye buddy. Come on, open that third eye. You're not, it's not, it's not open. My kids can see it in my eyes when I'm talking to them. If I'm talking at them or if I stop and really look at them and maybe there's something, maybe it's a form of discipline.

• 1:10:43Matthew McConaughey?

  But then they can see if I'm looking at them like, I love you, man. This is why I'm trying to teach you this. All of a sudden they go, my son said it. I see it there at five.

• 1:10:53Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:10:54Matthew McConaughey?

  Six twenty-two. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. He's like, I heard you. I didn't hear you before when you were talking just at me.

• 1:11:05Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, so it's a great, it's, it's, it's a great reminder, Matthew six twenty two. The whole body will be full of light and you will move lightly and with discernment. Does it take away discernment? It doesn't take away judgment, just saying, see it through that lens first and understand that that truth is where those overlap.

• 1:11:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:23Matthew McConaughey?

  And then make your decision.

• 1:11:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow. I think it's beautiful that your, I believe it's your son that was born at six twenty two.

• 1:11:29Matthew McConaughey?

  Six twenty two.

• 1:11:30Lewis Howes?

  Crazy, man.

• 1:11:31Matthew McConaughey?

  So there's another one.

• 1:11:32Lewis Howes?

  I'm all about the, I'm all about the, the symbols and the signs and the synchronicities of life and me and my girlfriend Martha, we, we talk about how, how impactful it is to listen and, and watch for the signals and signs and synchronicities and, you know, and I think you would probably say that that might be a green light that you should be looking towards when you see those things kind of coming in your peripheral.

• 1:11:55Matthew McConaughey?

  I think so, but let's talk about this because I was writing this yesterday. Seems our greatest strength is our greatest Achilles heel. And if you overcompensate for something that works for you.

• 1:12:10Matthew McConaughey?

  All of a sudden you go into the equal and same amount into the debit section. Meaning on this instance, if you're, we've all been there. If you're looking for the signal and the significance in every situation. You start creating ones that aren't real.

• 1:12:30Lewis Howes?

  Making them up.

• 1:12:30Matthew McConaughey?

  And it's like, wow, you're getting stimulus from everywhere. Oh, that was a sign. Oh, that was a sign. And I remember writing this line about, everything has significance, but not everything is significant.

• 1:12:42Matthew McConaughey?

  Right? And so we have to watch that fine line of where do we intuit?

• 1:12:48Matthew McConaughey?

  Where do we feel a truth? But if we're again, like, like we were talking earlier about finding, remember when I quit looking for? If we're hunting for the significance in every single thing. It could be mental meditation. We can, the subplots become unmanageable.

• 1:13:04Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:13:04Matthew McConaughey?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:13:05Lewis Howes?

  How do we know when it's significant?

• 1:13:06Matthew McConaughey?

  Right. Put our, can we put ourselves in that place to receive it? And be aware to see it.

• 1:13:12Lewis Howes?

  You gotta be light.

• 1:13:13Matthew McConaughey?

  You gotta be light and you gotta be in a place where you can hear it, feel it and see it. But if we're out there going. Well, you know, we've all been there. Look at that art. Wow, that tree. And all of a sudden, you look up three hours later and you you're on your way to the bathroom, but you didn't move six inches because you were so. Oh, wow, wow. And that's we've been around those people like, whoa, subplots are a little unmanageable, bro. You know, at the same time, gotta be open to that. That mystical math that comes to us because there's a metric to that mystical math. There's a metric to that spiritual, those gifts that come to us. We don't know how to put them in a category and go.

• 1:13:54Matthew McConaughey?

  There's how their currency, there's the credits and debits, there's how they bring us ROI, and this is what they're worth. They don't come in numbers like that, but there is a real, true valuable metric to them. And I think, again, art of living, how are you aware to them, aware of them, and be open to them and put yourself in a place so you can receive them? At the same time,

• 1:14:18Matthew McConaughey?

  not go hunting them down in every single

• 1:14:22Matthew McConaughey?

  shape, size and smell. Because then you'll be just you'll just spin in circles, you know? And that's that's an art, you know? And I don't know, explain what that art is. Got times where I feel like I'm in the people call it maybe the flow state where you're kind of intuition's right on time, man. I don't know what time it is. I don't even wear a watch, but I was right on time again, wasn't I? Whatever that is, you know? Your reactions, you you you understand what someone's saying, even if it's not what they're saying, kind of come back, you see where they're coming from. You're taking care of yourself, but you're taking care of others at the same time. It's a wonderful flow. And it starts, I think, a lot, a baseline for that would be to be in that position to see those mystical sort of gifts that come.

• 1:15:08Matthew McConaughey?

  Starts with gratitude.

• 1:15:09Lewis Howes?

  Yes. I love in your acceptance speech, one of the first thing you said was, it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.

• 1:15:19Matthew McConaughey?

  Pays back.

• 1:15:19Lewis Howes?

  I love that you said that in your speech, by the way. Thank you for putting that out in the world because I feel like gratitude is the path, it's the doorway that opens to the pathway of abundance, of love.

• 1:15:31Matthew McConaughey?

  Coming in and going out.

• 1:15:33Lewis Howes?

  Yes. It to light all these different things. And so it's the the magnifier and the magnet to what you want. In a conscious, healthy way. You could also magnify it in other unconscious, unhealthy ways, but I think that's what it does. So I'm so grateful that you said that. Uh, on a big platform, a big stage, because I feel like. When people see someone accomplish a big thing, a big award, or a big. You know, fame or success, they want that. But I'm glad you fed people the peas and carrots right away.

• 1:16:06Matthew McConaughey?

  Right.

• 1:16:07Lewis Howes?

  And talked about gratitude. It's gratitude. It's gratitude. It's a scientific fact. When did you realize that gratitude was the key for you? In, in opening up so many doors?

• 1:16:19Matthew McConaughey?

  My mom's big on gratitude, and I mean, she instilled it in us. At an early age, I remember it was, you know, you get up grumpy in the morning, you. Come into the kitchen from your bedroom for breakfast and. You wanted to sleep long and you're kind of grumpy and she'd see it the way we would walk and if we were kind of. She'd turn around from the kitchen, make a breakfast, she goes, go back to your bed. And don't get out of bed until you're ready to come in here and see the rose in the vase instead of the dust in the table. And you go, oh geez, okay, yeah, I gotta go back. I rearranged. And she would. Preach us the very baseline basics, like you, who do you think you are to think you were guaranteed the sun was gonna rise for you today? Geez, mom. I remember, mom, I got this old pair of snotty.

• 1:17:03Matthew McConaughey?

  Sneakers with holes in them and stuff. I need another pair of sneakers. Oh yeah, you think another pair of sneakers? Let me introduce you to the kid with no feet. Oh geez, mom. You see, always like baseline sober to stuff on stuff like that.

• 1:17:16Matthew McConaughey?

  So it started with the very baseline stuff. Now. We get more fluent in life. We have things.

• 1:17:24Matthew McConaughey?

  I don't think we should take even those things for granted. But. A lot of us are out there going, okay, I get that part, but how do we become thankful for? You know, more things we have around us in our life.

• 1:17:38Matthew McConaughey?

  I think that. The more we are, we give thanks for.

• 1:17:44Matthew McConaughey?

  It's, it's, we give more value to that thing, or that person, or that place, or that entity. You give more value to it, it means more to us. If something means more to us, we tend it. We take care of it. When you take care of something, something grows, so it scales. So actually gratitude is the root of generosity. Coming in and going. And it's a self-serving thing. It's not just a self less-serving, it is self-serving. It is. I applaud that it is. And if you're gonna give gratitude out for selfish reasons, I say bravo. You know, because it will reciprocate the same way back out.

• 1:18:24Matthew McConaughey?

  Um, it just, it, it, it, you know, in our foundation, we have these young kids that we give them a safe place to go up to school. They learn nutrition, uh, they make a physical goal, and they do community service. These are Title I schools. And at the end of every one of those classes, they opt to sit around in a, in a circle and share something out loud they're thankful for. And these are high school students. It ain't cool to say, "Thank you for stuffing me in high school," right? Well, when they first started saying, "Thank you," they were being like, "I'm, I'm thankful for the Just Good Life Foundation, I'm thankful." And they all repeat themselves, they're like, "No, no, no, no, no, guys, you're, you're thinking, you're feeling like this is too serious." So one day it got to me, and I was like, "I'm thankful I got a kiss from my wife this morning before I got up bed." And they all started hooting and hawing, "Ooh."

• 1:19:08Matthew McConaughey?

  And I was like, "See, you can be thankful for fun stuff, too." So they all started saying, "Thankful, thankful Halloween's coming, I'm thankful I got, I'm, I'm looking so sharp." And we're laughing. What that led to was then people started to feel free to go.

• 1:19:25Matthew McConaughey?

  "I'm thankful my mom is out of the hospital." "I'm thankful my sister got into that college." "I'm thankful my dad got a job."

• 1:19:38Matthew McConaughey?

  And when we asked them, what's your favorite thing about the gratitude circle? This is the coolest answer. They started coming up to us and saying, "Well, my favorite thing about it is that I'm for the first time hearing peers of mine say, "thank you for something in their lives that I have in mind that I've always taken for granted."

• 1:19:56Matthew McConaughey?

  There's that reciprocity again.

• 1:19:58Lewis Howes?

  Where do you think you would be if you had zero gratitude in your life?

• 1:20:02Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh geez, zero gratitude in life.

• 1:20:05Lewis Howes?

  If you never expressed it, if you never experienced it, if you never talked about what you're grateful for?

• 1:20:10Matthew McConaughey?

  I'd look a lot older, I'd feel a lot older, I'd have less energy, I'd be a cynic, which is a great disease of getting older that we all should stave off.

• 1:20:25Matthew McConaughey?

  You wouldn't want to be hanging out with me, man. I don't know, you wouldn't, I mean, I, I'd probably be right about a lot of things.

• 1:20:33Lewis Howes?

  Righteous, yeah.

• 1:20:34Matthew McConaughey?

  And you'd be like, "Good for him. I don't want to be around this guy." You know?

• 1:20:42Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:42Lewis Howes?

  Do you think we can manifest abundance and the things we want, the goals we want without gratitude? Is it possible?

• 1:20:49Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, you, I mean, you could

• 1:20:53Matthew McConaughey?

  mathematically compound things that are technically good or should come in abundance, I think. But

• 1:21:06Matthew McConaughey?

  you're not gonna enjoy it.

• 1:21:08Lewis Howes?

  The inner abundance won't be there.

• 1:21:11Matthew McConaughey?

  It'll be

• 1:21:15Matthew McConaughey?

  a little antiseptic.

• 1:21:16Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:21:17Matthew McConaughey?

  It'll be

• 1:21:21Matthew McConaughey?

  all treble, no bass. It won't have a feeling to it. I don't think you're gonna be, why cheat yourself out on the, on the, on the

• 1:21:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:31Matthew McConaughey?

  The great feeling of being thankful for something. It's there to be thankful for.

• 1:21:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:37Matthew McConaughey?

  And again, I don't mean

• 1:21:42Matthew McConaughey?

  When I bring up earlier, be less impressed, more involved. I don't mean. I don't mean that by, oh disrespect, don't be, because we have to be more than just. Happy to be here. We can't just all run around going, it's just so great, I'm what I, just so happy to be alive, we got. We wanna be more than that. I mean, again, have some discernment. Make a choice, have some idea, define what you want more of, and you want more value of in your life and. Set goals, go after things, create things. So we have to be more than just happy to be here.

• 1:22:13Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:22:14Matthew McConaughey?

  But, that doesn't mean that if we are ambitious, that we quit respecting and giving gratitude for the fact that. I'm happy I'm here. I respect this situation. I respect the, the, the, the position I'm in, the, the, this table to talk to you, that we're here to talk, that everyone here set up the camera, that. We're able to do this. I'm not.

• 1:22:36Matthew McConaughey?

  In jail right now. There's a whole list of along things I'm happy I'm not, you know, um. We can, we can, that, that's never, that never goes out of style to. Go, go underneath where we are to, to, to lesser, harder situations and just realize. This is cool.

• 1:22:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:55Matthew McConaughey?

  This is cool to be here. So what, so when we, when we do that. We're gonna get more, again. More meaning to this, more, uh, more value to it. I'm gonna be more generous, gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna work not only for me, it's gonna work better for you. It's gonna work better for you. It's gonna work for all, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's the kinda epidemic we want.

• 1:23:14Lewis Howes?

  It's a, it's a win-win-win.

• 1:23:15Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:15Lewis Howes?

  It's a win for us, it's a win for others in the world.

• 1:23:17Matthew McConaughey?

  Gratitude epidemic is not being a delusional optimist.

• 1:23:22Matthew McConaughey?

  And I, no, don't, don't be a fool. You know, I'm not running around going. No, nothing's ever hard, everything's always great. No, it's not. You know, no, no, I'm always happy. No, you're not. Maybe you're not digging deep enough. Cause you're always happy. Are you really chasing the things that. Have meaning in your life? Cause things that have meaning take maintenance. They break down.

• 1:23:44Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:23:44Matthew McConaughey?

  It hurts. It sucks. We get bruised.

• 1:23:49Matthew McConaughey?

  We try to tickle, but we end up pinching. It doesn't always come and end going. It doesn't always, doesn't always work. It takes maintenance.

• 1:23:58Lewis Howes?

  What's the thing you struggle with the most in your life right now? After all this success outwardly?

• 1:24:02Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:02Lewis Howes?

  All the, the, it's what seems like a lot of love, a lot of inner peace, a lot of family, community, connection, service impact now, greater than just your talent and your on screen, but also changing lives and touching people emotionally and spiritually with your, your message. What is your biggest struggle at this season of life?

• 1:24:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Am I doing enough and is what I'm doing, am I doing it the right way? The best way?

• 1:24:36Matthew McConaughey?

  I, I, I need accomplishment. For significance.

• 1:24:44Matthew McConaughey?

  I wish I didn't as much. At the same time, like, glad you do need that. If you didn't have that, again, like the times I was talking earlier, being arrogant, put me in situations to get humbled.

• 1:24:54Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 1:24:55Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, if I, if I didn't want a compliment, I was like, okay, well, there's nothing wrong with that. But I, but I, I, I, I, you know, I say this, uh, we talk about a midlife crisis, and then I heard there's this thing called quarter life crisis. Now, okay, we're gonna, ten, ten year old, whatever, whatever these crises are. The, the, the, the original one, which was kind of titled the midlife crisis, right? I think

• 1:25:19Matthew McConaughey?

  one, bravo. Way to go. You're, you're, you're turning the page, you're wanting to do more, you're wanting to find more, something different. Bravo. Way to make it hard on yourself. At the right way, at, at the right time, after you usually have already accomplished quite a bit. But don't forget this, let's go back to gratitude. And this is where a lot of people, I think, get hung up in the midlife crisis.

• 1:25:45Matthew McConaughey?

  Wanting to do more and something different is great. But not at the expense of disrespecting what you've already done.

• 1:25:51Lewis Howes?

  Right, not discounting what you've done.

• 1:25:53Matthew McConaughey?

  No, and too many of us discount, oh, I've done nothing. Oh, that's not worth anything. Oh, it's the stuff I've built. Uh, when usually, no, that is something. No, that is something. And when I say give yourself credit for that, that doesn't mean trust that you're not gonna go, oh, okay then, hum, I actually don't wanna do more new stuff. I'm cool. It's not like you're gonna go just retire and go to the beach or play golf or quit doing anything. But it doesn't cancel that your ambition's out. But we need to be more, give more respect to what we've already built. And then we'll take on our male life crisis, which I'm gonna return that something. Crisis, I don't like the word crisis on that, but you're still ambitious. You can be ambitious and have an entrepreneurial spirit to wanna go change things in your life,

• 1:26:37Matthew McConaughey?

  while still respecting, I think you actually think you'll find more and do more of what you wanna do the best way for yourself, when you do have a respect and a connection to your lineage of what you actually have built. And to Craig, give yourself credit for what you have built to this point. It's not cancel that out. So I need to feel like I'm barren to go forward. No, that's gonna help you. This next story is connected to that one.

• 1:27:01Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:27:02Matthew McConaughey?

  All right, then it's not a new book. It's the same book. It's just a new chapter we're looking for, right? Those stories are connected. It's the same hardcover. We don't start over in our lives and start a new book.

• 1:27:15Matthew McConaughey?

  Start a new chapter, maybe. And those things that we like to tell ourselves, oh, it's a new chapter. They're usually just commas.

• 1:27:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Those things we like to say, oh, it's the end of the book. It's usually just a period at the end of the paragraph.

• 1:27:30Matthew McConaughey?

  And those things we go, no, it's a whole new, uh, uh, means of communicating. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a new encyclopedia. No, it's just a new chapter. In the same book, we all only get one book.

• 1:27:43Lewis Howes?

  Before I ask these final questions, I want people to go to L H live in dot com. That's L I V I N dot com. We'll have it linked up in the description, whether you're watching. Um, or listening, we'll have it linked up. So wherever you're watching or listening, make sure you go there. Sign up for this free virtual live event. Uh, make sure you check it out. You're not going to want to miss this. It's going to be. There's probably going to be a million people that are signed up for this thing. When I talked to Dean, he was like, this is going to be a million people at least. So I think it's going to be a ton of people. There's going to be a massive community of people that are all. Looking for more and looking to understand more within themselves. So make sure you guys sign up for that right now. You'll get notified by it, give your email and you'll be in there. I've got three, five, I wish I could go another two hours, but I will have to do another one with your next book.

• 1:28:28Lewis Howes?

  Um, but I've got three final questions for you.

• 1:28:33Lewis Howes?

  The first one is about significance because we mentioned significance and. Everything has significance, but not everything is significant. Yeah, that's what you said.

• 1:28:44Lewis Howes?

  I I'm going to butcher this, but something like. Twenty years ago, one of the things that most kids grew up wanting to be was like an astronaut. Now it's the number one thing is a YouTuber or like an influencer. And it just seems like the the youth wants fame and success and influence. More than ever before. Essentially wanting significance, right? Wanting to be significant and significance. What is your thoughts on fame? You know, having been famous for a long time now and experienced probably the. The the juice of it, the pleasures of it, and also some of the stuff that's not so nice.

• 1:29:23Matthew McConaughey?

  Sure.

• 1:29:23Lewis Howes?

  What is your thoughts on fame that you want people to know? You whether in their youth or at any stage of life on what it is? What it isn't, how to manage it when you got it.

• 1:29:35Matthew McConaughey?

  Sure. Fame.

• 1:29:39Matthew McConaughey?

  Before you go, I want to be famous, which is a great ambition. Fun. I'm famous. I'm I'm glad. It's it's the access. It's given me.

• 1:29:53Matthew McConaughey?

  And it's, it's, it's definitely in the black in my, it comes with its harder. Short challenges, things like loss of anonymity. I don't meet strangers anymore.

• 1:30:04Matthew McConaughey?

  I do something, say something, it's out there. I can feel the energy of the world, whether it's pro or con. How they, what they think about it, whether it's true, whether it's not, whether it's completely, whether it's valid.

• 1:30:19Matthew McConaughey?

  But don't say, before you say I wanna be famous, let's find a table, let's scoot that over. For what?

• 1:30:27Matthew McConaughey?

  We all wanna be relevant.

• 1:30:31Matthew McConaughey?

  I do. You? Better damn sure ask yourself, relevant for what? What do you wanna do really well? What do you wanna do, you have an innate ability for that you're willing to work for that? Maybe you can become an expert on them. Maybe you can, maybe you're just really good at winging it, but what do you wanna do that? That, that.

• 1:30:58Matthew McConaughey?

  Could. Give you fame, but.

• 1:31:02Matthew McConaughey?

  Fame without, without a. An understanding of a structure of a, of a, of a competence of a skill.

• 1:31:12Matthew McConaughey?

  In my experience. Is, is, is, is a real. Sort of rapid barrage of a moving target. Because.

• 1:31:25Matthew McConaughey?

  There's, you know, the old word fifteen minutes of fame. There are fads that come in and out all the time that are very seasonal. We could do, he'd seek to chase him and we do all the time. I got nothing against that, but understand that. That may not be lasting and, and, and when you are going to do something that you think, oh, this is going to get me. More likes or give me some fame. Just check in with yourself and go. Well, if that goes out of fashion. Or if in twenty, ten years, as far as you can project, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, am I going to still feel like I will stand by that? Just, just, just, just measure yourself. Keep yourself a little projection before you go, cause we could do stuff right now. To get famous.

• 1:32:10Matthew McConaughey?

  That we will absolutely regret tomorrow, but tonight we gonna be famous, maybe.

• 1:32:17Matthew McConaughey?

  Have a little sense of delayed gratification and project forward of what the possible consequences of what you're doing to get attention and fame will be. And bet on yourself, just bet on yourself because the best way, if we can, is to build something and be competent at something where it's a, even if it goes out of style, it will be looked back or like going, nope, that person did that really well. That's what they were known for. And even though we don't do that anymore, things have changed or the medium has changed. When that was happening, that person was doing it well. So ask that because we're tempted and we're rewarded for a lot of things that can make us famous

• 1:33:03Matthew McConaughey?

  that are gonna give us a proverbial hangover one day. Check in with those things. All right, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a slippery line, it's very tempting. But give yourself enough credit, give yourself more credit to go, is this who I really am? Is this who I want to be? Am I doing this because I love it and I'm good at it? Or am I doing this because I think it could get a lot of attention even though I don't believe in it? Even though I'm gonna probably regret, deal with it later.

• 1:33:39Matthew McConaughey?

  Don't, hold on, don't, don't, don't press any of that, don't do, don't do, hang on. Um, time is more on your side than you think. So just watch what you put out and also things was like, and I'm leaning back into social media that we just were simple reminders for all of us, adults and our children. Just remember those things you say, those likes and those dislikes.

• 1:34:05Matthew McConaughey?

  They're gonna outlive you. They're gonna outlive me, they're gonna outlive all of us. They will be on our record. They will be on our great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren's record. Just think about it a little bit, just have a, have a little touch, take a little inventory before you go.

• 1:34:27Lewis Howes?

  And a follow up to that, what's the number one skill you wish you would have either learned or mastered before, you know, becoming really famous?

• 1:34:37Matthew McConaughey?

  Ah, the number one skill?

• 1:34:39Lewis Howes?

  To be able to manage it or, or, you know, navigate it.

• 1:34:43Matthew McConaughey?

  Got number one skill. For me would have been, and I did learn this. About five years in my career, but preparation. I had a run early on my career where I thought I could just, I was better if I just winged it. Like, oh no, if I get prepared, I'm getting too mental, I'm thinking too much, I'm getting too hemless, you know, I'm getting, no, no, no, I'm an instinct. All right. And I embarrassed it out of myself. Um, in, in, in a movie, in a role. And I, one of the most regretful things I've ever done, it's so embarrassing. And I learned preparation on that day and I still prepare. And I prepare so I can have freedom, so I can wing it, so I can throw chunk the script away and go. Let's dance, call audibles, game time.

• 1:35:28Matthew McConaughey?

  They didn't play the defense we thought they were, we're reading the defense, chunk the playbook, here's what we're running. Then it's really fun.

• 1:35:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:36Matthew McConaughey?

  You know, but that comes, you can only do that. If you prepare the right way. Your playbook or your roadmap, whatever it is. Um, and I didn't understand that. Early.

• 1:35:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:47Matthew McConaughey?

  Luckily. Figured it out and I still got to work and got it, yeah.

• 1:35:51Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. I've got two final, two final questions, that was a follow up, so I'm adding two more real quick. Um, the art of living. Make sure you guys go there, L H living dot com, go sign up, it's free, be there. Invite a few friends, you're gonna have an amazing time. Um, I want to acknowledge you. McConaughey. For not half assing it. I know it's something that your dad talked about. Is that, you know, if you get to go on this dream, this career, this path.

• 1:36:18Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:20Lewis Howes?

  Don't half ass it. Um, and I love the, the nod you added at the end of your book about not half assing it, so I really acknowledge you for. Not half assing it in every stage and season of life that you've gone after. And I really. Acknowledge you for how you've been able to. Be successful. And also have a really beautiful marriage and be a beautiful father. And I know you talk about how you have Cs in lots of these areas you talked about, not As.

• 1:36:48Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:48Lewis Howes?

  But the fact that you keep living the way you do and showing up with your heart, open-hearted, in service to people, I really acknowledge that for you, Matthew, for your willingness to wanna teach constantly and at the same time being a student.

• 1:37:03Matthew McConaughey?

  Amen.

• 1:37:03Lewis Howes?

  Of life.

• 1:37:04Matthew McConaughey?

  Amen. Thank you. I'm trying. I'm trying. I ain't making As now, but I'm trying. As you know, part of us, the deal, if we can get the right playbook, can just keep getting back to the game each day. We ain't gonna get there. We ain't gonna get to the ta-da moment of, oh, I got it all figured out. That ain't happening.

• 1:37:21Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 1:37:21Matthew McConaughey?

  But if we can see how far along we can get while we're here. Amen.

• 1:37:25Lewis Howes?

  I asked you this question before, so these final two questions, I'll ask them quickly. The first one is called my three truths question. I asked you this before. If people wanna see what those are, we'll have linked up the previous interview. We can see and compare your last interview, what your three truths were.

• 1:37:41Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay.

• 1:37:42Lewis Howes?

  To today, a couple of years later, a lot has happened in the last couple of years. And here's the question. You get to live as long as you want. You get to continue to create, make art, write books, do programs, movies, everything you wanna do, you get to do.

• 1:37:57Matthew McConaughey?

  Forever?

• 1:37:58Lewis Howes?

  For as long as you live, but then the lights go out at some point.

• 1:38:00Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay. When they do, not like, you're not saying like, if you live forever.

• 1:38:04Lewis Howes?

  No, no, you're gonna live for as long as you want, you know, another fifty, hundred, whatever years. However long you can extend your life.

• 1:38:09Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay.

• 1:38:09Lewis Howes?

  Then one day you gotta turn off the lights.

• 1:38:11Matthew McConaughey?

  I'm pretty sure, yeah.

• 1:38:13Lewis Howes?

  And, and you create and accomplish everything. Let's say you got another list of twenty goals. They all happen, you know, just like you did in nineteen ninety-two.

• 1:38:21Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:22Lewis Howes?

  But for whatever reason, all of your work, all the movies, the books, the content is gone.

• 1:38:26Matthew McConaughey?

  Gone.

• 1:38:27Lewis Howes?

  Hypotheticals.

• 1:38:28Matthew McConaughey?

  Okay.

• 1:38:29Lewis Howes?

  All gone. No one has access to it in this world anymore.

• 1:38:31Matthew McConaughey?

  Ever.

• 1:38:33Lewis Howes?

  But you get to leave behind three truths with the world. And this is all we would have of your wisdom.

• 1:38:43Lewis Howes?

  Three lessons, three truths.

• 1:38:44Matthew McConaughey?

  Camera rolling right now? We're not taking a timeout before this answer? I get to come back, write this one in on an email? Oh, my goodness.

• 1:38:52Lewis Howes?

  Three truths, whatever is.

• 1:38:54Matthew McConaughey?

  I answered this before last time?

• 1:38:55Lewis Howes?

  You did answer this before.

• 1:38:57Matthew McConaughey?

  Can you tell me what I said?

• 1:38:58Lewis Howes?

  I'll tell you afterwards.

• 1:38:59Matthew McConaughey?

  Oh geez, three truths.

• 1:39:01Lewis Howes?

  Whatever's on your heart or your mind.

• 1:39:02Matthew McConaughey?

  Three truths.

• 1:39:06Matthew McConaughey?

  When in doubt, make sense of humor your default emotion.

• 1:39:16Matthew McConaughey?

  Don't make a straight line crooked.

• 1:39:22Matthew McConaughey?

  And.

• 1:39:28Matthew McConaughey?

  Loving your kids, mama.

• 1:39:32Matthew McConaughey?

  Is one of the best. Things you can do as a parent.

• 1:39:39Lewis Howes?

  Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:39:42Matthew McConaughey?

  Of greatness?

• 1:39:45Matthew McConaughey?

  Greatness?

• 1:39:47Matthew McConaughey?

  Greatness. Par excellence, what is greatness? Not perfection, greatness.

• 1:39:58Matthew McConaughey?

  Pursuit, capture and proof.

• 1:40:02Matthew McConaughey?

  At the highest mortal level.

• 1:40:09Matthew McConaughey?

  Yeah, I like that one.

• 1:40:10Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 1:40:11Matthew McConaughey?

  What did I say? Can I remember that one?

• 1:40:12Lewis Howes?

  Capture and proof at the highest mortal level. You want to say it one more time?

• 1:40:16Matthew McConaughey?

  Yes, pursuit, capture and proof at the highest mortal level. Amen, I'll go with that.

• 1:40:23Lewis Howes?

  All right, is there anything you want to, that's on your heart that you want to finish with? Anything that you want to share?

• 1:40:27Matthew McConaughey?

  Just, um, this event that we're going to do for free. Please come join us and, and bring who you want. It, it should be, I don't think I'll say too many cuss words, but I, I think you can bring your kids to it and everything. It's going to be, we're going to talk about life, man, we're all trying to figure this thing out, aren't we? And we're all, we're all here and, and difference between saying we're stuck in it or we're saying, no, we're on the ride and we're driving. It's about, you know, life's going to happen to us, but we can also, we also have our hands on the wheel. And that's what we're going to talk about, how it ends well, especially at this time in life, after coming out of this disruptive time with COVID in the last three or four years, where all of our life was sort of disrupted, and we were in limbo. It's time to make some choices, and we can make choices to, to, to, to have a solid step

• 1:41:10Matthew McConaughey?

  forward on where we want to go, because we can now see further than we could in the last four years. So that's the timing of it as well. So look forward to seeing you there. We're going to have a hoot of a time. Matthew, thanks so much, man. Appreciate you, brother. Appreciate it. Thank you, man. Awesome.

• 1:41:24Lewis Howes?

  I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels, at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you, and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter

• 1:42:05Lewis Howes?

  and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.