Matthew McConaughey's Success Tips Will Change Your Life

Marie Forleo:

Hey, it's Marie Forleo, and welcome to another episode of the Marie Forleo Podcast and Marie TV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. And today, something special is going on. Not only do I have a very special guest in this conversation, awesome, but we've also got an invitation for you that I am not kidding, can sincerely change your life. Here we go.

Academy Award-winning actor, number one New York Times bestselling author and storyteller, Matthew McConaughey, is a married man, father of three and a loyal son and brother. He and his wife Camilla, are the founders of the Just Keep Livin' Foundation. McConaughey is a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin. Minister of Culture for the University of Texas and the city of Austin, and owner of the Major League Soccer Club, Austin FC. Green Lights is available wherever books are sold, and his upcoming children's book, Just Because, is released in September.

Matthew, thank you so much for being here. So, Green Lights, right? Debuted number one, New York Times bestseller list. I think last I read it was on there for like 55 weeks, which is awesome. Last I checked, it had over 66,000 stellar reviews. I just want to say, first of all, congratulations, because this, my friend, is a beautiful piece of work. It's amazing.

Matthew McConaughey:

Thank you.

Marie Forleo:

And today I want to actually do a little dance with you. There's so much wisdom in the book, and I know you've talked about it a lot over the past few years, but there are a few things that I just need to highlight, because I know folks in our audience will get so much out of it.

And then I want to dance in what I'd like to call going beyond the book, and talk about how you've taken this beautiful approach and turned it into a process. And then of course we've got this amazing free live event coming up, the Art of Livin', we'll talk about that more too.

But first, for anybody watching or listening right now, if they have not read the book yet, can you tell us where the idea for Green Lights came from and what is a green light, and how do we catch more of them in our lives?

Matthew McConaughey:

Sure. So I've journaled since I was 14. I finally got the courage to go away and see what the heck I had in those journals. So there's 35 years of writing. I had always kind of, my out was, "Oh, when I die, Camilla or somebody will go back and have a look." And that was an excuse. So I packed them all up, and went away and had a look, and I found themes in them.

I found habits and choices that I made in my life that measurably led to successes, and me getting what I wanted. I saw times where I was in a rut and noticed, "Oh, you got off track with choices you were making, you were approaching life differently. You were trying to skate by on some things that you knew were tested and true for you, but you were trying to see if you could get by without them." And they were measurable.

I also noticed, and that would be the science of satisfaction, green lights, you can engineer them through your choices. You can be cool to your future self by choices you make today. You can invest in yourself, pass on a plastic ring for a golden crown tomorrow, so to speak. That's the ones you can engineer. The science of satisfaction. I also noticed, and more than I thought was going to be true, is that a lot of my successes were sort of mystical green lights where, man, it didn't have any reason, it just had rhyme.

I was in the right place at the right time. I was five minutes late, but oh so glad I was late, because I'm ran into the person that gave me my next job opportunity. In the right place maybe to meet the woman I fell in love with. You trace them back and you go, "You didn't know at the time." That night when I met Camilla, if her car wouldn't have been towed and I wasn't able to give her a ride, would we be here now? Would I have the family I have?

So these things that don't have any reason to them or rhyme, I call them mystical green lights, and that would be more of the art of living, how do we find those and put ourself in a place? I do believe that we get to the art of living through the science of the satisfaction, the knowledge, the choices, where we can engineer green lights for ourself. And that's basically what a green light is, being cool, whether you know it or not to your future self.

Marie Forleo:

Yeah. And I love the notion too of mystical green lights because those are some of the most magical, they're unpredictable. I think that, you know, for anyone who's excited about achievement, which is a lot of folks in our audience, and I know I've been there, and so much of my life previous has been engineering things, right? And control.

And honestly, the more I've reflected on that for myself, I haven't kept journals since I was 14. I wish I did. But I have kept journals for some decades now, and often I see these little recipes for myself. Like, "Oh, when Marie does X, Y and Z, she's happy, she's fulfilled, she's producing and creating."

And then I leave these notes for myself, usually when I do a year-end in review and I'm like, "Hmm, Marie loves to party but she parties a little too much with this." And I can watch the cascading effect of where things start to fall apart. But that mystical side of green lights, I think is, you talked about that so beautifully in the book, and I think that that is personally part of our next evolution, just as a collective in more faith-

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah, can we-

Marie Forleo:

Yes. Please.

Matthew McConaughey:

And can we... We want to, we seek to, and I think we can more than we do so far, but can we at least communicate the metrics of those mystical green lights, because they don't make sense. You're looking, we're going forward in life, it's a mystery. But looking back, the dots of the mystical green lights we connected.

Marie Forleo:

Yes, yeah.

Matthew McConaughey:

They add up. You see exactly how we got here.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Whether it was red lights, whether it was failures or successes. The dots connect. Can we sell, and in a constructive measure of the metrics of those mystical green lights, because they are measurable. They just don't necessarily make sense at the time.

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Marie Forleo:

That's right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

They're not math.

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Marie Forleo:

To the logical mind. And I love this too, and I want to dig into this a bit, because this is important. You say green lights can be disguised as yellow and red lights. Yellow and red lights. You have this from the book, so I'm feeding your words back to you. "Yellow lights slow us down or stop our flow. They're hard, but they're sometimes what we need." And this was something I was just listening in my research, all the reds and yellows eventually turn green. I believe that.

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And I was thinking about that literally, how when I'm in my car, I'm in New York City. So driving my car around the city, driving out, when sometimes you're itching to get someplace in life, and then you got to wait, and you got to have patience. And those red lights and those yellow lights do turn green. So tell me more about that because I think there's so much juice in the yellows and the reds too.

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Matthew McConaughey:

There is. Well, look, the yellows are in the most, like life, because there's a choice to make. You either put the pedal to the metal and blow it, and just blow through it, because you go, "I'm not going to heed this caution. I'm not going to give this caution credit." Which is a valuable thing to do many times.

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But then also, the second choice of the yellow light is, "I'm going to slow down. I'm going to tap the brakes, I'm going to gear down. I'm going to heed this caution. I'm going to take a pause, because I need to do a little inventory. I need to look over my shoulder and figure out why I keep stepping in the same pile that you know what every damn time around the bend or every time this... Once a week on the same exact time I keep doing it. Why am I a repeat offender?" You know what I mean?

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And if we don't pause at the yellow light, we are repeat offenders, of what can become bad habits. And we just start to say, "Well this is how it is. I step in that same pile every day. That's just what I create in my life and that's what I do." Uh-uh, slow down at the yellow light, take a little inventory. A few people in the catching green lights may pass you by, but that's slowing down at a yellow light is where we evolve.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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Matthew McConaughey:

It's an evolution. It's where our life begins to have an ascension where we are someone, we've evolved today more than we have yesterday or last year. So then there's the red lights, which nobody likes. Crisis, pain, real hardship. And this is a question I get a lot, like, "What do you mean there's a green light in the red lights, man?" And I like to bring up the story of my dad passing away, as big of a red light as I've ever had in my life.

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But what happened in his passing was, I immediately on a spiritual and mental level felt, "Oh, you don't have that crutch anymore, buddy. You don't have that person to fall back on to rely on, to catch you if you fall. So you better quit acting like the man your dad's taught you to be, and you better start becoming that man." So it kick-started me to have much more courage, to be much more quickly figure out what I stood for and what I stood against. Where if he hadn't passed away, I'd have probably kind of cruised along at 75% knowing, "Well, I got him. If I really get in a pickle, I can lean against him."

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So that was the green light at one of the green light assets that my father passed away. Now some people go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, are just blowing over a tragic death. Are you not giving that crisis credit?" No. I felt just as much pain and went through the mourning process, and felt the loss and still do. But I believe in that realization that came to me. I didn't go looking for that realization, it came to me. But to grasp that and then say, "Yeah, that's a gift,” is actually honoring my father who's now moved on.

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So sometimes finding a green light in that red light, or when it lands on us accepting it is honoring the red light. So sometimes it's not about denying that red light, it's actually to honor it and you upsell it, you come on the other side of it. You don't delineate it and say, "There's not a problem. I'm numb." No. Sometimes there is, but there's a gift in it, and there's a little lesson learned. And again, that's how we evolve.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah, and it takes time too. It's like those red lights, it sometimes takes a little bit of time for that to eventually evolve to a green. You might not be able to see the green in a second, or a week or a month or even in a year, but it's going to come.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Marie, I don't know. I think sometimes we don't even see them in this life.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes. Yeah.

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Matthew McConaughey:

I think there are certain red lights that'll happen to us now that maybe it's only our children or their children's children, will render and notice.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And if we can trust that, that delayed gratification, we can project that far forward to go, "There's a gift here, but it's not even going to come in my lifetime."

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Marie Forleo:

That's some nice long-term thinking. And I loved, and again, in getting ready for our conversation, I had so much fun, not only in the book but listening to other things that you've done in other conversations. And one of the DNA traits that we share, I, as a person, I love long-term thinking. I love thinking about the long money and the long run, and this notion of how do we invest in ourselves today? Or how do we make conscious choices today, we're not going to be perfect, but that can pay us dividends over time. And it kind of feeds into what you were just saying, it might not even be our receiving of the dividends. It's going to be the next generation.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah.

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Marie Forleo:

I love this too. Again, I'm going to be feeding some of your words back to you because they're beautiful, and they can tip us off into these great conversations and riffs. "Navigating the Audubon of life in the best way possible is about getting relative with the inevitable at the right time. We either persist, pivot, or concede, the secret to our satisfaction lies in which of these we choose to do when, this is the Art of Livin'." No G.

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So, speak to us a little bit more about how we get relative when we deem a situation inevitable, and start making an upside of what could be perceived as a crisis. Because it could come any moment, any day the shiitake hits the fan, and you step in the shit, whatever happens.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yep. And I think when I'm doing this best, and I see people doing the best, this is a trait that I think that a lot of us have, when we are catching our green light. So, get relative with the inevitable. When do we deem a situation inevitable? The outcome. "Inevitable. That's it. This is the reality. I've got no more time. I can't prepare for it anymore. I'm in the room, it's live."

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Okay. Now it's time to get relative, whether how prepared you are or how unprepared you are, or if the power goes out. Now it's time to get relative. You go quickly, "Can I do something about this?" No, prep time's done. So how do I make the best of this situation? That's the get relative part. We run into a challenge, in life we talk about sometimes we have to just, endurance is the answer. Sometimes we just quit too quickly, "Oh, it's getting hot. I quit." On a relationship, on a pursuit of a job, on an ambition.

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Sometimes it's not about persistence. Sometimes persistence means we're banging our head on the damn door, and what we need to do is pivot and back up and go, "Oh shit, there's the key. Quit banging on it, and just go unlock the damn thing." You know what I mean?

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And then other times it's the white flag, you got to go, "This is the wrong fight. I'm going to live to fight another day and battle something different. This one's not feeding me. I do not see an outcome from any angle where it's going to pay me back. This is not from me. Okay, I made the wrong choice, I'm going to pursue something else." But how quickly do we get relative with the inevitable. When we're really in the flow, it can happen in the moment.

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You can measure it, "This is all that can be done about this situation. I'm on the upside of this now, I'm going solution orientation right now." Because any himming and haaing or, "Oh, I can't believe," is just going backwards. We're just regressing. We're getting further behind. We are not being constructive to solving the problem. And there's nothing but a problem to solve right now. So it's how quickly can we get constructive? And that's the relativity. So if you do it too quick... The challenge is, you don't deem the situation inevitable too early. That means you didn't persist long enough. Right?

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Marie Forleo:

That's right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

But also, don't wait too long to deem the situation inevitable. That's the pivot side, that's the, if you wait too long, it's like you've been banging your head on this inevitable situation for years, man. It's that timing. The art is when do we deem it inevitable for us? And that's where the art comes, because if you're on time and inline with that decision to say, "This is now inevitable," that's when we get relative and make the choice. And that's what I mean by the art of living.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. And it's the creativity, right? I feel like for me at least in my own experience with that. Well, first of all, so I love that you love slogans and bumper stickers, and you know what I mean? When you got to pithy statement. I live by that as someone, like years ago I got diagnosed with ADHD, like my brain can go in a million different directions at once. And that's a gift. That's an amazing gift. And so something my mom taught me, and this is my motto in life, is that everything is figureoutable.

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And so when the shiitaki hits the fan, I actually, I wrote a book with that title of it back there. But it's that notion of, everything is figureoutable, but it doesn't mean that I need to figure it out. And figuring it out sometimes doesn't look like walking away from it and having the wisdom, that inner wisdom to say, "I did this as far as it can go, and now my life energy is better spent moving on to the next adventure." I love that.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. My dad had the... The dirty word in our house was C-A-N-T. Ooh. And I came in, I was trying to start the lawnmower to do my Saturday morning chores one morning, and it was not starting. So I come into him and I go, "Dad, I can't get the lawnmower started." And I saw he's molars meet. And I was like, "Oh geez, I said the word." He got up slowly, walked out, came out, he tried to start the lawnmower, it didn't start. Got a toolbox out, did a few things, started it.

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And he started it, and as it was running, he came over to me and got down on his knees, put his hands on my shoulders and said, "You see son, you were just having trouble." And I remember going, I realized in that moment what you said, sometimes we are unable, but we can seek help to get a solution. So it's the same lineage as your thought there.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah, I love that. Actually I want to talk more about that. I was going to ask you about that. I'm glad that you teed up that story. So you're actually the first person, Matthew, that I've ever known, that has parents that have gotten divorced twice. And so yours married three times. Mine have gotten married twice and divorced twice. And I literally call them, so they're mid 70s right now. I love them. They're crazy and amazing, and awesome and fiery and all the things.

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And I was like, "Y'all, did you get married again?" And my mom, she's like, "We're actually, we need to do it. I need to do it before we're done." And it was so wild because when I tell people about my... They're like, "Wait a minute, to each other?" I'm like, "They're addicted to each other. They've been together since they were 17. They can't quit."

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But it's been fiery, and the plates, and it's like, yeah, plates were thrown in my, that's what I grew up with. And your parents instilled so many values of you. And I loved that story with your dad with the can't. I got to tell you. So more stories from the book. So Josh, my partner, we've been together for 20 years now, and we were in the car. And I was telling him how much I love the book, and when I was getting ready for today.

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And one of the stories that I can't get out of my head, Matthew, is about you being on Don Phillips' couch early in your career, and that uber, powerful distinction that you learned about the energy between wanting, versus needing. Can you tell us that story and walk us through that? Because I feel like it's so valuable for all of us, whether we're at the beginning of our career, starting a new business, or you're just starting that next chapter of your life.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. So I'd done my first film, Dazed and Confused, between my junior and senior year in college. I then went back, graduated, and after I graduated, the movie had just come out. So now I graduated, now I've packed up my U-haul and my 2000 bucks, and I'm heading west, young man, till I get to the ocean and take a right and go up 12.6 miles, and I'm going to pull in front of Don Phillips' house. The only person I know in Hollywood, the man I met in the bar a year before, who cast me in Dazed and Confused.

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And I'm now moving out there. And I do it, it was a Saturday night. I pull up to his place, I move in, I'm sleeping on his couch. Well, I go out there with 2000 bucks. I'm out there. It's been a couple of weeks. I'm down to maybe a little bit below a thousand. I'm like, "So Don, I need to meet an agent, man. I got to find some work, I need to meet an agent."

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And Don snaps at me and he goes, "Let me tell you what you need to do, McConaughey. What you need to do is get the hell out of Hollywood, get the hell out of here and go off and do something where you forget what you think you need to do. Because if you go in and meet an agent right now, needy like you are, they will smell your need and you ain't got a chance in this business."

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And I was like, "Whoa." And he's like, "Yeah, get the hell out of here. I don't want to hear what you think you need to do. This place will sniff that and you're done, you'll never get in the door." So I did. I went off with my two buddies, Cole Hauser and Roy Cochrane. We packed a backpack, 500 bucks and got a cheap ticket, and went to rent some motorcycles. Luckily, there's a story in the book, the guy gave us the motorcycles for free and rode through Europe for a month. And I came back, and I had not thought about getting an agent.

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I had not thought about getting a job. I didn't know how much money I had in my account and it wasn't much, it was just a few, couple hundred bucks, maybe. And I'm cruising around through the day, enjoying the day, being light and cool, and being present with everybody. And that goes on. And we have our dinner one night, and it's a week later after I've been back, and all of a sudden he goes, "You're ready." And I go, "For what?"

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He goes, "Tomorrow morning, I got you a meeting at the William Morris Agency. Brian Schwarzman, Beth Holden, 9:00 AM." I was like, "Cool." He was right. And you see my whole reaction, before I was, man, and I would've gone into that meeting going, "So I mean you my role, and I can do this." I would've been out in the first 10 seconds. But I went in, I was present. I wasn't any less prepared. I was actually more relaxed to be able to be myself in the meeting and go, "Yeah, well who am I, what do I think? Here's what I think can offer, and here's what I hope you can offer me."

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And it was great advice, perfect timing. And that's what I needed.

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Marie Forleo:

Because when I read that story and I was thinking about it, and my partner's an actor, he's been in countless things over the years. And I feel like that energy for any of us, that you can want it, but you don't need it. Do you feel like when Don said that to you, it changed you on a cellular level? Like, you got that download, you got that message, because I think for what you've done-

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Matthew McConaughey:

I-

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah, please.

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Matthew McConaughey:

It was a little scary though. And it wasn't, I wouldn't say until probably 20 years later that I think I really got it. And I was able to trust myself with wanting and not necessarily needing. Because from later on, there were times where I was like, "I need this. Oh wait, don't need it. You need to want it more." But if I don't need it, will I put in the work? Will I give the same amount of effort if I just want it? Is “want to,” laissez-faire, is “want to”... Will I be “lazy” if I just want?

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Marie Forleo:

Interesting.

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Matthew McConaughey:

So it took me till my 40s to trust, that nobody, if you just want it and you don't need it, you'll work just as hard. You know what I mean? Trust yourself that you'll do that. But that took another couple of decades for me to trust myself fully. Now, yeah I've covered for that. I've needed some things many times where I went ahead and said like, "Get you want face on, man. Get your want, back and shoulders up. Just want this. Don't need it. If you need it, you'll blow it. If they can smell you needing it, you'll blow it. If you need it, you're going to be trespassing, you're going to be interrupting, you're not going to be listening. You're going to be looking for the result. You're going to be trying to land it on, hello." It doesn't work with relationships. It doesn't work with career.

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So, can we sit back and go, "I really want to, this is what I really want. You're what I really want. This job is what I really want." But also going, look, children take it from a need to a want. Family. All of a sudden career goes to the two hole, at least, maybe the three hole. I have a little fear again that, "Oh, if my career is not my full identity, what I need for my identity and sense of significance, will I try to do it as well? Will I work as hard at it? Will I try to be as great as I can be at it?" Well actually, I found when I got the family and stuff, I got better at it, even though it was maybe third priority of what I needed for my own fulfillment.

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Marie Forleo:

I want you to say more on this. I think this is so big. This is so, so big and so important. Especially, I know in my own head, as I look at myself and say, "How much of my life and how much of me has been driven?" That desire for significance and achievement. And some of it comes from a really beautiful place and some of it comes from a very fearful place. And some of it comes from a very insecure place. There's all the mix in there.

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And I love what you said, because a lot of folks that tune into our show, they're overachievers, they overwork, they over strive, and the career or the business or the accolades, that thing becomes number one. And I think I'll at least reveal the own fears in my own life, that if I expand my identity of who I am a little bit, and the career or the business starts to come down a notch and I let other areas of my life start to take a little more shine or a little more space, am I not going to be as good as I was?

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Matthew McConaughey:

Right.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. So, say more.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Well, we want to be, I know for me, I think this is true. When we are achieving or even overachieving. Part of the great pleasure is, and it's great freedom to be obsessed with something.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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Matthew McConaughey:

I love it. That's what I love about a performance. It's what I've loved about writing the book. I'm on an island, I'm on vacation because I have a singular obsession, and when I'm hitting it, I'm like, bam, oh yes, yes, yes, yes. More, deeper, higher, go, scale. It's happening. It's an emanation, and I am the subject of it. Nothing objective about it. I'm not even hopping out, checking out how I'm doing, it's just happening.

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Marie Forleo:

Yep.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And the green lights keep coming up, and people keep going, "Yep, check. Carry on." It's beautiful to be in that place. Now, I don't want to lose that place when I am chasing down something in my career or going to work, or going to write the book. Because though I spend more time with checking the quality boxes of my identity with my family, and my relationship with my wife, we pick our zones.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Day to day, I'm attending them, and my children who are dependent on me, and where we're going as a family and choices. And my relationship with Camilla. And I've got an office, and I do some work and things like that. But when it's time for me to go, "Okay, ding ding, you're in the ring. It's time." I go out the door and she goes, "Don't look over your shoulder. I got this. We're handled here." We did the work to get to this point. "Go. Go be obsessed. Go conquer."

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Now I say that to people, and I'm not surprised, most of the people go, "Oh, my gosh, really? You have someone in your life that does that with you?" And I'm happy to say, I do. But she couldn't do that for me if I wasn't attending... I don't believe she could do that for me if I wasn't attending her and the family. But if we hadn't as a family built up enough equity before Popeye goes down the rabbit hole, we got to build up equity to go into it. So when you come out of it, your family is not back in the debit section, it's not in the red. You know what I mean?

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Marie Forleo:

That's right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

So you got to, in that preparation, in family time, you got to do that projection again, "Oh, I'm about to be a little more unavailable for the next two months. I'm about to get singularly obsessed. I'm about to go do 14-hour workdays, six days a week. I'm about to see y'all at the end of the day and I'm going to be-

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Marie Forleo:

Toast.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Dead tired.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes. Crispy.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And we're going to share a few stories and hugs, and then I'm going to have a drink and I'm going to go to bed, again and again and again. That's what it's going to take. So before we go into that, what are we all going to do so we can fill up, ourselves as a family, and our love and what we got going and how to... "Got to cancel this stuff, my schedule. I need to go to my son's game. I need to go to my daughter's play. We need to hang out. We need to have that weekend. No, we don't want visitors. Let's get strong as a family, because we're about to go and Popeye's about to go off in the desert." You know what I mean? So it's filling that up, I believe, on the entrance to when we go get obsessed is part of what makes it quite more manageable, I think.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. No, it definitely does. I had to learn that the hard way a couple of times. And I think that's one of the best things about getting older, is all the times you F-up, and then you're like, "Ooh, I don't need to do that again."

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Matthew McConaughey:

Right.

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Marie Forleo:

So we talked about you love bumper stickers and slogans. I do. I love mantras. So mantras is one of the ways that I just keep myself on track and they're fun. And one of my favorites is, simplify to amplify. So those three words have changed my life so many times. They continue to, because as a creative human being, it's like, "Oh, we could do this and what about this? And oh, this sounds real fun, and my spirit wants to do that." And then all of a sudden you got a lot of complexity. So take us back to the time when Camilla was six months pregnant and you got a call from your production office, and you did not answer it, but you called your lawyer instead.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yes. Simplify to amplify.

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Marie Forleo:

It's a good one, right?

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Matthew McConaughey:

So, it's really good. And I knew exactly where you were going, as soon as you said the line, I was like, "Oh, I think I know where I've got a story of that in my own life." Career was good. Life was good. It was successful. I was making movies, particularly, I was making a lot of rom-coms at the time. They were fun. They paid well. I was enjoying them. Had a house in Malibu, single, I was healthy, had a production company. Five, six employees, a really nice office down in Venice.

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I was in Texas, and the phone rang, and it was not a cellphone, it was one of those office phones. And I went to pick it up and I saw the number. It was a 310 number, and it was from my office. My office called all the time. I always picked up the phone. But this particular day I looked and as I reached out and saw the number, I don't think I thought about it. I think my hand stopped first and then I thought about it. My hand stopped, and didn't want to pick up the phone. And I remember looking at my hand, "That's weird. I've got my facilities about me and nothing's wrong with me physically." No, it's a choice I just made not to pick up the phone. And I looked at that number and I let it ring, and I held my hand there.

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And after it quit ringing, I said with my hand still up. I was like, "Okay, this makes no sense. You got an office calling you that you pay the rent, you pay the salaries, you pay the overhead, and you don't want to pick up the phone from there. What are you investing in?" I then lowered my hand to the phone, called my lawyer and said, "You know what? I want to shut down the production company. I got this music label I've been spending a lot of time on. It's turned into more than a hobby. It's taken up a lot of my time of day, I'm not really getting any... I want to cut that out. I want to have my foundation, my family, and I want to be an actor for hire."

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He heard the clarity in my voice. We worked together long enough. He was like, "I got it. I'm on it." All of a sudden, not the following Monday, it took a couple of weeks to kind of clean everything up and cut the weed from the chafe there. But what happened is, all of a sudden when I had on my proverbial Monday morning desk, I had three things instead of eight. And I noticed that, what I did have with all the things and the production company and the development and the writing, and then the music label, I had eight little campfires on my desk, and they were all blazing, but they were these little campfires.

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And soon as I got rid of five of them, I had three. And all the flame from the five that I got rid of hopped into the three. And the three were big bonfires. And man, I was like, "Ah, 24 hours in a day. And I got 14 of them. I'm going to go to work." But I was able to have each one of those three now, family foundation and actor for hire had much more meaning. They had more gravitas, I had more ambition. There was clarity there. There was more purpose in each one of them. Because I made room.

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It's a little of that. Ryan Holladay said this to me the other day. Sometimes he has to say, be rude maybe to an acquaintance or a stranger, because he needs to go spend time with his close friend or his family. Because to spend too much time maybe with the acquaintance or the stranger at that time when he's busy, would actually be being rude to his good friend or his family. And so to simplify and amplify, I was spending more time on the quality of the things that I really cared about, and got rid of some of the excess, cut off some chafe, got rid of these little campfires so I could have three fires that were Valhalla, and they were big flames.

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Marie Forleo:

It's so good.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And they were giving me life and I was giving them life.

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Marie Forleo:

It's so good, it's so good. And I love Ryan, by the way. Ryan's a friend. And he is so smart. I remember, I had him on the show, and there was this question, and he's like, I just have to say this, just because A, I love Ryan and B, it was a question that stuck with me. He was like, "Marie," he's like, "I'm always asking myself, how can I be grateful for what's going wrong?" Do you know when somebody said something to you and you're like, I'm like, "Ryan, that's good." And it's like we're going deep on that.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Right, right, right, right, right.

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Marie Forleo:

That notion though, I love that. You had all these little campfires, and it was like, I think you wrote about in the book, you're getting B's in a lot of these areas in your life because you're spending too much -

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Matthew McConaughey:

I was making C's.

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Marie Forleo:

Oh, there you go.

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Matthew McConaughey:

In eight classes. I was making C's in eight classes, little campfires. And I wanted to cut them down to three. All of a sudden I was making A's in the three.

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Marie Forleo:

And isn't it interesting too, I feel like in our culture, in our society, there's just so much of this push like, more is better, more is better. And it's actually really not. And we'll talk about that.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes, yes, yes. But I want to take us, because we're in a timeline sequence in terms of I need to read these words to you. I am not kidding you, Matthew. I laughed. This made me laugh out loud four times yesterday when I was retyping it into my notes. So hang with me for a minute. I think my audience will love this. So it's about really evolution and your experience of unbranding.

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You write, "My career path and the characters and films I was getting offered and doing were not satisfying to me anymore. Bored with the rom-com roles and the worlds they inhabited, I'd been going to bed with an itchy butt, waking up with a stinky finger for long enough." I don't know. I think I'm always going to be in junior high because I will never not laugh at the idea of a stinky finger and an itchy butt. One of my favorite things ever.

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But it also leads us into this incredible story of what you went through. And I feel like I'm just seeing this now in my themes of everything that, there's so much that resonated for me in Green Lights, but it's like you have this tremendous sense of faith, and I feel inner guidance that you're tapped into, or if you don't feel tapped into it, you go get relative to it, so it can come and enter and be present. But talk to us about this time of a stinky finger and an itchy butt, and just so you're like, "I'm done."

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. Back to that repeat offender stuff. Right? I wasn't sleeping well with my career, and it coincided with the time, I was doing rom-coms. I was the go-to guy for rom-coms. I enjoyed doing the rom-coms. Like I said, they were paying well, I was enjoying them, and I was the guy. But rom-coms are built to be very buoyant. You're supposed to float from cloud to cloud. Don't drop an anchor in a rom-com. They're supposed to be light, lightweight. My life was getting heavyweight. I met the woman that I'm falling in love with. She's pregnant with our first child. The only thing I ever wanted to be was a father. Whoa. Life is getting major capital V vitality.

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And I'm feeling strong and clear. I'm crying harder. I'm laughing louder. I'm smiling bigger. I'm feeling more joy in my heart than I've ever felt, and more pain at the same time. This is drama. Real life was happening. And I remember saying, "Oh, man, I wish." I remember doing this, looking in the mirror going, "So you're feeling more alive in your real life than your work." And I remember going, "Well, congratulations because we've all been there where it's the opposite." Right?

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Marie Forleo:

Right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

We're only alive at our work, in real life we're like, "Oh, geez, I'm numb." So I remember going, "Congratulations." But I said, "Look, if my work could just challenge the vitality maybe of my life." But those roles that I wanted to do, which happened to be dramas, Hollywood was saying, "No, no, no, McConaughey, stay in your lane." And I was like, "Oh, but I'll take this pay cut. You don't have to pay me eight, I'll take one." "We said, stay in your lane, McConaughey. Stay over there."

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Marie Forleo:

Were you getting meetings on those? Were you telling your agent, and were you going after scripts and they just kept shooting you down?

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Matthew McConaughey:

A lot of them wouldn't even make it to a meeting. A lot of them were, "Here's the interest, and we're not interested." I'm showing interest, but it's very clear from them, "We are not interested."

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Marie Forleo:

Okay, got it.

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Matthew McConaughey:

So we really don't need to even take that in-person meeting. Okay. So I'm like, "Okay, well if I cannot do what it is that I want to do, I think I'm going to quit doing what I've been doing." Ooh, and I remember calling my agent, "I'm not doing any more rom-coms." His name was Jim Toth. And he very quickly after I said, "I'm not doing any more rom-coms." He goes, "Okay." And I remember going, "What do you mean, okay?"

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I go, "What's your boss going to say on Monday morning when you go in on the Monday morning meeting at CA, and you go, "McConaughey's not doing rom-coms. I know the dime on the dollar, the tithe, the commission that I've been bringing y'all in, it's been a nice number." And now one of your horses is saying, "I'm doing," he goes, "I don't work for them. I work for you." I went, "Okay."

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So I moved to Texas. I'm with Camilla, she's now pregnant with our first child. And I've now told my agent and just let the industry know I'm not doing rom-coms anymore. Don't even send me anymore. All that come in was some rom-coms, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. And about six months go by, it's rom-coms and everything else, all of a sudden they start to slow down. They're not even coming in that much anymore. I call my agent I'm like, "Anything? Is it sniffing?" I remember this. He goes, "Matthew, it's been two months since I even heard your name." I'm going, "Okay."

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Now I'd made this decision to do this with Camilla, and there was a lot of knees bent on the spiritual side of this choice. I knew that it was a big risk, and that I was possibly writing myself a one-way ticket out of Hollywood. I questioned, look, my rest of my family, my brothers and stuff were like, "What is your major malfunction, little brother?" You are paralysis of analysis here. You're a rolling man over here in the wrong place. You're making a great living. But now you're going to step out and say, "No, I'm not doing any of that. What are you doing? But I had to, and Camilla understood I had to make the choice.

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Marie Forleo:

And I'm curious. So Camilla's so supportive. You knew it, you knew it deep down, but did you have the monkey mind keep going, "Did you F this up McConaughey?" You know what I mean? "Is this too long? Am I making the fatal one?"

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Matthew McConaughey:

The decision was made, I was never going back on it. I was going to ride that out with the understanding that I might look up and go, "That was a bad-

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Marie Forleo:

Right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

There was a better way to go about that."

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Marie Forleo:

Right.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And I even started to look at other vocations. I thought of a high school football coach. I thought of conducting an orchestra. I thought of becoming a high school teacher, a wildlife guide in Africa, move the family over. And I was seriously considering these things, thought about getting back into law. And then a year goes by. I've kind of got the daily routine, but I don't have work, I'm trying to stay spiritually in shape and physically in shape, because I need these things to achieve each day.

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And I've got, thankfully, a newborn son that was my north star, to go, "Hey Matthew, you get wobbly. That old bottle over there starts looking better earlier in the afternoon. Look right there. You cannot go wrong." I remember telling myself, "You cannot give too much attention to that, your child." I go, "If you lean into that at any time, you're in the black, you're in the asset section." I remember telling myself, "You can't do too much of that." So that kept me a bit of a rudder. My son did, and falling in love with Camilla and being parents for the first time.

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But on a personal level, and achievement, I was gaining a large sense of insignificance, where I was like, "What am I doing? What am I going to sit around here and start making chimes? I'm not going to become a pothead. I mean I got ambitions, let's go." But no, I'm not going back. I got to wait. 18 months go by, and now, I'm going to say, at 18 months, similar to the Australian story, which is in the book. I'm gaining a little bit of pride about my endurance, even though with each day I'm further away and Hollywood's not calling. I'm getting something about going through, "Oh, should I go back?" No, I'm not going back, over and over and over, I've got some armor.

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Marie Forleo:

I like it.

Matthew McConaughey:

I got a little pride and honor that I'm in this, I'm paying my penitent and I'm on this pilgrimage the longer it goes, and being like, "Yes, yes. I'm getting..." 18 months in, this script comes in, my agent says it's a rom-com actually, but it's really, really good, man. You got to check this out." And it comes in, an $8 million offer. And I read it, and it was good, but it was still in that genre, not the one that challenged my lifestyle.

And I read it, and that 8 million, I said, "No, thank you." They came back immediately with a $10 million offer. I said, "No, thank you." They came back immediately with a $12 million offer. I said, "No, thank you." They came back with a $14.5 million offer. And I said, "Let me read that again." So I read it again. It was the same words as the $8 million offer, but Marie, it was better written. It was more well written. It was funnier.

Marie Forleo:

Magic. Magic.

Matthew McConaughey:

I could see, I think I might just be the guy for this. I ultimately said, "No, thank you." And I don't have proof of this, but I've got a pretty good hunch a lot of this is true. Me saying no, after 18 months of being not working in Hollywood, not doing another rom-com, but me saying no to that $14.5 million offer, I think really sent sort of an invisible lightning bolt through Hollywood of going, "Oh, not only is McConaughey not bluffing, he's got something going on. He's not running from us. He's on to something. To say no to that amount of money? What are you up to?" It made me interesting, I think.

Marie Forleo:

Yes.

Matthew McConaughey:

It made me a little novel, maybe like, "Well, okay, he just drew a big line in the sand and we thought by now we'll really pull him back in." And he said, "No, thank you, gracefully." That's when I think I became a novel idea for maybe you'd be right for Killer Joe, Mud, Dallas Buyers Club, the True Detect... All the things that I did that I went on a wonderful run there.

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That's what I was looking for, 20 months before, that was not even part of the menu for me. And then they came, and I just went, wuf, wuf, wuf, and jumped on them and started just doing them back to back and loved it. So that unbranding, I had to unbrand to rebrand, really. And I had to say no to what it was that I was doing, because I couldn't get what it was I wanted to do.

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Marie Forleo:

Are you loving this conversation? Well, Matthew and I have an incredible opportunity for you. Coming up on April 24th is a free one-day live virtual event called The Art of Livin'. So it's going to be with Matthew, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Trent Shelton, and myself, and together we're all going to explore how we can all get more of what we want in life.

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So the event is totally free, and you can go get registered right now at, marielivin.com. That's M-A-R-I-E-L-I-V-I-N.com. Go grab your seat, reserve it and I'll see you there.

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For me, and when I hear that story, and because of my partner and our friends who are in the industry, so I get to see and listen and witness so many different experiences of projects and green lights and stuff falling apart when the funding was there and not there. I loved this story so much because again, it brought me back to this notion of your inner wisdom. For me, these are my words, of you tapping into something greater than yourself. That source of wisdom, there's something better out there and you wanted, but you didn't need.

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Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah.

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Marie Forleo:

And it's just like, thank you for telling that story, because I think folks listening, they're not an Oscar-winning actor, but every single one of us has something in us that we are hungry for. And if it's not what's being served right now, and it's not what people are considering you for, or you've kind of been known for something, reinvention is possible and unbranding is possible. And so, just thank you for sharing, and it's just so good.

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Matthew McConaughey:

And as you've said, you are going to want to pull the parachute. And hey, I don't know. I mean you might have to, but I had a, I don't know, whatever was wise about it or whatever is spiritual about it, I was betting on an immortal finish line in my mortal life, and it was a truth. The truth that came to me and was true, when I was alone in bed at 2:00 AM, cold and shivering going, "What am I doing?" The truth was still sitting there going, "Dude, this is not negotiable. You are in line and on time. Vertically and horizontally. And this is a truth. Trust that. When it gets loud, when you get wobbly, trust that.

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And that helped me go, "Don't negotiate that. Stick with it." So part of navigating it though is, when do we give ourselves those non-negotiables? That does help with the navigation and the hard time, the barren times when we're wanting to pull the parachute. If we give ourselves some non-negotiables and go, "Well, I'm not negotiating with that. There may be another way, I could go about doing this, but this is a non-negotiable in my life. I'm not going back." There's a freedom in that.

Marie Forleo:

Yes. You queued me up perfectly. I'm keeping my eye because I'm a good, I try to be a good partner, and I see we only got a few minutes left, so there's a couple more things I want to say and then I want to make sure we talk about this incredible event that's coming up. You said the word I'm going to next. So my number one value in life, what I know to be true about myself, this soul, is freedom is my number one value. It's for whatever reason, in this incarnation, in this body, that's what I'm here to explore and get curious about and experience in all different ways. Talk to me about responsibility and freedom, and the freedom of responsibility.

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. I love this one, because I keep coming back to it. And I'd love to hear your definition of freedom. But freedom without responsibility seems to me to be chaos, anarchy, it has no form. It's four dimensional, and it flies. It doesn't have meaning. It has no lineage. One thing is not connected to the next. We don't build in something. We don't tend to something. When we're responsible for something, we tend to it. We care for it. We give value to it. It has meaning to us, meaning that is qualitative, deeper, wider and higher.

And we wake up in the morning with things that we care about and we see them and they're in front of us, and we maintain them, and hopefully we can do more than maintain them. We can maybe help them thrive and grow. And we got to pull the weeds to make sure we're not procrastinating those responsibilities, and pulling weeds on that is like, as a parent, much easier to say yes to your kids about everything than no. The no is the tough part, the no is the part, "We got to stay up late and go through this." And I just want to say, "Yes, okay. Ooh, but that would let a weed grow in my child's life."

No. Spend the time, be a responsible parent, a responsible preparation for my career or a day's work, allows me to, whatever happens, hopefully when my kids move out of the house at 18, I can go, man, "Hey Camilla, I think we did the best we could." No guarantee, but did you leave anything in the bag? I didn't leave anything in the bag. Now we're free. And hopefully they're free. Go to work, take the responsibility to prepare and get prepared. Then I go to set, and your partner will know this. Then you chunk all that away and on the set, you're playing. You're not working, you're free.

Marie Forleo:

That's right.

Matthew McConaughey:

Why am I free? Because I worked on the playbook. I took the responsibility of my vocation as an architect and a person in construction, on a character in this scene, on this day, to be prepared so I can now go be free. I took the responsibility to now I'm going to fly. Now chuck the rules, chuck the rule book. Now I'm calling audibles. Let's go, because I know the game plan.

Marie Forleo:

That's right.

Matthew McConaughey:

That responsibility gives us freedom. The other thing, I've chased down freedom without taking responsibility, and boy did I regret it.

Marie Forleo:

Tell me more. What do you mean?

Matthew McConaughey:

Well, like that scorpion spring story, where I decide I don't need to study my character, I don't need to know about the scene, "I'm an instinctual actor, I'll get there and just wing it."

Marie Forleo:

That almost made me throw up in my mouth when I read that. Matthew, I had so many... So in a earlier part of my career, I taught dance, hip-hop, all different kinds of dance, and I would have this reoccurring dream of being up in front on stage with hundreds of people there, ready to learn, and I had no choreography, I had nothing. And when I read your story, and by the way, everyone listening right now, if you have not gotten this book yet or read it, I don't know where you've been, but you need to get it and read it because we're going to be teeing up a lot of other things. But that story, Matthew, I literally, I had to close the book for a second because I got that sick.

Matthew McConaughey:

Well, I did get sick.

Marie Forleo:

And it was in Spanish too, right? That was like-

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. The story, I show up, and I haven't looked at the script because I'm just going to do what my man would do. "Bright idea, McConaughey, way to go." Not a good one. And I show up and right before, we're about to do the take, I decide, "Oh, show me the slides, let me have a look." Because in my mind, if it's written well, I'll be like, "Well, of course that's what I would say." And if it's not written well I'm going to be like, "Well, I'll just say what I would say anyway."

Marie Forleo:

Because it'll be better.

Matthew McConaughey:

And I look at it and it's one page, two page, three page, four page monologue by my guy, in Spanish. And immediate, the bead of sweat came up on the back of my neck, it starts dripping down. And I remember saying, "For whatever reason, can I get 12 minutes, please," to the crew. And in my head, I thought 12 minutes was a short enough time not to really inconvenience the crew. And also maybe a long enough time, because I took a semester of Spanish in 11th grade, to memorize four pages in Spanish. It was not enough time.

So I came back, I don't know what I did. I spoke some Spa... It was embarrassing, blah, blah, blah. I straight-faced it, I acted like what I was doing was intentional. Got through the day, pulled it all through, one of the hardest, worst days of my life. Drove home, pulled over on the side of the road after I got about five miles from the set and pulled over and just in a rage of tears, beat the steering wheel and told myself, "Never again do that to yourself. Never."

Embarrassment. It wasn't freedom, oh man, it was the longest working day of my life. I was just trying to keep from sweating. I didn't keep from sweating. I remember they came up trying to clean up the sweat and I was like, "No, my character just sweats," because I knew I was just going to sweat. I was just trying to get through it.

Marie Forleo:

It's still going to get to me. I'm telling you, I'm going to wake up tonight and be like, "Matthew, it came to me." But you're right, it's not freedom. And the responsibility of freedom and the freedom of responsibility, that structure creates our freedom. It really does, in so many ways.

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah.

Marie Forleo:

So one of the things I've been exploring for myself, this notion of freedom, for me, a slightly different lens. I've been looking at it as this equivalent, and I don't have this figured out yet, but this is what I'm exploring, this sense of peace, freedom for me and peace have this connection in me. And if I'm making choices and setting up stability and surrender and stillness in my life where I have peace, there's this incredible sense of energy and freedom that comes to me.

And when I'm making, if I make decisions from my egoic mind or that want to get ahead or anything like that, and it's like, "No peace, ain't no peace," and my body starts to revolt. That was the other thing too. And then I want to get onto this incredible evolution that is coming out of this approach book, and we're going to turn it into a process which you've done so beautifully. I want to talk about that.

But the other thing I just want to acknowledge you for, and this is something I'm super passionate about, and I think that it's untapped yet in our culture is, is the wisdom in our bodies, the wisdom in our physical bodies. You went on so many incredible adventures and you continue to do that. And I think that's one thing that's beautiful about artists and performers and dancers. When you move your body, there's so much intelligence and wisdom and that channel opens up, and you get ideas. And just this intuitive knowing that, at least for me, it doesn't come through this thing, it does not come through this thing.

Matthew McConaughey:

Right. I mean, I think it's a combination that's part of the dance, the mind, body and the spirit. Because sometimes there's great movement in being, as you've talked about, having that complete stillness. I know for me, I do need to break a sweat every day. The hydrotherapy, I need to clean, let my brain get going, get the snaps and snap it, get sharp. It creates new ideas. My creativity spikes, my energy spikes, my patience spikes. I feel more alive. It's definitely led to quality and health in my life mentally, as well as spiritually. I mean, when you're at peace, how much of that for you, does that have to do with actual movement, does movement lend to that stillness?

Marie Forleo:

I have been finding-

Matthew McConaughey:

Or do you feel like you're actually in movement when you're physiologically still in those peaceful moments?

Marie Forleo:

They're different textures and tones. When I dance, there's a class out here that I do, it's the closest thing to being in a club. I was a club kid, so glow sticks, like all the things, partying till whatever.

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah, all right.

Marie Forleo:

So, beautiful. Different stage of my life, been there, done that. But there's a place here in New York City called Forward Space, and it's actually someone that I used to dance with and teach with back in the day. And she's got this beautiful experience, and you go in a class and it's so dark, and it's like you're in a club and there's bodies that are moving in sync, and the music's dope, the movement's dope. There's a repetitious, meditative but party thing happening, and it's 10:00 AM. But it's fantastic. I get so peaceful and emotionally free that sometimes I start crying, and there is no sadness in me. It is just a pure release.

I don't know where it comes from and I just let it happen. Then there's other times and stillness for me personally, if it's a meditation where it's just like I'm able to somehow find this moment where I am connecting to something I don't understand, quite frankly. I don't know how to give words to, but it feels incredibly fluid, and there's a lot of movement. But I know my physical body is still. So I definitely don't have it perfectly figured out, but I find a sense of great peace and freedom in both of those experiences. The same thing with me with sweat, when I'm sweating and moving and doing, then I feel connected.

Matthew McConaughey:

I go there with music, I think. And the djembe or the congas.

Marie Forleo:

Yes.

Matthew McConaughey:

And one of my great mentors, Penny Allen, for 19 years, very early on, it was just like you take your djembe to every single set with you before you go on. And whether it was a, for instance, a Wolf of Wall Street, that's me getting into a rhythm to get out of my head, and get on a higher sphere. That doesn't make sense. No.

Remember, we've already done the playbook. We've already prepared. Now let's get into the rhyme, fuck the reason. And action, here we go. That's a rhythm thing. And I still practice that. And that's what music reminded me of when you said you get in that dance where you get a rock and rhythm and all of a sudden it's freeing, because you're getting out of your mind, and that's the body rhythm movement.

Marie Forleo:

Talk about frequency too, like find your frequency, for me, that is vibrating, that is tuning in, that is connecting on a whole other level. And it's, yeah, music, movement, sweat, dance. Okay. And I feel like now we're starting to dip our toes into the pool of take an approach and going into process. So as we wrap up, let's talk about what's going to go down on April 24th.

So for everyone listening, there is an incredible event that Matthew has put together. I am super blessed and excited to be a part of it. But before we tell people how to get involved, Matthew, can you give us a little preview of what this is, where the inspiration comes from, what folks can expect?

Matthew McConaughey:

Yeah. So on April 24th, we're going to get together myself, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, yourself. Trent's going to come with us. We're going to get under the hood of this green lights approach we've been talking about. Tony and Dean came to me months ago and said, "We love the approach you've proposed here in Green Lights, the perspectives." And I have heard over the last couple of years, people come to me and go, ask certain questions and say, "Oh, this is what it gave me, or how it helped me, and this perspective. But can you give me more, Matthew, about, how do I know to trust the green light I'm in? Is it a solar-powered one or is it battery powered? I don't want the battery powered one," right?

Or, "What do I do? I know it's hard to make those decisions, the right decision at the yellow light, but how do you know, can you give me something more measurable for what I can measure at the yellow light, for what decision to make?" And the red light, we talked a little bit about earlier, how do I know when to trust and live in the red light, and let it become green? And how do I know when sometimes to go ahead and not wallow in it, and not be victimized by it, but still give the pain and the crisis the credit that it's due?

So what we're going to do is get under that hood and start talking about, okay, from approach to process, what are some tools that we can go, "Hey, here's a measuring paradigm here where I can go, oh, well, I can look at it this way and this way." And both may be true, but I'm kind of equipped with some arsenal of how I can handle a red light. What can help me make the right decision at the yellow light, and what can also, if we are in the left lane of life, catching those green lights, what can keep us understanding, there's an art to running downhill to actually double-down while we're over there because we know that it doesn't last forever.

So let's make it count while we're there and let's not get nervous and go, "Oh, it's too good, let's not become victims of Icarus in reverse. Oh, it's getting hot, our wax is going to melt." "No, it's not, it's still 60 degrees Fahrenheit, babe, keep rolling. You're in the left lane cruising. It's easy right now for a reason. Don't make a straight line crooked. Let's roll." And we all do that. I think we all suffer from that sometimes when we go... I've had it, imposter... "Is this too good to be true?" No, it's happening.

So we're going to talk about tools that can hopefully be transformative and more personal to people, where they can go, "Oh, I see the decision making paradigm and toolbox I can use for me in my life, when I'm faced with these. Oh yeah, I saw your red light or yellow light or green light, McConaughey, but now you're defining something that I have in my life. And oh, that's practical." "Yes, I have. I didn't think of that. Thank you for reminding. Oh, and here's what I could do." That's what we're going to get into.

Marie Forleo:

I love this because I've been spending the past 22 years of my life, I'm obsessed with human potential. I love seeing people win. And I'm also an action-based human. I love, "Okay, great, this sounds awesome, but how can we put this insight into action?" Because insight without action is worthless. Right? What are you going to do with it? So this is happening April 24th, for everyone listening in my audience, we got a special link for y'all. It's marielivin.com. That's L-I-V-I-N, no G.

Matthew McConaughey:

Because that's a verb.

Marie Forleo:

And it's totally free. I am so excited. And I got to say, Matthew, so I've known Dean and Tony for a super long time. Dean known forever, and sometimes Dean totally is like, "Hey, Marie, come speak at this. Come speak at that." And for whatever reason, the dates never lined up. And Dean and I have been wanting to do something together for a long time, and I forget what it was a couple of months ago, and he's like, "Hey, I think this is actually this thing," and I happen. I looked at my calendar and was like, "This is awesome."

And I will tell you, I'm a very body led kind of person. I always trust my heart and my soul. And when I heard about all this, I was like, it was an instant not even thought of, "Yes." Remember when you were talking about how the phone rang, and your body, it just did its thing. That was the same thing that happened when those guys texted me about this. I was like, "I don't even know what it is, but my body is saying, yes."

Because this feels like in alignment with the exact kind of stuff. And especially because you know what? One of the other things about this notion, it's like, "Yeah, sometimes there's the red light. Sometimes you got to go, and it's not always going to be the same answer, it's not an easy answer. I feel like the notion of this is equipping people to get more in touch with their own inner wisdom and to know how to play those levers, and to have that-

Matthew McConaughey:

That's the art.

Marie Forleo:

Right. The art and that perspective, to be able to hang back for a second and consider, rather than out of fear or something just always pushing ahead. It's like, "No, no, we don't have to do that. There's more intelligence that's available to us." So that's why I was super pumped. I was so excited.

Matthew McConaughey:

Thank you. Yes. Well, I'm glad it felt that way.

Marie Forleo:

Yeah!

Matthew McConaughey:

And it's going to be a lot of fun. And I hear what you said, you're obsessed with human potential. Me too.

Marie Forleo:

Yes.

Matthew McConaughey:

And you know what? If we're all obsessed, have some form of obsession with our own human potential, we've all got job security.

Marie Forleo:

That's right.

Matthew McConaughey:

Forever. So, yes.

Marie Forleo:

Right. So A, I just want to thank you, congratulate you again on this book. Again, for everyone listening. You got to come, it doesn't matter, even if you're hearing this, because it's going to go up and it's going to stay up for a while. Even if you're hearing this after April 24th, you can still go, marielivin.com. You're going to still be able to take advantage of all the incredibleness that Matthew and all of us are going to put together. And we're going to explore this together. We're going to explore this together, it's going to be amazing. So Matthew, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.

Matthew McConaughey:

Marie, thank you.

Marie Forleo:

It's awesome. We're going to have some fun.

Matthew McConaughey:

Had a great time.

Marie Forleo:

Yeah, have a great time. And I'll see you very soon.

Matthew McConaughey:

See you there. Thanks everybody.

Marie Forleo:

Come on now, wasn't that amazing? I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. And one more time, you need to come join us for the Art of Livin' on April 24th. It is totally free. It's going to be phenomenal. You can go to marielivin.com. That's Marie L-I-V-I-N.com to save your ticket.

Now, as it relates to this episode, I'm super curious, what is the biggest insight that you're taking away from this conversation? And most importantly, how can you put that insight into action, starting right now? Leave a comment below and let me know. As always, I really appreciate you for tuning in, for watching, for listening, and until next time, stay on your game and keep going for your big dreams, because the world really does need that very special gift that only you have. I'll catch you next time.

So if you liked this conversation with the one and only Matthew McConaughey, then you need to watch this one next. It's with our dear friend, Tony Robbins, and I'm telling you it does not disappoint. So keep this momentum going. Click right over here and watch it now.