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The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the moonshots podcast. I'm your cohost smart Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by the man of the plan. Mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning, mark.
[00:00:11] Hey, good morning, Mike. I think maybe it's not just man with a plan today. It's man who is driving down the. And he's only seeing green lights,
[00:00:22] O green lights that is somewhat familiar.
[00:00:26] And I think it is only appropriate for us to let our listeners in on the secret that we are going to one of the most surprising shows of the year. Aren't we mark.
[00:00:37] Yeah, I totally agree with that statement, actually. It's great to dig back into Matthew MCC Hay's book green lights, which was quite a surprise for us, Mike, because he had revisited a number of his journals that he had kept for not one, not two but 35 years.
[00:00:57] Throughout his career. Oh, it's almost over 30 years of going through different jobs, different reflections on his life. And it's a fascinating little demonstration of not only I think, journals, but also how an individual can change. Wouldn't you say?
[00:01:14] Yeah. And listen, my, I can only imagine the printout that he would've had.
[00:01:18] Cause after doing this show and studying this book, I printed out four years of journals and it was like a three inch pile . And it, it was really the aha that we got from green lights that wasn't just per. You should write a journal, but I think what Matthew McConaughy really opened up to us and we're gonna go through it together on this show.
[00:01:42] Today is the fact that you can go back and reread it. And there's so much in that practice to reread your journal. And I thought, oh my gosh, I never do that. And I've started to do it. And it's pretty provocative. Isn't it?
[00:01:59] It really is. I remember certainly digging back into my journal. Last time we reflected on green lights by Matthew McConaughy and it was a really interesting experience.
[00:02:09] Something that we will, we learn from Matthew, which is a bit of a harsh truth, and we certainly experience it ourselves. You often only journal when you're feeling a bit down or something's gone wrong and you need to have a bit of maybe it's. Clearly wh or yeah, you gotta clean your mind a bit, but actually Matthew makes a case for also journaling when you're feeling pretty positive, because then you can reflect back and see those as he calls them patterns to success.
[00:02:37] He can see and reflect on the red lights that he thought were a real blocker in his life. There's a fantastic story, Mike, around where Matthew says no, which I can't wait to dig back into, but he says all these red lights eventually turn to green. Yeah. And I think that's a really interesting and powerful way of recontextualizing blockers that we all run into during our lives.
[00:03:01] Wouldn't you.
[00:03:02] I think that what we have for the next hour is the chance not only to remind ourselves why we should journal, and that is something that you and I talk about a lot as a great practice to unlock the best version of yourself. But to actually go back and reread it and find the patterns of your success and what you will have in that is the capacity to better understand yourself, find out what you really want in life and to make those dreams, ambitions, and aspirations come true.
[00:03:36] And, I think we should leave them hanging mark. Yeah. There is an amazing story where. Through the power of journaling, Matthew McConaughy was able to make one of the toughest, hardest decisions that I think most of us would've crumbled under. And he recounts the story in our show. And it's so powerful and unlocking, just this huge insight into why journaling can just make you such a wiser, stronger, better person
[00:04:06] yeah, that's right. So look, I think we've made the case for Matthew McConaughey's green lights. Let's jump in.
[00:04:12] Why not? And I would just say here, let's get ready to be surprised about the power of journaling. And I think Matthew McConaughy. Boy get ready for thinking better. All right, mark set up this clip.
[00:04:28] Yep. I love it. Today. We're digging to green light. So let's start off with why Matthew began writing a journal in the first place and how he found his patterns to success.
[00:04:40] My diary started off I think most people's diaries. Do you write things down when you're not in a good place or you're lost and, my early diary entries were the why, what, where in house, you know, the existential question of what is going on?
[00:04:54] Does it matter? Who am I? Oh my God, this should, so my girlfriend broke up with me. I lost it, started off with that. So I noticed that I started writing down when I was in times of distress or disillusion. And then. I started to say wait a minute, you gotta just like that Mandino book by hookah, by crook, you read it three times a day.
[00:05:16] I was like we're gonna write my diary every day. McConaughy and so when do I, when do most of us, including me not write in our diary when things are going great. Oh, I gotta figure it out. I'm not gonna need to take time to go be introspective and write down my thoughts. Everything.
[00:05:30] Everything's a green light. It's. No, I said, hang on a second. If we're gonna spend our life a diary, the original use of a diary is to dissect failure or disillusion. I think there's some prudence and let's dissect success. Let's dissect what's going on when things are going well let's write in this diary when you feel like everything's clear and you feel strong and confident and significant.
[00:05:55] And you feel like yourself. So I started writing in my diary when things were going well, and then started to map out certain things about found that what that did is when I would get in a proverbial rut later, I could go back to that diary and look at what was I writing? What was I doing? When I felt like everything was lickity split and I had it, everything handled and I found consistencies.
[00:06:18] I found it from what I was eating to, who I was hanging out with to how much sleep I was getting to beauties in the world that I was noticing and really were affecting me how I approached people, how I was approaching the day, how I was approaching conflict, how is approaching and taking in things that work success.
[00:06:34] And I found consistencies. And so sometimes going back on those D. Reading what I was writing when things were going well, would help get me out of a rut later on in life when I wasn't doing so well. And I remember this early on in college, it's a reason that my buddy, as I mentioned earlier, Rob ner said you should go into storytelling business.
[00:06:53] Wow. The power of journaling. Did he just make a case for it? And mark, it is so true that we tend to only visit the diary when things ain't so good, but he just taught us that. Hey, it's when things aren't so good, you go back and read the times when you were. In a good place and you can see what you were thinking, what you were doing, and then you can start to recreate those habits and get back on track.
[00:07:25] Bam. That
[00:07:26] was strong. Bam. You are right. That was a pretty good lesson in how to journal actually. And to be honest, I've certainly only. Began journaling when times were tough, I think, stressed or missing home or whatever it might be. And it's pretty tempting. Isn't it to only actually write when you're feeling a little bit low, like Matthew says your girlfriend broke up with you or whatever, but actually to go back and re reread the good times.
[00:07:56] Is a really a big value. It's a cool to action. Really. Just tell you to go out and write even when the going is good, because the value that you'll get in the future is so much higher. And I dunno, Mike, it's interesting. I'm, I've never really gone back and visited my own journal and I think what Matthew's doing right here is encouraging me to go and do that.
[00:08:18] Do you tend to go back to your
[00:08:20] journal, a. I'm going to admit I'm exactly the same as you in I don't. So I've already got homework item, number one from this show, and we're only a few minutes into it. I think it was very powerful. When I found journaling that it was something that was just a release.
[00:08:41] And Ryan holiday, who we studied on the show said it very well. The diary is for the author, not for the reader, meaning it's just all about whatever you need to write. However you need to write, just write. But where Mahe takes this, another step is he's go back and read it and read the good times and you'll find a pattern to your success because then you're like, oh, damn, I was exercising more.
[00:09:11] Or I was thinking about this more. I was hanging out with these people, whatever it is that drives your performance and you really. Reaching your potential. It serves as a great, very traceable way to go back and say, ah, you know what, I'm not doing that right now. I'm gonna re I'm gonna reinstate that practice.
[00:09:32] I think this is just It's almost the completeness of journaling. It's, the, in the moment, it's the purge, but afterwards it's the reflections where you can go back and decode what actually works for you because it all becomes a bit of
[00:09:46] a haze. Doesn't it? Yeah. It's the reflection, isn't it.
[00:09:48] Sometimes when you're caught up in the moment, you are less likely to maybe even. You might scribble something down, get it outta your system and move on. And then the good times come. So you forget about that bad. And I think what's really difficult is to then remember the journey or the struggle that you went through and you came outta the other side, you were alive.
[00:10:09] You are stronger because of that challenge. And. What I love is the completeness, as you are saying of journaling it down, but then going back to revisit and say, okay what was I eating? I think that's a really interesting tactic that McConaughy is calling out here.
[00:10:28] Yes. Yeah. I, and I think this just presents to all of our listeners and to us, mark.
[00:10:35] We can look at the success of Matthew McConaughy and we're gonna decode some of the challenges he went through and how journaling helped him later in the show. But I think it's safe to say, the guy has written a bests sell, not bad. Oh, by the way, the guy's got an academy award. He's got the Oscar.
[00:10:56] Ah, that's two for two. You and I have talked about this before. There are not many people. That can really rise to the top in two totally different professions and, writing a book about journaling and portraying a cowboy with diagnosed with aids on film. Totally different things, yet he has he has succeeded in both. So I think this is so exciting for us to learn how he did it to decode. How might we do it to, so for this show, we are gonna really. Have a bit of a cold shower and awaken to how to think about challenge. And then we're gonna look at some of the positive habits that we can all take on board so that we can have a little more green lights in our life.
[00:11:44] That sounds pretty good.
[00:11:45] Doesn't it, mate. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. And whether you are in a situation of collaboration with your team, whether you're a leader, whether you are somebody with a family, it feels to me as though there's a lot that we can learn from Oconnor Hay's ability to jump between different
[00:11:59] sectors.
[00:12:00] Totally agree. I totally agree. Now he tells a lot about green lights, but he also talks about Redlands too. Doesn't he? Mike?
[00:12:07] Yeah. So the idea, and I don't wanna give it away. I'm gonna let McConaughy introduce it himself. Is this great visual metaphor for challenges and what we're gonna dig into now, Mike is MCC explaining a little bit about what he.
[00:12:21] With challenges. We've talked about stoicism, we've talked about obstacles being the way and celebrating those difficult moments. But before we really get into reflecting back on what we've heard from perhaps other entrepreneurs, innovators, authors, as well as I'm going back to remember Mr.
[00:12:38] Joe Rogan, let's actually hear this wonderful story from ahe that really brings to life. What red lights mean. What are the benefits of persevering and also seeing the benefit of an obstacle, being an opportunity. And this is a Mike, I can't wait to hear this again. This is Matthew telling us why.
[00:12:59] And what happened when he started saying no to romcoms
[00:13:04] romcom offers came in to my agent for about the next six months, but nothing but Rocom offers. And I didn't even. Unless it was a major offer a I just said no, and I, they just stopped at my agent's desk. Jim do no. And then one of them came through that was like a gargantuan offer for it.
[00:13:23] And my agent said, it's a pretty damn good script too. And so I said, we'll send it at, let me read
[00:13:29] it. And I remember this, the offer was like for 8 million and the script was pretty. But it was still a romcom. And I remember reading it and going, no thank you. And I remember feeling emboldened and strengthened by saying no, thank you. Great. Sticking to my guns. No romcoms six months into this drought.
[00:13:49] Nope. Not cave it in now. Don't half ass MCC. So they come back with a $10 million offer. No, thank you. They come back with a 12.5 million . Now I go. dot.dot Ellis. Nah, no, thank you. now they come back with a 15 million offer. Wow. What have another reread of that script
[00:14:14] reread that. At 15 million, the same script that I've been offering for 8 million, the 15 million offer script, which was the same exact words as the 8 million offer script, the 15 million script was better. It was funnier it had possibilities. It had angles. I had ideas. I could make this work, this could work, but I said no, thank you.
[00:14:40] That got the signal across Hollywood that McConaughy was taking a serious sabbatical and so don't even send him a Rocom. So for the next true 12, 14 months, Nothing came in, not a zilch, not an offer for anything. I'd check, talk to my agent every couple of weeks. It'd just be like nothing came in, nothing.
[00:15:05] So now we're 20 months into this desert doing any work. I didn't know what I was gonna be. I didn't know if I was gonna change my career. If I was gonna become a teacher coach or go back to being a lawyer. I didn't know. I didn't think so, but I was writing more. I was talking about forced winners. I had put a forced winner on myself.
[00:15:22] And I was pretty content. I wasn't, waking up every morning, going, did an offer, come in, did something new, come in. I was past that. And then all of a sudden 20 months in 2021 months into this desert started getting some offer that are interesting things. William kin killer Joe, the Daniels paper.
[00:15:40] Boy, Jeff Nichols wrote mud for me. Steven Soderberg called magic. Richard link later and I go do Bernie together. True. Detective comes around all of a sudden Dallas bys club. No one still wants to, put a bunch of money up for a 1980s period drama about aids. But all of a sudden McConaughy all the directors were no directors would do Dallas bys club with me.
[00:16:04] They wanted the script. They loved the script. They didn't wanna do it with MCCE. All of a sudden we find John mark, Val, who wanted, who says, no, I'd like to do it with MCCE. So what happened. Was that 22 months or whatever at that drought at desert, I unbranded, I didn't rebrand. I unbranded me being away.
[00:16:26] Me being in Texas, not being on a beach, getting pictures of me, shirtless on a beach, not being in romcoms. I was out of the world's. I was out of the industry's view. I was not in your living room. I was not in your theater. I was not in any of the places that the world had become expected to see me and how to see me.
[00:16:47] Where was I? I was gone. Where is McConaughy? You're gone long enough. All of a sudden I became a new, good idea, and I just started hammering them. The family came with me everywhere. I went and just started laying down work. That really turned me on
[00:17:04] what.
[00:17:06] Story mark. I think that must be one of the best stories we've heard.
[00:17:12] Any moonshot legend share on this show. That one is just seriously epic.
[00:17:19] It's so epic that journey that he went through and remember. This is going back to when he was in the prime time of his career, probably late twenties, maybe even earlier than that. And he was on our screens in so many films, but that typecasting that he fell into, it was stopping him, going out and achieving what he really wanted.
[00:17:43] Wasn't it. So really that, that epic story we just heard is. The benefit of patience, the benefit of reflecting on what matters to you, and then having the perseverance to go out and stick to your guns and try to make it happen.
[00:17:57] Yeah. Building on that, I would say he had the strength to say no. And we see that as a pattern to a lot of successful people that it's not only the ability to choose the right things, but it's also the ability to say.
[00:18:13] No, thanks that doesn't, I'm not on that mission. And I will then go a level deeper. I think he had such a strong understanding of his purpose and who he wanted to be as an actor. And I will then go another level and say he achieved that through journaling without a doubt, the clarity. Did you hear that deal?
[00:18:37] What, where did it, what did it start at and where did it finish on
[00:18:40] the numbers? Yeah, I think it started at 8 million. And then it ended after that interchange of his going back and forth saying no, essentially playing hardball. Yeah. I think it ended up at 15.
[00:18:53] All right. So I just want everybody listening right now.
[00:18:58] Somebody had a one time project that would net him sufficient money for him, his family, his children, to all live well. And he said, no, he said, no, mark. This is seriously stamina and strength that most of us, Could you imagine, just imagine someone who is offering you that
[00:19:24] it's just mind blowing, isn't it?
[00:19:26] And
[00:19:26] he's And then he was unemployed as an actor for just under two years as a result of this. But I would argue that it was through his daily practice of journaling that this gave him the fortitude to stay on track. Just like Elon Musk, who wrote the final check to empty his bank accounts to keep SpaceX and solar city alive.
[00:19:54] Like that courage that's when you know what you are about. And I would argue that journaling is one of these single best tools to know what you are about. Who you are throw in, read green lights from McConaughy maybe take a dash of, start with why and Simon Sinek know what you're about so that you have the power to do the things that are right.
[00:20:21] But also the attitude to just say no. This was seriously one of the greatest lessons. I think I've learned on the show. Mark. It's awesome.
[00:20:32] Yeah it is the perfect review of journaling and I love, I just wanna go back to something you've just said, because that really stuck with me. It gave him the fortitude to not only start saying no, but to then live with the decision.
[00:20:47] Oh, yeah. The fact that he turned it down and then he went into the wilderness, the value of darkness for a couple of years, he probably questioned whether he'd made the right decision, but having the ability to refer back to his decisions, what mindset he was in, why he said, no, I know that is, is huge because sometimes.
[00:21:10] We are making decisions in our lives. We'll probably question a few of them. And think, huh? Maybe I reacted too strong or maybe I didn't react strong enough. And it's only possible because we don't have a film crew running around. Similar to how Joe Rogan said, exists as though you've got a film crew.
[00:21:28] Yes. Journaling is the record. Isn't it? It's the record of what you felt like, maybe what you've done and what. Interesting idea to sit with something for maybe two years when you've turned down 15 million and then say, okay where was I 24 months ago? Why did I do this again? I had that, it's just a really rich story
[00:21:51] that it is.
[00:21:52] It is another thing that came up a lot in the timeless classic series was this idea of difference between the journey and the destination. And what we've got now is more goodness from Mr. McConaughy. We're gonna listen to him talking about understanding the difference between, the destination and the journey.
[00:22:14] And there's a lot of good stuff inside of this. So let's get into none other than Mr. McConaughey. As we study his book, green lights and let him tell us about the process.
[00:22:28] I'm gonna talk to you about some things I've learned in my journey most from experience, some of 'em I heard in passing, many of 'em I'm still practicing, but all of them I do believe are true.
[00:22:37] Life is not easy. It is not. Don't try to make it that way. Life's not fair. It never was. It isn't now. And it won't ever be, do not fall into the trap. The entitlement trap, a feeling like you're a victim, you are not get over it and get on with it. So the question that we gotta ask ourselves is. Success is to us.
[00:22:57] What success is to you? Is it more money? That's fine. I got nothing against money. Maybe it's a healthy family. Maybe it's a happy marriage. Maybe it's to help others to be famous, to be spiritually sound, to leave the world a little bit better place than you found it. Continue to ask yourself that question.
[00:23:16] Now your answer may change over time and that's fine, but do yourself this favor, whatever your answer. Don't choose anything that will jeopardize yourself, prioritize who you are, who you want to be, and don't spend time with anything that antagonizes your character. Be brave, take the hill. But first answer that question.
[00:23:39] What's my hill. So first. We have to define success for ourselves. And then we have to put in the work to maintain it, take that daily tally tend our garden, keep the things that are important to us in good shape. It is just as important where we are not. As it is where we are. Look, the first step that leads to our identity life is usually not.
[00:24:09] I know who I am. I know who I am. That's not the first step, the first steps. Usually I know who I am not. When you do this, when you do put 'em down, when you quit going there, when you quit giving them your time, you inadvertently find yourself spending more time and in more places, That are healthy for you that bring you more joy.
[00:24:30] Why? Because you just eliminated the who's, the wears, the what's and the wins that were keeping you from your identity. Trust me too many options. I promise you that too many options will make a Ty in of us all. All right. So get rid of the excess, the wasted time, decrease your options. If you do this, you will have accidentally almost.
[00:24:55] Put in front of you, what is important to you by process elimination, knowing who we are is hard. It's hard to give yourself a break, eliminate who you are not first, and you're gonna find yourself where you need to be. Instead of creating outcomes that take from us, let's create more outcomes that pay us back.
[00:25:19] Fill us up. Keep your fire lit, turn you on for the most amount of time in your future. We try our best. We don't always do our best. Our architecture is a verb as well. And since we are the architects of our own lives, let's study the habits, the practices, the routines that we have that lead to and feed our.
[00:25:42] Our joy, our honest pain, our laughter, our earned tears. Let's dissect that and give thanks for those things. And when we do that, guess what happens? We get better at 'em discerning. Choose it because you want it, do it because you want to, you're gonna make mistakes. You gotta own. Then you gotta make amends and then you gotta move on guilt and regret kills many a man before their time.
[00:26:09] So turn the page, get off the ride. You are the author of the book of your life.
[00:26:15] And there's a lot in that clip. That's a nice summation of a number of speeches that he's done because Mike, what we didn't mention is that he's also a I believe he's a profess. Now. Yeah.
[00:26:30] And he studied to be a lawyer but I go back to that clip.
[00:26:33] What he just talked about is learning to be better every day. Being the best version of yourself by making better choices every day. That was almost like he was talking about our show. That's exactly what we're trying to do together here. Only you, me and all of our listeners were all just trying to be a little bit better every day.
[00:26:58] And at the root of this, the foundational practice of this is the journal.
[00:27:06] It's the only way to be able to reflect back, to know what success means to you. Because as he's calling out, it can change. What matters to me right now might be different to what matters to me in six months, time, a year, 20 years.
[00:27:20] But you can only have that action of reflection when you've created the format or the capability to then refer back to it.
[00:27:29] Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's, if you, if it becomes the record, then you can enjoy the process of just 1% better every day. And the beauty of the process is that you do it for long enough and all of a sudden you go damn, oh, they actually made some real progress.
[00:27:50] yeah. Yeah. And then in, in its own way, that'll give you the confidence, the courage, the reassurance that you've made, the right decision. So by, by doing it now, you will pay dividends in the future and you'll be able to go about and study those habits. You're right. The 1% better. It's the perfect demonstration of that.
[00:28:11] Isn't it. By the act of journaling, I can refer back. I can see how I can get better and I can therefore, maybe. Be that little
[00:28:19] bit
[00:28:19] happier. Totally. And boy, he can get on and do his sermon KA. That was a pretty gusty speech he was given there. He was like, like giving a sermon on the Sunday.
[00:28:33] He was like preaching there. He was really getting in, in, into it. And I was too, I thought it was fantastic.
[00:28:39] Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of fun to hear. McConaughy speak. He is, I think, as he called out in that first clip, we heard he's a story, man. Yeah. He tells a good story. And that's why I think he's so unique in the individuals that we've dug into previously, Mike, because of his capabilities at, performing on screen, as well as this additional, element that he's released at the end of last year, green lights, it is showing us.
[00:29:06] That everybody's a little bit deeper. We've all got something that can create a product or an environment for us to learn from in the world. And it's really interesting how many surprises you and I have when we think about the concept of moonshot, who we can learn out loud from. We just, the list is Inex
[00:29:29] exhaustive.
[00:29:30] oh, you should see the future episodes list on, on the side, mark like epic. And for any of our listeners, if you wanna see what's coming up, what people have recommended to us, what you, our listeners have suggested head over to moonshots.io. And while we talk about that, there's another thing that's just part of the process of us getting better at moonshots.
[00:29:51] And that is we are gonna launch the moonshots at mark. We need a little bit of encouragement. Don't we, if we're gonna do that,
[00:29:59] we do look listeners. It is not up to myself and Mike to decide what is valuable for you. We want to hear from you. You tell us not only who you'd like us to cover. And as Mike said, We invite you to pop over to www.moonshot.io, to check out our future shows.
[00:30:17] We listen to every single recommendation that you guys give us. And on the same line of thinking, we want to hear from you with regards to creating a moonshot application. This will be your playbook that you can pop in your pocket that all inspires or maybe guides, or at least helps some of your mindset.
[00:30:37] And those habits that we talk about on the show regarding, proving ourself decision making, as well as perhaps even leadership we wanna know from you, whether this is worth us building.
[00:30:49] So I think our call to action mark is we need you to sign up for the beta and we want to thank a whole bunch of people have done it.
[00:30:56] There's Fernando, Robin Hamish, Claire, Sarah Betina, Thomas Sharon, Michael Samantha, Jason Barat. Angie Dimitri. Thank. We really wanna make sure we're building something that is going to. Your value, it's gonna have some cool stuff. It will be more interactive in, in how you can listen to the show.
[00:31:15] You can vote from the app for future shows, and there's gonna be a whole training section, which is built around the idea of improving yourself, your decisions. And your leadership too. So if you wanna give us the signal, the bat signal, mark, where do they send out the signal that they want to do this
[00:31:34] pop over to the homepage?
[00:31:36] Www moonshots.io, click on the top banner, the moonshots app, sign up for our free beat and we'll keep a record and we'll give you a shout out and we'll get that a little bit closer to going out and creating the moonshot.
[00:31:50] Now we've got that. And we're getting into this idea of positive habits, listening to our show rating and reviewing our show if you can and sharing it with friends, making suggestions well, Mr.
[00:32:05] McConaughy the author of green lights. He has a lot to say about positive habits. Doesn't.
[00:32:10] Yeah, he does. And as you were briefly mentioning in the back end of the last clip, Mike, this idea of once percent better we've really dug into this on the show before with our habits series, but these positive habits, the.
[00:32:23] McConaughy is really reinforcing, I think are just as valuable. And what's really nice is a couple of personal stories of his own approach. As we've heard previously, where he started saying no to romcoms, there's some more stories that he's gonna give us, which I think are really valuable when we think about habits.
[00:32:41] And this first one, Mike is a little bit of a reflection back to when he was growing. And these idea of words being banned in the house. So this next clip we're gonna hear McConaughy is telling us why you should never say never,
[00:32:56] but the real words that we got, either punished for or war forbidden were hate.
[00:33:02] And can't, and I remember my dad, I remember one Saturday morning when I was. 12, my Saturday morning chores were, mow the lawn. We eat, shine his shoes and sweep the boards and get the cobwebs outta the corners. I'd get up very early on a Saturday morning to do that. So I could have my Saturday afternoon to play.
[00:33:20] And I went out to try and start our push lawn mower. And it wouldn't start pull again. Wouldn't start pull again. Wouldn't start check the gas yet. It's got gas. What things going on? Damnit. Won't start. And I remember going into my dad inside and I go dad, the I can't get the lawnmower started.
[00:33:35] Kind of slowly turned his head to me and I saw his molars meat kind of start to grit his teeth. And he goes, you, what? And I knew enough right then to not say the word again. And I said I, I. And he got up and I didn't finish my sentence. He slowly walked with me out of his bedroom, through the kitchen, through the garage, around the back to the shed where this lawn mower was that I was not getting started.
[00:34:02] He without seeing a word, he NT down, looked at it, checked the gas. Anyway, he found the little tube where the gas was not transferring and it had been disconnected. So they, so he reconnected that pulled a few times and it started. There over a run new now running push lawnmower. He looked at me, put his hands on my shoulders.
[00:34:23] And for the first time since I said I can't get it started. He put his hands on. My shoulders, looked at me and very sternly said, he goes, you were just having trouble lawn and boom. And I remember from that day I was that lesson was like, oh, even if you're unable to do something on your own.
[00:34:42] You can still go seek help or get assistance. So you're still only having trouble, even if you on your own cannot do. So that was a say in those words still to this day, if I let 'em slip, I have to look over my shoulder like, oh, get me,
[00:34:58] mark. What do you think? The benefit of this idea? Like never say never and never say this word hate, what does that really do for us?
[00:35:08] Where is he really? What is he really teaching us?
[00:35:11] I think he's teaching us to have patience. I think it's patience. I think it's resilience. I know McConaughy calls out the going to find support from other people. And every challenge can be surmounted. If you find, maybe a professional and so on, but really for me, that clip speaks to don't give up.
[00:35:33] Don't find that you can't turn on the little mower and say, ah, life is against. This is the end of this is the end of life I give up. Instead, what he's saying is, okay have that little bit more perseverance resilience to keep on pushing, find that solution, maybe work that harder a bit harder, but just stick with it.
[00:35:54] Do you know, he's almost going a little Carol Dweck, isn't he?
[00:35:58] Yeah. It's the growth mindset. What does that fall into that fixed
[00:36:04] mindset?
[00:36:04] Yeah. Yeah. What does. Teach you like, what would you do different when you hear McConaughy saying this
[00:36:13] for me, it's the triggers, much like Carol, we were talking about noticing.
[00:36:18] When your mind or your behavior is falling into a traditional or fixed behavior or mindset. So in, in that case, let's go back to the lawn moer. If it doesn't start, what would a lot of us do? We'd say I need to buy a new lawnmower or we'd say, I'm not gonna learn the more to I'm not gonna mow the lawn today after all, you'd find an excuse and close down on it, but instead.
[00:36:44] If you can notice, ah, okay. Here's an opportunity that I need to go out and fix this machine. Isn't starting, or I've got a problem at work or in home instead of falling into the natural pattern of saying, Nope, it doesn't work and it never will. Going out and trying to find that solution, noticing that's your trigger, noticing that's your standard behavior.
[00:37:10] And instead choosing to guard and continue finding the solution. That's for me, the big lesson from never say never.
[00:37:19] And it's how we perceive the limitations of ourself and what we saw, for example, with Michael Jordan, when we studied him, he made a decision, I will be the best basketball player on the planet and he never said never.
[00:37:39] Yeah. So there's some really interesting patterns here that, this idea of journaling. Very much stoic. So check out our Ryan holiday series. If you're interested in that, enjoying the process and being more present. That's kind of power of now and echo toll and this idea of mindset.
[00:38:00] This is total Carol w who we just did recently in the timeless classic series. And what's underpinning all of this, which is beautiful, which is so typically moon. Is the journal, the ultimate weapon in being the best version of yourself, but you don't get there without hard work. You don't get there with some toil.
[00:38:24] So you need to be able to, put in the time, put in the efforts and sometimes. You gotta take a little bit of responsibility. You got to put in the work to enjoy freedom. So let's have a listen to Matthew McConaughey talking about earning your way to success.
[00:38:44] That there's a responsibility to freedom and that there is freedom in responsibility, and that earn your way.
[00:38:54] We remember the stuff we earn, the stuff we experience more than what the teacher tells us or what someone gives us for free. We just do, we broke a proverbial, sweat on it, whether it was mental or physical or whatever we built it. We understand, we felt how we got it, how we achieved it, how we got what we wanted those stick with this, whether we forget 'em intellectually, they were written in our lineage and they build resilience and they and they build.
[00:39:19] A healthy, true optimism. Going forward to know that, oh no, I've worked with something before and achieved it. Delayed gratification. Oh, there are choices I can make today for myself that will pay me back later in line. So there are choices we make. If you're gonna say right now, I'm gonna lie, cheat and steal to get what I want.
[00:39:37] And I got it. I got an immediate green light for me. That's a battery powered green light. That's not a solar powered green light. Because now everywhere I go, I gotta look over my shoulder to see if someone's there. That I lied, cheat and stole from. And when I'm doing that, I'm stealing. Who's time my time.
[00:40:00] Now I'm not freedom. I'm not free. I don't have the freedom. I didn't create freedom in my future because I chose to be an IR, make an irresponsible act that. I left crumbs. I've now got reasons to look over my shoulder and the more things we do to create in our future that we gotta look over our shoulder.
[00:40:17] The more of our most precious thing we have in our life's time that we're stealing from ourselves. It's not puritanical. It's just it's actually, self-service, it's a very selfish choice. And I'm a fan of the word selfish I've re helped redefine it. But I believe that there are selfish choices we can make that are the most selfless, that there are selfless choices that we can make that are the most selfish choices.
[00:40:38] Those two are not a contradict. And we see them that way responsibility is appreciation of a past. It's building of a lineage. It's investing in ourselves, it's investing in something we started to build yesterday that we wanna take into tomorrow. There's a response that gives us freedom. I
[00:40:54] think what I'm getting from that clip is the concept of responsibility being something that only I have control over and I'm gonna get out of.
[00:41:09] My life or current situation, whatever I've put in. If it's the Lumo, not starting. If I work hard at it, I'll get it started. If it's a career, I'll get out of it. What I've put in through the collaboration that I've done, the products that I've made and. I quite like this comparison that he's drawing for us here, self ish and selfless being connected choices.
[00:41:39] And I think again, not to bang on the drum repeatedly, but I think you only really get insights into both of those. When you start journaling, what are those selfish acts? What are those selfless acts? Yeah. How are they together? How are they comparative? I feel like. Matthew's again, reiterating here through the investment in your behavior.
[00:42:02] Now maybe you can reflect back on it. You can see what you've done, right? What you've done wrong. And therefore you can go out and have that freedom that he mentions in that clip, because you've created enough of a pathway to identify in the future. What, what did you get from that clip Mike?
[00:42:20] It reminded me a lot of Joco willing.
[00:42:22] Joe Rogan who were all saying, like embrace the discomfort. And Joe Rogan goes to a long, a lot of effort to say things feel better when you've put in the work, when you've earned it. And so the reflection that I have is that the connection I'm making is I think journaling makes you aware of your progress.
[00:42:47] And when you don't feel like when you feel like you're hitting a lot of red lights, it's a place where you can go to the gym and turn the red lights into green lights so that you can persevere. That to me is the connection I'm making. Does that make sense? Yeah.
[00:43:04] Yeah. Yeah. It definitely does.
[00:43:06] Definitely does.
[00:43:07] For me, I think if I didn't journal. I wouldn't be aware of myself as much. I wouldn't be aware of my journey as much. And I would fail to see, signposts opportunities or potentially, red lights coming up that I can navigate. I feel like it's just an essential way for clarity of the mind.
[00:43:32] And I think that with the intensity in which modern day work Has I think it's like it builds it, winds us up. And I think journaling is how we unwind, how we can put our minds to rest, how we can be more present in the work, how we can go and do deep work when we've really done that. Otherwise.
[00:43:55] Without that journal, I think we flounder about, because we're just so overwrought with data and decisions and, it's really a wonderful thing. The journal, I think I'm cheerleader number one here, but mark, before we wrap up the show, we do have one lost and final clip from Mr.
[00:44:13] MCC himself. Do you wanna set this up for us as we bring. This story to completion around Matthew McConaughey and green lights. Yeah.
[00:44:22] He's, he is reflected a few times on obstacles and challenges. He's reflected on having the ability to look back and see the decisions that you've made. So this final clip is Matthew.
[00:44:33] McConaughy talking again about green lights as well as red lights and how reflecting and reflection back on your decisions are only possible. When you look in the rear view.
[00:44:45] Green lights. Ultimately I believe that in the rear view mirror of our life, every red and yellow light will turn green and that may not even be in this life.
[00:44:53] Tim, I think a lot of people, it happens for people in this life tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, 10 years from now on our deathbed. But I, if we, it doesn't happen, then I think it can happen in the next life for our kids or for our kids' kids, our grandkids, it's a lesson maybe realized. 3 5, 10 generations from now.
[00:45:17] It may become a green light for some hardship that we go through in this life.
[00:45:22] Looking back. This has to be the single biggest gift that I think he's given us. What's new for us. All of us moonshots, every single one of us who are trying to be the best version of ourselves, whether you are one of our listeners in Thailand, the UAE, Austria, the Netherlands.
[00:45:42] Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Austria, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Japan doesn't matter where you are. I think every single one of us know that we gotta put in the work and do the journaling, but I think what you've just beautifully presented to us, mark is this clip of Matthew McConaughey saying, go back to.
[00:46:05] Because in the journal, it's not only the moment and the release that it gives you, but it's the capacity to see what actually does work for you. So go back and then find those positive habits and make sure you reinstate them, or you have the discipline to keep them so that you can truly reach. Your full potential.
[00:46:25] What a great message from somebody who was the king of romcoms at one state
[00:46:31] yeah, what he's calling out in that final clip is the idea of legacy. The legacy that you are gonna leave behind for your partner, children, grandchildren, so on and so forth. And again, you are only going to.
[00:46:44] Be able to consider your legacy in enough detail to make it matter. When you do that little bit of journaling and that reflection, nobody's gonna do it apart from you. You need to take the ownership to go out and choose what's right. For me, what success means to me and ultimately what you wanna leave behind is a legacy.
[00:47:06] And I think that's a wonderful little analogy there. When I look back that rear view mirror. Am I gonna look back and say, yep. You know what? All of those red lights they did turn green. All those obstacles made me who I am today. Or am I gonna look back and say, huh, I could have done that a bit better.
[00:47:23] I think what he's really calling out here is start with a solid foundation informed by reflection and journaling and compartment mentalization that comes. Journaling and the act of reflecting on your day. And look, he's a man. Who's still pretty famous. He went into the wilderness for two years, but he's still on all of our big screens right now.
[00:47:44] Isn't he? So he's doing something right?
[00:47:46] Oh, he most certainly is. And what another perfect reminder mark, that we can learn so much. From so many different people. It's breathtaking. It's like staring out into space and every single person is like a star that has a lesson to teach us.
[00:48:06] It's. It's so exciting. I just think our future episode list just gets longer. Doesn't it? yeah
[00:48:11] it does. And next week, Mike, we're digging, we're continuing our thinking. Better series by going into another recommendation. And this recommendation I believe was from Mr. Terry Bean and the book by Dan Millman, the way of the peaceful warrior.
[00:48:29] Wow. Not so familiar with the work. Can't wait to study all of that research. Can't wait to pull the together the clips on that. And what a fantastic series twisting, turning pivoting around challenging us. Hopefully not only informing us, but inspiring us to mark. If you go back. Now, and you look at your reflections upon green lights.
[00:48:55] What's the one, what's the one that's gonna, as you work today, what's the one that's really gonna stick with you. And you know what? Pause for reflection.
[00:49:06] You know what I'm not going to choose the obvious one, which is, Hey everybody, go on journal. Because I think the listeners have probably heard us say that a few times.
[00:49:14] Now I'm gonna invite those of us who, who do keep journals to go and revisit. Some of the entries I've I, for one have never gone back to read any of my previous entries because it was a mental decision that I'd made, but actually McConaughey's calling out the opposite. So that's what I'm gonna go and do, Mike,
[00:49:33] I am totally with you on this one.
[00:49:34] That was the biggest one for me. Yeah. I have been journaling for so long and I have almost never. Ever gone to reread it. And the only time I tend to is when I write something that is somewhat related to work. And I say, oh, that was some pretty good thing. I better go back and find that.
[00:49:52] And I'm like searching through days, what week, what month and then I'm like stuff. It I'll just write the whole thing again. But no, you're absolutely right reflecting on it. So you can see not only what wasn't working, but what was working. And that's another part of this great insight that you too, our listeners can get from Matthew McConaughey's book, green lights or mark.
[00:50:14] Thank you. That was pretty good. Wasn't it? Yep. I've
[00:50:16] really enjoyed today's episode because it, it pulls together a lot of the strands that we've uncovered through other innovators and entrepreneurs. And it just brings it into a really vivid story led reflection.
[00:50:30] It does indeed. So thank you to you, mark.
[00:50:34] Thank you to you, our listeners, the moon shotters that's right. Every single one of you are on your mission to be the very best version of yourself. And we are so delighted and grateful to be part of that. And today we learn from the man himself, Mr. Matthew McConaughy and his book and his work. Green lights and what a standout it was.
[00:50:59] And it really starts with this idea of being aware, go out into the world and find the patterns to your success. Not only reflecting on what doesn't work, but what does work. And if you take your purpose and you stick to it, you journal it, you write it. You two will have the strength to say. So that frees you to go out into the world and every single day to enjoy the process.
[00:51:24] And that process starts with having some very positive habits, never say never, and make sure that you earn your way to success. Thrive. Dwell. Enjoy the hard work, because if you do, you'll have the capacity to look in the rear view, you'll be able to ask yourself, how will I be remembered? You will have the opportunity to create your legacy.
[00:51:48] And that, as we know here on the moonshot show is the best version of yourself. So we are delighted to be part of that journey with you, our listeners today. So that's it for the moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.