#474: Matthew McConaughey on His Success Playbooks, The Powerful Philosophy of Greenlights, and Choosing The Paths Less Traveled

That old adage, 'Oh, don't talk to yourself.' What?! Bullshit! Do talk to yourself. What I think we need to remember to do when we're asking ourselves these questions: Just make sure we answer. If all we’re doing is asking ourselves questions, but never coming up with an answer, well, that can lead to some very imbalanced insanity at times.

A lot of people think I just wing it. The truth is... I am a preparer. A lot of my success and satisfaction have come from being majorly prepared ... I prepare so it's not work when I get in the game. That's the work—my work is pregame.

Get away, and go off on your own, and be stuck with yourself, even if it's the worst fucking company you've ever had. That is a good thing to do ... There are green lights in that—forcing yourself into the red light of being stuck with the only person you can't get rid of even though you hate him.

The original use of a diary is to dissect failure or disillusion ... 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... So, I started writing in my diary when things [were] going well.

The decisions we make for the 'I'—for ourselves, the selfish decisions—are actually what's best for the most amount of people.

If you're not sure how to respond to a situation, can you just make [having a] sense of humor the default emotion? Can we just have a little more humor and give each other a bit of a break right now?

Ultimately, I believe that in the rearview mirror of our life, every red and yellow light will turn green.

It seems to me that the common denominator or the bipartisan nondenominational solid stepping stones for us to evolve as a species, as a nation, and as individuals is based on values—the fundamental principles that we can all agree on. I don't care what side of politics you're on or what religion you are, but what do we value? What do we really value? We all want to be relevant. Well, let's ask, relevant for what?

My most creative times came in my forced winters of life.

When you're going downwind downhill, don't trip yourself because that uphill's coming. It's going to come whether you want it to or not, so don't trip yourself and face plant right now because you're gonna have to work your ass off here very shortly.

When we can, ask ourselves if we want to before we do.