How To Find Meaning & Purpose In Your Life | Matthew McConaughey EP 732

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation show. Today's episode is all about unlocking the power of your mind. Having a growth mindset is one of the most crucial decisions you can make in your life. Mental toughness can allow you to respond instead of react, to be in control instead of out of control, and give you the endurance you need to follow your dreams.

0:33your father put a big impact in your life he passed when you were i think it was five days in shooting your first movie is that correct shooting days first move ever made yeah where do you think your life would be if he was still here i don't know what else i would be doing because this is just what i've done and i've only done it once and i've been doing it once would I be sitting here right now talking to you with the life I have if it didn't happen? I'm very confident that I would have had some sort of enriched life that I felt satisfied and felt joy living if I'd have been doing something else.

1:12But at the same time, those moments, what I can really speak to is that I'm manned up when he moved on. You know, Father, for me, was he was my safety net those values that he that he was teaching me i still had in my hip pocket that oh if i only kind of use him 85 percent of the time i'm good because he's got my back he's above law he's above government he's my safety net in case i really need him so i'm not i'm kind of half-assing these values he's teaching me or maybe i'm doing pretty good at him but i'm not committed because I got in and then he was gone. I remember this was something that came to me.

1:52Just Keep Living came to me, which was about keeping his spirit and what he taught me alive in life after he's gone. But also this four words, less impressed, more involved. I remember things, right after he moved on, things that were mortal in life that I had reverence for. Fame, money, success, people. And all of a sudden, while I still respected them, instead of looking up at all of them, they came down to eye level. I looked them in the eye. They were mortal. I had full respect for them that they were mortal. I could be involved with them, looking them in the eye. Things that I looked down upon, I was condescending, patronizing, ah, jeez, I don't like that.

2:39Pfft, look at her. Look at that. But all of a sudden, those things rose up to high level. The world was flat. I could see further. I could see wider. I could see more clearly. And I was standing taller. And my head was higher. My heart was higher. And I was like, it's time to man up and become a man. And this is how you need to see the world. You need to have the courage to follow through. And that does not mean, you know, that is always not the most popular decisions. Quit. quit half-assing yourself. Quit doing things just to get along or if you disagree with it. We're not going to be that guy who makes the joke at the party that makes more people laugh, but everyone walks away disrespecting you more.

3:23It was the beginning of understanding, Wendy, what are the choices you make in the compounding assets that our choices, the choices we make, compounding assets for our future? How do we be more true and kind to our future selves? How do we start making some more choices, make choices that they're going to be brave, courageous choices that you can look in the mirror if it works and go, yep, I'm responsible. And if they don't work, you go, yep, that's on me.

3:52First, we got to quit hanging out with those people that sort of only turn on our most banal selves. Sometimes they're the easiest people to go to because they're the life of the party. I've been that guy before. Like I said, the laugh of the party. Tell the joke that's about someone that's not in the group. It's on them. We all snicker. And it's great. You got the biggest laugh, but everyone walks away going, I don't respect him as much. So get one of those long-term choices. Think about long money, not short money. Long money. Places. Hey, man. Geez, why don't I have a nasty hangover every time I go to that bar?

4:29I don't know. Is it the drink? Is it the people? Is it whatever? Whatever it is, I just don't, I don't, every time I wake up the next morning, I'm going to that bar or that place. I feel, eh, eliminate that. Quit trying to make that place work. We love to dissect problems. Well, start dissecting success. Start looking and deconstructing your life, your choices, those people you're hanging around with, those places. When things are going well, when you're like, ah, I feel like I finally caught a groove here. put the pen to paper or look down or start dissecting. What am I doing? Because there's a habit.

5:06There's a science, there's some science to satisfaction. And we don't just get there by dissecting our failures. And when we're in a rut, we need to be confident enough to go, well, things are going well and I can't take this for granted. What is it I'm doing? Oh, I prepared more. I didn't have stress. I mean, starts with the simplest thing. And this is what I mean. enjoy putting the coffee in the coffee filter the night before so the next morning you can get up and just go press the button aha look at me i teed myself up for a saturday i got a green light instead of the next morning going oh gee where is it because sometimes it's hard to make your coffee when you hadn't had your coffee like it's hard to find your glasses when you don't have your glasses i mean tee yourself up for some little pleasures some saturdays tee yourself up for some green lights.

5:55Kiddos, work. You got to, you know, it's Friday. You got that, you got that, that morning meeting you're going to lead on Monday morning. Or you got the homework you got to turn in. And you just finished on Friday. And you want to go kick back and head out and relax because you're going to wait till I'll do it Sunday night. Sometimes it's pretty cool to go, you know what, I'm going to get it done right now. Because Sunday, dude, I'm going to watch football. I may be hanging out with my friends. Right. Sunday night game may be a good one too. I may want to go late and I don't want to have to go like, oh, I got to get home and do that.

6:25So I'm going to tee up myself for some freedom on Sunday night by handling the stuff right now. So Sunday night I can be like, I'm ready for tomorrow. I'm ready for Monday. And look, that doesn't mean that doesn't mean you're not free. It's actually giving yourself more freedom. It's actually giving yourself more pleasure if you have children. It's one of the great things, I think, to try and get them to understand. You know, when I won the Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, I had a really cool teaching lesson. My kids were like, what's the trophy for? And I said, what was given to me? People in my industry deemed my work really excellent.

6:59They go, yeah, but what's it for? And I went, do you remember a year and a half ago when Popeye was really skinny and you said his neck looked like a giraffe? And they're like, yeah. And I go, remember how you'd wake up and Popeye was already gone to work and then Popeye would get home and we'd have a dinner and then he'd have to go study and go to sleep. And he did that for like two months and he was gone all day. Then I go, yeah, I go, what I was doing, that was every day then. Someone gave me a trophy for today, a year and a half later. Wow. So what you do today, what I was trying to get across to him is like, what you do today can matter tomorrow.

7:33You can be rewarded for it. If you do something really well today, you can be rewarded. You can get a green light for that later on in life. You may not get it today. so trust that you can be rewarded at the same time let's look at the inversion inversion of that go ahead lie cheat steal all right now what lie cheat steal broke up on the text cheated on so and so whatever whatever i'm not buying green lights to the future why because now everywhere i go i gotta look over my shoulder and see if someone's there that i owe money or someone's there that i cheated and all of a sudden now i'm not present and i'm stressing because someone goes oh yes, so and so is here.

8:12That's not a green light, it's a yellow light. It's stress, unnecessary stress because I left crumbs. Then, yesterday, don't leave the crumbs. Fill yourself up for some freedom. The responsibility of picking up your crumbs to handling stuff buys you your green light's freedom in the future where you're going like, I'm fine, I can walk in anywhere. I don't have to look over my shoulder. I'm doing my best to live a life where I don't have to live over my shoulder. It's a good thing for us each to do with ourselves.

8:42I am so excited for you to finish the rest of your day strong. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description and it will take you to the full episode of my other show, The School of Greatness. Make sure to come back tomorrow for another episode of The Daily Motivation Show.