Live a Life of Gratitude With These Guidelines | Matthew McConaughey

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10How do we become thankful for more things we have around us in our life? The more we give thanks for, we give more value to that thing or that person or that place that is. You give more value to it. It means more to us. If something means more to us, we tend it. We take care of it. When you take care of something, something grows. So it scales. So actually gratitude is the root of generosity. coming in and going. And it's a self-serving thing. It's not just a self-less serving. It is self-serving. I applaud that it is. And if you're going to give gratitude out for selfish reasons, I say bravo.

0:48You know, because it will reciprocate the same way back out. You know, in our foundation, we have these young kids that we give them a safe place to go after school. They learn nutrition. They make a physical goal and they do community service. These are Title I schools. And at the end of every one of those classes, they all just sit around in a circle and share something out loud they're thankful for. And these are high school students. It ain't cool to say thank you for stuff in your high school, right? Well, when they first started saying thank you, they were being like, I'm thankful for the Just Good Live Foundation.

1:17I'm thankful. And they all repeat themselves. They're like, no, no, no, no, no, guys. Y 'all feel like this is too serious. So one day it got to me and I was like, I'm thankful I got a kiss from my wife this morning before I got out of bed. And they all started hooting and hollering. And I was like, see, you can be thankful for fun stuff too. So they all started saying, thankful, thankful Halloween's coming. I'm thankful. I'm looking so sharp. What that led to was then people started to feel free to go. I'm thankful my mom is out of the hospital. I'm thankful my sister got into that college. I'm thankful my dad got a job.

1:51And when we asked them, what's your favorite thing about the Graduate Circle? This is the coolest answer. They started coming up to us and saying, well, my favorite thing about it is that I'm for the first time hearing peers of mine say, thank you for something in their lives that I have in mind that I've always taken a look at. We have to be more than just happy to be here. We can't just all run around going, just so great. I'm just so happy to be alive. We want to be more than that. I mean, again, have some discernment, make a choice, have some idea, define what you want more of and you want more value of in your life and set goals and go after things, create things.

2:24So we have to be than just happy to be here. But that doesn't mean that if we are ambitious, that we quit respecting and giving gratitude for the fact that I'm happy I'm here. I respect this situation. I respect the position I'm in, this table to talk to you, that we're here to talk to everyone here to set up the camera, that we're able to do this. I'm not in jail right now. There's a whole list of long things I'm happy I'm not, you know? When we do that, we're going to give more, again, more meaning to this, more value to it. I'm going to be more generous. It's going to work not only for me, it's going to work better for you.

2:57It's a win-win-win. Yeah. It's a win for us, it's a win for others in the world. Gratitude epidemic is not being a delusional optimist. Don't be a fool. You know, I'm not running around going, no, nothing's ever hard. Everything's always great. No, it's not. No, I'm always happy. No, you're not. Maybe you're not digging deep enough because you're always happy. Are you really chasing the things that have meaning in your life? Because things that have meaning take maintenance. They break down. Right. It hurts. It sucks. We get bruised. It doesn't always work. It takes maintenance. We talk about a midlife crisis.

3:31One, bravo. Way to go. You're turning the page. You're wanting to do more. You're wanting to find more. Something different. Bravo. Way to make it hard on yourself at the right way, at the right time, after you usually have already accomplished quite a bit. But don't forgive this. Let's go back to gratitude. And this is where a lot of people, I think, get hung up in the midlife crisis. Wanting to do more in something different is great. but not at the expense of disrespecting what you've already done. And too many of us discount, oh, I've done nothing. Oh, that's not worth anything. Oh, what's the stuff I've built?

4:03When usually, no, that is something. And when I say give yourself credit for that, that doesn't mean trust that you're not going to go, oh, okay then, I actually don't want to do more new stuff. I'm cool. It's not like you're going to go just retire and go to the beach or play golf or quit doing anything. But it doesn't cancel that. Your ambition's out. But we need to give more respect to what we've already built. And then we'll take on our male life crisis, which I'm going to return that something. You can be ambitious and have an entrepreneur spirit to want to go change things in your life while still respecting.

4:34I think we actually think you'll find more and do more of what you want to do the best way for yourself. When you do have a respect and a connection to your lineage of what you actually have built. This next story is connected to that one. It's not a new book. It's the same book. It's a new chapter we're looking for. Those stories are connected. It's the same hardcover. We don't start over in our lives and start a new book. Start a new chapter, maybe. And those things that we like to tell ourselves, oh, it's a new chapter. They're usually just commas. It's just a new chapter in the same book. We all only get one book.

5:08What is your thoughts on fame that you want people to know, whether in their youth or at any state of life, on what it is, what it isn't, and how to manage it when you got it? Sure. Before you go, I want to be famous. It's great ambition. It's the access that's given me. It's definitely in the black in my life. It comes with its harder, mature, challenging things like loss of anonymity. I don't meet strangers anymore. I do something, say something, it's out there. I can feel the energy of the world, whether it's pro or con, if they think about it, whether it's true or whether it's not. Before you say I want to be famous, that's fine.

5:46Table, let's scoot that over. For what? what do you want to do really well? What do you want to do you have an innate ability for that you're willing to work for that maybe you can become an expert on? Maybe you're just really good at winging it, but what do you want to do that could give you fame? But fame without an understanding of a structure, of a competence, of a skill, in my experience, is a real sort of vapid mirage of a moving target because there are fads that come in and out all the time that are very seasonal. That may not be lasting. And when you are going to do something that you think, oh, this is going to get me more likes or give me some fame, just check in with yourself and go, well, if that goes out of fashion or if in 10 years, as far as you project, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, am I going to still feel like I will stand by that?

6:41Just measure yourself. Keep yourself a little projection because we can do stuff right now to get famous that we will absolutely regret tomorrow. Have a little sense of delayed gratification and project forward of what the possible consequences of what you're doing to get attention and fame will be. And bet on yourself. Just bet on yourself because the best way, if we can, is to build something and be confident in something where even if it goes out of style, it will be looked back and like, that person did that really well. That's what they were known for. And even though we don't do that anymore, things have changed, the meeting has changed.

7:20When that was happening, that person was doing it well. So ask that because we're tempted and we're rewarded for a lot of things that can make us famous that are going to give us a proverbial hangover one day. Check in with those things.

7:48Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

8:39Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.