This book is a collection of his life lessons, his truths, his challenges and triumphs. I was very impressed reading his story about what he’s accomplished and his road to success. It’s captivating, emotional, motivational, and despite his fame, relatable.

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What do I love about the book?

• First, I love HOW the book is written. It’s not just page after page of text, but he’s inserted sticky notes, pages of handwritten content, pictures, bumper stickers, and thoughts along the way. McConaughey wrote the book as an accumulation of years of journals he’d kept and ‘note-to-self’s. It’s raw, it’s pure, and it feels so live.

• Second, my personal connection. I connected with this book because I, myself, am a bit of free spirit. An explorer of the world. Someone with constant wanderlust. I thought for sure McConaughey was a Sagittarius reading the book, turns out he’s a Scorpio _{(I’m shocked really)}, but we share the desire to see the world, chase whatever is calling us, even if we don’t know what that is and we’re not afraid to go blindly into our next expedition. He told stories of traveling to the Amazon, to Africa, and traveling all over the U.S. in an RV. Each adventure, of course, lit a small fire of ambition in me and kept me reading on.

• Third, the idea of Greenlights. I love the simplicity in it. It’s the idea that sometimes life gives you red lights that really just stop everything and cause dramatic upheavals in your world. Sometimes life has yellow lights where a pivot may be necessary or a slow down and reflect. And then, of course there are green lights, when things are going well, you’re reaching goals, thriving, and feel happy in where you are in life. The moral of the story here is that most, if not all red and yellow lights can eventually turn green with time, contemplation, and action. I’m sure we’ve all heard some form of a phrase that says each bad experience taught us something.

• Fourth, the way in which this book provides you with so many opportunities to set it down and self reflect. I wasn’t aware when starting the book that there is an accompanying journal and once I found out it only seemed natural. There were multiple points throughout that I stopped, had to close the book and really think about what I just read. McConaughey is not telling you how to live your life, or even providing advice throughout the book, but it comes out naturally as a guide to explore different aspects of our own lives and pivotal points in which we’ve had red lights turn to green lights.

Some pieces that stuck with me…

The way in which we use the words we have in our language. I’m always talking about how I do not understand how some phrases in the English language came to be, or why it is we say some of the things that we say. McConaughey brings up the definition of “unbelievable” (see below image).

He goes on to talk about how in our society we often compliment others when they do something remarkable by saying whatever it was that occurred was “unbelievable!” We say it with excitement and in a way that’s complimentary to a person’s success. BUT, is it really complimentary? This one took me back a minute and got me thinking even more about the way in which we use our words.

“Something spectacular, phenomenal, outstanding, and most excellent, is most definitely not, unbelievable.”

pg. 205

Just three pages later, was my next favorite quote in the book, which was not from McConaughey himself, but from a villager in Mali, Africa. McConaughey told people in the village he was a wrestler and ends up wresting the most well known wrestler in this village. There was a language barrier, rules of the match were 100% unknown, and the determination of who wins was not outlined before the match began, but McConaughey did not back down, he held his own and remained neck-and-neck with the village campion.

After the match was all said and done, both parties were celebrated and the village champion literally ran away and all the villagers started chanting their version of McConaughey’s name, giving McConaughey the impression that he had actually won the match.

However, when he asked if he had won, he was told:

“It’s not about win or lose, it is about do you accept the challenge. When you did that, you already won.”

Pg. 208

I love this. It’s important to make pros and cons lists, to evaluate the situation and make informed decisions, but we can’t let the fear of potentially losing stop us from participating in something that excites us. I grew up hearing a similar quote by Babe Ruth- “Don’t let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.”

At times in life when we are at a red light, or even a yellow light and we know that we need change, sometimes its important to weigh your options, but still potentially go with something you’re not 100% sure you’ll succeed at. If we only take the roads we know we’ll be successful on, where’s the adventure in that? How then, do we grow and expand our horizons and accomplish great things? Accept the challenge, even if you do not know you’re going to win.

Even if you lose, there’s a greenlight in trying and new doors will be opened, new lessons learned, and progress has still been made.

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All-in-all, I found this book to be fun, emotional, motivational, and gave me a sense of self. It’s a reminder to be open to change, to spend time reflecting on what makes us, and to not waste time on the setbacks.

I highly recommend you check it out at the library, borrow it from a friend, pick it up at a thrift store, or, if you have to, buy it new. Just get your hands on it.

Greenlights.

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