Cool Is the Other Side of the Pillow

Nick kicks off the conversation with a brief introduction of Matthew and his tendency to be “as cool as the other side of the pillow”—acting quickly on the next practical step while maintaining calmness. Asking Matthew to share about his book, Green Lights, Nick appreciates Matthew’s ability to be present in the moment. Learn how this aspect of Matthew’s life has evolved over the course of his various achievements as he has learned the importance of putting his head down to work hard, rather than worrying about the minute-to-minute results. Listen to the importance of having “joy in the doing” and why you should stop anticipating the ending of things. Matthew shares how perspective and experience build maturity and wisdom, and how he fights against the addiction for immediate results and chasing false summits.

The conversation shifts as Nick asks Matthew to share about false peaks and points in his own career—times when he felt like he couldn’t continue moving forward. Matthew shares about the importance of a balanced understanding of gratitude, and how complacency can lead to people living off the ‘glory days’ and looking in the rear view mirror for too long.

Looking at a story Matthew shares in Green Lights, Nick asks him to chat about what roots him as a man with so much success. Listen in on having a value based life and taking a look at the history of time to see how nothing matters—and everything matters—all at the same time! Through belief, trust, and faith, Matthew works to perform his very best at the one shot he gets in this life! Having faith in yourself is important, but some level of doubt also proves helpful. Matthew tells us about moments where he doubted himself and why he works to process an understanding of why something succeeded or failed. Nick and Matthew both enjoy movement and running to freely process.

Turning the conversation towards Hollywood, Nick asks Matthew about his view on expectations. Matthew’s surprising perspective of compartmentalization and going into everything with high expectations has helped him to trick himself to successfully stay in the chase. Why does Matthew dislike the term “unbelievable”? Diving deeper into this word, Matthew says we ought to give more credit to both the good and the bad when they occur—extending the bandwidth of what is believable and giving credit where it’s due. People have more capacity and internal power to self-determine than we give the credit for.

In considering risk, Matthew says that the crucial denominator of going all in, and the importance of over-committing. Learn about the largest career risk he ever took and how he worked to challenge the vitality of his own life by un-branding. Nick asks about the most challenging role Matthew has held and how his need to be obsessed with every role he plays has impacted his family. They discuss the challenges of different genres and how he battles to keep integrity in his roles.

As this episode draws to a close, listeners hear about Matthew’s ‘Less impressed, more involved’ motto and the unique community in Austin, Texas. Learn about the persona that Austin has and how they work to be trailblazers, marked by optimism and hospitality. Growth and change are happening, but the basic value systems are not changing. You can be who you want to be in Austin, TX!

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Timestamps:

1:01 - Podcast introduction

1:43 - Matthew McConaughey welcomed on