Something I have been able to do a lot more of this year is reading. Out of the various books I’ve picked up and down, turned pages or swiped on kindle, fell asleep or awoken to, one of my favorites has been “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey. Here are my rough notes on the book. Note: Some of these lines may not be completely understood without reading the book. But it makes sense to me, and I’m leaving it here as a reference I can use to go back to when I want to.
Favorite Quotes
- “I never wrote things down to remember; I always wrote things down so I could forget.”
- “I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy”
Writing Style
- Riff Raf and rap while writing, his personal style, personal remarks, and language. E.g. “they’re lyrics, one-liners, quick hitters, unobtrusive personal preferences…”
Themes
- Theme of the book: Relativity and Inevitability. How to catch Greenlights
- Relativity: How to deal
- Inevitability: What is happening or going to happen
- This is a story about getting relative with the inevitable. The arrival is inevitable: Death. The approach is relative: Life
- Greenlights is about 3 things: Skill, Timing, and Relativity
- Skill: intent, context, consideration, endurance, anticipation, resilience, speed, and discipline
- Timing: World’s timing and our own
- Relativity: Yesterday’s yellows and reds can become today’s greens
- Common sense tactic: learn to respect yellow lights (color within the lines) before we try to run them (or color outside the box). E.g. Block and tackle before we could play wideout
Book Outline / Key Takeaways
Outlaw logic – Rather shoot the lock than use the key any day
- One man’s appetite is another’s indigestion
- Create structure so you can have freedom
- Create your weather so you can blow in the wind
- Clean up so you can get dirty
- Choreograph, then dance
- Learn to sail before you fly
Find your frequency (Process of elimination and identity)
- Get rid of the excess that keeps one from being more of oneself
- Go through pain and sacrifice, get our knees and elbows scraped, fall on the skateboard, get pitted by a wave, get dumped by the girl, quick the job, travel the world, do all these things outside of our comfort zone to find the identity
Dirt Roads and Autobahns
- Less impressed, more involved
- Just keep livin’ – lower case because life is nobody’s proper noun, and there’s no “g” on the end of living because life’s a verb
- “This town smells needy; you are done for before you even started…You need to be cool. You need to get the fuck outta here! Get out of town, go to Europe, anywhere! And don’t come back until you’re ready to not need it!”
- Taking the road less traveled can make all the difference, but that road just needs to be one that we, personally, have traveled less. The introvert may need to get out of the house, while the extrovert may need to stay home and read a book.
The Art of Running Downhill
- When you can, ask yourself if you want to before you do
- Take a walkabout: As the noise decreases, the signal becomes clearer. Time alone simplifies the heart
- Dance lightly between the raindrops
- “A man addicted to ideas need be intervened with starvation. A man addicted with truths need be fed.”
- Localize to customize. Adapt to modify. The renaissance man is at home wherever he goes.
Turn the Page
- You may be picked up in a limo, but have to take the bus home. Nothing personal, just business
- Better to have a scent and be remembered, than to have no scent and be forgotten. Wet shit.
- It’s not about if you win or lose, it is about do you accept the challenge
- The justice it deserves: to appreciate a place fully, a man must know that he can live there. Then and only then, is it truly acceptable for him to leave
- If things get easy and comfortable, it’s time for evolution. Head upriver, change lanes, move addresses. Time to turn the page.
The Arrow doesn’t seek the Target, the Target draws the Arrow
- The Wide Shot – It’s the wink, the flirt, the mystery, a fantasy. It’s a fuck, a detachment, carefree, painless. It’s for rent. And we like it that way, because sometimes its better with the lights dimmed.
- The Close Up – It’s authentic, reality, a constant relationship. It’s making love, attachment, and togetherness. It costs us. It hurts. We own it. And we like it that way, because sometimes it’s better with the lights on.
- The great man is not all to each, he is each to all.
Be Brave, Take the Hill
- Recognize the problem
- Stabilize the situation
- Organize the response
- Then respond
Live your Legacy Now
- All art is self-expression. All self-expression is not art.
- Make life your favorite movie. Live my favorite character. Write my own script. Direct my own story. Be my own biography. Time to catch the hero I’ve been chasing. Live my resume.
- Begin with the end in mind. We are all going to die. So how can we truly live? How can we keep catching green lights and keep living?
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