Book 115 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: The Art of Running Downhill

Book – Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Book Description: McConaughey exiled himself in the desert without electricity for fifty-two days while writing the book. Greenlights originated from diaries and journals McConaughey began writing when he was fourteen years old. McConaughey described the book as a collection of "stories, prayers, poems, people and places and a whole bunch of bumper stickers." The book includes stories and insights from McConaughey's life in chronological order. It has been described as a memoir, but McConaughey has called it an "approach book".

Reflection:

What an amazing adventure of a book! This one definitely ranks up there in the top 15 books so far on this journey, and probably the book that surprised me the most in terms of expected value when I first purchased to what I ultimately got in the end. I’m officially, apparently, a huge Matthew McConaughey fan and I didn’t even know it.

As Matthew McConaughey says, “this is a book about how to catch more yeses in a world of nos”. Per the author, that is a greenlight. To me, a greenlight is when your universe seems to be in alignment, and everything you do is finally lining up on a seemingly fast track that all leads toward your unique purpose.

That is the secret magic to living a happy and fulfilled life, but this doesn’t come easy. It has to be earned through the never-ending trials and tribulations that life will bring (red and yellow lights). However, if you are blessed enough to one day find yourself finally on the road to your purpose, it does seem like you end up with a lot more yeses than no’s at that point.

McConaughey talks about the art of running downhill in a portion of his book, and it reminded me of my own journey with running and all the lessons I’ve learned through it in my own life since losing Emilia. I wrote a lot about these lessons in running in my own book, I Can’t Imagine. Running is such a beautiful analogy to life as we are literally Born to Run, as we learned from Christopher McDougal’s book earlier in our journey.

There is nothing better in running than going downhill. There is an art to running downhill and doing it well. You can’t get to the downhill portion of your run until you have gone through the trials, pain, and hardship of running up the hill in the first place. Once you get to the top, and are staring down the other side of the hill, the feeling you get coming down makes it all worthwhile.

Running is hard as hell and will push you to your limits. There is nothing more humbling than being out in the hot sun on a 90-degree humid day, legs slowly pumping as you begin to run up a hill, pouring sweat, feeling like your legs are going to give out, your lungs feel like they are going to explode, and all the while you are questioning why the hell you are doing this and wanting to quit. In this moment, the feeling is the absolute worst. Running up that hill is challenging, it is hard, it is mentally and physically exhausting, and it will break you if you let it. If you are able to tap into something inside of you and endure the suffering, eventually you will find yourself at the top and starting down relief of coming back down. For all the pain and suffering that you just enduring going up, it is that much fun and rewarding on the way back down.

When you start back downhill, your mind and body immediately begin to feel at ease as you being the descent. The wind starts to slowly blow a little harder in your face to cool you down, your stride starts to lengthen, your pace naturally picks up as gravity sends you back down, and you feel like you are effortlessly gliding through life. Savor that moment and soak it all in as it doesn’t get any better than this feeling.

Greenlights are proceeded by the pain, heartache, and struggle of catching seemingly endless red and yellow lights. Keep fighting, keep pushing, keep living, and eventually you’ll find yourself staring down of road with nothing but greenlights as far as your eye can see for a brief period of time. Enjoy the hell out of it because it doesn’t come easy nor will it last forever.

This is the art of running downhill and what catching greenlights is all about. Don’t ever forget what life can be like when everything feels so fun, effortless, and in perfect harmony.

Question: When were the times in your life when everything felt aligned and effortless?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey