5 July 2021

Tuesday’s Titles with Yvonne Quinn 2021

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey book review - The Washington Post

Greenlights

by Matthew McConaughey

I chose Greenlights to write my review on as it is a book that I was pleasantly surprised by after reading and learning so much about both Matthew and his view on life.

The concept that Matthew refers to in his book is about catching green lights, like the traffic light system Advance, Carry on, Continue! You can position your strengths and weaknesses in such a format or look at your life as a traffic flow system. If well organised, we get through more greenlights. Growing up Matthews parents migrated from Ireland and taught him values growing up, such as work ethic, making money to secure your family and respect for women. His parents wanted him to understand the fundamentals of respect.

Matthew was not sure of his career path and tested the water by studying law which he discovered was not his love. He enjoyed writing short stories and he then applied for a position in film school. Opportunities started to happen for Matthew as he worked in a bar and started in some low-profile film roles. Matthew got his first role in Hollywood in the film “A time to kill”. At this stage, Matthew needed help as becoming famous was not something he had planned for.

“Sometimes, we don’t need advice. Sometimes we just need to hear we’re not the only one”. With his initial fame, he lost control of himself and fell out with his mother and faced difficulties. He enjoyed dreaming and looking at what the future could hold for him, and he always wanted to be a father.

Matthew married and had three children just like his father. He then discovered he found fulfilment in being truthful and that dreams are not just to be treated as ideas.

Overall, the message in this easy read is sometimes we need to make difficult decisions and change our paths to be fulfilled. We also need to trust our dreams and look within and try to surround ourselves with people who give us the space to do this.

We all have green lights around us so take a step back from the daily routine and develop some new habits.

This was an easy read but gave me the opportunity to re-assess and think about myself… In summary, my top 3 learnings were

  1. Follow and implement your dreams
  2. Go for your personal greenlight goals
  3. It’s good to talk!

Enjoy,

Yvonne

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