5 rules of life for best actor Oscar Matthew McConaughey

Translation Bureau is a translation team under 36Kr, focusing on science and technology, business, workplace, life and other fields, focusing on introducing foreign new technologies, new perspectives, and new trends. Editor's note: Matthew McConaughey is an American actor and producer. He won the 86th Oscar for Best Actor for his movie "Dallas Buyers Club". In 2015, Matthew shared his personal experience with graduates in a speech at the graduation ceremony of the University of Houston. This speech is about life choices, about happiness, and about success. I believe you will be inspired after reading this article. The article is translated from Medium, author Niklas Göke, and the original title is Matthew McConaughey’s 5 Rules for a Good Future.

Image source: The Daily Cougar

In 2015, Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey gave a speech at the graduation ceremony at the University of Houston. In a speech to about 4,000 graduates, he shared his stories and experiences, hoping to help young people find their own path in life.

And before he started, McConaughey made a calm and accurate observation: a college degree by itself does not guarantee you a good career.

I have two older brothers. One is a high school in the early 1970s. At that time, a GED diploma can help you find a job, while a university degree is a model. (Note: The GED test is equivalent to a high school diploma in the United States.)

In the early 1980s, another brother of mine was still in high school, and GED was not enough to guarantee employment. You need a college degree, and if you have it, you are likely to find the job you want after graduation.

I graduated from high school in 1988 and got a college degree in 1993. A college degree in 1993 is not so important. This is not a ticket, not a voucher, nor a free pass.

Now, if Matthew McConaughey discovered in 1993 that his college degree was of little use in the job market, then 26 years later, he would face a real shock.

With the half-life of knowledge eroding more and more day by day, the paper certificate is at best a one-time document, and at worst, it is a useless certificate. At the same time, new career paths are always open to you. Youtuber, opinion leader on Instagram, e-commerce strategist, etc.-a few years ago, these jobs did not exist.

Therefore, McConaughey believes that one of the common features of entering the labor market is uncertainty, which is correct.

You have just completed the academic education course of your life-this is the course you started when you were five years old, until now-but your future may not be clearer than it was five years ago. You don't have an answer, which is very scary.

Fortunately, McConaughey is not frustrating at all. His words immediately reassured me: “I said it’s okay. Because it’s like this. This is a real problem that many of you face, and this is the world we live in.”

McConaughey did not lament this reality, but urged We accept it and then take action.

The more dissatisfied we are with our lives, achievements, careers, and the prospects in front of us, the sooner we will be dissatisfied with ourselves, and the sooner and more we participate in it, the sooner we can get involved in these things Do better.

When you spend 15 years, 20 years, and 30 years chasing the next grade, the next semester, and the next scorecard, you can easily get into trouble. Then continue the same pattern, use the rest of your life to chase, judge and blame certificates, documents and diplomas.

However, the fact is that in the world we live in, a certificate is hardly as important as it used to be. This is what McConaughey wants us to understand and accept. To help us do this-beyond a certificate culture and into a culture of action, real impact and results-he went on to speak a total of 13 rules. Today, I want to share five of them with you.

hope they can help you build the tomorrow you deserve.

1. Don’t fall into the trap of rights

McConaughey’s attitude towards degrees and expectationsThe degree is also more determined: life does not owe you anything.

Life is not easy. Yes, life is not easy. Don't try to force it. Life is unfair, it has never been, it is not now, and it will never be. Don't fall into the trap of feeling that you are a victim-the rights trap. You are not a victim. Overcome it and move on.

Didn't your degree allow you to get an interview? Your asthma affected your exercise? No one cares about your first 50 articles? Want to cry. Everyone on this planet is facing some struggles. It may be mental, it may be physical, or it may be something that you can fully empathize with or not at all - but it is there. Everyone has a group of demons locked in their closet, and life has almost no sympathy and help to keep them away. This is our job, and it's just our own job.

No matter what you want, you have the responsibility to go out and do what is necessary to get it-no matter what kind of blows life gives you in the process.

2. Never say anything "unbelievable"

McConaughey hopes that we use his second rule to broaden our horizons and make room for things that we thought were impossible before.

"Unbelievable" is the dumbest word in the dictionary. Never say it from our mouth.

When you say: "What an unbelievable thing!" All you do is to put something that has been proven to exist outside of your possibility.

gives more trust to others and yourself. It just happened, you saw it with your own eyes, you did it, believe it all.

McConaughey said, so is the "other side" of "unbelievable". We should not naively think that humans and nature are capable of bad behavior, whether it is terrorism, unnecessary diseases, your house is completed a year later than originally planned, or your best friend lies in front of you .

"If there is one thing you can rely on people, it is people themselves. Nothing is unbelievable. This is a stupid word, an incredibly stupid sentence."

3. Pursue happiness, not happiness

under McConaughey One tells that the way we find happiness is often backward.

Happiness is an emotional response to results. If I win, I will be happy; if I lose, I will not be happy. This is a standard of "if-effect", "cause-effect", and "bartering things" that we cannot maintain, because every time we reach this standard, we will immediately improve it. You see, happiness requires a certain result, and it depends on the result.

Since happiness is fleeting, McConaughey suggests paying more attention to happiness.

This is not a choice, not a reaction to a certain result, but a constant. Happiness is the feeling of doing what we are destined to do, regardless of the outcome.

When you can find satisfaction in your daily work, when you can do enough things every day, you don't have to wait until you have achieved great results to be happy. You will always feel satisfied, and ironically, this will lead to success.

Working, making movies, and doing things are rewards in themselves-I have won more box office, more honor and respect than ever before.

4. Defining success for yourself

is the same as happiness. A good question about success is: What does it mean? To illustrate how bad our society is in answering this question, McConaughey told the following story:

A few years ago, I went to a voodoo store in southern New Orleans. There were a few bottles of "magic" potions. They lined up in a row. The title of each column explained what they could bring you-fertility, Health, family, legal help, energy, forgiveness, money. Guess which column is empty? Money.

We all know these proverbs. Money is king, and money can make ghosts... McConaughey said that even our cultural values ​​have been financialized. Humility does not seem to be cool, no one will envy those who fight protracted battles. He said: "We live in a world where we can become famous in 15 minutes and get rich quickly on the Internet." The only way for

not to be involved in an endless cycle of desire is to define success for ourselves. What do you wantWhat? If the answer is still money, that's great! But maybe you prefer to be healthy, have a happy family, or a happy marriage. Maybe you want to be famous, mentally healthy, or make the world a better place. The answer is not important, the important thing is to ask the question. What does success mean to me?

continue to ask yourself this question. Your answer may change over time. It doesn’t matter, but you have to do yourself a favor: whatever your answer is, don’t choose anything that sacrifices your soul. Give priority to who you are and who you want to be, and don't spend time on anything that is opposed to your character.

5. Make some good decisions for tomorrow

Finally, McConaughey puts forward a wonderful analogy about minimizing regret. "Don't leave crumbs," he said.

What is breadcrumbs? What I call breadcrumbs is the choice that we must review in the future.

McConaughey’s typical dramatic example is a guy who hasn’t paid his debts. One night, he was in the theater, and suddenly, three rows behind him, a person appeared with a dark face (the person owed money). Damn it. There are also people who drink too much before important events; cuddles before deadlines; or eat foods that make you feel weak. These are the breadcrumbs McConaughey talked about.

They appear in the form of regret, guilt, and self-blame. You leave them today, and tomorrow they will bring you more pressure. They will prevent you from creating a self-defining future without looking back at the past.

Of course, there is another option. We can also create results that will reward us instead of making choices that will cost us tomorrow. McConaughey calls it "the beauty of delayed gratification."

Be prepared, do yourself a favor, make a choice, and your contribution today will be recovered in the future. Surplus value, which is called ‘mailbox income’ in the entertainment industry. Today I do a good job. The movies I make are rebroadcast on TV. I will receive a check in my mailbox in five years. What a great deal!

McConaughey said that the concept of return on investment can be applied anywhere. Whether it's preparing the coffee machine in advance or arranging your clothes the night before, preparing for an interview in advance, or choosing not to hook up with married women, every choice you make can make you happier and more relaxed tomorrow It is a worthwhile choice.

"Don't leave crumbs," he said, "Never."

The roof is a man-made thing

Another lesson that McConaughey gave me impressed me: "The roof is man-made."

Have you ever felt suffocated? you know what I mean. Lost a goal at the goal line, said the wrong thing in front of the microphone, failed in a well-prepared exam, and forgot the joke in front of the 4000 graduates at the University of Houston graduation ceremony.

McConaughey believes that the reason why we destroy ourselves before the finish line is because we set ourselves artificial limits. The ceiling binds us to familiar things, and the roof is in our minds.

We should not impose these restrictions on ourselves. A blue ribbon, a statue, a victory, a great idea, a love of life, and arbitrary happiness. When we get it, what right do we have to think that we are not worth or qualify for the gift?

This is true. A college degree is no longer the golden key to success. In a chaotic world like ours, there is nothing. All that is to be done is the work itself. Work for a great cause, no matter how humble the task is. This job is worthy of the honor and wealth you desire, and is a job that can build your love of life. To do this work, we need these five rules:

1. Accept that life is unfair.

2. Never think that anything is impossible.

3. Find happiness in what you do, not chase happiness.

4. Create your own definition of success.

5. Make some decisions that are good for tomorrow.

This may not be the method you wanted when you started your education, but it is the method you, me, and even Matthew McConaughey need. Even if the whole situation of higher education is crazy, ridiculous, and unfair, but in the dailyAll the non-diploma career opportunities that appear in life also have some good points: for example, there is no ceiling.

No matter what kind of person you want to be, who you want to be, how big these restrictions are, the Internet has completely destroyed them. You have to create yourself. Yes, only you. But in order to do this, we must fight as if there is no ceiling. Put our eyes on the highest height we can reach.

Bo Jackson crossed the goal line, through the touchdown zone, and into the entry channel.

When our goal is beyond measurement, when our scope is constantly beyond our grasp, when we have an unreachable finish line.

When we do this, the game will never end. There is no end to this journey. The adventure never ends because we are always on the road.

did this and asked them to pat our shoulders and say, "Hey, you scored. Let them tell you, "You won." "Let them tell you, "You can go home now. "Let them say: "I love you too." "Let them say: "Thank you." "

took off the artificial roof we built, and always appeared as a newborn calf, that's it.

will always fight like a newborn calf and run directly into the passage. I like this very much. The attitude of

does not guarantee you forever. Success, but once you succeed, you will exceed everyone's expectations-including your own expectations. You will not fight just to compete or meet other people's rules. You are always fighting for victory.

Translator: Yoyo_J