Motivation Daily by Motiversity - TOP 10 OF 2025: YOU OWE IT TO YOU - Best Matthew McConaughey Motivational Speech

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

We're counting down your favourite episodes of 2025!#10: NO RISK, NO STORY#9: BE DELUSIONAL#8: YOU VS YOU#7: THE POWER OF POSITIVITY#6: PERSISTENCE#5: IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL I WIN#4: SEEK DISCOMFORT#3: YOU OWE IT TO YOUSpecial thanks to:Chris Williamson: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisWillxTom Bilyeu: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuFollow Matthew:https://www.instagram.com/officiallymcconaughey/https://www.facebook.com/MatthewMcConaughey/https://twitter.com/McConaugheyGreenlights book: https://amzn.to/2YinBAMMusic licensed from:AudiojungleChasing Daylight' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.auhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnp0pmvJQQEpidemic Sound Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello listeners, Motivirity is excited to share that we have launched a new podcast called Morning Motivation by Motivore. If you are looking to start your day with positivity and the most uplifting motivational audio, this is the show for you. For today's episode of Motivation Daily by Motivority Podcast, we are sharing a recent episode from the Morning Motivation Podcasts. If you like it, go follow the show. New episodes are being released every week. The link is in the description. If you're going to do it, do it. Say what you can do.

Do what you say. If you can't do it, don't say you can do it. Don't over-leverage the decision and then jump in and kind of dip a toe. I think I'll try it out. Now, think if you're going to try it out beforehand, but when it's time to go, dive. Finish it, find out. Come out the other side. Don't leave it and go,

if I just foot it, uh-uh. That keeps me up at night. I think it keeps a lot of us up at night. When you half-assed something you just don't know, whether you've failed or succeeded, got what you want or didn't get what you want, finding out and looking in the mirror and going, I didn't half-hast it.

I went all the way, I found out, and that ain't for me. Or I found out, and you damn right, that is for me. That's a great place to get to. I think part of the challenges in life is a lot of us are running around half-assing ourselves, half-fooling ourselves, not full of ourselves, not studying ourselves enough, not holding ourselves to task enough, not patting our own self on the back when we do get what we want enough, not cracking our own whip on our backside when we do get out of line even though we knew better. I wish we were more full of ourselves that way.

Someone said this to me before. Matthew, you're so full of yourself. And without thinking, I was like, well, who else am I supposed to be full of? that's a good line and I stopped that and I was like that's exactly what I meant and I wrote that down

I wish more people were more full of themselves I think we should take some time to be able to look in the mirror and own that thing that we pulled off and go good job

that's what you wanted that's what you got at the same time be able to as we do more often look in the mirror when we fail and go

eh-a-bogie You did not want to. Give others and yourself more credit. Happiness, you can't guarantee it, but there is a science to satisfaction. You can look at habits that engineered less pain in your life. Maybe more pleasure, but at least less pain. And that's a win. So much easier to be supportive and gentle of other people than of ourselves.

You know, you will happily bestow this sort of gentle, reassuring pat on the shoulder when somebody succeeds or falls short when they tried their best. Yet, given the fact that you tried your best, you give yourself a kick on the way out of the door and a harsh word to follow you. Yep. Because I got myself in the pickle. Because things didn't go how I wanted it to go or how I believed it could go. Life's the ironic tragedy. Life is pain. I'm the reason.

that I stepped in, which is also an asset, even if someone go, why do you give yourself so much credit for screwing that up? We're going to make mistakes. You got to own them. Then you've got to make amends. And then you've got to move on. Guilt and regret kills many a man before their time. So turn the page, get off the ride.

You are the author of the book of your life. There are habits that I notice of things I take care of in my life. health-wise, faith-wise, father-wise, husband-wise, if I'm doing that consistently, there's less valleys. The ironic tragedy is that life has to be lived forward but only makes sense in reverse. When you look back, we can all connect every single dot. It's mathematical, scientific how we got to this table right here. It's all connected if we go back and look at it.

And there's a whole lot of, I thought that was the end. Well, it was the end, but it was the beginning of this thing. what you're leaning into is that mystery going forward, right? That ironic tragedy, you have something to push off the, well, I don't know what I do want, but I do know I don't want that. You have leverage. Yes. You know, it's there.

You know, we always say, well, who are you? You know, I want to figure out who you are. And we ask, I try to ask my kids that now. Well, I want you know who you are. And a part of that who's helped me is Bob Dylan's lines. Like, I don't know what all this talks about who we are, man. We are all just what we create ourselves to be. And that gives me a little, oh, that's relaxing.

But it's so much easier to figure out who you're not. And if you start eliminating who I'm not, by sheer mathematics, you end up moving toward. Who, more of what feeds you and who you are. And it's a hell of a lot easier thing to go, how can I get rid of some bullshit my life, than it is to go, well, how do I go to my true self? Do I want to press the accelerator more quickly? Or do I want to take my foot off the fucking break? Sometimes the hard work and the endurance and the elbow grease that work harder.

We were talking about that hustle is not the way out. Sometimes it's, I need to back up, laugh, have a sip of my favorite, whatever, and dance my way through the raindrops out of this sun. And even looking at the things that are bad and going, oh, thank you. Appreciate that. I think one of the themes of your worldview that I've become familiar with is alchemizing bad times into good ones. a reminder that things that seem bad can end up being good. How can people, or how do you have more of that perspective during a hard time?

I probably start off intellectualizing something that I know I probably should believe in, but don't believe in it, and convince myself, even to an extent to trick myself, that, you know, sit here and go, well, you just tell yourself, this two shall pass. Okay, great, well, what the hell's at me? even if it's true. In the moment, you're like, what are you fucking talking about, man? I'm in the debit section. I'm in a warning section. This sucks. I think that how much I'm conscious of it or not, my undeniable optimism and faith, that this isn't all it is. And if it is, so what? That's, okay. Well, then really so what? You know what I mean? What's the big deal? It minimizes,

is I don't, I seem to have a tendency not to make a bigger deal out of things that other people make a bigger deal. Dramas. I don't like to create false drama. When it comes in a tard, I am affecting. I get the blues. I get sad. I get mad.

I'm a shit to be around. I can't get to sleep. I got demons and moaned trying to work, trying to work the riddle out. Why did this happen? That's the other thing that's tough for me is I think that any bad thing that happens to me, my initial reaction is, what did you do wrong to lead to this? heard a quote recently that said every man knows reflection

and introspection when he's at his lowest bad times you can't do anything other than wallow in retrospective assessment but one of my favorite things I've learned from you is when things are going well given that that's presumably what you want to have more of

may be worth deconstructing that yes can I try and bottle some science here to why things are going well, and I did find consistencies. You were appreciating more. You were pointing out beautiful things and not taking them for granted. And so I found a list of things. I'm like, and when I get off track, I try to remind myself, ah, you've been slacking on some of those. I've definitely found consistencies, and I think we all have them if we just notate them along the

way that they're not by accident. Let's cheers. Let's have a cheers on the way for all the things that are worked for when we have going right. Also knowing that it's not forever, that we will have a mountain to climb here shortly. What's my best advice I need to give myself right now is listen to my own damn advice. We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. I want to skip the flattery and the out of boys because I do know this. The sooner that we become less impressed with our life, with our accomplishments, with our career, with whatever that prospect is in front of us, the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with that and these things, the sooner we get a whole lot better at doing it.

It's like we've forgotten who we are now. Explorers, pioneers, not care, digers. Now, why do you pursue things that scare you? Why seek the role that's hard? Because it costs me something. Because it costs. It comes to the price. It's not really a risk unless you can lose the fight.

I feel more alive in them. I have an experience in the making of them. I'm nervous every day I come to work. I hear the things you can get away with in this world, everything you can. Life is not easy. It is not. Don't try to make it that way. Life's not fair.

It never was. It isn't now and it won't ever be. Do not fall into the trap, the entitlement trap, a feeling like you're a victim. You are not. Get over it. Get on it. And yes, most things are.

more rewarding when you break a sweat to get them. I feel like when I nail a day and I knock and I know I did I feel like yes I get I have a measure at the end of the day like you set out to do something you prepared for it you had intention and you did it that gives me gratification that makes me feel gives me significance that gives me confidence to be brave have courage and when you do you get stronger you get more aware you get more respectful of yourself and that which you fear. I want to talk about our opponent this afternoon. You're bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced, and on paper, they're just better.

And they know it too. I want to tell you something that you don't know. Because heading out there, what I feel like I was born to do, it excites me. Just because you can, it's not a good enough reason to do something. even when it means having more. Be discerning. Choose it because you want it. Do it because you want to.

It's on you. It's on you. We remember the stuff we earn, the stuff we experience more than what the teacher tells us or what someone gives us for free. We just do. We broke a proverbial sweat on it, whether it was mental or physical or whatever.

We built it. We understand. We felt how we got it, how we achieved it, how we got what we wanted. Those stick with us. Whether we forget them intellectually, they were written in our lineage, and they build resilience, and they build a healthy, true optimism going forward to know that, oh, no, I've worked for something before and achieved it.

Delayed gratification. Oh, there are choices I can make today for myself that will pay me back later in life. And I've got friends, and trust me, I've done it myself. you know, that lose a job and then get another, but won't take it because it's less salary than maybe the one they had before. And all of a sudden, find themselves three, four, five, six, seven, eight years, a decade later going, they're still stuck.

They didn't do anything. They're still saying like, no, I'm going to find that thing. And I'm going, like, you missed a decade, man. Just go do that one that you love to do that maybe was going to pay you less because you'd at least been building something through the day. And who knows what that would have led to. Maybe that would have led to something where you're getting paid five times more than you.

you were doing something else you love even more. So sometimes it's not even about what choice we make. Just make a choice and commit to it and go and dive in. So while we're here and they're going to run across the JumboTron, let's make it a place where we break a sweat, where we believe, where we enjoy the process of succeeding in the places and ways that we are fashioned to, where we don't have to look over our shoulder because we're too busy doing what we're good at, voluntarily keeping our own counsel because we want to, traveling towards immortal finish lines, we write our own book, overcoming our fears. We make friends with ourselves.

And that is the place that I'm talking about. From the souls of your feet, with every ounce of blood you've got in your body, lay it on the line until the final whistle blows. And if you do that, if you do that, we cannot lose. So turn the page, get off the ride. You are the author of the book of your life. Knowing who we are is hard. It's hard.

Give yourself a break. Eliminate who you are not first, and you're going to find yourself where you need to be. And the Oscar goes to Matthew McConaughey. I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, who's your hero? And I said, I don't know, I've got to think about that. Give me a couple of weeks. I come back two weeks later. This person comes up and says, who's your hero.

I said, I thought about it. You know who it is? I said, it's me in 10 years. So I turned 25, 10 years later. That same person comes to me and goes, so are you a hero? And I was like, not even close. No, no, no. She said, why?

I said, because my hero is me at 35. So you see, every day, every week, every month, and every year in my life, my hero is always 10 years away. I'm never going to be my hero. I'm not going to attain that. I know I'm not. And that's just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing. So to any of us, whatever those things are, whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to and whoever it is, we're chasing.

To that I say, amen. To that I say, all right, all right, all right. And I say, just keep living, huh? Thank you. Nobody has ever choked? I have. You know what I'm talking about fumbling at the goal line. Suck your foot in your mouth once you got to the microphone, had a brain full.

freeze on the exam that you were totally prepared for forgot the punchline to a joke in front of 4,000 graduating students at the University of Houston commencement or maybe you've had that feeling of oh my god life just cannot get any better than this moment and ask yourself do I deserve this now what happens when we get that feeling tense up we have this sort of outer body experience where we are literally seeing ourselves in the third person and we realized that the moment just got bigger than us. You ever felt that way? I have.

And it's because we have created a fictitious ceiling, a roof to our expectations of ourselves, a limit where we think it's all too good to be true. But it's not. And it's not our right to say or believe it is. We shouldn't create these restrictions on ourselves. a blue ribbon, a statue, a score, a great idea, the love of our life, a euphoric bliss. Who are we to think that we don't deserve or haven't earned these gifts when we get them?

It's not our right. But if we stay in process, all right, within ourselves, in the joy of the doing, we will never choke at the finish line. Why? Because we aren't thinking of the finish line. Because we're not looking at the clock. We're not watching ourselves on the Jumbotron performing the very act that we're in the middle of. No, we're in process.

The approach is the destination, and we are never finished. Bo Jackson, what do you do? He used to run over the goal line through the end zone and up the tunnel. The greatest snipers and marksmen in the world, they don't aim at the target. They aim on the other side of the target. We do our best when our destinations are beyond the measurement. When our reach continually exceeds our grasp and when we have immortal finish lines. And when we do this, the race is never over.

Journey has no port. The adventure never ends because we are always on the way. So do this. Do this and let them, let somebody else come up and tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, you school? Let them run up and tap you on the show and say, man, you want. Let them come tell you, you can go home now. Let them say, I love you too. Let them say, thank you.

Take the lid off the man-made roots that we put above ourselves and always play like an underdog. It would be helpful. Responsibility of freedom and the freedom in responsibility. Life's more than just straight Saturdays with as much cake as you want to eat. It just is. We will see how long you last doing that if you really do it. You won't last how long.

Responsibility is appreciation of a past. It's building of a lineage. It's investing in ourselves. It's investing in something we started to build yesterday that we want to take into tomorrow. There's a response. That gives us freedom. So to actually have true freedom,

we have to be more responsible for certain things, for ourselves, who we are, constantly investigating, interrogating our better selves to say, I'm going to be a little bit better at this tomorrow. knowing that we never land. We never, we never, there's no, there's no ta-da moment. And that is one thing I think we all got to watch because we all are so result-oriented.

But there's no ta-da-a moment. We're always chasing yet. And if we can get comfortable and understand and laugh and be ready to work hard, the fact that we're all just achieving our way to the unachievable. And that's as good as it gets. And that's pretty damn awesome. Thank you.

Good luck. You just leave it.