Last Sunday, much of the world watched the Academy Awards. While I read a book instead, I did see Matthew McConaughey’s acceptance speech on Monday morning. Today’s quotation comes from that speech. While there are other valuable lessons from his speech, this nine word snippet gives all of us something to think about.
Questions to Ponder
– Who is my hero?
– Why?
– How would my choices change today if my hero was “myself in 10 years)?
Action Steps
1. If you don’t have a hero, consider the questions above.
2. If you do have a hero (or once you determine one) think about why you look up to them and what you can learn from them.
3. Decide to learn from their example to become a better you, rather than trying to be them.
My Thoughts
I’d encourage you to watch the full speech (you can do that right below) to get the context of this short quotation. I suppose you could interpret these words as somehow shallow or over-confident. If you feel that I would especially encourage you to watch it all, as I don’t interpret it that way at all.
Hero worship is a slippery slope – when we “want to be like someone else” we often slip into emulation (trying to be like them ) or discouragement (“I could never be like them”). The more valuable approach to heroes is to see what we can learn from them to become our best self. McConaughey’s approach reduces the risk of following a hero and puts the aspirational focus on ourselves. I’ve been thinking about his words all week, and the more I think about them the more powerful, profound, and positive I find them. I challenge you to think about how you would apply these words in your life, too.
Here is a video of the full acceptance speech.
Hi Kevin,
I also only saw the video clip only the next day and I fully agree with you. Matthew McConaughey gave one of the most inspiring three minute speeches I have seen in a long time! He managed to give a very profound yet simple life philosophy to follow in three easy to remember points:
1. Have Someone to look up to – Acknowledge your limits and the existence of Someone Who is limitless
2. Have something to look forward to – The importance of hope in our lives and positive expectations
3. Someone to chase – Your hero, which you covered in this post. Having yourself as your hero, is like you say, a very positive and decision guiding point of view, for in a sense you are continually creating your hero in ten years by what you do today.
This is also something thats been on my mind this past week.