‘Greenlights’ is a memoir of Mathew McConaughey. But according to him, it is not a traditional memoir. Greenlight is an approach book. The author playfully developed it over a period of 35 years based on his real-life adventures in the last 50 years. It proposes a consistent approach to life – to facing and managing our imperfections; dealing with pain, loss and lack of trust; facing our fears; handling our failures; remaining optimistic in face of troubles (red lights); and always being a better version of ourselves.

Contents: What’s on it

Mathew McCaughey’s Greenlight is a collection of stories he witnessed and experienced, lessons he learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, answers to questions he had, reminders of questions he still has, affirmations for certain doubts, beliefs about what matters, theories on relativity, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers.

Lessons: Take Homes

Greenlight is a documentation of the experiences of all men through the life of one man. In it, you will learn the author’s prescription for How to:

• be fair,
• have less stress,
• have fun,
• hurt people less,
• get hurt less,
• be a good person,
• get what you want from life,
• have meaning in life, and
• be more of ourselves.

Selling Points of Greenlight

The realistic presentation of Greenlight makes reading it feel like watching one’s own life on a TV screen – never tiring. In the same way, the poetic touch is just as refreshing. The book is filled with humour, scenes that will make you giggle before you can think about it. This serves to entertain every reader.

Unsurprising, ‘Greenlights’ has received many excellent reviews. While it rates 4.2 out of 5 on Goodreads, google users rate it 4.7 of stars. It debuted at number one on The New York Times non-fiction best-seller list for the week ending October 24, 2020.

Is Greenlight Recommended for minors?

Is Greenlights child-friendly? No, I won’t recommend Greenlights for minors. First, I’m sceptical about the author’s frequent use of wet dream in the book.

Again, it trivializes some social issues. For example, it okays the violent relationship that existed between the parents of the author.

In addition, the book normalizes some failure in moral conducts. This is such as when the author’s mother says it was okay to copy someone else’s work for his own assignment. Another instance is not faulting the author’s act of stealing as a teen but rather his failure to be man enough to admit it – these, the author titled as the Outlaw Logic. To the minor, who has not yet a grip on his or her thought; this is more like endorsing crime long as one is able to admit it.

Yet, Nothing Spoiled

Nonetheless, it is fair that the author started off with a disclaimer that Greenlights is neither an advice nor a sentimental book. Hence, except any teen is thoughtful enough to tell authors’ opinion from what is necessarily right, I wouldn’t recommend it appropriate for minor.

On the other hand, to an adult; the seeming endorsement of short morality isn’t really endorsement. Instead, many mature readers will understand it for it is: an unhypocritical acceptance of the reality that we all err. And that when we do, there is no need overbeating ourselves with guilt because that is being human.

Organization of Greenlights

How many pages is Greenlights? And how long is the audiobook? While the print version of Greenlights is 303 pages, the audiobook is 6 hours and 42 minutes long. Mathew McCaughey himself performed the audiobook.

To Life

The book has eight parts with a 3-theme introduction. The initial introduction summarizes the book. Then the first introductory theme – To Life, gives a holistic view of life and outlines its targets for quality living. Mathew reminisced on the general questions and his experience of life. In Mathew’s own poetic voice:

“These are my sights and seens, felts and figured outs, cools and shamefuls.

Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality.

Initiations, invitations, calibrations, and graduations.

Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets trying to dance between the raindrops.

Rites of passage.

All between or on the other sides of persistence and letting go, on the way to the science of satisfaction in this great experiment called life.”

In the end, he states that he found consistent ways that he approached life which gave him more satisfaction. And these ways become the motivation for the book.

He hopes what his approach of life is to me, and probably you:

“it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.” Because the approach, it a love letter to life.

How did We Get Here?

While the first introductory theme, To Life, gives a general overview of life; the second, How Did We Get Here, gives a personal rundown of the author’s life. The author recalled his humble beginning, his earliest victories and the challenges he’s had to face. He remembered how and what a tough man his parents raised him to be.

In his words, “I was raised on existential outlaw logic, a carnation of malaprops, full of fictitious physics, because if it wasn’t true, it ought to be.”

He concludes the second introductory theme with what how he was raised taught him:

“I learned early on how to get relative: how to deal.

I learned resilience, consequences, responsibility, and how to work hard. I learned how to love, laugh, forgive, forget, play, and pray. I learned how to hustle, sell, charm, turn a tide, make a downfall my up fall, and spin a yarn. I learned how to navigate highs and lows, hugs and blows, assets and deficits, love songs and epithets. Especially when faced with the inevitable (death).” This theme sets the tone for the remaining parts of the book.

What is Greenlight?

The last introductory theme of Greenlight by Mathew McConaughey is “What is Greenlight?”

This is basically one of the first questions an objective reader will ask before starting the book. What is greenlight? And what does the author, Mathew McConaughey, mean by greenlight?

He answers the question in the third and last introductory theme.

Contemporary Meaning

First, the author gave the general definition of the word, greenlight:

“GREENLIGHTS MEAN GO—ADVANCE, CARRY ON, continue.

On the road, they are set up to give the flow of traffic the right of way, and when scheduled properly, more vehicles catch more greenlights in succession. They say proceed.”

As Used in The Book, Greenlight

Following the general definition of greenlight, Mathew describes the contextual meaning of the greenlight that he implied in his book:

“In our lives, they are an affirmation of our way. They’re approvals, support, praise, gifts, gas on our fire, Atta boys, and appetites. They’re cash money, birth, springtime, health, success, joy, sustainability, innocence, and fresh starts”.

Within the context of the book, greenlight means all the good, positivity’s and optimisms of life. It is all our life encounters that we like as humans.

Yellow and Red Lights

In contrast, the author of Greenlights classified all the obstacles and challenges of life, our dislikes as either yellow or red lights – depending on the degree.

He however, further noted that yellow and red lights are both greenlights in disguise.

These include “a caution, a detour, a thoughtful pause, an interruption, a disagreement, indigestion, sickness, and pain. A full stop, a jack-knife, an intervention, failure, suffering, a slap in the face, death”.

Catching Greenlights

How do we find greenlights from all of these yellow and red lights? Mathew McConaughey noted that this can be by sheer luck, intuition, karma, fortune or even fate. But he also noted that it can as well be by our personal resolve to take the responsibility for it.

We can take responsibility for own greenlights by “identifying where the red lights are in our life, and then change course to hit fewer of them”. In addition, we catch greenlights by “getting relative with the inevitable at the right time”. To do this, we accept the outcome of an inevitable situation; then choose how to deal with.

Taking responsibility for our own greenlights require skills: intent, context, consideration, endurance, anticipation, resilience, speed, and discipline. “We can create more and schedule them in our future — a path of least resistance — through force of will, hard work, and the choices we make”.

Complete Solution

Greenlights is “about how to catch more yeses in a world of no’s and how to recognize when a no might actually be a yes. This is a book about catching greenlights and realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green.”

Greenlights is a book you should read.

PiusJoe’s Reviews of Greenlights

My review of Greenlights is not an analysis of the content – Genius Reads does this excellently and you can listen to it free with Free Audible Trial. Instead, my reviews are a collection of real-life lessons from the book. And I share these lessons, part by part here.

Download Greenlights by Mathew McConaughey

To better follow the life and professional lessons from Greenlights, I highly recommend that you read the book ahead. You can download and read/listen to Greenlights on Amazon. Click here to get it.