While studying humility for the last few months, it was impossible to ignore Keanu Reeves. My career had taken a turn for the worse and the idea that the Matrix Star could do anything about that seemed, frankly, ridiculous.
It quickly became clear that humility was the cure to career failure and Keanu Reeves was the person to model if my goal was to produce results that were beyond my own skills and experience. The traits of Keanu that have made him extraordinary and can help you do the same are:
- Kindness
- Humility
- Gratitude
- Solitude
- Positive loneliness
Keanu has become the modern-day symbol for these traits and how to live your life even when you are successful or have made more money than you could ever spend.
One thing that struck me after reading hundreds of tweets about people who had met Keanu in real-life was how normal people said he was. People that met him said he was just like anyone else and had a calm energy about him. This quote sums up my research of him perfectly:
“His general demeanor was of gentle befuddlement as to why I, or anyone, would want to talk to him.” — SMLYC on Twitter
Could it be that normality is the answer and not success?
By coming across as normal, relatable, and most of all humble, Keanu has created his own lane.
His way of life has become an internet sensation because it’s the opposite of what we’re told through the newsfeeds of social media.
As Keanu has become more and more humble throughout his career, his success, fame and the opportunities he has been given have increased.
This is the Keanu Reeves way of life that you can implement in your own life:
Be humble beyond belief
I watched so many of Keanu’s speeches while studying his work and one thing stood out: he spends a disproportionate amount of time acknowledging the team around him.
The set builder receives just as much appreciation as the director or his agent.
In every story I read about Keanu, he demonstrated humility. There was a time he was standing outside his own party and the security guard wouldn’t let him in. Rather than use his fame to get in, he stood outside in the rain patiently waiting in line with everyone else.
You just don’t see humble acts like this enough with super successful people and it explains a lot about Keanu and his way of life.
Through the recent career battles I have had, thinking about Keanu and the way he acts has stopped me from making dumb mistakes when the inevitable rejection, silence and mishaps occur. When you channel the humbleness that Keanu Reeves displays, it’s impossible to be an asshole. Not being an asshole can help you produce results that you didn’t think were possible. Why?
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No one wants to work with an asshole, but everyone wants to work with someone who doesn’t think they are the best and supports other people’s goals while supporting their own simultaneously.
Time in solace and reflection
There are many photos of Keanu on the internet sitting in quiet solace and reflecting. It is fascinating to analyze these photos and to ponder what he might be thinking.
It seems that this time alone has helped Keanu process the tragedies his life has produced and that is how we find meaning to endure. Life can be go, go, go and without quiet time away from technology, we can’t assess what is happening, and most of all, why it is happening.
I have spent the better part of four months away from it all experiencing this kind of solace. It has helped me unlock parts of myself that I didn’t know existed. The time away led me to research humility and that led me to Keanu and writing this article.
I’m not sure the study of humility would ever have crossed my mind if it wasn’t for quiet reflection. Life is too noisy to discover ideas like humility that can change your life. Humility seems ridiculous when you have bills to pay, goals to set and people to meet. The Keanu way of life forces you to insert quiet time into your calendar.
Use tragedy to give you perspective
Through Keanu’s life, he has lost a best friend, partner, child and had a sister battle cancer. Each of these events has taught Keanu to use them to gain perspective.
It’s easy to get lost in your career or your short-term success when you focus on small things like money, followers, attention and gaining appreciation. Tragedy helps you have present moment awareness and to understand how short time is.
Any one of us could be taken from this world tomorrow and that is why chasing things bigger than ourselves is so crucial.
Through each tragedy, we become stronger and each one is a pulse check to see if we have been given the necessary wake up call.
“We’re all in it together”
This is a quote from one of Keanu’s interviews. He believes that we are all in this together and that explains why he embraces humility and goes out of his way to help people.
There are countless stories of him going out of his way to drive someone somewhere, or give money to someone in need, or organize a rental car after an issue with a flight for other people and join them on their trip.
All of this is an example not to be the most known person or be in the spotlight for the sake of it. Whether you have fame, money or success, you are still human and that means you can always help another person out.
Seeing each other as equal rather than placing one another on podiums that are adjusted in height based on success, is how we relate to people that helps us to produce extraordinary results in life.
Your results in life are based on bringing people around you, not in seeing people as being in competition with you.
So if we are all connected to each other and what hurts another person hurts you, you may as well be a nice and cool person. It will serve you well.
Good guy, anti-star charisma
Charisma can be formed in two ways:
- By being confident and cocky
- By being a good guy/girl through care for others
The second form of charisma produces an anti-star. An anti-star doesn’t seek attention, want praise, have expectations on others, and uses any fame they have to bring others up with them so everyone gets a piece.
That second form of charisma is what Keanu has. He is confident in himself being able to help others, not in being the biggest brightest, shiniest star that overshadows everyone he encounters.
A star is in it for themselves.
A good guy/girl is in it for more than themselves.
You don’t go away; you’re consistently reborn in life
Keanu Reeves has drifted in and out of our lives through his work.
Each time he goes away from the spotlight, he comes back and is rediscovered and reborn into something better than before. This is the Keanu way.
Throughout life, we have multiple rebirths. Before every rebirth is a period of isolation and sometimes loneliness — his time away is part of the process. If you never go away from the spotlight in your career, you can’t do the difficult work on yourself that is required to level-up.
Nothing dies in our lives. Everything is just reborn in a different form that is better than our original existence. This idea is shown through Keanu’s work when he’s a star in the early ’90s, goes away and comes back in the Matrix movies, goes away again, and then comes back in the John Wick movie franchise.
This is what rebirth looks like in life and it’s a belief that helps us unlock extraordinary results.
Model compassion and vulnerability
One reporter said in a video I saw on Keanu’s life:
“He has been modeling a compassionate and vulnerable version of masculinity for thirty years.”
That is an excellent description of what the Keanu way of life entails. If you adopt the principles in this article outlined so far, then you can get closer to people and lower your own importance with the glue that sticks humanity together: compassion.
And vulnerability is part of the same equation for the Keanu way of life. It’s not easy to admit your own failures or talk about tragedies that have shaped your life, which you played a part in. It’s especially unfashionable for a Hollywood celebrity to seem anything but, well, perfect.
But through our own ability to be vulnerable, we get to speak our truth.
That truth defines us and unites us as people. This is what Keanu has done for thirty years and it’s only now that his version of masculinity and way of being has become heavily publicized. It’s hard to ignore Keanu’s way of life in a world that does its best to promote competition, attention, fame and rivalry.
This quote from a video on Keanu sums it up best:
“Keanu is an unlikely antidote to everything wrong with the news cycle”
Keanu’s way of life has become a somewhat obsession and I hope to see it become fashionable. I long for the day when simple traits such as humility and compassion bring us together.
All of us can unlock the Keanu way of life and produce extraordinary results in the process. Basically, it involves embracing the philosophy that is to be a good human being. Whenever you are faced with a question from now on around how to treat a situation or person, ask yourself this:
“What would Keanu Reeves do?” And then use his way of life as a strategy.
