Matthew McConaughey is someone I generally associate with noughties romcoms, an exaggerated Southern drawl and an enduring Hollywood catchphrase. ("Alright, alright, alriiiight.")

But it has to be said, the man loves doling out life advice.

Speaking of life advice, here's Mel Robbins explaining the viral "Let Them" theory.

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The Let Them Theory - Mel Robbins

McConaughey's indomitable optimism has long been part of his brand — he started a motivational blog and lifestyle range in the mid two-thousands called "Just Keep Living", and even wrote a bestselling book, Greenlights, to encourage readers to see the positives (those would be the "green lights") in life.

It's full of what he calls "ditties" of rhyming prose about how to adopt a more abundant mindset and meet your own potential — I know this not because I bought the book, but because it sat on my husband's nightstand for months and I had to hear about it.

McConaughey is to men who are into self-improvement what Mel Robbins is to women seeking ownership over their lives.

Just keep living. Image: Instagram/@officiallymcconaughey.

Truth be told, I've always found McConaughey a bit insufferable. He's a favourite on talk shows and podcasts for obvious reasons — the guy practically speaks in soundbytes.

But his delivery is so loaded with poignant pauses and profound pearls of worldly wisdom that I find myself rolling my eyes.

And while I appreciate he wants to be known as more than just a heartthrob, I'm a cynic and always take advice from celebrities with a grain of salt.

HOWEVER. All that changed recently when I came across a viral slice of content taken from an episode of Blake Mycoskie's popular podcast, No Magic Pill.

In the hour-long conversation centred on finding growth and fulfilment, the actor shared his unique hack for overcoming hard situations — and it's the literal antithesis of everything I thought I was supposed to do.

"Here's a mental trick I use whenever I'm going through something hard," he told a captivated Mycoskie.

"I tell myself it's going to take much longer than it will."

At this point in the video, I had to stop and check I'd heard him right (the drawl was really drawling.)

This is a man who preaches resilience — doing the challenging thing to grow from the experience, the only way out is through, etc etc.

But he's telling me I should actually catastrophise the incident to seem worse than it is?

That doesn't sound very Matthew McConaughey.

It turns out the concept has a name: The "Forever" mental trick.

Image: Instagram @blakemycoskie.

The idea is that rather than keeping yourself in a perpetual state of limbo, telling yourself that the hardship is here to stay actually forces you to subconsciously recalibrate.

In other words, it alters your expectations.

Then, when the hard thing does come to an end, you realise it was manageable.

The actor gave the example of surviving the early days of the pandemic.

"When COVID hit, everyone was saying, "Next week it'll be over," he explained.

"That exhausted my family. The limbo is the hardest part. So I told them the opposite: "COVID is here forever. This could go on for decades. Three years in, it ended. And we were like, "Oh. Is that it?"

Ok, I feel like three years of Covid-19 is a bad example. But he gave another one that landed better: the struggle of getting through a tough workout.

"Tell yourself, "I might not even walk after this," McConaughey suggested. "When you can walk, you realise you had more in the tank than you thought."

This one hit different. Because when I'm in an especially hard Pilates class, I always tell myself it'll be over soon. And it never is. It just goes on forever. And I want to give up.

But I've been thinking about it all wrong. According to McConaughey's logic, telling yourself the hard thing is "nearly over" only makes it mentally tougher to endure when the hard part is prolonged.

Doing hard things, like scaling mountains. Image: Instagram @officiallymcconaughey.

I decided to test the theory out in my next session.

Ten minutes into a Combo class — a gruelling mixture of mat Pilates, Barre and Reformer, I was already fatigued and ready to throw my squishy Pilates ball at the instructor.

I told myself, "This is just the beginning. You've got so long to go."

And I swear to you, after what felt like a relatively short passage of time, the instructor was shifting us into our warm down. The class was over. I'd miraculously mind-hacked myself into thinking it would be longer than it was.

And I literally uttered the words, "Oh, we're done?"

But maybe it was a fluke, right? So I put the notion to the test again on a full day of solo-parenting with my three-year-old daughter.

She was up at 6am, it was raining, and I knew outside activities were off the cards.

Faced with 10 hours of inside play, I told myself this day would never be over. I would be in this small house, playing shops and Lego and painting and hide and seek for hours on end. Which I quite literally was.

But I also found myself accepting it more willingly, rather than fighting against it.

I think something about adopting this mindset actually forced me into a kind of flow-state, and I genuinely enjoyed it more. I rolled with the day as it came.

When my husband got home from work, I didn't feel the usual level of peak exhaustion — I felt content.

I've used the tactic several times since. Turns out, tricking my brain into thinking something will be harder than it is actually has a wonderfully positive upshot: it's not that hard in the end.

Ultimately, it does come down to building resilience. It's just another way McConaughey is teaching us to develop mental fortitude.

But this is one solution I can actually swallow.

Feature image: Instagram/@blakemycoskie; Supplied.