Quotes from Scott Hamilton

What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating.

What's the point of doing anything if it's easy? It's so much more valuable when a challenge has to be overcome.

The only disability in life is a bad attitude. -Scott Hamilton

Focus on building up others, and your own sense of self-worth will improve. Some call these random acts of human kindness. But the truth is, acting unselfishly is not random at all. Instead, it is a conscious, concerted effort to make the world better by making someone else's life better. The bonus: you will be happier by doing it.

The only handicap in life is a bad attitude.

it doesn't matter what the challenge is -athletics, business, romance, health, academics, the arts- the rule for getting up is the same. you just get up!

you always have to keep things fun. if you don't, no matter how many awards you win or how much money you make, you will never be happy.

My job was to make sure that my pain was not visible to the audience. They came to escape their troubles, not to be drawn into my own pain.

Have you ever stopped for a minute to think about how many things had to go wrong in your life for you to end up exactly where you are?

The path to victory is the path you're on. It becomes a path to victory the moment you decide it does.

Some bad things are going to happen, but more great things are going to happen. If you tend to see more bad than good, then you have to build that positive muscle in your brain much like an athlete does certain muscles to execute a certain move.

Each movement is only learned after you've perfected the one before it.

This is the power of finishing first. This is the power of showing up, leveraging your strengths and weaknesses, and outworking everyone. My world would never be the same.

If you finish first, your friends may become jealous, your family might think you've gotten too big for your britches, and your competition might put a target on your back. So it's better to not compete. Better, that is, for your friends, your family, and your competition. But it's not better for you. Donald Miller

We haven't even stopped to consider the fact that losing might not hurt anyone. What if, by shielding people in this way, we're stealing the transformational power of both winning and losing in their lives? The irony is that if you believe nothing matters in life, you will live a life that doesn't matter.

The only disability in life is a bad attitude

To try something new, we have to be willing to check our egos at the door. We have to move out from under what is comfortable and be willing to take the risk of being bad at something, or making fools of ourselves, or letting people ask those questions like, "Barbecue? Why barbecue?" When they ask that, we can say, "Because it's fun!

As I looked around at the crowds of people, I found myself thinking about how every person in that park has an incredible story to tell. You have an incredible story to tell. Some nugget of wisdom to share. Some gift that the world needs you to give.

All I'm saying is that we can't get caught up in our mistakes, our failures, our setbacks, or our victories. None of it defines us. None of this is worth holding on to. We have to build on every victory toward our next victory, or we'll miss the incredible potential we each have to bring our gifts to the world.

We're all dealt a different hand in this life. I don't know what hand you were dealt. But I know that the only thing we can do with our hand is play it—no bluffing. You can make the choice. You can either waste the opportunities you've been given, waste away in your regrets and failures, waste your gift, waste your time and energy and effort, and wait for your participation ribbon. Or you can choose to finish first. Which will you choose?

The greatest indicator of success is longevity, and longevity is only achieved by taking small, meaningful, consistent steps in the same direction.

This is where grace lives - in the jumping in. In showing up, day after day. In trying and learning and trying again and again.

Look around. Pay attention to the stories of people who are finishing first. Then realize that all of your excuses are just that—excuses. Ask what has worked for others and how you can make it work for you, too. Ask yourself how you can leverage your unique skills and strengths to accomplish the unthinkable.

If you feel like you're being called to something, answer it. A dream you don't answer becomes a nightmare.