5
" The reality is people are comfortable with you where you are. Your lack of success makes them feel safe and predictable because you serve as a point of reference for how much better their situation is than yours. Inside, you likely know if you start moving up, your sense of security in their ecosystem will be threatened. So you stay. But are you satisfied?
Losing as a means to survive socially is the stuff of a sad life. It’s sad because the best thing that can happen to your friends, your family, and even your competition is for you to succeed. Yes, it may disrupt the ecosystem for a moment, but soon after you switch into a faster lane, the horns will stop honking, the middle fingers will descend, and people will begin to accept the new and improved you. And the friends worth keeping around will begin to improve their lives, too. Successful people set the pace for the rest of us.
Donald Miller "
― Scott Hamilton , Finish First: Winning Changes Everything
7
" Maybe to you it seems arrogant or selfish to think of yourself on a podium. You were trained to hold the door open for others, to be kind, thoughtful, sacrificial, and helpful. You were taught that the last would be first. Nothing is wrong with any of that. And as an Olympic athlete, I can say with confidence that the best way to help people—maybe even the only way to help anyone—is to start chipping away at the part of you that worries you don’t have much to offer. Become someone who is worthy of winning, and you’ll have a wider, greater impact than you ever dreamed possible.
In addition to this idea that winners are selfish and losers are the good guys, we also have the idea that winners and losers are preselected, and that doesn’t feel fair. Yes, some of us are born with more resources than others, more access, more opportunities. But only one qualification makes someone more likely to win: they choose to win.
The number-one predictor for whether you will be a winner is if you decide to be one. It’s a choice only you can make. And once you make it, nothing will be able to stop you. "
― Scott Hamilton , Finish First: Winning Changes Everything
16
" Losing is so much more familiar to us than winning. In fact, for most of us, I think losing is all we know. It’s easier. It’s comfortable. Very little is expected of those who lose. And the more we lose, the more we expect to lose, which sets us up for more losing. When you expect something to happen, for the most part, it happens. No wonder you keep losing—you see yourself as someone who constantly loses!
Can you relate to this? No matter how hard you work, no matter how many diet programs you try, no matter how many hours you put in at the office, you keep falling short. After all of that effort and all of the negative results over and over again, of course you would lose motivation to keep trying. That mentality is only natural. But what if you could move beyond what is “natural” to something supernatural? What if you could defy all odds to achieve your greatest, most hidden potential? "
― Scott Hamilton , Finish First: Winning Changes Everything
19
" Part of me wonders, in a world that seems so divided and divisive, if we’re really at odds with one another or if we’re just feeling entitled and lazy. Maybe we’re just so bored with our comfortable lives that we have to find something to fill our time. As humans, we are wired for a challenge, so if we don’t challenge ourselves, we’ll find petty drama and arguments to keep us busy. Spend time around people who are truly working to bring the best version of themselves to the world, and my guess is that we won’t feel much like arguing anymore.
You become like the people with whom you spend the most time. So it should be no surprise that spending time with people who beat me constantly didn’t deter me from finishing first. Instead, it helped me access my own will to win. Why is it that we get so caught up with thinking that beating someone is bad for them? What if winning is the kindest, bravest, most helpful thing you can do?
Healthy competition teaches us. It doesn’t hold us back. It pushes us forward. When we bring our best to the competition, it challenges everyone to dig deep and discover their hidden talents, their buried tenacity, their untapped skill. You were put on this Earth to do something amazing. Something nobody else can do. The only way you can do that thing is to tap into your deepest power, your greatest potential. Far too many of us are missing it because we’re worried about making a way for someone else. "
― Scott Hamilton , Finish First: Winning Changes Everything
