Finish First Quotes

“The path to victory is the path you’re on. It becomes a path to victory the moment you decide it does.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“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?”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“God has always promised to do more than we would ever ask or imagine. It's just that so few of us take Him up on His offer.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“You will move the direction in which you’re pointed. If you are always looking back to the past, reliving your failures or even your successes, no wonder you’re not moving forward very quickly. You can either spend time sitting around, thinking about the “glory days,” or you can get about the business of finishing first in your life right now. The idea is to stay pointed forward, to focus your attention on the direction you’d like to go.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“We can’t rest on our past successes. We can’t be satisfied with what we did back then. We always, always have to be pushing forward to what is in front of us. And in doing that, we make ourselves an appreciating asset instead of a depreciating one, living off of our past successes.
Success can be its own obstacle if we’re not careful. Too many of us hold on to our past wins at the expense of future wins. If you’re dwelling in the past—even the really good stuff about your past—there is no way you’ll ever make any progress in your life. It’s like eating half an apple and thinking you’ll save the rest for later. The more time that goes by, the less appealing the apple looks. Stale success is like a browned apple.
What served us today won’t necessarily serve us tomorrow. What was nourishing yesterday becomes poisonous if we’re always stashing it away, saving it for later.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“This is the power of hard work. You suddenly realize you can do things you never thought you could do. You have power you never knew you had.
There are endless stories of people who have been told, “You can’t, you won’t, you shouldn’t . . .” and who have overcome all the odds to do it anyway. Will you be one of those people? When you know who you are and what you are capable of achieving, why would you not finish first? Unrealized potential is some of the greatest pain in the world.
If you are suffering or hurting, there is a way out—work hard. We are wired for hard work. Some of our greatest pain in life is because we are avoiding work. Build your life in the way of a champion. Be memorable. Be unique. Be different. Be special. Be the absolute best version of you.
We get only one shot at this thing called life. If you’re not satisfied, there is a reason. It’s time to stop sitting around wasting time, waiting for what you want your life to be like; it’s time to start going after the amazing things you know are possible for you. It’s time to begin realizing the unique potential that has always been waiting for you.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“When your goal is bigger than you and you realize, in fact, so little of what you do is about you, that no one is paying much attention to you anyway, suddenly you can get out of your own way. If you’re struggling with getting out of your own way, ask yourself who needs this that is not you. Do it for that person.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Victories build on each other. Have you stopped to ask yourself what would make today a win for you? You don’t need to hit all of your goals today. You may only need to accomplish one small goal—and that can be the victory you stand on tomorrow to accomplish your next small goal. Small victories empower us for bigger victories.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“We do not get to choose all of the opportunities that come our way. We do not get to choose our entire path. But we do get to choose what to do with setbacks and opportunities that come our way. We do get to choose how we behave as we wait to know what is coming next. We do get to decide that no matter what happens, we will be ready. Are you willing to have a good attitude even when things aren’t going your way? This is the attitude of a winner.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“It's not about where you are today; it's about where you're going to be. We have to remind ourselves: This is where I am, but it is not where I'm always going to be.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“What distinguishes information from opinion is that there is no judgment to it. “You ran that mile thirty seconds slower than your average.” There’s information. “You are too short to win.” There’s opinion. One can be used to improve. The other is going to alter your state of being. It’s going to affect your mood, stay in your memory, and prevent you from performing well next time. Well, next time has nothing to do with this time.
We have to get over this tendency we have to make positive or negative judgments over one bad day, one bad performance, one weak moment, one supposed failure. Your critics will love to linger over these things. You can’t allow yourself to linger there with them.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Those who have the loudest inner critic also often become the most relentless critics of those around them. This is a hidden danger of giving in to your inner critic. Suddenly you become the one pointing out everyone else’s faults, making it impossible—or at least extra challenging—for anyone to reach his or her full potential.
You have suddenly become the one asserting your supposed authority, trying to keep people down, distracting them from the work they’re doing to reach new heights. Here’s something to remember. Winners are rarely big critics. It’s not that they’re not discerning. It’s just that they’re not wasting time looking around at everyone else, trying to correct their mistakes. They’re too focused for that. They’re too busy. They’re too interested in pointing people toward what is possible, rather than dragging them down with useless criticism.
If you allow yourself to be overly critical of others, you will drag yourself down. You’ll be frozen and stuck. There’s no way to be a big critic and also be a champion. Bob Goff famously said, “Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice.”
I think this is so true. May we be winners.
But may we be the kind of winners who focus more on the best in people than the worst in them. Including, especially, ourselves.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“The biggest trouble with critics is that, most of the time, we’re our own greatest critic. This is a universally understood concept—that you are your own harshest judge. So how do you get away from the voice of criticism when the voice is inside your head?
Where did this voice come from? So often the critic started outside but then moved inside. We rehearsed the outside voice for long enough that it became a part of us.
If you grew up with parents who said you were strong and could accomplish anything you set your mind to, you are much more likely to succeed than if your parents were constantly pointing out your failures.
I gave a speech at a prayer breakfast a few years ago and kept asking my audience, over and over again, “Who do you want to be? What do you want your life to be about?” You get to decide who you want to be. Not anyone else. Not your critics. Not the voice inside your head. You. And if you want to be the kind of person who paves the way for others, who overcomes impossible challenges, who sets the bar higher and higher, who wakes others up to the potential lying dormant in them, who unlocks and unleashes your own hidden and unimaginable potential, then nothing will stop you. Not even your own doubts.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“One of the very first principles I teach people about criticism is to consider the source. I tell my kids this all the time: consider the source. Not all sources are created equally. Is this the kind of person who tells the truth? Someone who wants other people to succeed? Someone who is fair? Someone who is knowledgeable about your field? If not, the source is not legitimate, and the criticism is tainted. Unless you want the character of the person criticizing you, don’t pay too much attention to it.
The second thing to consider is your critic’s motive. Of course, you can’t always know this, but if we think about possible motives, it may help us to dismiss criticism that is not only unhelpful but that also may derail us from finishing first.
Is the motive to distract you? Control you? Exert authority? Keep you down? Prevent you from passing him or her? Simply to be mean? If any of these motives seem true about this person, what good could possibly come from paying attention to his or her criticism? Once you start paying attention to who is criticizing you, you find a good deal of your criticism to be inconsequential. Unimportant. Simply a distraction from what you’re trying to do.
Here’s another thing to consider about a critic. For every bit of attention you give a critic, you can’t give that exact amount of attention to your program, your practice, the work it takes to win. Critics know this. So many critics keep doing what they’re doing because it’s working. It doesn’t help them to win, but it keeps you from winning, which is enough for them. Do you have enough integrity to stand in the face of criticism and not be swayed?”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“We give our critics so much power, when the truth is that all the power is inside of us. Who cares what a critic says or doesn’t say? You have the power to say, “Not true,” or “I will prove you wrong,” or “No thank you, delete.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“I’m not saying that you should ignore your critics. This is the approach our culture often takes to criticism, and I think it’s a big mistake. Instead of ignoring your critics or listening to them, if you can edit them, you’ll have an amazing competitive advantage. You’ll be able to take something that would distract or derail most people and use it as leverage to help you get where you’re trying to go. This is the strength of a champion.
When you learn to edit your critics, criticism suddenly goes from being a stumbling block to being an incredible tool for building character, improving your performance, and giving you the strength you need to finish first. It will take some practice, sure. But I have great news. You can use the criticism in your life right this minute to help you strengthen the muscle. Just like any muscle, repetition and training will get you where you are trying to go.
This is about character. What kind of person do you want to be? Are you going to be the kind of person who hides from conflict and criticism, or are you going to give yourself permission to live up to your full potential? Are you going to do the work to become strong enough to receive and filter criticism, so editing your critics becomes second nature, or are you going to let critics distract you from what you’ve already decided is most important?”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Isn’t it interesting how people we don’t even know feel like they get to decide what we’re capable of accomplishing? Isn’t it even more amazing how often we believe them?
Critics will be at every turn, ready to steal your focus. Ready to get you off track. They’ll tell you that you can’t do what you’re trying to do, that you’re wasting your time, and that you’ll never finish first. But they don’t get to make that choice for you. Only you have the power to do that.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“God never sees people as “too far gone.” There are thousands of stories in the Scripture that prove this to be true, but of all the stories, no one quite embodies it like Lazarus, whom Jesus raises from the dead.
Lazarus’s friends are very concerned for the apparent failure he is up against. He is sick and isn’t getting better, and so his sister goes to Jesus to ask if He will come heal him. They’ve seen Jesus perform healing, so this isn’t new to them, but they’ve never seen Jesus raise anyone from the dead.
Jesus assures Mary and Martha that Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death, but it quickly becomes clear that Lazarus is going to die. Jesus isn’t going to make it to him in time for the healing. In the face of this apparently permanent failure, Jesus tells the disciples, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe” (John 11:14-15). Can you imagine? What a thing for Jesus to say. I’m glad I wasn’t there to prevent this failure—because then you would have all missed the miracle that followed, and that miracle strengthens our faith. How can you let Jesus into the failure in your story so that He can strengthen your faith?
What comes next would be the final time in Scripture that Jesus brings someone back from the dead until His own resurrection a few chapters later. In this moment, Jesus teaches us the most important lesson we can learn about failure. Failure builds our faith. It strengthens our resolve. There is no such thing as “too far gone” because the bigger the failure, the bigger the opportunity for us to prove what we’re made of and for our God to prove just how powerful He is.
What if we started looking at our failure this way, rather than seeing it as a reason to give up? Perhaps we would be done wasting our time and our potential worrying about our setbacks and how they disqualify us from finishing first and we would discover just how brave, resilient, and capable we have been all along.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“What will it take for you to forgive yourself for the mistakes you have made? Nobody sets out to fail. And yet we all do it. When we forgive ourselves for our mistakes, we give ourselves permission to be successful again. When we give ourselves permission to not be perfect, we stop dragging around the dead weight of guilt and fear and self-hatred. Then everything can shift. Then the whole world opens up to us. We can begin being the champions we’ve been all along.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Failure is not something to be feared but something to be cherished because it is always teaching us.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Instead of being smothered by your failures, debilitated by them, defeated by them, if you can learn from them, you have a superpower. True winners have a healthy appetite for failure. Because without failure, success means nothing.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“I don't know of any skater in the history of skating who fell down and just stayed there.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Failure makes things interesting. Before failure, the path to victory seems so clear. So simple. Maybe not easy, but simple. After failure, we get creative. Failure makes us more aware of our weaknesses. It clarifies our obstacles. It reminds us to keep our heads in the game to the very end because success is never a guarantee—no matter how close it seems. And it reminds us how serious we’re going to have to be if we’re going to finish first.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“You wouldn’t think that the first competition would be the setup for what came later in my career. It’s because failure doesn’t define us. You’d never hear anyone give this advice to an aspiring Olympic athlete: “First you have to go to Nationals and fall five times in front of tens of thousands of people.” But if I would have allowed those failures to be debilitating, I never would have achieved the success that came next.
The attitude has to be, “No matter what happens, no matter what failure looks like, no matter how many times I have to try, I’m not giving up.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“If you start asking the people you admire most for the stories behind their successes, you’ll find more failure than you ever dreamed possible.
This is why I teach the skaters who come to the Academy not to give failure too much attention. If they fall, I teach them not to make a big deal out of it. I tell them to get up and move on. Right away. Because the minute we start giving failure too much attention, we begin to move in its direction. Failed? No big deal. Let your failure fade into the background. Let’s get up and try again.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Not only should we expect lots and lots of failure, but we should also be grateful when it shows up because it means we are on the right track. Failure is a mile marker on the pathway to finishing first.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“But if you look at where you are and it’s not exactly where you want to be, then ask yourself what it would look like for you to show up—in mind, body, and spirit—to what you are wanting to do.
All you have to do is look around. Examples of people who show up every day are everywhere. Every athlete you admire, every businessperson you admire, every leader you admire shows up in ways you probably don’t even know. Because it’s not dramatic. There’s not a bunch of fanfare. Nobody gives you an award or a trophy for doing the work. It’s just commitment and repetition, a dedication to showing up and doing the same things, day after day.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“If you feel like you're being called to something, answer it. A dream you don't answer becomes a nightmare.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“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.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything

“Attitude is everything.
Of course there will be hard moments on the way. Of course there will be moments when you have to do things you don’t want to do. But you can choose either to see these moments as small blips on the radar of the overall adventure of your life or to focus on them, blow them out of proportion, and make them the entire scope of the landscape. The best thing a champion can do is maximize the good moments and minimize the uncomfortable ones. This is the fastest, best, most fun way to the top.”
― Scott Hamilton, Finish First: Winning Changes Everything