Amy Purdy quotes: perspective from the Paralympic medalist.
“If you want something bad enough and you work hard enough, anything’s possible.”
“If we can see past preconceived limitations, then the possibilities are endless.”
“Making sh*t happen: I always say, ‘If it doesn’t exist, create it.’ You can sit back and wait for the world to present opportunities or you can create them yourself.”
“You don’t have to know how you’re going to get there, you just have to know why.”
“Each of us is far more capable than we could ever know. That what at first seems like a detour could turn out to be your destiny. That if you can just practice shifting your viewpoint, an overwhelming challenge can start looking more like a beautiful blessing. I am the living, breathing, dancing proof of that.”
“It’s believing in those dreams and facing our fears head on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits.”
“The bottom line is you can’t be afraid to fail. Just give your best and be blessed for the rest.”
“If you believe that you can’t do something, then you’re not going to do it. If you believe you can, and you’re willing to put in the effort and figure out a way to do it, then the majority of the time, you can.”
“We don’t always get to decide which course we go down or know which mountains we’ll face. Yet we always have the most important choice there is: whether to resist, or to give ourselves over to the twists and turns of the terrain. So it goes in life.”
“There’s always a way, if we’re willing to try hard enough to find it.”
“In the end, it’s not about what everyone else thinks—it’s about the experience, and what you take from it.”
“You can spend your whole life questioning. You can scrutinize every little thing you said or did, every little decision you did or didn’t make. It’s normal to look back. We’re human, so we want to understand things—and yes, sometimes there are lessons to be learned. But ultimately, it doesn’t help to keep looking. Or regretting. Or berating yourself for what you can’t go back and change. It’s a waste of energy.”
“Instead of looking at our challenges and limitations as something negative or bad, we can begin to look at them as blessings, magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations and help us go further than we ever knew we could go.”
“We can either see our circumstances as a set of random cruelties and then allow those hardships to turn us into bitter victims; or we can recognize the fact that, though we may never comprehend why hard things happen, they do, and when they do, we can reach for a larger purpose beyond the pain.”
“We’ve all seen that every challenge we’ve gone through, we’ve learned something from. It’s not getting hung up on the challenges but figuring out how to get ahead.”
“We all have disabilities. Just some are more visible than others. You can let them be obstacles or roadblocks, or you can use them.”
“We all have challenges, we all have obstacles.”
“I’ve learned that borders are where the actual ends, but also where the imagination and the story begins.”
“Our borders and our obstacles can only do two things: (1) stop us in our tracks, or (2) force us to get creative.”
“It’s not about breaking down borders. It’s about pushing off of them, and seeing what amazing places they might bring us.”
“When disease took my legs, I eventually realized I didn’t need them to lead a full, empowering life; only true disability is in our mind.”
“There are plenty of people who have legs who are way more disabled than me.”
“Yes, there are things that I can’t change, but the things I can, I’m going to do everything in my power to work very hard through them and come out stronger on the other side.”
“We all have things that limit us and that challenge us. But really, our real limitations are the ones we believe.”
“When we embrace the things that make us unique, our true and remarkable capabilities are revealed.”
“As humans, we need to reach out for support.”
“In the smallest interactions—a kind word to a friend, a smile to a passerby, a gesture of compassion to even a stranger—we have many opportunities to care for one another, as well as to use our lives and our gifts to the fullest extent.”
“When you are truly you and share who you are with the world and be confident in who you are, it doesn’t matter what size you are. It doesn’t matter what your different body parts look like.”
“Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I consider my darkest days some of my most spiritual. After losing my legs and the life I knew, I became aware that in order to move forward with my life, I had to learn to let go of the old Amy and somehow embrace the new Amy.”
“If your life were a book, and you were the author, how would you want your story to go? That’s the question that changed my life forever.”
“You don’t always have to have the most amazing story. It’s learning to share the story you have that counts.”
“I’ve always been driven, and I like the creative aspect of figuring things out.”
“I always say snowboarding saved my life. It gave me a reason to focus on the future; it gave me something to be passionate about.”
“I was 19 years old, and I felt like I had the flu one day. Within 24 hours, I was in the hospital on life support, and I was given less than a two percent chance of living. It took five days for the doctors to find out that I had contracted bacterial meningitis.”
“If somebody would’ve told me that I was going to lose my legs at the age of 19, I would’ve thought there’s absolutely no way I’d be able to handle that. But then it happened, and I realized that there’s so much more to live for, that my life isn’t about my legs.”
“It was challenging. It was never easy for me. My life changed suddenly, and I lost my health. I lost the body that I knew.”
“I lost the life that I knew, and I really had to rethink my future and think about my core values and the things that I love, and my passion, and that’s really what helped me move forward. Also, for me just being grateful for what I had in my life versus on focusing on what I was losing, that really helped as well.”
“For me, I just began, eventually, to embrace what I had. This is what I have to deal with and, not just deal with, but this is what I have to share, and how can I do that the best way.”
“I feel that losing both my legs was a blessing. It was meant to happen to me: I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to touch so many lives in such a positive way. I’ve found out that I am able to help other people by sharing how I’ve overcome my obstacles.”
“I choose to focus on what I’ve gained rather than what I’ve lost.”
“But the truth is that I don’t want to simply offer others a fleeting moment of inspiration. I want my story to spark real change. An aha moment becomes most meaningful when it leads us to do more. Dream bigger. Move past our so-called limitations. Defy expectations. Bounce back with the resilience that every single one of us was born with.”
“I’m sharing my story because I want you to see what’s possible in your own life. Right here. Right now. Starting the second you pick up your pen and create your own amazing narrative. The words of the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu have always resonated with me: ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’ My first step. My first stumble. My first dance. My first dream.”
“When you go into speaking, you think you have to have grand ideas. But really, it’s the simplest of ideas that we all relate to that has the most impact.”
“I’m very grateful that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had.”
“My motivation is not to try to inspire, but rather to do things that inspire me and hopefully that will spread to others.”
“I believe inspiration is contagious.”
“Living life to the fullest: every day that I wake up healthy and feel good, I want to do something with my day. I don’t want to waste it.”
“I got this second chance at life, and I live it.”
“I want to live a fulfilling life.”
“You never know what will come your way!”
“See it. Believe it. Achieve it.”
Related: Sean Stephenson quotes.
