Derrick Lewis Quotes

You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you make up a new one.

This world and life of ours are filled with inequalities. The worst possible use to make of this fact, however, is to allow resentments to possess us. All of us have imagined limitations, but we have also the privilege of pushing them aside, and spreading our lives out! We never know any of our limitations until we put ourselves to the test. There are always "growing pains" working within us.

Don't use the hardships of your past as excuses to deny the possibilities of your future.

Obviously, I'm still building a name and reputation for myself. The stigmas that come with my past will remain there for quite some time, but I'm not afraid to challenge those things, and I never have been.

On paper, my history says that my future was not very promising. But through grace, I have the opportunity to prove that where you start is not where you have to end up.

My message always is: No matter where you are from, no matter what past you have, it is all about your future and your goals.

There are no failures in life: only learning opportunities.

It wasn't until the birth of my daughter that I realised I had to get it together. I had my second chance in life to do what I'm doing, which is inspire people to not give up.

America's seen me go from Olympic glory to 'Biggest Loser'. I want to go back to Olympic glory again. It's kind of the American way, rebuilding yourself and remodeling yourself and making yourself more of who you are.

The fact that we all have broken pasts is something that I'm very attracted to, along with being able to turn your life around and do good with it.

Your past is not your potential.

You are not the product of your circumstances. You are a composite of all the things you believe, and all the places you believe you can go. Your past does not define you. You can step out of your history and create a new day for yourself. Even if the entire culture is saying, "You can't." Even if every single possible bad thing that can happen to you does. You can keep going forward.

Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to order.

No matter what we've done or where we've been, every single one of us can change.

The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.

You have made some mistakes and you may not be where you want to be, but that has nothing to do with your future.

It doesn't matter who you have hurt, if you've learned not to hurt again. It doesn't matter what mistakes you've made as long as you don't make them again. As long as you learn, as long as you're willing to take your life in your hands, and kiss it and go from there. Then there is growth. There there is life!

Learn to recognize and combat the enemies of potential.

There is no thing we cannot overcome Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, And calls down punishment that is not merited.

I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.

I have a theory and I really believe it. I think your worst weakness can become your greatest single strength.

I was never at my best when I was at my worst. When I did do good stuff in the past, it was because I was able to transcend the parts of my being that weren't healthy.

I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.

My fiction is almost always inspired by a character's need or desire to rise above him- or herself. No one is perfect and some of us have much adversity in our lives; it is those people who struggle to rise above their nature or background that I find the most interesting and heroic.

I think it's a great thing to have failed in life and then pulled yourself up by the boot straps and actually done something, because then you appreciate it more.