In Review: Scott Hamilton - The Great Eight

Scott Hamilton-The Great Eight



"Any challenge - be it romantic, physical, job-related, athletic, mental, financial - can also serve as a gift if we allow it to."

Scott Hamilton


Scott Hamilton, Winter Olympic's Gold Medal, Four time World Champion, Four Time U.S. Champion and the list goes on, shares his life in The Great Eight - How to Be Happy (even when you have every reason to be miserable).


"It's how yo look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you." Scott Hamilton


Reading this years after losing my father unexpectedly as an eighteen year old girl, I can whole-heartedly relate to how suffering father-loss has defined me. And isn't that the mark of an excellent author when the reader feels like this book was written for him. I think you'll get that feeling too.

This book is for everyone, for those who have loved and lost and worked hard to achieve and started all over again.

Just the quotes alone that are amazing could fill up a book review of The Great Eight. Scott Hamilton touches on so many human areas. His writing style is very open and candid and from the start you realize this real life hero is also a real life person who is human and deals with life just as we all do.

His optimism shines throughout and it is fueled with his relationship with Christ and his hard work and determination on the ice and in life. He talks about the hardest jump in skating is the first one after a fall. Then he shows us how that is just like life and how to persevere on to see the positive opportunity in all things.

It is the many personal and physical challenges of this Olympic Gold Medalist that make he story so amazing. His sheer fight through cancer and a brain tumor show his own tenacity and ability to focus of growing through anything life sends.

"I had thought it was all or nothing, but like most everything in life, it is about finding balance." Mr. Hamilton

Hamilton shares how God has revealed His view of him in his own son, Maxx. As a father watching his 'perfect' child learn to crawl, so our heavenly Father, views His children. He challenges us to see ourselves as our Father...

"One of the biggest barriers to people feeling happy about themselves is that they feel inferior, or shameful and bad about their looks or something in their past. But once you see yourself as a truly perfect creature in God's image who only needs to get in touch with that, the pressure of all those negative feelings lifts and you can move on. It is life changing."

... and that is true happiness.

My Vote: ***** (five star) Get, read, re-read, apply and enjoy!

Warmly,

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2 comments:

dani said...

I came across your blog from The Mother Letters Project blog. I know this is silly...but my daughter is in the Leelou Blogs cute baby photo contest and I am trying to spread the word for people to vote for her!! I need HUNDREDS of votes for her to even come close to catching up to the front-runners. I have been trying to figure out where to find hundreds of people, and I didn't think it was approriate to ask Seth to post something so silly on The Mother Letters Blog (obviously), but I figured maybe all the people who helped with the project would be willing to go give my little Makenzie from AZ a vote : ) If not, that's ok too. I am just trying to get creative and reach more people! If you'd like to help me by voting for Makenzie, please go to http://www.leeloublogs.blogspot.com/ and spread the word for others to vote as well : )

EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY THOUGH...I am also recruiting prayer warriors for a tiny little miracle baby named Kayleigh Freeman, maybe you've heard of her and are already praying for her. It was through her blog that I heard about the contest in the first place. Even if you don't take the time to vote for Makenzie, please take a minute to visit HER website: http://www.kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/ and say a prayer for this sweet girl!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!!!

Sincerely,
Daniele Brown

PS- THE MOTHER LETTERS PROJECT is in NO WAY associated with this request other than the fact that I found your blog there!!

Mel said...

Oh this sounds like an great book!!! I love the last quote you used!!