The Mindset That Took Her From 2% Survival Odds to the Paralympics | Amy Purdy

2026-02-20

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Amy Purdy was a 19-year-old with big dreams when meningococcal meningitis put her in a coma within 24 hours of her first symptom, leaving her a double-leg amputee fighting her way back from 83 pounds and kidney failure. Her story isn't just about survival; it's about a near-death experience that gave her a quiet certainty that everything would make sense in the end, and how that faith became the foundation for everything she built next. Most people let obstacles define the outer edges of their lives, but Amy turned hers into a...

Her story isn't just about survival; it's about a near-death experience that gave her a quiet certainty that everything would make sense in the end, and how that faith became the foundation for everything she built next.

Most people let obstacles define the outer edges of their lives, but Amy turned hers into a launchpad, spending 12 years innovating her own prosthetic feet to compete at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics. You'll hear how she stopped competing for medals and started competing for the girl in an Italian mountain village who drove four hours just to ask how it's done.

The real lesson here is that your limitations aren't walls, they're the very thing you push off of to go somewhere new.

Get Amy’s book On My Own Two Feet

Amy on Instagram

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In this episode you will:

Understand why setting a specific, audacious goal during your darkest moment creates the momentum to recover
See how embracing limitation as creative fuel, rather than a ceiling, opens possibilities you couldn't have planned
Find out what it really means to live an inspired life and why it's more contagious than you think
Discover how a near-death experience at 19 can reframe everything you think you know about fear and purpose
Learn how to shift from survival mode into a life that's bigger than what you lost

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