My personal growth lessons often come from unexpected sources.

Today I read about the passing of a 16-year-old computer programming prodigy, Arfa Karim Randhawa, who became the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at nine-years-old.

She’d been in the hospital for a short time after suffering an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest. Bill Gates heard about her hospitalization and sent his doctors and medical assistance. After an initial improvement Arfa “crossed the river” this week.

You can read a good story about her here, and the end of it includes her philosophy of life. An amazing philosophy for anyone, much less a 10-year-old, which she was when she first shared it. Isn’t this amazing: “If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only the mind,” she said. “If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident, you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind.”

I love sports movies about underdogs, overcoming and realizing your dream. That’s why Rudy, Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, The Blind Side and Chariots of Fire are among my all-time favorites. I’ve watched each of those movies more times than I can remember. And I’m not ashamed to admit my eyes still get moist at some point in the stories even though I know what’s going to happen.

This weekend another movie premieres that might fit in that category.  It’s called “The Mighty Macs” and its based on a true story, which is even more special to me.

And I love this  quote from the movie, “When you believe in your dreams miracles happen.”

Watch this preview and then find it in a theater near you this weekend…

My friend Brian Bartes has a blockbuster book launching today at Amazon. I had the honor of having my feedback included in the book and part of what I wrote was “These are the timeless principles we should all learn (and relearn), regardless of our age. Just as good a retirement gift as it is for graduations.” Includes a Foreword by Joan Lunden, who you may remember from Good Morning America. Buy the book today and you can get a load of free gifts from folks like Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield and others. Check it out here…

I’d heard the Terry Fox story before. The young Canadian lost a leg to cancer and then decided he was going to run across the country on his other leg to raise money for cancer research. An amazing story.

But I happened to catch an ESPN.com special the other night and I sat there mesmerized by the strength, tenacity and grittiness of this incredible hero.

Watch this video and if  you can, tune into ESPN when it’s scheduled to run again. It’ll make your challenges look a lot smaller and it’ll make your determination a lot bigger!