What if the biggest obstacle to your success isn’t your circumstances—but your mindset?
Every day, your brain consumes a steady diet of negative news, social media noise, unhealthy beliefs, and self-limiting ideas. Just like poor nutrition damages the body, poor mental input sabotages discipline, productivity, and long-term success.
In Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds, U.S. Army combat veteran, Fortune 500 technology executive, and high-performance advisor Derrick Pledger delivers a powerful and practical framework for transforming how you think, act, and achieve.
This thought-provoking and highly accessible book presents 100 short lessons—called “recipes”—designed to help you detox your mindset, strengthen discipline, and build habits that compound into life-changing results.
Whether your goal is career advancement, entrepreneurship, improved relationships, better health, or personal fulfillment, this book shows you how success is built—not overnight—but daily.
● Reframe failure as fuel for growth and long-term achievement
● Build discipline and consistency without burnout
● Eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors and mental clutter
● Develop habits that drive upward mobility and performance
● Create clarity around goals and obsess over what matters
● Treat your brain like your body—by feeding it the right “mental nutrients”
Grounded in real-world experience, extensive research, and years of personal journaling, Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds distills complex success principles into clear, actionable insights you can apply in minutes a day.
Readers from all walks of life have experienced profound transformation, including:
● Losing significant weight and reclaiming control over their health
● Advancing from mid-level roles to executive leadership positions
● Gaining clarity, confidence, and momentum after years of stagnation
“I read this book on a four-hour flight and landed as a completely different person.”
This isn’t motivational fluff. It’s a mental operating system for becoming a daily achiever—someone who understands that success is the by-product of learning, failing forward, and getting better every single day.
If you’re ready to put your brain on a better mental diet and finally achieve the outcomes you want, this book is your recipe for success.
Book Blitz - January 27th
4. ⒾⓃⓉⓇⓄⓈⓅⒺⒸⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⓅⓇⒺⓈⓈ ASTROLOGY
10. Books 1987
12. Book Junkiez
17. The Pen Muse
22. ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ with M.C.V. EGAN
23. Sarandipity's
24. Always Reading
25. Gale Stanley
Derrick Pledger is a U.S. Army combat veteran, Fortune 500 technology executive, digital strategist, and author passionate about helping people unlock their full potential through mindset, discipline, and intentional action.
Currently serving as Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) at Maximus Inc., Derrick leads enterprise-wide technology strategy, artificial intelligence operations, and large-scale digital modernization initiatives. With more than 20 years of industry experience, his expertise spans systems integration, automation, cloud and edge computing, AI, data analytics, IT governance, and end-to-end solution development.
Before joining Maximus, Derrick was Chief Information Officer at Leidos, where he oversaw global IT delivery operations supporting a $17-billion organization with more than 48,000 employees worldwide. Earlier in his career, he ran a multi-million-dollar export business in his twenties and became a Fortune 500 CIO by age forty.
As an author, Derrick’s journey is rooted in resilience and persistence. While serving in the U.S. Army, he transformed a failed screenplay into a novel manuscript—written during downtime in Iraq. After dozens of rejections, that effort led to a co-written book deal with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, resulting in the 2008 release of The Diamond District.
Fifteen years later, driven by a mission to democratize success, Derrick released his second book, Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds, after investing more than 1,500 hours researching mindset, habits, and high-performance behaviors. His work challenges conventional thinking about failure, goal-setting, and achievement, offering readers a practical blueprint for sustained personal and professional growth.
In addition to writing, Derrick advises individuals, teams, and organizations on high performance and leadership, and he is a partner at 500 Pound Media, a digital content company focused on personal development and achievement.
Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Derrick believes that success is not reserved for the lucky or the privileged—but for those willing to develop the right mindset and show up consistently, even when failure is part of the process.
Contact Links
Website: www.derrickpledger.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrick-pledger/
Instagram: @derrickrpledger
Youtube: @500poundmedia
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201475074-your-brain-weighs-500-pounds?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15
Purchase Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Weighs-500-Pounds/dp/1544544391
<a href="https://sites.google.com/rabtbooktoursandpr.com/2026-blitzes/derrick-pledger-your-brain-weighs-500-pounds-book-blitz">
<img height="200" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/production-sitebuilder-v1-0-8/508/1818508/hWXN2m4l/92b8e764380a48b3857e568186421797" width="500"></a>