We recently connected with Aaron Victor and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Aaron , thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
My optimism comes from my faith and my mom. Actually they are both one and the same. My mom introduced me to faith. Growing up in Detroit, we didn’t come from much and there were some tough times. But my mother faith in God always believed He would make it alright, just trust Him and keep the faith. My mother is one of those people, do not ask her to pray if you don’t want it to change. Her prayers get past the ceiling for sure.
In 1992, faith was put to the test when my mother who, was a probation officer, was shot five times at close range in her stomach with a 9 mm in front of my grand parents house in Detroit. It was a moment like that where your faith and optimism was tested. Will she be ok, will she live, will she make it? Were all the questions we had. She was shot on December 8th of 1992 and was in church testifying and shouting on December 31st of the same month and year. When asked by my friends how she was doing that night, I said, “See for yourself!” My mom this year celebrated her 71st birthday, YES she made it. So when you witness something so horrific and extreme, anything less than that, you just believe it will work out for the best and it usually does.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Aaron Victor Thomason, is a kid from Detroit who grew up with a heart to serve to positively impact people’s lives. Growing up in the midst of the crack BMF era, danger was all around but my siblings and I by God’s grace never got caught up in any of that. My parents making a decision for my brother and I to involve us in organize sports early, really made the difference. Sports taught teamwork, work ethic, resilience, all traits needed to be successful in the real world. But the one thing I appreciate about sports are the coaches and I had some amazing coaches.
They were able to take the time to understand me and turn on the proverbial light bulb that would transform how I forever looked at life. That’s why I love coaching so much, I can help people unlock their “IT”. The “IT” is something impairing your view, inhibiting your understanding that once unlocked you will never be the same moving forward for all the right reasons. I was created to help people unlock their “IT” and to remember they are hero who inspires people daily and will leave a legacy for generations to follow.
This is the theme of the Vyrós event my team and I are hosting in Brandywine, MD, in October, “Live and Leave a Dream”, As the team and I are curate this experience we believe, each attendee will be reminded they are a hero, who is a victor with a list of victories, that when they see their value in what they have done, they will protect their legacy and a true guardian and proctor would.
Vyrós will be held October 4th and 5th, again in Brandywine, MD. There are limited tickets available for general admission and the VIP Experience. You can purchase your tickets during early bird pricing at www.lvlthree.com/tickets.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One of the things I got from my parents, family and coaches early in life are these three things, consistency, commitment and discipline. Consistency is the ability to create habits long enough to produce a life style and expectation. Commitment is your ability to make a decision and make it right through the journey of consistency and positive habits. And discipline, the residence where your feels need to live. When you don’t feel like it, that’s a perfect place for discipline and to do it anyway, creating consistency and honoring your commitment.
For someone early in their journey, what I would say to them is, one, which one of those words do you have the most visceral emotional reaction to? Whatever it is, there in lies your area of focus for improvement. You may hate consistency, because it locks you into routine and accountability. But it also could be the reason you don’t have deep trusting relationships, you may be inconsistent. Maybe commitment makes you nervous, because it feels like trapped and being held accountable. For that person, commitment represents a lack of trust in yourself to be able to finish, because you have a lot of things left undone. And finally, discipline feels like a parent telling you, what you can’t or you’re not good enough. When actually discipline doesn’t give you the ability to just give up when you want to.
I believe these three traits build upon each other and will give each person an opportunity to scale their success and create better relationships if they commit, to intentional improve in each area.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I love to read and I have plenty of books in my office on the shelf. But when I think of the book in the last five years that has had the biggest impact on me, it would be Jay Shetty’s “Think Like a Monk”. This book I have recommended to so many people because of its simple truths with practical applications that unlock both spiritual and emotional freedom.
One of my favorite quotes in the book is “You are not what you think you are. You are not who people think you are. You are who think people think you are.” I know read it again. But this quote is simply saying, many of us if we are honest go around in life, making decisions trying to please other people and live up to the image of us we think they have of us. It’s like chasing a ghost and very exhausting.
Along with the quote the chapter that helped me quite a bit, was the one “Fear”. When I first approached the chapter, I said this is going to be easy I don’t have any fear. Once I started reading and reflecting, a situation from when I was twelve came out that held all the fear and how I had been navigating in life. Getting closer to that situation, I was able to heal the twelve year old Aaron and start the healing process.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lvlthree.com/tickets
- Instagram: @askaaronvictor
- Linkedin: Aaron Thomason
- Youtube: @Ask Aaron Victor
- Other: “Built For This”: Why This Time is Different by: Aaron Victor can be purchased on Amazon
Image Credits
Zuri Amani Visuals
