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Excellence Above Talent Podcast
The Excellence Above Talent podcast was started because of death trauma and pain. Men are 3.6 times more likely to commit suicide than women. Men predominantly do the violence that happens in the US. Men in the United States predominantly commit domestic violence and sexual assaults. Ninety percent of the prison population are men. I want to start a conversation to get clarity and insight on why this is happening. Families are being destroyed, lives are being lost, and people are hurting from the hands of men, men who were supposed to be the providers and protectors of their families. As a BIPP (Batterer’s Intervention and Prevention Program) Director for 4 years, I have had numerous conversations with men about why they thought abuse was necessary or did not even know they were abusers. The conversation had in our class helped open my eyes and the eyes of other men. I found out that men want to talk about these issues, but there is no platform or space, so we keep quiet, not wanting to challenge the status quo. The Excellence Above Talent podcast will do just that; it will challenge everything we think manhood is. Join the conversation and let us fight for the state of man because this next generation of young men needs us too.
Excellence Above Talent Podcast
Guiding the Next Generation with Emotional Awareness
Have you ever felt lost in the whirlwind of life’s challenges, searching for a steadfast anchor? Join me, Aaron Thomas, as I return to podcasting after a significant break, sharing my journey of rediscovering purpose and stability. Through candid reflection, I open up about my personal struggles and the fear that has held me back from embracing a deeper spiritual connection with God. My mission is to surpass the expectations set by previous generations, embracing authenticity and vulnerability in my quest to become the best version of myself. As I take on new commitments like coaching, I wrestle with balancing these with what truly matters, navigating the uncertainty of life’s direction with renewed commitment.
Let's redefine the essence of true manhood together, challenging the outdated notion of men as mere providers and protectors. I passionately discuss the importance of emotional awareness and the willingness to sacrifice for beliefs, family, and future generations. It's time to guide young boys towards moral excellence, ensuring they grow into strong, emotionally aware men who find fulfillment beyond external success. My goal is to inspire change and build a supportive community for the next generation, using my voice and platform to nurture responsible and connected men who lead meaningful lives. Listen in and join the movement toward a more emotionally aware and morally excellent future.
#excellenceabovetalent #EAT #dontgiveup #youdeservethebest #youareenough ...
You're listening to Excellence Above Talent, a podcast where we have the hard conversations about the lives of men and what leads us to achieve greatness and suffer defeat. Hear from other men's journeys as well, as we all learn and grow together to become inspirations to ourselves and those around us. And now your host, Aaron Thomas.
Speaker 2:What's up my beautiful people, aaron Thomas, with Excellence Above Talent. It has been months since I published a podcast. When I first started this, it was weekly. Every week I'd come out with something, have an interview with someone, and there was some continuity. I was persistent, consistent in the process and then life started, you know, happening Mentally, just started getting into my head more and I would come back to it. But I think this is the longest hiatus I have had since starting my podcast and it's just been crazy.
Speaker 2:It's been crazy because the man I want to be is the best possible man I can be in all aspects of life career, financial, spiritual, mental, emotional, sexual, like just on every phases of life. I want to be good. I want to be better than my dad or his dad, and it's not like a negative thing, it's just they knew what they knew and they lived the best life that they could live and I want to learn from those men and make my life better so that the young men that are now looking up to me have something to strive for in this world. My nephews just started coaching and teaching and I want to set an example, let young boys know that to fight for what you believe in. To die for what you believe in is the most manliest thing you can do. To not be afraid to be you is the most manliest thing you can do. To open up and be vulnerable with certain people about what you're going through and how you're feeling is the most manliest thing you can do. Not trying to have sex with every girl that's walking the face of this earth, not hurting and cheating on women and young girls, not trying to conquer everyone when it comes to the opposite sex is the most manliest thing you can do. That takes courage, that takes commitment, that takes a want to and a willing to go into the weeds of who you are as a person and how you've learned to call out and be better than this last generation.
Speaker 2:I think my struggle these past couple of months have been purpose, because sometimes I feel like I'm walking in my purpose and sometimes I feel like I am not. Sometimes I feel like I am heading in the right direction and sometimes I feel like I am not. Sometimes I feel like I am heading in the right direction and sometimes I feel like I am not. Sometimes, financially, I feel like, okay, we're getting over this hump, and then sometimes I feel like I am not. There has been this back and forth in my life, but I've also, in this process, haven't been fully committed to God, and I think that is one of the reasons why I have this thought process or I'm having these feelings of am I going in the right direction or am I not? Should I stay in Odessa or should I leave? Should I still keep doing the career that I'm doing or should I look for another one?
Speaker 2:And Pastor Cliff was talking about weathering the storm, or storm strategies, at Hope Alive Church today, and the one thing that kept sticking out to me was your anchor, your anchor, your anchor. Where is your anchor? Because your anchor is what keeps you somewhat steady in the midst of the storm. Your anchor is what helps you somewhat steady in the midst of the storm. Your anchor is what helps you survive. Your anchor is what helps you stay motivated while in the storm. Your anchor is everything that you need in order to be the best version of yourself. Depending on the anchor that you have and I don't know what happened or why it happened. Well, you know what I do.
Speaker 2:Anytime you start to learn more about yourself, anytime you start to understand like how much you really don't know about the things that you learn. You can either go two ways. It could be overwhelming and you just kind of have to take a step back or run from the things that you're learning, or you dig in and I think I ran from the aspect of the deeper calling that God has on my life, like he wants more for me and I get it. I could be giving him a lot more. But there's this class. It's an armor class and we're learning a lot of different things in there, things that just kind of blows your mind when it comes to the Bible.
Speaker 2:Then I started doing this 21-day healing journey and it was just a lot of deep, unseated thoughts and expectations and memories that came up and instead of digging deeper, I got afraid. But it's something that I do all the time. I'm always digging deeper. But for some odd reason there was fear behind this digging deeper because then I would have to level up. I would have to level up my relationship with God in a more deeper way that I thought I wasn't ready for. Getting up early studying his word, like digging deep and trying to figure out what it is that he really wants from my life and how can I be a tool for him while on this earth? Because I'm not here long and I want to do all that I can to make it better because I was on this earth than not.
Speaker 2:So there was a level of fear that kind of pushed me away, pushed me from church reading the Bible, the know, making excuses. I just started coaching so like, oh, I don't have the time I'm coaching and I mean, you make time for what you want, like that's something that I truly believe. If you want time for it, you can make time for it. And I simply wasn't making the time for it and I was using the excuse of you know, because I got to get up early in the morning and I got to stay at school pretty late in the evening. So it's, it's, it's a, you know 4, 30, wake up 5, 5 o'clock, wake up, not getting home till about you know 6. So it's you know 12, 13, 14 hour days. And if it's, you know, a day where we have a game, it's, you know, 14 to 16 hour days. And so I tried to make the excuse of didn't have the time, but I had the time. I was just afraid of the digging deeper part that would push you to learn more about yourself.
Speaker 2:The beauty about life is you can always reset, you can always retool, tinker with and try to figure out ways to become the best version of yourself. And in that process of trying to find the best version of yourself, you do come across the scary versions of yourself as well as the awesome versions versions of yourself and you have to deal with them accordingly. I put so much pressure on myself to be the best man I can be, not for accolades or for people to look at me and say, oh, he's just a great man. I'm not doing it for attention. I'm not doing it to get approval from the real world, because I, right now in my life, I do not care about what the world thinks of me. I will say what needs to be said. I will fight when I need to fight and I won't shrink in the moment. I won't hide, protect, defend or prove who I am in the moment. I will just show up in that moment and be me. So it's not a me wanting to be seen, me wanting to be patted on the back. It's a.
Speaker 2:I've seen the men in my life not journey down this path to try to figure out ways to make them good men. I see how easy it could be to shrink in the moment, to not piss anyone off, to be quiet and not say the things that need to be said, to live in fear, because we're afraid of what society would think if we say these things or if we do these things, and it's not viewed upon as manly because, for some odd reason, someone came up with what is manly and what is not, and instead of challenging what is manly and what is not, we just have accepted it. And if anyone goes outside of the norm of what it is, then we're not as manly as others and I'm totally fine with that. I have seen men that got sucked into trying to be or prove their manhood to this world and it didn't go good for them. Because you have to change yourself in order to be seen by this world. You have to do crazy things in order to be seen by this world. You have to be angry and you have to fight all the time in order to be seen by this world, and I got tired of that. I am tired of that. I will just show up and be me, and if I'm not man enough for you, then I'm not man enough for you. But try me if you want to. That's a disclaimer.
Speaker 2:Try Jesus, not me, because I am willing to die. I don't think people really understand that aspect of manhood that at any given moment, I am willing to give my life for the people and the things that I truly believe in. So it's not a game to me, it's not fake to me. I'm willing to die for it, for my family, for some friends not all friends, but for some for sure, for this next generation of young boys and young men trying to figure it out. I'm willing to be called names. I'm willing to be persecuted. I'm willing I want all the smoke when it comes to that because at the end of the day, I have to leave this world better. And in order to leave this world better, I have to be better. I am not the person just to talk. This is what you should do. I'm saying this is what you should do because I have either done it or I am in that process of doing it and I'm learning how tough it really is.
Speaker 2:I do not want to be that man who, on his dying bed, wished that he could have done more. I don't want to be that man on his dying bed wishing that he could have loved more On his dying bed, wishing that he could have loved more. I don't want to be that man on the dying bed wishing he could have took so many more people with him along that journey that he called life, but he was too afraid of what the world would think of him. He was too afraid of what he would think of him that he stayed in this status quo of life provide, protect for your family, but that's just 30% of what a man should be doing for his family and, for some odd reason, this world has put providing and protecting is the only thing a man is supposed to be. Providing and protecting takes out the feelings and emotions that we have. We're either going to get money or giving money to our families, and we're willing to die for our families, and that is what this world has diminished men to be. Not men who love sports and love drawing and love going to theaters and watching plays, love creating shirts and building houses, and we're just diminishing men for these two roles, and those are important roles, but they're not the only roles that we, as men, have. We need to be mentors to this next generation.
Speaker 2:Because I am in the classroom I've only been in the classroom for a year and coming up are some of the weakest young boys from my experience because there is. Weak from the aspect of no accountability whatsoever. They gaslight everything. They will cuss you or someone else out and you walk up and you say, what did you say? And they will say nothing or it wasn't me or I didn't say those words. Weak, they don't know how to control their feelings or emotions because they don't have men in their life. That's letting them know. Hey, it's not okay just to be angry all the time. It is not okay. There are other emotions to feel and you are feeling it, but then you bottle it up into anger and you punch holes in walls and you destroy things and you become destructive as a young boy. And if you're doing it as a young boy, when you grow up to be a man, that's exactly what you are going to do, unless you learn something else.
Speaker 2:I have been re motivated to use my voice to speak with other men, to speak with young boys, to try to figure out how we can be better as a society, because it matters. It matters and it is needed Because we are going down a path where there's nothing good that's going to happen, or young boys have to go through so much hell in order to realize I don't have to live this way and it doesn't have to be that way Now. I can't promise you once a week and I won't promise you once a week, but I would start using this platform two times a month to have conversations and to talk about manhood and what's really going on. We cannot be afraid to learn who we are the good and the bad and the bad is bad. I've realized how much of a monster I could really be. I could be a monster and it's not a good monster in this world. Scary thing to see, scary thing to look at, because when I'm looking in the mirror, that is me. I am that person trying to be the best version that I can be for myself. But I'm also that person that can be a monster when pushed or tipped or when I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing in my life and I start going down a different path. The things that I can say, the things that I could do.
Speaker 2:It's scary, and I'm only saying it because this next generation of young boys if they don't figure it out, if we, as men in my generation, don't start holding them accountable, mentoring and talking to them, loving on them and saying, hey, it's okay, it is hard as a man, but you are not here by yourself. There are people, there are other men that want to see you strive and be better, and we're here. If we don't start doing our part in this next generation, these young boys coming up are going to be monsters, and if you have daughters, they're going through hell because we're teaching young boys to become weak men, and weak man doesn't know anything but to lie, to cheat, to gaslight, to fight, to be abusive, to say horrible things and to put down people. And those men think they're getting somewhere in life, that they might be successful, but when they're on their deathbed and no one's there surrounding them, they'll realize it was all for naught. They're providing, they're protecting, they're fighting to be this man that society wants me to be and I have nothing to show for it because no one wants to be around me. It's a horrible way to die and a lot of these young kids are heading down that way because there's no one to say stop the nonsense, be accountable. Stop lying.
Speaker 2:This world does not get easier for young boys. The older they get, the harder it becomes. And at 18, you are a man and you will be treated like such, even when you don't even know anything about manhood. So this podcast, this platform, my voice, your voice, will be heard. Men are struggling, men are dying, men are killing themselves. We're hurting others, we're abusing others mentally, physically, emotionally, sexually because we don't want to deal with our demons, our monsters, the things that are in our head. And I'm here to say, hey, I'm dealing with them. It's scary, but it can be done, and it will be done if you put the work and effort into it. So I just have to put the work and effort back into it.
Speaker 2:But you will be hearing me. I'll be more active on Facebook and Instagram and social media. Again, not because of me, not because I want to be seen or heard or any of that. And even if you think that I don't give a shit, it is what it is. Somebody needs to hear it. Somebody, one person might get what I'm trying to put down that day. So hate all you want to, just when you see me say hi, I will show up for myself first, but I will also show up for others because they need it. I know I did so. If anyone hasn't told you today that they love you, let me be the first to say I love you. You are awesome. You are amazing. You deserve the best that this world has to offer. Do not quit, do not give up, because the world does not get easier, but you will get stronger. Y'all have a blessed week and I'll holler at y'all Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and for daily motivational and up-to-date content. Follow us on facebook and instagram at excellence above talent. And remember keep moving forward, never give up and you are never alone in this battle. We'll see you next time.
