About My Growth Compass

I lost both parents before I was old enough to drive. I grew up in one of the poorest parts of the Deep South, raised by a grandmother who loved me in the only way she knew how. I was angry, lost, and surrounded by people who were just as stuck as I was.

Nobody handed me a blueprint. There was no mentor, no safety net, no plan. Just a feeling in my gut that said: there has to be more than this.

So, I left everything I knew with nothing but that feeling. I was homeless. I worked jobs nobody wanted. I got knocked down by systems that weren’t built for people like me. I had every reason to quit and go back. But something in me wouldn’t let me. And slowly, through doors I didn’t even know were doors — education, mentors, opportunities I never imagined having — I built a life I’m proud of.

My name is Vic Lamaar. I started My Growth Compass because I know what it’s like to have no compass at all.

Along the way I realized something: most personal growth advice isn’t wrong. It’s just incomplete. One book tells you to find your passion. Another says build better habits. Someone online says to set goals. And none of it sticks — because nobody shows you how all the pieces fit together.

That’s why I built the Growth Compass — a simple framework organized around four directions: Direction, to know where you’re going. Awareness, to see what you’re missing. Action, to actually move. And Reflection, to turn experience into wisdom. It’s the system I wish someone had given me when I was starting from zero.

This blog is where I share the ideas, tools, and questions that helped me build a life I didn’t think was possible.

I write for the person who feels stuck, directionless, or behind. The one who didn’t get the head start everyone else seemed to have. The one who’s smart enough to know something needs to change but doesn’t know where to begin. No fluff. No guru nonsense. Just real talk from someone who’s been in the mud and figured it out anyway.

If you’re feeling lost, you’re not broken. You just haven’t found your compass yet.

Start here: “How to Find Your North Star.” Everything else builds from there.