I have a thing or two to be grateful for

The 2025 season has finally come to an end and it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Dec 28, 2025

Hey there…

It’s been quite an interesting year but finally, this is my final issue for the year.

Most people call it a Year-in-review, but I would call it “I have a thing or two to be grateful for“.

Overall, I would say the year was mentally, physically, and financially split into two parts. I had the high season and then the bumpy season. I wouldn’t say it’s a low because there were crucial things that happened in the bumpy season that I’m genuinely grateful for. Most of the high and smooth run was from January to June but you see the rest of the year was a mix of bumpy and “Thank you Jesus“.

There were things that happened from January to June that I’m glad for and happy about, and there were things from July to December that were not so interesting. If I were to summarize what the year was like, I would say it was the year of much learning. It was also the year where I fully stepped into the framework of things that I had already been speculating about in writing.

I know I write goals down, and I encourage you guys to do the same. But it’s one thing to write a goal down and another thing to step into the reality of it. When you step into the reality of it, it becomes interesting how much difficulty you can run into in your attempt to achieve that goal. But this year, I would say I achieved much of my goals, and they were exciting.

If even one line here made you pause, rethink, or feel more focused—imagine the impact of getting this kind of clarity every week. Hit subscribe and don’t miss the next one.

Although, a couple of days before I sat down to write this final year review, I felt very indifferent about where I was and how the year went. I was excited about the progress that I had made, but I was also expectant that I should have made more. But when I sat down to actually look through my gallery, my finances, and my goals that I had set, I realized I did really well. And I should commend myself for it.

Spiritual & Personal Life

Top of my goals list was to grow spiritually, and I was very specific about where and which areas I wanted to grow. I already had the awareness of being a good Christian, but I wanted to put it more into action in terms of my daily devotion and my consistency with it. This also included my consistency in reading the scriptures, paying attention to reading spiritual books, taking time to pray, connecting with people and communities, and facilitating experiences that would allow others to be better in their spiritual walk.

All of that I did in 2025, and it was by far one of the biggest highlights of my year. It also set the tone for a lot of things that I was able to do.

For 2024, I had certain goals that I did not meet at all. Certain purchase goals, things that would facilitate my productivity experience, things around changing my laptop, getting a better phone, getting my MiFi, just bits and pieces of things that would cost me money, running into a few millions, and that were pretty tricky or difficult to achieve in 2024.

I also had the idea of moving into an apartment of my own. I’m glad to say that just by looking back at 2025, the things that I could not achieve at all in 2024, I was able to achieve in the first six months of 2025. Not all of them, but I was able to achieve about 70 percent in the first half of the year, and then in the remaining six months, I was able to do the rest.

Gadgets - CHECK
Apartment - CHECK
Spiritual life - CHECK

Doing all this (the purchases) also meant that I took a lot of hits financially, but because these were goals I had already written down and carried over from 2024, it made it all worth it.

I also had some areas that I’ll just term as Losses. I had a mini robbery experience, where I lost one of my devices and had to replace it. It was not a very chill experience because it opened me up to the reality that you can plan to do things, and life can send opposing tides your way.

In situations like these, It is how you respond to those Redirections that shows how much you’ve actually grown. I can say I responded well, so much so that people were asking me how I was handling it so well.

Spiritually, I did okay. I did great. Financially, I did much more. I did not hit the goals I expected to hit, but I exceeded my targets and initial projections from 2024.

Work and Agency

I also had a lot of first experiences agency-wise. This included working with freelancers to set up structures, working with new partners, collaborating with people, meeting new clients, and handling them. I had freelanced before, but positioning myself as an agency and handling these things felt like a new experience, and I needed to learn a lot.

There’s still a lot I’m adjusting to around managing timelines properly and meeting the quality of experience I want to deliver. Generally, I gave a good experience when it came to delivering projects, but I started to think more about the end-to-end customer experience and I realized I needed to do better.

I had good and bad moments with clients. I can now sit back and do a proper audit of everything I did wrong and all the policies I should have had in place for client management but didn’t. It was a huge learning moment for me.

I worked on projects I liked and some I wasn’t so happy about. On the agency side, a lot happened, with wins and losses, which is expected for a new or progressing venture.

Family

Family-wise, I also had good experiences. This is my second year since coming back from uni and living with my family as a proper adult. It’s been really nice because I get to experience the highs and lows with them and also learn how to participate in that experience. They also get to participate in my own experiences, and that’s been nice.

One of those high is my brother getting married and aside everyone telling me I was next in line to get married, the event went beautifully.

Travel and Study

For a long time, I was on the fence about travel plans and how to process and initiate them. In 2025, I was able to take the first step, which was applying for a master’s degree in an area I actually like, something I did not see myself doing in 2025.

Overall, I would say 2025 was a beautiful year with many lessons. I had areas where I almost tore my hair out because I felt like I was living or working below the standard I had set for myself. But looking at everything in hindsight, I can see that I was growing.

I’ve learned a lot, and it’s time to take those lessons, refine them, and carry them into 2026 with the proper mindset. I expect 2026 to be more challenging because I’ll be doing a lot more new things. I’ll be pushing harder on the things I’m already doing, and for all the goals I already have, I’m definitely going to double my efforts.

That’s my 2025 in a few words. I hope this encourages you to embrace the wins, losses and lessons that came your way this year.

And with that the 2025 season of Full Steam & Hard Left has come to and end. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.

Cheers.

In summary

I’m grateful for all that has happened this year and I look forward to a beautiful 2026. Let’s freaking go.
2026 is another chance to accomplish so much more. Don’t leave it to chance.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?