The 2025 wrap ✍

Let's do the yearly review. Please put a review of the year shamelessly if you are going to plan the next year. And if you want the plan to work. It is an accountability mechanism. When you have a decent checklist ticked, it is a way to celebrate. 🎉

I wanted 2025 to be themed around health, leverage, and knowledge. Social activity was a bonus. You can read this for a week-by-week progress. Here I am gonna share reflections per theme and share major highlights.

Reflections

• Health - 8 out of 10
  • Wanted to run 22 min 5k, 52 min 10k.
    • Did a 22:30 5k, 52min 10k.
    • Got injured later. So couldn't tick 22 min 5k
    • 7/10
  • Wanted to have abs 😅
    • I have a 4 pack 🎉. 
    • 8/10
  • Bonus
    • Got injured and recovered so fast. 
    • Recovery is the best sign of fitness. 💪
• Leverage - 3 out of 10
  
  • I wanted to start having a passive income. Didn't happen. 0
    • But I actually initiated a few ideas. Did some actual effort here. Maybe I have done the groundwork.
    • I am very process-oriented, and sometimes I don't count results, but here I am rating myself for results, hence 0.  
  • I wanted to have low liquidity, around 20%. I have 30%. So a 0
  • I wanted to do a lot of writeups and builds
    • I did a decent no of writeups, mostly personal - 4/10 
• Knowledge - 7 out of 10
  • Did a good no of builds 6 / 10
    • Won a hackathon at work. 
    • I am constantly in the top 20, sometimes top 10 or 5 in terms of AI usage in a 300-person org. I will take this.
  • Learnt Sanskrit - 5 / 10
    • I can read, I can understand the subject, object. Need to learn more tenses and words. And practice. 
• Bonus - 8 out of 10
  • I wanted to score a 50 in a match, ticked this. 
  • I had decided to move away from social positions; I have done this.
  • I wanted to have an impact at the individual level, 5 people, I have done 4. 
  • I would have liked to spend a little more from my social budget. I haven't even touched 1%. This is a negative. I was conscious about this in December and put in my efforts in giving. 

Highlights

The following are the major highlights that I remember. Some of them are things I wanted to do, some of them happened and resulted in some good impact - 

Work

I was part of a winning team at a hackathon at work. This makes it the second successive year of winning at least one hackathon. 

I wanted to switch my team and move on to more horizontal impact work. I switched to data viz that is going to be used by all products inside LaunchDarkly. 

A senior Alexis told me, Business wants you to do something, you want to do something. Find something that is fun for you, that you want to do, and that aligns with the business. If you don't find spare time to tweak around and have fun. It is equally important to have fun. I have been blessed to find the intersection and have pure fun. Thanks to Alexis. And Tiffany later. And seeing people like Alexis, Zach sets the bar high. 

The SF trip brought clarity

I was in SF at the start of the year and saw 500 people in a room. Saw how big organisations organize these events. Saw how a trained CEO or any senior leader brings in clarity. 1. They show you a clear vision, and 2. They have very clear steps to the vision. 3. If each step is trackable, it is going to be more effective. I have been practicing it. This was my takeaway from the trip. Yeah, the city was beautiful. And probably one of the cities I won't mind living in for a long time.

Dan Rogers, CVO, Manish, and Sonesh were the people I saw and had a chance to interact with. Mainly, Dan and CVO were infectious. Shub and Div have been infectious all along. 

A dull month

It is rare for me to have a dull month. But I had a few. It was probably around March, I started talking to someone. And I surrendered to the idea of getting married. I surrendered and said Whatever it is, I am gonna make it work. She was very pretty, maybe the prettiest, and very innocent. Maybe the most innocent girl I have met to date, in this case. But something wasn't clicking. I was dragging it.

In July (🤔), I was in Kolkata. I was reflecting on whether I should continue. I visited a few places - the Botanical Garden, the Indian Museum. I got a message from a friend (now a friend) out of nowhere. Sometimes people can do so much to you without them knowing. She did that to me. I received her message. Replied to her. Immediately, Wrote a message to the girl above. We had a call later, and I let her know how/why I felt it wasn't going to work. Because of this friend (SA), I was able to drop the baggage, I felt lighter, back on my feet. I owe her a big thank you and a big gratitude message 🙇

I might have walked away from above at some point, as I know myself. Or maybe not because I had surrendered. I don't know. But SA made it happen real quick for me. Never a dull moment in life. This brought me a different kind of clarity. I have been carrying it; it contributed to my life outside as well. A marker is that my cricket, running, and fitness have improved. Maybe my work too, but I take work religiously, hence it would go well irrespective of outside life. 

Edit: Hold your horses, my friends. Nothing special here. 

Hit a peak

I thought people would slow down in their 30s. And I had in some sense started to slow down. But around Dussera, I hit a peak. I am in a flow state after that. I have a lot of energy. Mentally physically. Above is one contributor, maybe. And 2nd was that I found more impactful work. I feel like I am in my early 20s. Even when I get injured, I recover so fast. ⚡ Since I have tasted this, I am not gonna go back. 

I was in the zone, and started doing things, or maybe I was doing things and got into the zone. I was doing runs, physical activities, reading, and some creative writing or drawing, etc. I had good work. I had let go of my social responsibilities just around that time. That had started to feel like a burden as I hated politics compromising social institutions, and I realised it wasn't a fight worth fighting at this stage. 

More than words, intention matters

I am reading Gandhiji's autobiography. He mentions how words can be misused, misdirected to convey different meanings. But when you promise, when you make a pact to be true, you should be true to the intention. This has hit me. I am going to be true to my intentions more to others. To myself, I am gonna make sure that while setting goals, I don't leave room for different meanings. 

Intentions and specific words combined with clarity should have radical effects in goal settings and getting them done. 

Chaos to settle

Expectedly, I am ending the year with more chaos and more uncertainty. I have the next few weeks before I lock in 2026. Chaos should settle, and the execution should take over. It is okay to have chaos if execution continues to be excellent. Maybe I thrive in Chaos. 

Fun

2025 was fun. Khushi (sister in law) got transferred. I have a sister at home. Everyone is happy. A lot of friends got married. Danced a lot 😅. Now they say it is our turn! It isn't happening soon. Astrology differs, Mom says. Only if I allow it. Who knows? 

Made some videos. 

26th is my birthday, and I have gotten a jersey that says 26 😅. So it is gonna be a fun year next. Have fun 🎉