My 2025 Lesson - The value of building on small wins.

One thing I've learned this year is that you don't always get what you want, or get it in the way you imagined.

Sometimes, through luck or hard work, what you receive feels smaller or different than what you asked for. But if you don’t take care of even that "lesser" thing, you might lose it and never get close to what you really want.

Life delivers in unexpected ways; the big wins usually come from stacking the small ones.

For me, this lesson has two parts: showing up every day, and accumulation.

Showing up every day:

Building the habit of consistent effort has been hard.

Doing what’s required of me even when I don’t feel like it didn’t come naturally. I kept asking myself: if I can’t do the bare minimum that’s already on my plate, how will I handle the things no one believes I can do yet?

What has helped is getting very clear on my bare minimum: the few things I should do each day, no matter what.

Then I break them into the smallest possible actions so they feel less overwhelming. That way I can track my progress, get that small dopamine boost from ticking items off, and slowly teach my brain that this new “bare minimum” is normal.

I also try to remove as many blockers as I can before I start: scheduling messages in advance, replying to emails early, clearing my chats, drinking enough water, and so on.

I don’t always cross everything off the list, and that’s okay. As long as I show up, do my best, and keep going, there’s always tomorrow.

I’m still figuring this out, and that leads to the second part: accumulation.

Accumulation:

Accumulation is choosing where to invest my time, not just for immediate rewards (those are nice too), but for long-term compounding results.

Sometimes that looks like learning a random new skill: slike picking up linux just because I can.

Sometimes it’s jumping on a call with a stranger to help them fix a bug (quick reminder: don’t go around cloning random repos to run on your machine).

Other times it’s becoming the go-to person for something at work, taking a gig that isn’t perfect but still worthwhile, or volunteering to mentor someone or contribute to a project.

These things add up.

Over time, they create a version of you people trust. You become someone they’re comfortable mentioning in rooms you’ve never entered. You gain skills and context that show up in interviews, at meetups, and in opportunities you didn’t see coming.

This has been my experience this year. I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve also collected lessons and small wins that I want to build on.

My plan is to use them to make 2026 better.

Looking forward to seeing you next year, doing even greater things.