Top 7 Life Lessons To Bring Into 2025

And with that, 2024 comes to an end. Goodnight!

It’s been rather odd isn’t it, 2024? It kinda feels like a dream, a year that simply happened. Not too long ago, it was 1 Jan, 2024. And in a snap, we’re at the end. To me, this year felt like it happened but yet it didn’t. I guess this is reality, isn’t it? So, as this odd year comes to an end, here's 7 lessons I learned both personally and professionally, that will hopefully help you in some sort of way, to reflect and aim towards an even greater 2025:

💬 Embrace vulnerability.

Sharing personal stories can create connections that go a long way. Not too long ago, I decided to take a step out of my comfort zone to share my personal story on Linkedin. I was overwhelmed with the support that I got from it, established some really good connections from that, and that gave me motivation and courage to pursue something like this today.

🌱 Grief teaches resilience.

Every loss is an opportunity for growth. Sometimes, we dwell too much in the negative aspects of grief, to fully embrace the holistic approach that could have been taken. I spent the last 3 years after a major family incident going into negative spirals. It was unhealthy, I had really bad habits whether was it mental or physical health aspects. And finally one day, I woke up from it and decided that he would never have wanted this for me. With that, I climbed back, both physically and mentally to keep pursuing what I love and want to achieve in life.

❤️ Helping others in remembrance is a powerful way to honor loved ones.

Linking to the above mentioned, here I am now, extending my support through sharing, mentoring and simply ensuring that I continue to grow and learn for myself and others, to bring out the positive aspects that I know will help shape someone else, or give someone motivation to also take the step out of their own spirals into a more positive light that will impact their lives.

If you’d like to be a part of my mission towards helping & impacting others (you included), there will be more upcoming news on that in 2025!

🙏 Emphasize gratitude for mentors.

They shape your journey profoundly. Along my own journey, I’ve been very fortunate to have had great support in terms of meeting mentors, be it officially or unofficially, who have given me their wisdom and advice on how to go about dealing with life. Some of the mentors that I still keep in contact with, are now friends that I know I will keep for a lifetime. I cannot emphasize how important it is to learn from those before us who’ve been there and done that, so that we are able to absorb and then give back to the next generation after us. This is a cycle of continuous learning and giving.

🚀 Stepping out of your comfort zone leads to personal and professional growth.

One of my favourite stories to tell, is about public speaking. I’ve had the opportunity to step into the public speaking space about 2-3 years ago and I enjoy it now, but prior to that (I remember telling an ex manager about this about 5 years ago), I hated it. It was literally the worst fear of my professional life. And guess what the ex-manager said? He said, well, then I’m going to make sure you are being pushed out of your fear and getting that confidence you need. Fast forward to today, I’ve spoken in more than 4 conferences and am even thinking of starting a podcast to speak to more people (more on this soon!). It’s amazing how taking that leap helps you gain skills and expertise that you once feared. And how I did it? I stopped caring. I stopped fearing what people thought of me. I just, decided to be me.

🛤️ Failures and challenges in startups are just stepping stones to success.

Now this is a great one for anyone thinking of growing in a startup. It’s tough AF. Be prepared to be thrown in a million directions, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Whatever that you think you may know, you can forget about it. This is a classic case of the unknown unknowns that you will need to figure out by consistently testing, learning, failing, and giving it a go again. In my experiences of growing Jetpac from scratch as a brand and marketing the product, I’ve made countless mistakes, but each time, we’ve learnt something new and we become aware the next round. This is the key to success for any startup founder or marketer. Don’t think you know everything. You don’t. Accept that fact.

I will be starting 15-min support sessions for startups (it’s FREE) in 2025, more updates to come!

🔍 Always be open to suggestions and feedback; it enhances your work and growth.

As I reflect on my own journey, I realised that this is one aspect that alot of people (me included) may not be the best at. Simply because we are passionate about our work and what we believe in. But that being said, I’ve come to realise that even if we take in 5% of what others are saying and inculcate that into our own belief system, you are making progress. Making progress towards embracing an open culture, a safe space for your team, and crafting the impression of being able to listen actively. And I cannot emphasize enough about this point on active listening.

So here we have it, a sum up of 2024, and a great setup towards 2025.

I hope you are as excited as I am, because bigger things are coming for us.

We need to embrace that.

Remember, 2025 is the year of YOU.