Finish Strong: My Biggest Lessons of 2025

First of all, I want to take a moment and congratulate you on making it to the end of 2025. While you may not be pleased with your results, I want to remind you to give yourself some grace as you reflect on the last twelve months. Personally, 2025 has been the greatest year of my life. At the same time, 2025 has been the most grueling year of my life. In essence, this year has brought new opportunities, new possibilities, and new battles. While everything has not been perfect, I am grateful that I knew how to prevail and possess the things that were predestined for my life this year. I hope these insights will inspire you to finish strong and reflect with gratitude on 2025.

1. Understand that every year has its challenges. As someone who trains and advises leaders around the world, one thing I always have to remind people of is the fact that having a vision does not exempt you from challenges. In fact, I go into every year knowing that I will be met with resistance, opposition, and challenges along the way. If you do not embrace this reality, then your year will be defined by frustration and failure. While 2025 has brought some of the biggest victories of my life, this year has also brought a series of challenges. If you follow my work, then you know that I have developed a bulletproof mindset that empowers me to blast through challenges and contradictions that would attempt to stand in the way of change. My mindset has empowered me to move mountains and seize moments in my life. You have to stop cursing the challenges that arise in your life and instead see challenges as the catalyst for breakthrough.

2. How you handle pain will determine how you honor purpose. As many of you know, I have experienced my share of pain. In particular, I have endured painful betrayals in my life. In fact, it comes with the territory of leadership. However, even though it comes with the territory, that does not make betrayal any easier to deal with. I am a very strong person, and I refuse to allow anything to break me. At the same time, I went through something this year that cut deep and weighed heavily on me emotionally. In that moment, I had to decide if I would go back to isolation and shutting the world out. Or would I continue to live with discernment and choose to walk in love? I am not telling you that it is always easy. However, I am mature enough to understand that I am never in control of how other people see me. The one thing I am always in control of is my character. Therefore, I choose to model my values and show up in the world with a pure heart and as the greatest expression of who God created me to be. Pain is inevitable in life. Furthermore, it is how you handle pain that will determine whether you honor your purpose or hijack your potential.

3. It is okay to prioritize your peace. Like many of you reading this, I am a recovering people-pleaser. Even though I broke free from people-pleasing a while ago, I still have moments where I am tempted to revert back to what is familiar. One thing I have had to come with terms with this year is that some people do not really love you. They love you for the roles that you play in their lives. However, they do not genuinely love you and care about your well-being. As a result, they are nothing more than leeches sucking the life out of you. They have no limits and no boundaries. Unless you establish strong boundaries in your life, these people will drain and deplete you until you are left empty. 2025 has taught me that if I do not prioritize my peace, then nobody else will. More importantly, it is okay to prioritize my peace and to say no to things that are not a priority to me. When I talk like this, a lot of people get upset because they know I mean business and that I am not open to negotiations. My peace is precious, and I have to prioritize it above everything else. The absence of peace ultimately leads to the abortion of purpose.

4. Take time to enjoy the journey. As I stated earlier, 2025 has truly been the greatest year of my life. At the same time, 2025 has also been one of the most challenging years of my life. Many people look at my life and marvel at the things God has allowed me to accomplish. While I will admit that I am blessed and God has empowered me to do some great things, I must admit that I have not always enjoyed the journey. Why is that? The demands of life and the weight of leadership can take the joy out of the journey. 2025 was a year that I had to reset in many areas of my life. Honestly, I am guilty of being loyal to the roles that I played in other people’s lives while at the same time betraying myself. In order to enjoy the journey, I have had to learn how to be compassionate with myself and to give myself grace. In particular, I have had to extend the same love and grace to myself that I give to everyone else. Ultimately, one of the biggest adjustments I had to make in 2025 was learning how to slow down and understand that time is not unlimited. I only get one chance to master this thing called life, and I want to live it intentionally and fully. To enjoy the journey, you must learn to squeeze every moment out of every day and to treasure every season. You cannot enjoy the journey without first engaging in the journey.