2025 will be different...or will it?

If you want to make meaningful progress towards your goals in 2025, and heck, even crush them, then this is for you.

Quick side note: I actively reply to all emails. So please feel free to write back if you have any feedback, comments, or opinions, I would love to hear from you!

When 2024 had started, I had no clue how the year would turn out. 

I was slated to graduate but had no real plan of what to do after.

I had no goals for the year. 

I had a list of what are called anti-goals. Things I wanted to avoid at all costs. They included:

• More formalised education

• Traditional career paths

• Being broke

And so, even after getting calls from some of the country’s best IIMs and B-schools, I had decided not to go.

Now 12 months down, 2024 is about to end and I am entering 2025 having done more than I could have ever imagined.

I have a full fledged business with real revenue, employees, clients and subsequently, responsibilities. 

I have developed a wide array or skillsets that are extremely potent when used in the right setting and combination.

Through my content, I have reached more people than the entire populations of certain countries.

And now, I have a razor sharp vision of my goals and action steps for next year.

It has probably been one of the most transformational years of my life. A paradigm shift from the life I was tuned to live.

And I’m not telling you this to brag about how good my life is. 

I’m saying it so that you can understand, that maybe 12 months of focused effort is what lies between you and a completely different life.

Once you understand the possibility, you are much more likely to do the things required to move towards it. 

Now if you are serious about reaching your goals over the next 12 months, then read on because I want to give you some serious value. 

Over the past 12 months, I have tried a lot of different things. Messed up countless times. Learnt my lessons. 

But not all lessons are created equal. 

Some of them had no impact on my life. Some, had little impact. But a few, completely transformed how I approached stuff. 

In this piece, I want to give you the 3 lessons that were the most impactful, which if implemented properly, will give you an immense amount of leverage in your life. 

It took me 12 months to understand and implement these. But I want to give them to you in 12 minutes (if you read carefully).

So here goes:

1. Time is the scarcest and most valuable commodity 

This is something that a lot of you might not realise and value right off the bat. 

Because scarcity, and consequently value, is relative. 

For example. If two people have 50,000 rupees each, and one’s living expense is 5000 a month and the other’s is 30,000 a month, that same 50,000 rupees will be valued differently by both.

But there’s a reason it’s on the top of my list. 

It’s a precious resource. And I now guard it with everything I have. 

Up until last year, I was not very conscious of how I spent my time and who I spent it with. 

I didn’t think it mattered because there was so much of it (I was wrong).

But over the past 12 months, I have realised that how I spend my time, and who I spend it with, will dictate with great influence, the quality and outcomes of my life. 

That means there are two decisions to be made:

1. Who you spend time with

2. How you spend your time

If you spend time with the wrong people, people who don’t align with your goals, who do not contribute positively to your life, you will end up significantly impacting the likelihood of achieving your goals. 

It will also take a big toll on your mental health and overall energy levels (time spent with wrong people can be incredibly draining).

Ever since I decided to only spend time with people that are aligning with my goals, I have felt significant more positive, energetic, and have been able to focus on my life much better. 

Because not spending time with the wrong people also means that you spend more time with right people. 

As for the 2nd decision, here’s what I’ve noticed. 

All the positive outcomes of my life have been a result of time spent on the right things. And all the unfavourable outcomes have been a result of time spent on the wrong things. 

So every hour I have outside of work, is spent on reading, learning, etc. rather than watching Netflix, doomscrolling, playing video games.

This doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t relax, unwind, or do stuff they enjoy.

But it does mean that being very conscious about where every minute is being spent is essential. 

Because it means that you are able to be very intentional with the time you have.

At the end of the day, everyone has 24 hours. 

What separates the successful from the mediocre is what they do with those hours. 

2. Repetition is the most powerful activity on the planet:

Repetition in this context, is defined as the process of doing an activity as many times you can, over a prolonged period of time, regardless of outcome. 

Two things happen when you do something repeatedly over a period of time. 

1. You start to get better at it, as you practice it everyday. 

2. The odds of success go up drastically when you have more attempts

Practice makes perfect. And volume negates luck. 

Practice x Volume = repetition

And repetition = magic. 

Mr Beast has posted close to 800 videos so far. Take a look at his first video and compare it with his latest video. 

Night and Day.

It’s because the 800 attempts allowed him to get much better at his craft, while also giving him more shots at the target. 

Look at anyone who’s successful and you will see the repetition story play out.

How many songs do you think Taylor swift has produced?

How many races do you think has Usain Bolt run?

The answer? More than you think.

I’m actually practicing a small exercise in repetition as we speak, by doing a long form video everyday on my YouTube for 30 days straight. 

I’m trying to push myself to get better at long form content and at the same time, bump my odds of getting discovered.

Now note the last part of the definition mentioned above.

“regardless of outcome”.

It refers to perseverance, which is an implicit feature of repetition. 

It is very easy to continue to do something when you are seeing great results. 

But it quickly becomes a nightmare when you have nothing to show for it. 

The winners however, will continue to put the reps in. 

Day in, day out, regardless of the results. 

Because once you witness the transformative, almost magical power of repetition, it becomes hard to resist.

And success, becomes inevitable. 

3. Imperfect implementation now > perfect implementation later

I started my agency business in January. 

It wasn’t planned. 

I would never in my wildest dreams have thought that I would be starting an agency business.

A friend had come up to me with the idea over dinner, and I said let’s do it. 

I had 0 experience in marketing, 0 experience in building a business, and close to 0 skills. 

And yet 12 months later, here we are, with a full fledged agency business in my hands. 

I can give you countless examples for this. 

Phil Knight started Nike selling shoes out of his car. The first iterations they manufactured were terrible (he said so himself in his memoir)

Airbnb started with an empty flat and two matresses

It’s tried and true, people much wiser than me, much more successful than me have said it. 

And yet, after reading this, most of you will still not take any meaningful action towards your goals.

You will wait for the perfect opportunity to arrive.

The perfect time to start. 

The perfect skill to learn.

And that, my friends, will prove to be your undoing. 

Don’t fall into the perfection trap. 

Take imperfect action now, and figure stuff out as you go. 

“The best time to start was yesterday.

The next best time is now”.

Conclusion:

Every day, I still actively try to get better at the things I told you about in the email. 

I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. 

But the trip is always superior to the destination.

And hence. the effort counts for more. 

If you attempt to incorporate these principles, I can promise you that you will see a drastic shift in the quality of outcomes in your life.

But it won’t be easy. It will take work. 

It will require you to consciously unlearn all your previous programming, and implement a new one.

Progress is about breaking patterns. 

Don’t let next year be the same cassette running in a different player. 

Take charge, stay accountable, make a plan, and execute it. 

Onward.