What 2025 Taught Me About Growth, Work, and Life

Some years are loud.

They come with obvious wins, announcements, and visible milestones.

And then there are years that work quietly — changing how you think, how you operate, and what you value.

2025 was that kind of year for me.

It didn’t feel dramatic while living it. But looking back, I can see clearly now: a lot of threads that started back in 2016 — engineering, product, insurance, automation, curiosity, spirituality — slowly began converging.

This is my attempt to capture what this year gave me.

A little context

I’m a computer engineer by qualification. I started building websites during my engineering days and even partnered with friends right after college to offer digital solutions. When that didn’t move as expected, I took up a role as a web engineer, building websites from scratch.

Soon after, I was deputed to a fintech company. That phase changed my direction. I was suddenly exposed to user behavior, analytics, funnels, and business impact. I realized I didn’t want to stay only in execution. I wanted to work where technology meets business decisions.

That curiosity pulled me into product.

Over the years, I worked at a fintech company, then a general insurer, later a life insurer, and eventually moved into an insurance broking firm — where I’ve now spent over three years, for a long time as the only product manager, wearing far more hats than my title ever suggested.

2025 sits on top of that entire journey.

Work & product in 2025

On paper, my role didn’t change this year. In reality, it matured.

2025 pushed me deeper into system-level product thinking. Less about features. More about platforms, workflows, risks, costs, and long-term impact.

At the insurance broking firm, my work extended across:

• core product ownership

• complex integrations

• operational workflow design

• legal and compliance coordination

• vendor and platform evaluations

• internal tooling and automation

There were leadership changes. Structural shifts. New layers of management. Some visibility lost. More ambiguity introduced.

This year taught me that seniority is less about authority and more about emotional steadiness, context-holding, and decision quality.

I began thinking less about “what needs to be built” and more about “what kind of system are we building.”

AI, automation & how I work now

If one thing truly reshaped my daily life in 2025, it was how I work.

This was the year I stopped treating AI as an experiment and started using it as daily leverage.

Across product discovery, documentation, analysis, prototyping, internal automation, RPA, and even voice and chat bots — AI became part of my workflow.

Not to replace thinking.

But to accelerate it.

My productivity didn’t improve because I worked harder. It improved because the distance between idea → clarity → first output reduced drastically.

Being an engineer at heart helped. Years of product context helped. AI amplified both.

2025 made something very clear to me: modern product management is shifting from managing tickets to designing intelligent systems.

Tools, side projects & parallel momentum

2025 also reminded me how deeply tools shape output.

This year, I fulfilled a long-time personal dream — I finally moved to Apple products. A MacBook and an Apple Watch, all thanks to my wife.

Using a MacBook genuinely changed how I work. The speed, stability, and overall experience significantly improved my daily productivity. It made me more conscious of something I often tell teams but rarely apply to myself: the environment you operate in quietly defines the quality of what you produce.

Alongside my full-time role, I continued experimenting with side projects.

Some focused on enabling small businesses to go digital.
Some on automating broken manual operations.
Some on AI-driven service ideas.
Some simply to explore if something could exist.

I also helped friends by building small internal tools and products that automated their workflows and allowed them to track their businesses more efficiently.

Not everything turned into a company.

But everything strengthened a muscle: the muscle of starting.

2025 taught me the value of parallel momentum. Of not attaching all growth, identity, and confidence to a single organization.

I also unexpectedly found myself mentoring — guiding a much younger colleague interested in AI engineering. That experience reminded me how much clarity comes from teaching.

Travel, accidents & life beyond work

Travel this year gave me something beyond photographs.

I visited Vietnam — Ha Long Bay, Hanoi, Hoi An, Da Nang, Ninh Binh, and Ho Chi Minh City.
That journey slowed me down. It made me observe more. Appreciate simplicity. And detach a little from routine thinking.

I also spent time in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Not only as a tourist — but as someone imagining different possibilities.

2025 also came with a few two-wheeler accidents. None life-threatening, but impactful enough to leave a mark.

They made me more careful. More grateful. More conscious of how fragile everyday normal really is.

Alongside this, I went on pilgrimage road trips with my wife. Long drives. Temple visits. Quiet conversations.

This year gently nudged me towards spirituality.

I started building small, grounding habits. A slow cup of tea after bathing. A simple spiritual morning routine. A calmer way to start the day.

Not dramatic transformations.

But meaningful ones.

What 2025 taught me

Some realizations only arrive when life repeats a lesson enough times.

2025 taught me:

• That I don’t fail because I lack ability — I fail when I lack consistency.

• That discipline is not restriction; it is direction.

• That health, awareness, and presence are productivity tools.

• That engineering depth compounds beautifully inside product roles.

• That AI will reward those who think clearly, not those who outsource thinking.

• That parallel efforts protect long-term confidence.

• That peace improves decision-making.

Most importantly:

Progress doesn’t always feel like progress while it’s happening.

Looking at 2026

If 2025 was about convergence, 2026 feels like it wants to be about focus.

More discipline.
Stronger routines.
Deeper product leadership.
AI-native systems.
Healthier living.
Spiritual steadiness.
Global exposure.
And consistent building.

I’m entering this year not chasing speed — but sustainability.

Not chasing noise — but alignment.

If 2025 built the base, 2026 is about placing weight on it.

Quietly. Intentionally. Consistently.

Thank you for reading.
And here’s to building years that don’t just look good — but shape who we become.

— Kunal Mukesh Chavda
Digital Product Consultant | Learner | Product Manager | AI