Still standing: Lessons from the year that wouldn't quit

What this year tested — and what it taught.

Dec 29, 2025

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At the beginning of the year, when optimism still felt easy, I chose a word for 2025: “Unflappable.”

Calm under pressure. Steady. Unshaken.

I imagined a year marked by confidence and composure.

That is not how this year went. If anything, 2025 tested the very idea of being unflappable.

It was a year that asked, again and again, “Are you sure?” A year that pushed and pulled, rerouted and delayed. A year that didn’t care about intentions or plans neatly written in a notebook back last December.

There were moments when being unflappable felt less like a goal and more like a joke.

This year brought hurdles I didn’t anticipate — some loud and obvious, others quieter but heavier. There were days defined by uncertainty, by waiting for answers that never came.

There were seasons where progress felt invisible, where effort didn’t immediately translate into results. Personal challenges demanded showing up when retreat would have been easier, and professional ones required adaptability over control.

And then there was the exhaustion. The kind that isn’t fixed by a good night’s sleep. The kind that comes from constantly recalibrating — adjusting expectations, revising plans and learning to sit with discomfort longer than expected.

Being unflappable, it turns out, doesn’t mean being untouched by any of that.

It means feeling it and continuing anyway.

This year included:

A legal fight early on that turned the first three months into a lesson in patience and uncertainty.
A root canal that made May my most expensive month ever and blew my annual budget.
The decision to pause our house hunt and wait for better conditions instead of forcing the next step.
My parked vehicle getting hit by an intoxicated driver and realizing how fragile control really is.
A career change after 20 years.
A blown trading account followed, months later, by my strongest financial quarter yet.
Overhauling my investing strategy, selling dividend stocks, other equities, and converting some dollars to Bitcoin.
My first panic attack in November, forcing me to reckon with the limits of pushing through.

There were plenty of moments this year when calm wasn’t my default setting.

I questioned myself. I second-guessed decisions. I felt frustration when things didn’t move forward, and disappointment when outcomes fell short of effort. I carried the weight of responsibility and the vulnerability of not knowing what the next step should be.

But I kept going.

Maybe not gracefully every time. Maybe not without complaint. But consistently. Quietly. With a growing understanding that perseverance doesn’t always look heroic.

Sometimes it looks like showing up tired. Sometimes it looks like asking for help. Sometimes it looks like pausing, regrouping, and choosing not to quit — even when quitting would be understandable.

The year forced me to redefine unflappable. It’s not about nerves of steel or pretending nothing rattles you. It’s about learning how to steady yourself after you’ve been rattled. It’s about recovering faster. About not letting one hard moment convince you that the whole journey is broken.

And here’s the thing worth saying out loud as the year closes: this wasn’t an easy year. Not for me, and not for many of us.

But we made it.

We are still here. Still learning. Still standing.