3 Lessons I Learned in 2025

By Mo Edjlali, Founder of Mindful Leader; Author, Open MBSR

When you have spent 15 years in the mindfulness field, people start imagining you glide through life, calm, steady, perfectly regulated at all times. Maybe you meditate on mountaintops before breakfast. Maybe you never get annoyed in traffic. I wish.

2025 reminded me, loud and clear, I'm still a work in progress.

This was one of the most demanding years of my life. A book launch, an app launch, and the daily circus of trying to be a good father, co-parent, entrepreneur, friend, and human being. The year peeled back my habits, revealed some inconvenient truths, and required growth that was not optional.

Here are the three lessons that changed me. Not poetic, floaty ones. The kind forged in the grind of modern life.

Lesson 1: Well-Being Is Leadership Infrastructure, Not a Side Quest

This year, I made a deliberate decision to live substance-free and prioritize my mental and physical health. Not because I hit some dramatic bottom or needed an intervention. I simply needed to feel more sturdy.

I had been running on fumes disguised as momentum. Late nights, irregular sleep, using substances to take the edge off the stress, then double fisting coffee to bring the energy back up. It worked until it didn't. The scaffolding I thought was holding me was actually propping up a structure that was rotting from the inside.

My kids needed a present dad. My work needed a steady leader. My nervous system needed fewer plot twists. In leadership and in parenting, well-being is not a luxury item. It is foundational. Without it, everything wobbles. The people I love, and the things I care about, need me at my best.

Strength became less about how much weight I can lift and more about how much life I can hold.

Lesson 2: You Have to Let Go of Who You Were to Become Who You’re Becoming

This one hurt. I had to let go of a few old versions of myself. The one who thought success had to look a certain way. The one who assumed family life would follow a neat map. The one who improvised his way through everything and believed that sheer will could make things work out.

That guy was fun. He was also chaotic and unpredictable. And as much as I will miss him, he was not built for the life I am trying to build now. Letting go of him meant looking at what I'd been covering up. The way I'd withdraw and get defensive when I felt threatened, as if I had something to prove. The way I'd pour everything into big missions while missing what was right in front of me.

Alongside running Mindful Leader, my book was published and we launched an app. The pace pushed me to a breaking point. I felt like I was having a heart attack. Not metaphorically. Actually. That was the moment it became clear: I couldn’t be both versions anymore.

The world doesn't need me to save it, but my kids need me to make dinner.

Lesson 3: Emotional Maturity Is Not Escalating When Escalation Would Feel Amazing

Co-parenting, extended family dynamics, old wounds. It was a year. None of these situations care that I work in mindfulness. They simply present opportunities to react or to grow.

I will be honest. Sometimes growth didn't win.

There were moments when the old pattern would have felt so satisfying. The sharp comeback. The need to be right. The urge to make sure everyone knew exactly how smart I was and how wrong they were. I could feel the escalation building in my chest, the familiar rush of righteous anger.

But more often than in previous years, I caught myself. I paused. I stepped out of the old pattern long enough to choose something better. My kids did not see all of the internal wrestling. They just saw a dad who stayed steady. Eventually, the priority clarified itself.

Protect the emotional environment. Not my pride.

The Real Work

2025 reminded me that growth is not orderly.
Self-awareness removes the mask before it offers relief.
Becoming someone sturdier often requires dismantling the version that looked composed.