If I had to sum up 2025 in one word, it would be **amazed**.
This year I witnessed something I never expected to see in my lifetimeāa fundamental shift in how we create, build, and solve problems. At the beginning of the year, I was coding everything by hand. By February, I hadn't written a single line of code myself. Not because I stopped building, but because the way we build has completely changed.
## The AI Transformation
I've been using Claude Code as my primary tool, but calling it a "coding tool" undersells what it's become. It's a thinking partner. A brainstorming companion. A general agent that helps me solve problems across every domain.
Here's what I shipped this year without writing code:
- **Complete YouTube automation workflow** - From video creation to thumbnail generation to uploading to YouTube to publishing across social media. The entire pipeline is automated.
- **Dictate** - A Mac app for dictation. I've never built a native Mac application before. AI made it possible.
- **This blog post** - I'm literally using Claude Code right now to interview me and help structure my thoughts for this year-end review.
The shift from "AI as autocomplete" to "AI as collaborator" happened faster than anyone predicted. And we're just getting started.
## Family Highlights
This was a milestone year for our family.
**Eva Cate turned 15** and started high school. Watching her grow into a young woman is surreal. She and my wife took a mother-daughter trip to Paris and various places around Franceāa memory they'll share forever.
**My son turned 11** and is thriving in fifth grade. Soccer remains his passion, and I love watching him compete and grow as a player.
We kept our Disney tradition alive with several trips this year. It's something we've done since the kids were little, and even as they get older, there's magic in maintaining those family rituals.
We also traveled to **Turks and Caicos**āa beautiful escape that reminded me why experiences matter more than things.
On the work side, I attended several retreats and partner meetups, which always recharge my perspective and strengthen relationships with my team.
## Business Updates
At Awesome Motive, we continued pushing our products forward:
**[SeedProd](https://www.seedprod.com/)** is embracing AI to make creating websites and landing pages easier for WordPress users. As the landscape shifts, we're adapting to meet people where they're going, not just where they've been.
**[Duplicator](https://duplicator.com/)** had a strong year. We launched our own branded cloud backup solutionāsimpler to set up than Amazon S3 or Google Cloud. We also released a media cleanup tool at year end to help people reclaim space from unused files in WordPress.
The common thread? Making things easier for people. That's always been the mission.
## 2025 Goals: How Did I Do?
Looking back at what I set out to accomplish:
| Goal | Result |
|------|--------|
| Develop a more structured nutrition plan | Needs work |
| Return to strength training while maintaining cardio | Needs work |
| Continue studying history and philosophy | Accomplished |
| Increase public content production | In progress |
| Enhance AI efficiency in workflows | Crushed it |
| Live each day with intention | Accomplished |
I'll be honestāhealth slipped this year. I jogged, but not as consistently as previous years. I didn't make it to the gym like I planned. I'm at one of the heaviest weights I've been. That changes in 2026.
But the wins were real. I went deeper into AI than I ever imagined. I maintained mindfulness practices. I continued learning. And I'm now creating content to share what I've learnedāwhich brings me to my goals for next year.
## Goals for 2026
1. **Health first** - Lose weight. Get fit. Make this non-negotiable.
2. **Consistent content creation** - Keep making YouTube videos sharing my AI experiments and helping others learn.
3. **Family time** - My wife and daughter are going to France and Italy this summer. We're celebrating Eva Cate's 16th birthday in Mexico. These moments matter.
4. **Continue pushing AI boundaries** - Use it every day. Experiment relentlessly. Share what I learn.
## AI Predictions for 2026
Here's what I see coming:
**Coding becomes accessible to everyone.** The barrier to building software is collapsing. Anyone with an idea and the ability to articulate it can now create. Professionals who deeply understand systems will still be needed to take things to productionābut the gatekeeping is over.
**The junior developer gap.** This is a real concern. It takes years to get good at coding, but AI is instantly proficient. We may see a knowledge gap emerge where fewer people learn the fundamentals because AI handles it. Whether that matters long-term depends on how fast AI progresses.
**AI as delegation partner.** For certain tasks, it's becoming easier to delegate to AI than to other humans. That's not a knock on humansāit's a recognition of how capable these tools have become.
**Job evolution, not just elimination.** Jobs will change. Titles will shift. Responsibilities will transform. This has happened with every major technology shift. But this time is different.
**We've never created something smarter than us.** Or at least, something with the *potential* to be smarter than us. That's the paradigm shift underlying everything else. We're in uncharted territory.
**Systems thinkers win.** The people who thrive will be those who can think methodically about problems, break them into components, and orchestrate AI to solve them. The skill isn't coding anymoreāit's problem decomposition and clear communication.
## Final Reflections
The Three Gs continue to guide me:
**Gratitude** - For my health (which I don't take for granted), for my family, and for the ability to provide for them.
**Give** - I want to keep helping people learn. These YouTube videos, this blog, the experiments I shareāit's all about giving back what I've discovered.
**Growth** - I set out to become extremely proficient in AI and push its boundaries every day. I did that in 2025. And I'm not slowing down in 2026.
At 49, I have more clarity than ever about what matters. Time with family. Health to enjoy it. Meaningful work. Continuous learning. Sharing what I know.
2025 amazed me. Let's see what 2026 brings.
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*Here's to another year of growth, gratitude, and giving.*
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## Previous Year-End Reviews
- [2024 Year in Review and Goals for 2025](/blog/2024-year-in-review-and-goals-for-2025)
- [2023 Year in Review and Goals for 2024](/blog/2023-year-in-review-and-goals-for-2024)
- [2021 Year in Review](/blog/2021-year-in-review)
- [2016 Year in Review & 2017 Goals](/blog/2016-year-in-review-2017-goals)
- [2014 in Review and Goals for 2015](/blog/2014-in-review-and-goals-for-2015)
- [Goals for 2014 & A Look Back at 2013](/blog/goals-2014-look-back-2013)
