2025 — A Recap

A personal note to close the year

Hi everybody,

This week’s newsletter is a tad different from what I usually write.

We’re literally at the end of the year, and I wanted to close it with something more personal and less academic. Something that can help us start the new year on the right foot.

I hope you’re having wonderful holidays and getting to enjoy time with your family and friends.

If you feel lonely during this period, let me invite you to reach out to my friend Jane Xu, PhD, MPH . She’s bringing an amazing initiative to life to help bring digital company to those who feel lonely during these times. (I’ll leave the link here)

As for me and my family, we’re currently visiting family in Chile 🎉🇨🇱, and we’re having a blast.

If you haven’t visited Chile around the holidays (or at all), you’d be surprised to learn that this side of the hemisphere is hot during this time. So the idea of a White Christmas is replaced by the idea of a warm Christmas.

Anyhow, 2026 is around the corner, and I wanted to use this space to thank you for all your support, collaboration, and good vibes. I couldn’t have continued doing this without you.

This was a journey I really didn’t expect to take this long, and I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve learned so much about what self-discipline should be, where it should lead, and how little I know about how we operate: what motivates us, and how we can use our brain in our favor to become a better version of ourselves, and in consequence become an agent of change.

I’ve also been able to reach milestones that I never thought I would: like writing a book (yet to be published), and most recently being selected to participate as a speaker at TEDx Apex, bringing my ideas to the world.

If you were looking for proof that changing your mindset about discipline can pay off, here’s one example.

For the first time, I think I’m able to consider myself a decent role model for my kids. Not perfect. Just willing to take the plunge on my own growth.

This year has been a year of definitions.

I managed to capture my ideas on why the traditional idea of discipline never really worked for me, and what the ideal is that we should be working toward.

That led us to discover the place and responsibility of self-discipline in the big scheme of things.

And that led us to define ways to build a world worth living in, by changing ourselves instead.

This community wouldn’t be a community without the support of others.

We released 14 issues of What Is Your Purpose?

That means 14 authors took the time to sit down and share their experience of finding and building purpose with us.
14 different worldviews.
14 weeks of getting to know each other.

This is community.

I’ve met amazing people along the way, and I want to publicly acknowledge their support:

Stefano Miele Orel Colette Molteni Jez L.P. Stuart Ash Stuart ✅ The Effective Project Manager Grace Grossmann Adi Sharma Derek Lakin Fritz Coetzee Charles Callis Elena Calvillo at Product Danielle Krage Veronica Llorca-Smith Karen Sibal Maxim Spasskiy Mara Shellie Salina Amara Gioia (S. Sumner) Jordan Blackwood Hal Gill V S Uma Ryan Galitzdorfer

And if for some reason I missed somebody, please know that your contributions and interactions are the ones that have helped me learn outside my bubble. They’re also the checkpoints I use to write more, and better, every day.

Thanks so much for reading Self Disciplined, and let’s keep walking together.

Happy New Year 🎉🎉
Camilo

P.S. If you’re interested in tickets for the TEDx talk, you can find the link (with a discount) here.
P.P.S. Given today’s post, there will be no paid companion this week. But I’m looking forward to starting the new year with full energy.