2026: A year of rewriting goals over regrets

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OPINION

By Anthea Turwomwe Mascot

Every start of the year rolls in with the usual sparkle, vision boards, gym subscriptions, business plans, ambitious applications and beautifully typed goals pinned on bedroom/office walls. The energy is always electric, but somewhere between January 3 and December 31, reality walks in uninvited.

Social media has since made a sport out of mocking “failed goals,” especially posts suggesting people will start 2026 by reposting the same goals they never achieved in 2025. It is funny until it is not. Because behind every unmet target is a human who dared to hope, plan and try. And that deserves applause, not ridicule.

The world celebrates outcomes, but rarely honours process. We post the body transformation photo, but not the 5:00am mornings we lost to exhaustion. We celebrate funded businesses, but not the grant proposals that were rejected 17 times. We clap for job appointments, but ignore the 30 unanswered emails that preceded them. But here is the truth, failing is not the opposite of success. Quitting is.

Take Jack Ma, the Chinese business magnate and co-founder of Alibaba. Before his empire reshaped global e-commerce, he was rejected by Harvard 10 times. He once said: “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.” If Ma had stopped at rejection, there would be no Alibaba.

And then there is the everyday hustler, the market vendor who restocks tomatoes after every loss, the student who retakes exams, the mother who starts a business between school drop-offs, the executive who plans workouts, but ends up answering emails at midnight. Their stories may not trend, but they are real. They are powerful. And they are the backbone of resilience.

Goals fail for many reasons: A changing economy, shifting personal responsibilities, unpredictable work schedules, caregiving, health challenges, or simply underestimating the demands of a dream. But none of these reasons cancel the courage it took to start.

A whole year of ‘failing’ at a goal does not make you defeated. It makes you educated.

When something does not work, you gain data, real lived experience. You learn why the business plan stalled. You discover the exercise routine that clashed with your calendar. You meet the version of yourself that needed rest before it needed reinvention. And that knowledge becomes your competitive edge for the next attempt. There is no shame in a restart. There is strength in it.

2026 is not the year to repost your “failed goals” in embarrassment. It is the year to repost them with intention. With insight. With strategy. With maturity.

Pick up those body goals again, not because the world demands it, but because you deserve to feel strong in your own skin. Fill those application forms again; this time informed, focused and refined. Enrol for school again. Start that business again. Ask again. Try again. Plan again.

Life is not a one-shot race. It is a series of laps.

As author C.S. Lewis once wrote: “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” They point out; they don’t punish. They guide; they don’t gatekeep.

So, if 2025 taught you anything, let it be this: Persistence outlives setbacks, lessons birth strategy, wisdom fuels resilience, and courage is never wasted.

The year 2026 is proof that you can begin again, and win, not by never falling, but by always rising.

The writer is a treasurer at the Public Relations Association of Uganda