Words for 2026: Celebration and Failure
In 2007, Pastor Michael Ashcraft proposed a new concept to replace of maligned New Years Resolutions; a word of the year. He has used slow, respect, and invest as words to shape his philosophy on the coming year. Instead of a set goal, his strategy was to bring a virtue into his life that could relate to all areas. It’s a conscious effort to be present and think differently in the New Year. Since this time, many other authors and speakers have taken this approach, and with typically greater success than the 80-90% failure rate incurred by Resolutions. It requires more thought on how and what to change, and is more difficult to set than a numerical goal like lose 20 pounds or make $10,000 more this year.
I tried this approach last year and have had some success with it. It provides a theme for the year and new opportunities for growth. The word for 2025 was Clarity. 2024 was an incredibly tough year both personally and professionally, and it left me feeling a little directionless and very exhausted. I needed some clarity on what direction I was going, where I could provide value, who I wanted to be everyday for the people in my life, and where I want my life to go. I put a lot of thought into where I wanted to be and made decisions to set the course of where I am going. Some of those weren’t voluntary. I had visions on how it would go and where I thought my opportunities lie. Some doors opened I didn’t expect and the ones I thought I would walk through were closed outside of my control. That’s fine, its how life goes and it provided the clarity on where I devote my time and energy. Where I can have the most impact.
With that in mind, I chose two words for 2026; Fail and Celebrate. You are probably saying fail? You are going to want to fail this year? Yep. As we get older, we take less and less chances where we don’t think we will have immediate success. We become more risk adverse, and try and avoid the spotlight that comes with trying and failing at something new.
This word was inspired by the jump to start this blog and continue on the path of writing. I’m not a great, good, or probably even mediocre writer, but I enjoy doing it and it brings value to my life. I want to be better, and in order to do that, I have to fail. I have to write posts that are great in my mind and don’t resonate with others. I have to work through ideas and continue to build. Jerry Seinfeld has written jokes every day for more than 50 years. He believes that only 3-5% of everything he has written will actually make it to the stage and an even smaller percentage hits. The best way to improve is to work at it every day and keep compounding reps and believe that with hard work it will get better.
Celebrate is a much more interesting word to define a year. This doesn’t mean that I will be spending this year on a reality tv show party island or wasting away in Margaritaville. Instead, it’s more personal and retrospective of my daily life. I have a hard time celebrating wins and I also don’t get crushed by losses. I tend to stay even keeled, but I believe it is hurting both myself and those around me. When I or a group I am with win, I just kind of expect it and move on to the next thing. I don’t get into something necessarily expecting to lose in the end, so the win is doing my job, and the loss means I need to reevaluate and attack again.
While this has worked for me, I believe it is stealing from those around me at times. When I am part of a group or leading a group, I see a plan and vision for our actions, but once we have executed them, I feel like I have robbed from that success because I am on to the next task. I think it’s a very farmer like approach. In any given day, things will go right, go wrong, and unexpected problems will pop up. We don’t stop to celebrate the wins because we know a loss is just around the corner. I don’t want to rob myself or those around me of the joy of success. Enough goes wrong in this world, we should take a second to appreciate what goes right. This year, I plan to take a step towards changing this.
Failure and Celebration will be my words for the year. It is frightening because nobody wants to start a New Year by failing, but the failures will be the stones along the path to future success. So how do you arrive at the word for the year? Don’t just make it a goal, make it a virtue that can guide you.
You can walk into this year with great plans, but you don’t know what it will hold. We don’t control what happens, we control how we respond to it. You might look to be more thankful this year, so the word is gratitude. Or you might feel like the world has beaten you down so this year you want to be resilient. Once you have chosen the word, make it visible in your life to remind you. Set it as a daily reminder on your phone, or on an index card at your desk or bathroom mirror.
The Stoic philosopher Seneca said “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” Let this word serve as a compass for this year and build within yourself a new virtue that will help you face whatever 2026 sends your way. If you want to learn more about this one word process, try reading the book “One Word that Will Change Your Life” by Jon Gordon. Maybe this is the year that you follow through on this resolution because it is simplified down to the one word. Don’t put it off. Think about it, do a little self searching, and move forward with your word.
As always, thank you so much for reading.
