AS we sit on the cusp of 2026 and look back over the journey in the fading hours of 2025 there are any number of things that could be percolating in our minds.

On a personal level, many of these relate to goals that we set ourselves at the beginning of the year which, despite our best efforts, have not been accomplished. There are tasks which are still awaiting our attention. The long-promised reassessment of our significant relationships did not materialise. Instead, a path was chosen that brought greater harm to that relationship. And we could go on, almost ad infinitum.

Regrets, by their nature, can be paradoxical. They can be painful, yet redemptive; they force us to look backwards yet at the same time, for the discerning, gives us strength to forge into the future with a new determination. They can be a source of confusion, yet the means by which things can be clarified and the cobwebs removed from our minds. They point out the inactions of the past, yet fuel in us a desire to put things into perspective, to identify priorities, and to help us avoid the paths that led us into the traps that caused us pain.

Among the things that regrets causes us to see is our moral failures and the extent to which we failed to live up to our potential. For many people this can be particularly jarring. Whether we know it or not, as human beings our lives are caught up with doing or hoping to do the things that bring satisfaction to them. Instinctively, we want to become the best of which we are capable. Life is about the pursuit of that better self, which can be quite elusive. Failing to live up to our potential is often seen as a moral failure to be regretted and can lead to great depression.

But regret can and ought to become a promising starting point for personal redemption and growth. This is so for regret is based on the things that matter. You never regret the things that are not important to you. When you deal with regrets you are being pointed to new choices, to a rediscovery of self, to focusing on the things that really matter, and to indulging new choices that can place your feet on more solid ground. We gain new wisdom and discover new paths of renewal that need to be taken.

On the collective or national level, regret can have functional significance as to where we want to be as a nation. There are things that we need to regret, to repent of, to repair, and choices made to move in decisively new directions. The beginning of a new year gives us the opportunity to once again re-examine our priorities and address the things that we have taken for granted or have been too lethargic or nonchalant in tackling. The times call for a new kind of boldness to do the things that we have been reluctant to do.

Of important note is the impressive fall in the murder rate going into 2026. This is indicative of what can be achieved through focused and determined strategies that can lead to meaningful change. Instead of lamenting the rising murder statistics year by year, we have been able to focus on the priorities and new paradigms that a nimble and energetic national security apparatus needs to win — enhanced funding, surveillance techniques, personnel, and mobility allied with mechanisms of accountability and respect for the citizenry.

The same level of focus confronts our desire to continue to build a strong and resilient economy. There are old ways of doing things that must give way to new, and bold thinking that can meet the new demands of doing business in today’s world. The things that hinder us in the bureaucratic machinery of government must give way to new initiatives that can bring quicker and more meaningful change. If we truly regret, as we must, the ways in which bureaucracy has stymied national progress and economic growth, then let us be bold and remove the political obstacles that hinder us.

The new year must be one of real, meaningful change for our people in several facets of their lives. The year will understandably be haunted by the post-Hurricane Melissa recovery. Adroit political leadership will eschew the desire to bellyache about what can or cannot be done or major in regrets about what happened in the past to put us where we are. It is true that the past does influence the future, but marinating in the regrets of its predicaments can only hinder us. This is important on the national level, but it also speaks volumes to our personal lives.

So if there is anything that you regret as you stand on the threshold of a new year, let that be the moral force that propels you to seize the opportunities for a more rewarding future. And there are lots of opportunities that await us if only we can exercise the patience to see them and the courage to take them on.

Instead of marinating in your regrets with self-pity, pick yourself up, brush off the debris, and step into the brighter future that awaits you. May 2026 be the beginning of that new resolve to find that better self that lies within you. On that note, let me wish you a thoughtful, provocative, and rewarding 2026!

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He also hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard

Regret is often painful.