Why So Many Big Predictions Keep Failing

And What to Expect in 2026.

Have you noticed that in almost every part of society right now, experts are predicting major change?

Politics. Finance. Technology. Public health. Work. Education. Culture. Earth.

No matter where you look, someone is saying that things are about to break, reset, or radically transform. And you might have been hearing it for so long now that you’re wondering why haven’t they happened?

Predictions Everywhere You Look

In politics, people are told to expect revelations, prosecutions, or a long-delayed reckoning that will finally explain what’s been going on. In finance, there’s constant talk of market collapse, debt crises, or a system that can’t keep functioning the way it is. In technology, especially around AI, the prediction is that jobs, media, and education are about to change beyond recognition.

We’ve heard predictions about another major pandemic. About globalization unraveling. About supply chains failing. About legacy institutions collapsing under their own weight. About impending tech doom from expected solar storms or strange interstellar objects.

These predictions haven’t come from one side of the political spectrum. They haven’t come from one industry or one type of media. You hear them everywhere.

And here’s the important part: most of these predictions don’t sound unreasonable.

They line up with real problems, real decline, and real uncertainty that you can see. It would make sense for many of these things to actually happen.

What Keeps NOT Happening

But over the past five years, the timelines of promises and predictions have kept slipping. The big moments don’t arrive. The stories get updated, revised, or quietly replaced.

At some point, it becomes clear that the pattern isn’t about “bad” predictions. It’s a bigger trend.

Everyone Isn’t Just Expecting Change, They’re Wanting It

The deeper pattern is that people aren’t only anticipating change, they’re hoping for it.

Across politics, across industries, across beliefs, there’s a shared sense that things can’t stay this way. Different explanations, same desire. A hope that something external will finally reset the tension, clarify the confusion, or force a turning point.

These are the kinds of times that test patience. And patience used to be considered a virtue for a reason. It isn’t passive. It isn’t denial. It’s the ability to stay steady without rushing toward false certainty. As Augustine once put it, “Patience is the companion of wisdom.”

Urgency gets rewarded today. Calm rarely does. But urgency without resolution wears people down.

Two Things That Still Matter

I don’t have a better way to predict the future than anyone else. I can’t explain why the credible predictions haven’t panned out (other than a greater, Divine plan that I cannot comprehend with my little human brain). I don’t pretend to know which changes will arrive, or when.

When I don’t have control over outcomes, I fall back on two things that have held true for centuries.

First: patience.

Not blind patience, grounded patience. The kind that allows you to live well even when answers are incomplete.

Second: remembering what you can control.

For decades, I’ve interviewed survivors of great tyranny, upheaval, and loss. Different countries. Different histories. Different beliefs.

But the pattern was always the same.

The people who made it through didn’t try to predict the future. They focused on what was right in front of them. Their thoughts. Their actions. Their families. Their local responsibilities. And they did those things as well as they could.

That takes patience.
It takes trust.
And it takes calm.

Everyone wants change. But when all the change is expected to come from somewhere else—governments, markets, institutions, technologies—people end up stuck waiting instead of living.

Are you seeing this around you? Or are you living it yourself? Comment and share. Join the discussion.

One Small Example of What You Can Change

That’s why I shared a video this week.

It’s about New Year’s resolutions, but really it’s about this exact problem: why your brain doesn’t respond well to calendars, predictions, or future promises and why those things often increase stress instead of creating change.

Your brain responds much better to small, real changes you can make where you are, without willpower or pressure. It’s one practical example of how to move forward without waiting for the world to settle first.

🎥 The Fresh Start Myth: Why Your Brain Hates New Year’s Resolutions

Heading Into an Uncertain Year

This isn’t a prediction. Just a sincere suggestion as we head toward the end of 2025.

Don’t wait for the biggest power players to change things for you. Look for the small changes already within reach. Keep your thinking clear. Care for your people. Strengthen your local world. Do what you can, and do it well.

Uncertainty may continue into the next year. That’s not pessimism. It’s honesty.

But strength, meaning, and steadiness have always come from closer to home—from within ourselves, our hearts and souls, our families, our friendships, and our communities.

Wishing you patience, calm, and clarity as we head into 2026.

Stay calm. Stay strong. Stay human. And I’ll be back in your inbox in January 2026.
~ Kay