Setting Intentions Versus Resolutions: How To Travel Into 2026
As we close off on 2025 and step into 2026, there can be pressure to set a long list of resolutions for the new year ahead. Instead, we believe your power actually lies in clarifying your intentions...
Intentions and goals are closely related, but they work in different ways. A goal is something you want to do or achieve - it has a clear endpoint, a timeline, and a measurable outcome. An intention, on the other hand, is about how you want to move through the world while you pursue those goals. It’s a guiding quality or mindset rather than a destination.
You might set a goal to travel to Africa, but hold an intention to travel with presence, curiosity, and openness. Goals give direction; intentions give meaning. When paired together, they ensure that what you achieve is aligned not just with what you want to do, but with who you want to be along the way.
Our destiny is ultimately shaped by our deepest intentions and desires. They are the quiet, guiding force that shape our actions before they even happen - like setting the course of a river before it flows. They are subtle but powerful.
If you feel a little stuck on how to clarify your intentions, here are some questions we asked ourselves that will help you too. The answers to these will guide you to see what is most valuable to you as you step into 2026.
1. How do I want to feel more often this year - not on holiday, but in my everyday life?
(At ease, inspired, grounded, curious, spacious, alive, energised…)
2. When was the last time I felt truly present - not distracted, not rushing, not performing?
What created that moment? What deserves protected, non-negotiable time next year?
3. Where do I feel most like myself?
What landscapes, people, rhythms, or environments seem to bring me home to who I am beneath the roles I play?
4. What am I craving more of in the year ahead: adventure, rest, beauty, challenge, connection, perspective, impact?
What might happen if I honoured that craving instead of postponing it?
5. What kind of impact do I want people to feel after spending time with me or my work in 2026?
6. What does “meaningful travel” look like to me now?
Has that definition changed over time?
7. If I could design one experience this year purely for myself - what would it be?
8. What relationships do I want to cultivate this year?
Who do I want to walk alongside in 2026 - personally and professionally? Which relationships feel reciprocal and nourishing, and which feel extractive? Are there any new people/cultures I'd like to meet?
9. When I look back on this year from the future, what do I hope I’ll say I made time for?
10. If I trusted myself completely, what choice would I make for 2026?
At Wild Again, we believe travel can be a powerful container for intention - not as escape, but as a return. A return to rhythm, perspective, and a deeper way of being in the world. These are the questions that quietly shape the journeys we not only design but live, and the ones we continue to ask ourselves too as we navigate the wilderness of life and a new year.
We'd love to hear your thoughts and intentions for 2026, so please do share! We'll be sure to weave them into your journeys through Africa this coming year.
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Founder, Private Guide and Safari Planner
Being born the daughter of David Attenborough (it’s true but he’s probably not the one you’re thinking of) I don’t believe I ever really had much choice about what direction my life would take. I grew up in the city of Durban, South Africa but for as long as I can remember nature has called to me. Whenever I could I would escape to the forests around my home barefoot and in search of chameleons and red duiker to befriend.
And so in 2010, after completing my Journalism and Media Studies degree, I followed that calling to the wilds of Southern Africa to become a game ranger. I planned to stay for a year but it turned into ten. During that time, I worked at Phinda Private Game Reserve, Ngala Private Game Reserve and Londolozi Game Reserve, some of South Africa’s most prestigious lodges and immersed myself in the natural world. I learnt to track animals with Zulu and Shangaan trackers and spent as much time as I could on foot approaching animals with my guests. I also put my photojournalism degree to use by becoming a specialist photographic guide. I travelled to Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, India and throughout South America in search of wildlife. My greatest adventure was living in Gabon training local guides for the WWF and Smithsonian Institute, where we spent weeks at a time living like early nomads in the dense and remote coastal forests, fulfilling a life-long dream of tracking and habituating wild gorillas. Seeing how embodied and present animals are inspired me to begin practicing yoga. I am a qualified vinyasa and yin teacher and spent six months training under a Hatha master in Boulder, Colorado. I am also a certified Martha Beck life coach. With this mixture of knowledge, interests and skills, I started Wild Again to help others really experience the wild places I know and love so much. Through my specialised Wellness Safaris that incorporate yoga, meditation, mindfulness and personalised life coaching I continue to grow more conscious safaris that return people to nature and to themselves. As we re-wild ourselves we hear the earth, our common mother, again. It is only then that we can co-create with her healing.
Tell us if you’re keen to plan a safari or join a retreat. We’re ready to create your dream experience.
