Episode 243 : keeping the end in mind as we look ahead to 2026
Episode 243 : keeping the end in mind as we look ahead to 2026
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keeping the end in mind as we look ahead to 2026 - episode 243
keeping the end in mind as we look ahead to 2026 - episode 243
“Keep the end in mind.” Happy New Year and hello 2026. This episode I share a handful of ideas as we look toward more becoming in 2026. I mention two funerals I went to over the break and how they influenced me to think more about how I want to become. Which then reminded me of the second habit from Steven Covey’s book, 7 Habits for Highly Effective People which says “to begin with the end in mind.”I mentioned things I am grateful for in my life as well as this past year. I give a few ideas to change your thoughts and to look at things in a new way. As I finished I talk of a quick insight about the word, should. Looking forward to a fun year!
Show Notes: Hi Friends! I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. Below are all the references.
Key Topics
Key Topics
Starting a new year with reflection rather than pressure
How funerals can reset perspective and priorities
Lessons learned from women who loved, welcomed, and influenced others deeply
The process of becoming versus simply accomplishing tasks
Why growth is slower — and more meaningful — than we expect
Stephen Covey’s principle: Begin with the end in mind
Choosing relationships over productivity
Reframing goals to fit real life
Letting go of unrealistic expectations
Moving forward with intention, patience, and hope
A Guiding Quote From the Episode
A Guiding Quote From the Episode
“Through imagination, we can visualize the uncreated world of potential that lies within us… Combined with self-awareness, these endowments empower us to write our own script.”
— Stephen R. Covey
Stories I Share
Stories I Share
Attending funerals for a family friend and my aunt during the holidays
Reflecting on how both women quietly influenced generations
Recognizing the unseen struggles people carry
Gratitude for my upbringing, marriage, and family
Thinking about how I want to be remembered
Sending out a late Christmas card and reflecting on the year as a family
Becoming vs. Doing
Becoming vs. Doing
Why I want to become someone who does meaningful things
Viewing growth as a long-term process rather than quick wins
Treating last year as a “freshman year” of becoming
Allowing patience with myself as progress unfolds slowly
Accepting that some goals may take years — not weeks
Mindset Shifts That Helped Me
Mindset Shifts That Helped Me
Letting go of the idea that I need a full day of rest
Discovering that even one intentional hour can change everything
Learning to love reality as it is, not as I wish it were
Breaking overwhelming projects into small, consistent actions
Using failure as information rather than discouragement
Replacing “Should” with “Could”
Replacing “Should” with “Could”
How the word should creates pressure and paralysis
Reframing obligations as choices
Giving myself permission to choose — or not choose — certain goals
Finding motivation through agency rather than guilt
Remembering that worth is not tied to productivity or organization
Reflection Questions
Reflection Questions
If I were to die in three years, what would I want to change right now?
Who do I want to become — not just what do I want to do?
What relationships need more attention this year?
Where can I practice patience with myself?
What small, realistic steps can I take consistently?
Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Byron Katie, Loving What Is
Jody Moore, teachings on agency, choosing, and releasing “shoulds”
Episode 97 — Begin with the End in Mind (Finding the Floor)
Scriptures and teachings on agency, stewardship, and personal growth
Transcript
Transcript
I am Camille Johnson, and this is Finding the Floor.
Stories and reflections of midlife motherhood, family, and finding meaning in it all.
Join me as I share a little piece of my life and figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Hey friends, welcome to Finding the Floor.
I'm so excited that we get to start this new year together.
So today, this podcast is going to be called kind of Looking Back, Looking Forward.
So I'm going to take some time to like reflect a little bit about how my year's been.
And then just some ideas of as you look forward.
because I know sometimes, especially I think at my age, I'm going to be 51 this year.
What do I want to really become?
I feel like in some ways it can feel stressful, like, oh my gosh, I'm already in my 50s.
Am I running out of time to do things?
But then also being very realistic about like, okay, what things actually matter?
And just taking it step by step in that way.
So I hope you guys all had an amazing
or good, it doesn't even have to be amazing, but you had a good Christmas and a good New Year's.
We went and visited my family out in Utah.
And what was sort of unique about my visit is my visit began and ended with a funeral.
So it just happened that a friend of the family and my dad's sister both had passed away.
In one passed away just after Thanksgiving, my aunt did.
And then this friend of my family passed away.
And I thought that I for sure was going to miss both of their funerals.
But then it just happened that they were scheduled
when I was going to be in town in Salt Lake.
And so that was, I guess I'd call it a tender mercy.
And then it also really was like a good catalyst to start the new year.
I don't know if you can tell in my voice, after we got home, we all got sick.
And I was the one that didn't get really very sick.
I just kind of had kind of gunk in my throat, but nothing as extensive as like,
my husband and two of my daughters that they got pretty sick and were down for almost a whole week.
So I feel like my voice seems a lot lower today, but it's all good.
And yet I didn't know so many things that happened in their lives.
So it just was a great testament to me that we can kind of always welcome people in our lives.
lovingly, no matter what is happening.
And I just feel like that's, it was a really good lesson.
And so I'd go and visit this friend and stay the night and have pancakes in the morning.
So, and then my aunt is my dad's oldest sister.
And my dad's the youngest in his family.
And he had another sister that is just older than him who passed away in 2018.
So now he's the only sibling left.
And she spent a majority of her life in Florida and the funeral was in Utah.
And now these people were in their
So I was just like amazed at just what an effect my aunt had.
And like, stop messing around.
You got to make something of your life.
And he just talked about what a good influence she was.
And he felt he could do anything.
My dad came from a pretty modest family and ended up going to Yale.
I think part of that was his sister's influence, like this good influence.
Anyway, so it's made me just like be really reflective as I think about this upcoming year.
Like, how have I been progressing?
But also, what are things that are important that I need to actually do?
And in some ways, I don't think that's like critically important for my moral development.
But I also feel like it's actually probably important to do that.
And then maybe more critically important that I might not think about as much as
How am I developing the relationships with people in my life?
So last year, I talked about this desire to not just like get stuff done,
but that I want to actually become someone who does those things.
And so that process of becoming is exactly that, a process.
It is just really cool to think about the becoming.
Have I actually worked on the becoming?
And I think it's a lot slower than we want it to be.
And I think we have to just be patient with the becoming.
And that desire, that hope of becoming, I think is important.
Like we need to keep doing that.
And in one of his exercises, he says, imagine you were going to die in three years.
How would you change the relationships?
Like that's what he starts with.
But what would you do with the relationships you have in your life?
And I just think that's such a good thing to think about as we're thinking about becoming.
We got to think about the end in mind.
And the relationship with my husband, I'm so incredibly grateful for.
We're just going to go through hard things.
And sometimes we can be grateful that our hard things are different than someone else's.
And I think that's probably what was for me.
If we really want to become something, we have to know who we want to become.
And I think thinking about what we want people to maybe say about us at the end of our life,
And she even talks about like with her husband and with her kids.
And she's like, thankfully, I have chosen my kids every year.
But I think it's wise to remind ourselves that every year we do have a choice.
And that is such a good thing.
And would you choose all the things that you're doing, your friends, your profession, the places you
And I think as we hit a new year, it really does help us readjust sometimes.
And so how is this all conscientiously choosing
all the things in your life, I think will also help you as be happier, right?
It makes a difference because I'm not being told to do these things.
These things aren't forced upon me.
Every year I am choosing them.
So I think that was kind of a interesting exercise to reimagine.
Would I choose all the things?
And I think that's sometimes like the case, like
I asked for one of my gifts for Christmas.
I just want to get some all new t-shirts.
Those are making those choices.
Wardrobe wise, sometimes it's easy.
Then behavior wise, maybe there's things I don't want to do anymore.
And how do I learn how to change those?
We are getting our Christmas card out later.
I guess there's no real late because you can't be really on time.
But we got pictures as a family over our Thanksgiving.
And so we didn't get them till just before Christmas.
And then we were out of town and busy with Christmas stuff.
So we're just getting to them.
And I was able to have a trip with my family.
And I went to two weddings of my, actually 3 weddings this year of my 2 nephews and a niece.
And then just kind of cool things that happened in our life.
Anyway, it was just really cool to reflect, like, how is my becoming going?
And I think I'm like, it was almost like, okay, last year was my freshman year.
I'm like 1/4 of the way, maybe there.
Even though an undergraduate degree, you feel like that's not
getting you very far, but I think I need to be patient in that transition.
And I think that's part of the process.
So I feel like I did pretty good like in my
There was just always something happening.
And some, a lot of them were unexpected.
And so I kept on saying to myself, I just want one day where I have like nothing to do.
There's just been a lot and like it keeps on happening.
There's just always something.
And then I was like, well, there's always going to be something.
And it totally reminded me of Byron Katie's book, Loving What Is.
And it is just loving your reality.
So if my reality is that I won't have a day where like nothing's, I can just do nothing.
That's not even a realistic thing.
Maybe what I can plan on, could I have an hour of doing nothing?
Or in my terms, could I have an hour where I get to choose what I want to do, right?
I don't have to go pick anybody up.
Could I just have an hour where I read a book?
And I've noticed that I actually get more stuff done now when I'm like, oh, I just need an hour.
And so I noticed on Monday, I started doing this.
I was like, okay, if you just want an hour, let's try to get a handful of things done.
And so I ended up cleaning up the basement because we'd all been hanging out there like all week.
And it was like a total frat house down there.
So I was like sanitizing and spraying and vacuuming and just getting the basement all back together.
And I was like, okay, that was awesome.
So I cleaned up the dining and living room.
And I just was like, oh, I need to walk the dog.
So when I say to myself, I just need an hour,
that has changed so much about my headspace of getting stuff done.
And isn't that kind of amazing?
Like, what is a thought that is like preventing you from getting where you need to go?
And it's not even like a bad thought.
Like, it's not like, oh, I just want to have a day where I just don't have anything to do.
And maybe it's like we change it where we're just living in reality.
And so I decided, oh, I know what is keeping me.
I feel like I have to get it all done in a short period of time.
And then I don't want to do it.
Like I know in the attic I could go and get a bag of clothes and donate that once a week.
If I just kept doing that, there are 50 weeks out of the year, it could slowly get done.
I wouldn't feel as overwhelmed.
And maybe that process will help me tackle it even more quickly.
because I was like, this is going to take forever.
And so I think it's okay to be like, it's going to take a long time.
What if it took a whole year or two to get this space organized or even just get rid of stuff?
And I think that's the thing for me.
thing that's clicking for me is that loving what actually is.
It's like this becoming year is like my sophomore year of working on becoming.
I mean, obviously it's almost like my 51 year of becoming, and we're doing it our whole lives.
but maybe I'm more like doing my intensive studies as I'm thinking about it now.
I think also it's really good to think about how your failures have helped you learn this year.
So my failures of not working on the storage room or the attic as much,
or really making a dent, helped me think a new way.
What did those failures teach you?
Like it's only there to help us to learn and grow.
can't do everything perfectly.
And that's not even realistic.
So thank you for all the stuff I'm learning.
So she's just saying, don't say should.
You can replace it with, I could do something.
The simple thing is like, I should clean up my attic or I should clean up my storage room.
And the fact is, I actually don't have to.
They could just stay like that.
And I could have my kids deal with it, right?
Or deal with it if we ever move, right?
So she mentions like, you never say, I should go pick up my kids from school.
You could probably, maybe you say that
If you don't have to pick them up, I don't know.
I know I can go and pick up my kids.
So therefore, I don't have to say I should go pick them up.
So for instance, I should mop the floor.
You change that into, I could mop the floor or I could not.
And then you get to make a choice.
Okay, I don't really want to mop the floor right now, so I'm not going to mop the floor.
Or, oh, I could mop the floor.
Yeah, I think I will mop the floor.
Okay, I'm totally going to mop the floor.
So your brain kind of goes to the, like, I could do that.
Actually, I think I want to do that.
And then you have this active I could or I couldn't.
I'm going to make that decision.
Whereas the should, it's just, it makes you feel heavy and it makes it feel so much harder.
Maybe I'm going to just leave that off my list.
Like I'm tired of feeling guilty about it, so I'm not going to do it.
I could totally do that, but this year I could do it in a slow way, like the example I told you.
So all of those things I think are really important to make it like fun.
Like you don't have to do anything.
But that's not really the case.
We're all just working on stuff.
And some of us are more talented in other things than at organizing.
Some of us are more talented at doing other things, right?
Like, it doesn't make us better.
I think it's good to realize that.
And sometimes we have to like go through some of those thoughts that we're having.
Like, is someone better just because they're organized?
That might help them find things easier.
Before I leave, I found this quote.
Through imagination, we can visualize the uncreated world of potential that lies within us.
and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them.
Combined with self-awareness, these two endowments empower us to write our own script.
So where do you want to begin this year?
If you were to die in three years, what would you want to change?
How can you keep that in mind as you go
and work on the direction you want to go this year.
And then we'll just kind of get going.
I have a couple ideas that we'll see if I make a reality this year.
Okay, thanks for listening, you guys.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Special thanks to Seth Johnson for creating and performing the theme music.
Come back next week and thanks for listening.
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