009: Beginnings & Endings: How to Choose Your Year with Intention

In this episode of The MindHER Podcast, Mandi Casey reframes new beginnings as something that rarely comes from adding more, and instead begins with deciding what no longer fits.

She explores how autopilot, busyness, and waiting for permission quietly shape our lives, even when we say we’re ready for change. Through personal stories and client examples, Mandi walks through three essential shifts: moving from trying to deciding, from reactive busyness to intentional choice, and from waiting for certainty to trusting the next step.

This conversation is an invitation to stop letting your year choose itself and start creating space for what actually matters. 

If you’re craving alignment instead of exhaustion, this episode will help you identify what needs to end so something new can finally begin.

Reflection Questions:

• Where am I still “trying” instead of deciding who I am becoming?
• What am I saying yes to out of obligation rather than alignment?
• Where has busyness replaced intention in my life?
• What am I waiting for before allowing myself to move forward?
• If I trusted myself just 10% more, what would I be willing to act on this week?

Sponsor:
This episode is brought to you by Manifesting & Mimosas, a guided vision board workshop designed to help you get clear on what you’re ending, what you’re beginning, and what you’re no longer willing to carry into the next season.

January 3rd and January 17th  |  In person + virtual

Register here: https://connect.themindherco.com/2026-manifesting

Follow Mandi & The MindHER Company:

Instagram ✨ Facebook ✨ Website ✨ Email

Transcript

You are listening to The MindHER Podcast, where mindset, leadership and personal growth come together to help you create a life and business that you truly love.  I am your host, Mandi Casey, and today we're going to talk about beginnings, endings, and really how to choose your year ahead with intention.

This episode is releasing on January 1st, which is obviously the start of a new year. And, that naturally makes people think about blank slates and fresh starts. But I want to start with something that I think is both simple and a little maybe confrontational, but in the best way. A beginning isn't about adding more.

I truly believe that it's about deciding what no longer fits. You can't have beginnings without endings. I think they don't happen separate of each other. They happen together. 

And so in this season of a brand new year, so many people are looking to add more to their plate, and I really want to challenge you to take some things away. And, if you don't do that, if you miss that, you'll do what most people do every January. They set new goals, and they keep the same calendar and same routines. They say they want new results, but let's be honest, they keep doing the same habits. And they'll say they're ready for change, but they'll stay loyal to the same old version of themselves.

I think that's why by mid-January the motivation starts to fade and your year starts to choose itself again. Because listen, autopilot is really powerful, you guys. It's like saying "yes" before you even check in with yourself. Have you ever done that? Have you ever said an automatic "yes" without checking in with your intuition first, or even looking at your calendar, or asking yourself if that's really what you wanted? 

Autopilot can look like repeating the same week just on a different date, or waking up in December and realizing that you've been living someone else's expectations yet again. The cost of autopilot isn't just staying small. I believe it's resentment and burnout and self betrayal, and even the quiet grief of knowing that you're capable of more, but you feel like you'll never quite get there. That's because the goalpost keeps moving. 

So today isn't about just adding more. I think it's really about doing what actually matters. And since we're talking about beginnings and endings and how they go together, I'm going to give you three things that I want you to stop doing, and three things you can start doing as a result. 

But I want you to hear this part clearly—you don't need a perfect plan to start your new year. You simply need a decision.

So the first thing I want to talk to you about today is identity. I think one of the most misleading phrases that we use as a society is, "I'm trying." Listen, trying keeps the door open. It gives you an out. And for a lot of women, I think, "I'm trying" isn't a statement, but it's more so an identity that they adopt.

It's this socially rewarded stagnation that keeps you safe from judgment while avoiding full commitment. Because when you say you're trying, you can still fail without feeling like you failed. You know what I mean? You can stay halfway in and halfway out and still call it progress. 

Listen, the entomology of the word decide actually means to cut off all other options. You first decide on the identity, you choose it first. And then, your identity informs the action and the action creates results. 

Let me give you this example. I love to talk about runners. I used to be a runner. I am not anymore. That is not an identity that I adopt! But runners don't say, "I'm trying to run." They simply say, "I'm a runner." It doesn't matter how fast they are or if they even place. They show up and run because that's who they've decided to be. 

So my niece, she was a cross country runner all four years of high school, but by competitive standards, she wasn't that fast. However, she never once said, "I'm trying to be a cross country runner." She showed up. She ran. She claimed that identity. 

And that's what most people are waiting to do. They're waiting to feel confident before they claim the identity. They're waiting for the results before they commit. And let me tell you, you have to commit first. That confidence is a reward for the action you take, not a prerequisite. So I want you to stop trying and I want you to start deciding. Claim that identity. 

So here's the challenge I wanna give you. I want you to do something visible to claim that identity. Ask yourself, "If I had already decided, what would be my obvious next step?" And then I want you to do the smallest, visible version of that step today. And visible might mean that you send an email or you submit an application. Visible could be that you outline your first chapter or you book an appointment.

You don't have to do anything dramatic. You just have to do something to prove to yourself, to prove to others, and to show the world the decision that you've made. Because your year won't change through intention alone. It changes when your decisions show up in the behaviors. So moving on, the second thing that I really want to talk to you about today is busyness because I feel like this one really takes out so many women.

There are seasons in life that are legitimately full. December is one of those. So if you're just coming out of the craziness of December, I hear you. I was there as well. May is another, and I think that's why many women refer to it as "May-cember" because it resembles the busyness of December. 

But here is what I think is really happening underneath all of that busyness. It's not just the schedule, it's your automatic "yes." Kids' schedules get loud. I get it. School events multiply; social obligations stack up. Friends want you; family want you. Everybody wants a little piece of you. Work still wants you, right? And without realizing it, women put themselves on the back burner and they call it being responsible. But what they're really doing is letting other people's urgency become their priorities.

A client and I were just talking about this last week. She was going out for drinks almost every single night with friends, not because she really wanted to, but because she had FOMO. Let's be honest, she was the friend who didn't want to say "no." She wanted to show up and be seen and engage with her friends. But meanwhile, she'd made plans to go to the gym. And, she had this book that she really wanted to get published before the end of the year, and those plans mattered to her.

But she kept sacrificing the life she said she wanted for the comfort of being liked and approved of by her friends. So here's the truth that I want to share with you. It might sting a little bit, but it's real. When you say "yes" to others out of obligation, you're quietly saying "no" to yourself.

I don't believe that most people are overwhelmed because they lack discipline. I think they're overwhelmed because they say "yes" to too many things that don't actually matter for the life they want to create for themselves. And listen, I'm not saying that your kids don't matter, or that your family doesn't matter, or that your friends don't matter.

What I mean is this—you're allowed to choose what matters most, and not everything can be "most." So I want you to stop mistaking other people's urgency for your priorities. That's the thing I want you to stop, and I want you to start choosing what you do with intention.

So here's a quick under-three-minute action you can take today. I want you to open your calendar for tomorrow and ask yourself, "What am I doing out of obligation, not alignment?" And then I want you to remove one thing, or reschedule it or shorten it, because alignment doesn't require you to burn it all down and throw it all away. It requires you to stop abandoning yourself in those really small ways. 

Now, I want to pause here because this is exactly why we created Manifesting and Mimosas. Manifesting and Mimosas is a vision board workshop, but not in the fluffy, cute, craft night kind of way.

It's a guided experience designed to help you get clear on what you're ending, what you're beginning, and what you're no longer willing to carry into the next season. Most people don't need more motivation. They actually thrive with structure and they need clarity. They need a container where they can make decisions instead of circling that same block and those same thoughts year after year. 

We are hosting Manifesting and Mimosas twice this month—January 3rd and January 17th. And, you can join us in person or virtually, so you don't have to be local to be a part of it. If you know that you're being called for more, but you have been busy instead of aligned, this is your room. I want you in a seat in this room.

The link to join is in the show notes. You can grab your tickets and come do this thing with us. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. The third thing that I want you to stop and start is one that I feel like keeps people stuck for years, honestly, and that's waiting.

Living on this "I'll start when..." mentality. And I can speak to this personally because I've been there and done it. There was a season where I knew I wasn't meant to stay in a job that I was in, but I didn't know what leaving would look like. I didn't know the whole plan. I didn't know that I would even leave corporate altogether. I just knew that I wasn't meant to stay. 

But the thing that held me back wasn't really laziness or lack of ambition. It was honestly the fear of leaving a really good thing. Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever felt that pressure, like, I should be grateful. Other people would kill for this job. What if the next thing isn't better than this thing? 

And honestly, I see this in clients all the time. They stay because they're waiting for the perfect next job. They stay because they're waiting for a guarantee or because they think the next step has to be the final step. Sometimes the next job is just the bridge to your forever job. Sometimes your next step isn't the destination, it's simply direction and getting you back on the right path. 

And here's where this ties into something a little bit bigger. We don't just wait on jobs. We also wait on happiness. Raise your hand if this resonates with you. Have you ever said one of these phrases: 

• I'll be happy when I lose the weight.
• Or, I'll be happy when I get the new job. 
• Or, I'll be happy when the house is clean or when I land my clients, or when my in-laws finally leave.
• I'll be happy when the money comes in or when the person changes, right? Like when our spouse changes or my coworker changes. 

If that is your pattern, I want you to hear this really clearly. The finish line will always keep moving because happiness is never meant to be a reward that you earn later. It's a feeling state you can actually practice now.

Not happy all the time, but like in peace, freedom, pride, lightness, steadiness. All of those feeling states, they're accessible to you today. And the way that you access them is by making one decision that matches the life you say you want. 

This is really where discomfort comes in. Discomfort of the unknown is a real thing, but the discomfort of staying the same is also real. It's just familiar. And if you want a new year, you have to be willing to move through that messy middle, that uncertain space between your old life and the new one you're creating.

So I want you to stop waiting for permission, and I want you to start trusting your next step. Here's a quick action you can take. Ask yourself, "If I trusted myself just 10% more, what would I allow myself to admit out loud?" And then follow that question with, "What is one step I can take before the end of this week that will honor that truth?" 

You don't have to have the whole plan, just the next step, that turtle step like we've talked about in previous episodes, because beginnings require endings. And if you're not willing to end anything, nothing's going to change this year, next week, next month. 

As you move into this next season, I want you to notice something. I want you to notice where you've been halfway in, where you've been busy instead of intentional, where you've been waiting for permission instead of trusting yourself. None of that makes you behind. It just means that you're standing at a decision point. 

Change doesn't come from trying harder. It comes from deciding and then letting your actions catch up to that decision. It comes from choosing what actually matters, even when other people's expectations for you are loud. And it comes from being willing to take the next step before you can even see the whole path. That's faith, right? That's how aligned lives are built, not all at once, but intentionally. 

So, underneath all of this is this truth—Every meaningful beginning requires an ending. And, if you're not willing to let something go, then there isn't room for anything new to take root. 

If you're feeling that pull towards something different, whether it's this week, or this month, or this year, and you're ready to finally act on it, this is the exact work we do inside the Manifesting and Mimosas vision board workshop. It is happening January 3rd and January 17th, both in person and virtually. You'll find the link to join in the show notes. 

I'll leave you with one question to carry you into this next chapter. Where are you willing to end so your life can actually begin?

Because if you don't choose your year, your year will choose you. 

Until next time, I'm sending you so much love and gratitude. Thanks for listening.