Goal setting for 2025: common traps to avoid

Here's a quick story about goals

Dr Totali Pistov - the exhausted consultant physician - is a totally fictitious character I use from time to time to demonstrate a point. 

Love him or loathe him, he's back.

Dr Pistov is a brilliant physician, but also exhausted – he'll never admit to burnout but he knows deep down, things can’t go on like this. 

His neurosurgeon wife, Magali, has been nagging at him that he has no boundaries whatsoever: he’s over-involved in the trainees and their rota troubles, lets his ward round go on for hours and fails to counteract rudeness from the other members of the multi-disciplinary team that he - rather feebly leads.

Dr Pistov has finally (reluctantly), admitted this eats away at him and impacts on family life because of the time he gets home. It isn’t just about home – it is quietly sapping away at his sense of self, self-esteem – everything.

This is the year he is going to do things differently: he is going to be decisive on ward rounds, learn to set boundaries, and manage conflict better – he's doing all of the things right from January the 1st!

February is here with all of its rainy days and gloom – and where is he at with all this?

Dr Pistov has disappeared (metaphorically) under a flu peak, even bigger ward rounds, a dose of the virus himself (which he worked all the way through resulting in a chest infection) and overall overwhelm which had him crashing in front of Netflix every night.  

What went so wrong for our physician protagonist? 

He set too many goals at once. Conflict, being decisive, ‘boundaries’ (which boundaries?). Basically, he tried and failed to tackle the whole thing at once. A plan of three small changes every day with reflection and learning built in would have worked better.

He failed to make a plan, or do any internal reflection about his mindset.

There was no visual aid to remind him.

He had no accountability partner.

He failed to become clear on the overall benefits. Not just the benefit of leaving on time – but how he was going to feel, how it will benefit his family.

Of course, most of us doing better than Dr Pistov.   But we do often leave goals to just thinking about them or making a note.   Adding in the above steps makes success much more likely. 

What are your goals for the end of 2025?

New Year's resolutions tend to be a bit hit-and-miss, however goal-setting is science-backed.

We are more likely to succeed if the goal is properly "scaffolded" with all the right tools for success. How are you getting on with your goals?

What could you use from the above tools to increase your chance of success?

Working with a coach can ensure you create the right goals, overcome the obstacles and doubles your chance of success.

Book here to arrange a free conversation about working together:

https://zcal.co/links/H35ga5IU/edit