Overcoming Obstacles in Reaching Our Goals in Healthcare in the New Year
The new year brings fresh motivation for setting goals, but for healthcare professionals, the path to achieving them is often complicated by unpredictable schedules, high-stress environments, and the constant needs of others. As we navigate through the first weeks of the year, many providers have already encountered obstacles to their carefully planned resolutions. This doesn’t mean it’s time to give up—instead, it’s an opportunity to get strategic about overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year.
The Unique Challenges Healthcare Providers Face
“This time of year, we have all kinds of dreams and hopes and aspirations. And already some of us have fallen off the horse,” explains Lily Emlet from the Transforming Healthcare Coaching podcast. “Goal setting is hard enough when you’re a healthcare provider because there’s so many times when we feel exhausted, we have way too long of a to-do list, so many emergencies that come up randomly in your day that you can’t expect.”
Healthcare professionals face distinctive barriers when working toward personal goals:
External Obstacles:
- Unpredictable shift work that disrupts routines
- Last-minute patient emergencies that derail plans
- The expectation that everyone else’s needs come first
- Limited time for recovery between demanding shifts
Internal Obstacles:
- Exhaustion that makes additional tasks feel impossible
- Perfectionism that leads to all-or-nothing thinking
- Self-sabotage through procrastination or distraction
- The “victim mentality” that circumstances are beyond control
As Dr. Grizelda Anguiano notes, “I think some of it’s going to be the shift work… but I think it’s just the internal blocks. I want to do so much, but I’m exhausted or I have so much on my to-do list that I need to really work on time management.”
Bringing Light to Your Obstacles
Before you can overcome obstacles, you need to identify them clearly. The first step in overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year is recognizing what’s truly standing in your way—and how much of it is within your control.
Examine the stories you tell yourself: “One of the first things that I like to ask is just what’s the story you are telling yourself about what’s happening,” Dr. Anguiano shares. “Sometimes it’s even asking, ‘I’m thinking this… well, how true is that?'”
Many healthcare professionals create narratives about why they can’t achieve their goals: “I don’t have time,” “My schedule makes it impossible,” or “I’m just too tired.” Challenge these beliefs by asking how true they really are and whether there might be another perspective.
Recognize when you’re in “victim mode”: “When we’re in the deeper throes or coming from conflict or being a victim like, ‘Oh, I can’t control anything,’ I think that it’s a lot heavier,” notes Dr. Anguiano. This mindset makes obstacles appear insurmountable.
The feeling that “everything happens to me” is actually a signal that it’s time to pause, breathe, and shift perspective. As Lily points out, “Those emotions and those feelings really are the symptom, the warning…that we need to take a beat, we need to take a breath.”
Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles in Healthcare Settings
Once you’ve identified what’s standing in your way, try these proven approaches to navigate around, through, or over those obstacles:
1. Reevaluate and Adjust Your Goals
“Just because we don’t reach or we’re not as successful as we wanted to be, it doesn’t mean that we have to necessarily start from scratch or just throw that goal away,” Dr. Anguiano emphasizes.
When faced with obstacles, ask yourself:
- Is this still the right goal for me right now?
- Do I need to modify my timeline or approach?
- Can I break this down into smaller steps?
“Sometimes we set unrealistic expectations,” Dr. Anguiano points out. “If I said I’m going to run a marathon, but I’ve never run a 5K… it’s keeping in mind that if I said, ‘I want to run a marathon,’ like, wow, it seems like you really want to work on your fitness. Is there any other way that we can work on fitness and not have to be 26.2 gruesome miles?”
2. Create Systems of Support
Healthcare professionals are notoriously bad at asking for help—even though they excel at providing it. Overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year often requires building stronger support systems.
“People have a really hard time asking for help,” Lily observes. “Yet, all of the people in healthcare generally love to help, and so we’re actually depriving them of a gift to be able to feel good. We’re actually depriving them of simple little ways if you just ask for the help.”
Consider:
- Partnering with a colleague who shares similar goals
- Delegating tasks that don’t require your specific expertise
- Joining a community (like MedThrive) for accountability
- Working with a coach who understands healthcare challenges
Dr. Anguiano adds, “It’s about the synergy and working together. I think just the whole of being appreciative of when someone is there to help us or the support systems.”
3. Leverage Your Healthcare Strengths
As healthcare professionals, you already possess extraordinary resilience and problem-solving skills. Use these strengths to your advantage when facing obstacles to personal goals.
“If you’re a practicing healthcare provider in the United States now, there’s no way you haven’t fallen down, gotten back up, had seen some terrible things, experienced trauma, experienced moral injury, and are still there and still doing it,” Lily points out. “Thinking about what skills you use to get through that, what supports you use to get through that, and how can you extrapolate it to a new situation is something that we often forget.”
Ask yourself:
- How have I overcome challenging situations in my clinical work?
- What coping strategies have served me well professionally?
- How can I apply my medical problem-solving approach to my personal goals?
4. Reframe “Mistakes” and “Failures”
Healthcare settings typically have low tolerance for mistakes, which can create a perfectionist mindset that spills into personal goal-setting. Learning to reframe setbacks is essential for overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year.
“Healthcare professionals, especially because we are such type A perfectionists… the obstacles can often feel like a failure,” Lily observes. “Just about every single person I know in healthcare literally self-flagellates themselves for mistakes that they can’t even control.”
Dr. Anguiano suggests approaching obstacles with curiosity instead of judgment: “If something comes up in your mind, ask it. If there’s a mistake that happens—I’d like to see it as an opportunity instead of a mistake—but why did that happen? Was I rushing? Do I need additional training? Do I need additional support?”
This growth mindset applies powerfully to personal goals as well. If you’ve already “fallen off the horse” with your new year’s resolutions, ask what you can learn from the experience rather than labeling it as failure.
Bringing Light to the Season: A New Perspective
Overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year isn’t about powering through or pushing harder—it’s about being strategic, flexible, and kind to yourself in the process.
Dr. Anguiano offers this wisdom: “If you set a goal, realize that you set it for a reason and consider what the value behind that was and why you want to do it. So it may seem like a setback, but don’t stay on the floor. Let’s get up and let’s move forward.”
Lily adds a powerful perspective shift: “If you actually appreciate the microprocesses along the way, then you may get to a brand new goal you didn’t even know you had. And so rather than being with the fixed outcome… if you focus on what are the strategies and what is the scaffolding, what is the infrastructure for how you’re getting there, then you actually may go to a completely even more amazing place.”
The Bottom Line
Healthcare professionals bring extraordinary care and attention to their patients every day. By applying that same level of intentionality to their personal goals—while acknowledging the unique challenges of the profession—they can overcome the obstacles that initially seem insurmountable.
Remember that overcoming obstacles in reaching our goals in healthcare in the new year is not about perfection but progress. Each small step forward, each obstacle navigated, is bringing you closer to the life and career you envision—sometimes in ways you never expected.
Need support in overcoming obstacles to your goals? The Transforming Healthcare Coaching team specializes in helping healthcare professionals navigate their unique challenges. Book a discovery call to connect with a coach who understands your world.
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