I’m a Dopamine Addict (And It Almost Wrecked My Business): 5 Lessons From My Hardest Year

2025 humbled me. I didn’t hit my goals, lost most of my staff, and spent the year chasing dopamine hits instead of doing the deep work. If you’ve felt scattered, stuck, or exhausted this year, you’re not alone. Here are the five lessons that kicked my butt – and what I’m taking into 2026.

Lesson 1: I’m a Dopamine Addict

Not in a dramatic, clinical sense – but in the sense that I cannot stop chasing the tyranny of the urgent. The ping of an email. The Slack notification. The “quick question” that pulls me away from meaningful work. I realized I’ve been addicted to the dopamine hit of responding to things rather than doing the deep thinking work that actually moves the needle. My brain has been like a ping-pong ball, bouncing from one urgent thing to the next, and I couldn’t settle it down long enough to make real progress on anything that mattered. The result? Projects I care about didn’t get done. The Clinical Academy update I’d been working on all year? Still not finished. Not because I didn’t have time – we all have the same 24 hours—but because I couldn’t focus long enough to make meaningful progress.

Lesson 2: My Self-Talk Needs a Talking-To

I caught myself this year saying things like “I’m never gonna get out of this mess” and “Nothing ever works for me.” Out loud. To myself. And here’s the thing: your mind doesn’t know the difference between what you want and what you’re afraid of. It just delivers more of whatever you’re focused on. I had a moment recently where I was setting up a tripod for recording and nothing was working – too tall, too short, broken clip. And as I walked to the storage room, I heard myself say out loud, “Nothing ever works for me, does it?” That’s the problem. I’ve been rehearsing what I don’t want instead of getting crystal clear about what I do want. Moving into 2026, I’m committed to writing down what I actually want – not my fears, not my frustrations – and saying it out loud. Daily. Because you get what you think about.

Lesson 3: My Systems Completely Broke Down

This one’s embarrassing to admit: I was late paying my property taxes this year. Why? Because I didn’t have a system to remind me. I missed two quarterly reviews with a new employee – not one, two. They just slipped my mind because I was in the day-to-day grind and I let the stuff stay in my head instead of putting it in a system. The problem isn’t that I forgot. The problem is that I was relying on my brain to remember things it shouldn’t have to remember. If something happens and someone needs to step in for me, they can’t follow what’s in my head. Systems aren’t sexy, but they’re the difference between surviving and thriving.

Lesson 4: Staff Turnover Taught Me I Have to Build My Way Out

I went from a staff of five to a staff of two plus a virtual assistant this year. One departure was sudden and unexpected; the others were life changes. But when most of your staff leaves, you take on the rest – and I took on way too much. I’ve been doing things I shouldn’t be doing: ordering supplements, managing details in Practice Better, handling tasks that don’t require my brain. And I kept telling myself it was temporary. “Just get through this week. Just get through this month.” But temporary becomes permanent if you don’t stop it. Survival mode became my operating system. I couldn’t think strategically because I was so deep in the day-to-day operations. You can’t think your way out of this – you have to build your way out. Document the systems. Hire the help. Delegate the tasks that don’t require you.

Lesson 5: I Have to Slow Down

I’ve been so reactive all year. Responding to fires. Jumping every time a notification dings. Saying yes to things I should have said no to. And because I never stopped to ask “Is this really that important? Must it be done right now?” – the big things didn’t get done. I didn’t serve you as well as I could have because I let the tyranny of the urgent be the driver. If I want my businesses to grow in 2026, I have to protect my time for deep work. I have to be okay with not responding to every crisis immediately. I have to be intentional about the work I do – not just reactive to whatever’s loudest.

What’s Next

I’m not sharing these lessons because I have it all figured out. I definitely don’t. But I know I’m not alone in this – and I’d bet some of these hit home for you too. So here’s what I’m asking you to do: Get clear about what you actually want for next year. Write it down. Say it out loud. Stop letting your fears do the talking. And if you want support getting there – real systems, real strategies, real community – that’s what we do inside Clinical Academy. No fluff. Just the structure you need to stop spinning and start building. Oh, and one more thing: We’re kicking off the Clinical Thinking Series on January 6th. I’m walking you through exactly how I think through hard cases – the wins, the failures, all of it. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Here’s to closing out 2025 and stepping into 2026 with clarity.