12 Days of Christmas: Achieve Your 2019 Professional GoalOn the first day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you….

That’s right folks, it’s time for our famous and fabulous 12 Days of Christmas Series.

We always look forward to this countdown (and not just because it means we don’t have to debate what to write about, everyone knows that struggle can be REAL). It’s a fun tradition and a great way for us to end the year.

So today friends, on the first day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you a plan to set and achieve your one main 2019 professional goal.

That’s a pretty big gift. But we’re feeling generous.

You get your professional goal! You get your professional goal. And you, and you, and you. PROFESSIONAL GOALS FOR EVERYONE IN THE SPIN SUCKS COMMUNITY!!!!

12 Days of Christmas: Achieve Your 2019 Professional Goal
Setting Your Professional Goal

Last month I created the Rockstar Guide to Setting Your Professional Goals. Because you guys are rockstars (if you aren’t a rockstar please exit this blog immediately). And because setting professional goals is the most important step in achieving them.

Funny how that works, huh?

But really, one of the biggest reasons people don’t achieve their goals is because they set the wrong ones. So this guide will help you set the goals that matter most.

The problem most of us have is we try to set too many goals at once. We set ALL the goals, and as a result, we achieve none of them.

That’s why this gift is on the first day of Spin Sucks Christmas. You only get one. One professional goal for 2019 (ok, ok, you can have one personal and one professional…fine, fine….you guys are good bargainers).

When you are forced to narrow it down to one thing it makes you get really specific with what matters most for the year. And in turn, where your focus, intention, and energy should be spent.

When you don’t, it’s super easy to let that same focus, intention, and energy scatter and wander….and never push you towards the things that are most important.

Go read the Rockstar Guide, set your professional goal, apply the SMARTER goal methodology to it, and then come back over.

Don’t worry, we’ll wait. This is important.

What’s Stopping You from Achieving Your Professional Goals?

What’s stopping you from achieving your goals. It’s different for everyone but in my experience tends to fall into one of four categories:

  • Productivity traps
  • Habit
  • Prioritization
  • Fear of failure

I look at all of them on this post on business goals and the obstacles that block our success.

But you can also find info to help you overcome each of these areas in the following posts:

Lack of productivity got ya stuck? Check out these posts:

Be More Productive Every Day with These Eight Tips

The 14 Productivity Tips of Ridiculously Successful People

Six Ways to Make Monday More Productive…on Friday

And our favorite productivity tools: Slack, Sanebox, and Wunderlist.

(P.S. that Sanebox link is an affiliate one, you get your productivity back and I get $5 toward my annual subscription…woohooo heeeey high roller.)

Are you stuck in a bunch of bad habits that prevent success? FYI, even if you don’t think habit plays a part, I guarantee it does, so read this book.

Maybe it’s really just a problem with setting priorities? The Rockstar guide is good for that.

And if it’s mindset, read these:

How to Change Your Mindset to Reach Your Goals

Five Steps to Building a Bulletproof Mindset

How a Growth Mindset Expels Failure—and the Fear of It

This on fear of rejection:

Not Achieving Your Career Goals?

And this one on fear of failure:

How to Deal with Failure in Four Steps

Duh! You Need Music….

Pursuing goals is hard work, and everyone knows hard work is easier done with the help of great music.

So obviously you need a professional goal playlist.

In fact, I’d argue the real reason you haven’t achieved your goals to date is you didn’t have the right music. So we’ve got you covered.

Here is a Spotify playlist for you all about goals. It was co-created by the Spin Sucks community, so you might see your song selection on the list. 

I’ve listened to it a few times already and it’s pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself.

Want to see a song on here? Let us know in the comments!

What Motivates YOU?

Since Spin Sucks is a for the community by the community type of place, I decided to ask people waaaaay smarter than myself, our Spin Sucks Community, what helps keep them motivated when pursuing goals.

You can see the entire thread HERE.

Gini and Katie Robbert agree they are motivated by the balance in their bank accounts.

Christopher Penn has a playlist of meditations he uses to reboot (you can check out one of his favorites HERE).

Chris Frantz summons one of our generations great spiritual mentors, Little Nemo: Just keep swimming.


Paula Kiger (whose birthday it was last week, everyone wish Paula a happpppy birthday) looks to Brian Tracy and Yoda (#becauseYoda…duh).

Kathryn Mason shared this great quote from Jack Canfield:

12 Days of Christmas: Achieve Your 2019 Professional Goal

Greg Brooks shared a bunch of great quotes we can’t reshare here #becauseprofanity, but go over to the thread and check them out.

Mike Schaffer basically pretends he is in the WWE. We didn’t ask if he also wears colorful tights and capes when he really needs a boost.

Jennifer Phillips turns to the wisdom of Monty Python:


Patrick Prothe believes in ice cream and Brian Lindstrom’s quote “always share the ice cream.”

And Christine Mortensen shared perhaps my favorite quote of all:

12 Days of Christmas: Achieve Your 2019 Professional Goal

Go Show 2019 What You’ve Got

Ok, there you go! A one-stop shop to help you achieve their 2019 professional goal.

Are you ready??

Tell us your goal in the comments below so we can all cheer you on.

Laura Petrolino

Laura Petrolino is chief marketing officer for Spin Sucks, an integrated marketing communications firm that provides strategic counsel and professional development for in-house and agency communications teams. She is a weekly contributor for their award-winning blog of the same name. Spin Sucks. Join the Spin Sucks   community.

View all posts by Laura Petrolino