People at work are constantly obsessed with getting a promotion. They create career development plans to review with their managers and take on specific tasks to get exposure to people outside of their direct teams.
I personally have been promoted at my company and have promoted multiple employees. I get it. People want to get promoted.
Except why do we really want to get promoted?
Sure the additional money is nice and there might be a title change, but we wants to get promoted to feel good and rewarded for our hard work.
Guess what. You can feel good even without a promotion.
Pretend you got promoted right this second. Tomorrow when you go into work the phone tool will have a new title and level and your bank account will have additional numbers in it.
But you will still sit at the same desk. You will still work on the same project. You will still work with the same people. You will still have the same manager.
Nothing changed except the phone tool and your bank account.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a career plan or promotions. But how you feel at work has everything to do with your thoughts about it and nothing to do with the facts.
You think a promotion will magically make all your annoying coworkers and frustrating projects disaster, but they are all still there waiting for you after the promotion.
All feelings come from your thoughts. If our feelings came from the facts, everyone would have the same feelings.
Go for the promotion, but take ownership of your feelings. It’s the most empowering thing you can do for your career.
Want help applying this to your specific situation? Sign up for free coaching here.
