Should I Accept a Promotion
We recently ran across a study by the University of Warwick. We found it interesting that their results fly in the face of a long-held assumption.
For years, it’s been assumed that people get healthier after they accept a promotion. Researchers postulated that people who get promoted feel more in control of their lives. They also thought these people may feel better about themselves.
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More mental strain
But the researchers at the University of Warwick found that this wasn’t the case.
In fact, they showed that people who get promoted have ten percent more mental strain on average.
It makes sense, doesn’t it? A promotion often comes with increased responsibilities, increased hours, and perhaps more people to supervise.
It can place a tremendous amount of pressure on our free time. The researchers at the University of Warwick cited this time pressure as a reason that people were twenty percent less likely to go to the doctor after a promotion.
It’s life on your own terms, not the terms of your company
Our business culture tells us that we’re supposed to move up. We’re supposed to seek out opportunities to get promoted.
But as you know if you’re a regular reader, BIGG success is life on your own terms. You have to decide if a move up is consistent with how you define success. Nothing else matters.
It’s not absolute
There’s more than one way to move up. One person may choose to move into management. Another one masters a craft and becomes known for it. That’s moving up too!
You may want to move up, but now is not the right time. When you think of life on your own terms, think of “terms” as phases of your life. You may have kids at home and want less responsibility right now. That’s a great reason to postpone a promotion.
When the kids go to school full-time, the time may be right. You’re breaking life on your own terms down by the terms of your life.
A framework for decision-making
We’ve identified five elements to BIGG success – money, time, growth, work and play. You can use the five elements to help make decisions like this one. Let’s break it down:
Money – You’ll presumably have more if you accept the promotion.
Time – You have the same amount no matter what. But most likely, you’ll have less time away from work.
Growth – Even though their sport seems like it requires mostly physical abilities, top athletes understand how important their mental condition is. We must understand that we need to look out for our health as well as our mental abilities. Besides that, a promotion may allow for a lot of personal growth or it may detract from the personal growth you really want.
Work – You may find your work more, or less, fulfilling. It depends on your goals.
Play – You’ll likely have more money to spend on leisure but less time to enjoy it.
When you know what life on your own terms means to you, it makes it easier to make decisions. The five elements offer a framework to make those BIGG decisions. Think about how the five elements come into play with life on your terms and then consider how any potential opportunity affects them.
Don’t stop there!
We’ve also said that the BIGG idea behind BIGG success is to find synergy. You may realize that the real secret to making this promotion work is to learn to delegate effectively. That’s growth – one of five elements.
You may find that you can accept the promotion, move up at work, and make more money without sacrificing time for play. It may even involve a little more time initially while you develop your delegations skills, but you know it’s worth it because of all the long-term benefits.
Look for synergy in the five elements as you consider opportunities for even bigger success!
So what if you decide a promotion isn’t for you? Please join us next time when we talk about how to turn it down.
Thanks for reading our post today. Until next time, here’s to your BIGG success!
Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00374-041609.mp3
