Billy Keels  0:01  Why focus on promotion is the wrong thing. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com. Why focus on promotion is the wrong thing? Is absolutely inspired by so many different conversations that I'm having with people that I'm meeting, either through my newsletter or through LinkedIn. And if you continue to struggle with feeling like you are not moving forward, you feel like you're constantly juggling so many different things, you're going to want to stick around because there is one very specific thing. When you focus there instead of the promotion, life gets a lot better. And I'm gonna keep this really, really brief, because I want you to know where your focus should be, so that you can feel the forward momentum the movement, because it's no fun for you and any of the people that love you the most to watch you feel like you're stagnant, or you're feeling like you're moving behind. It's just not where you are because you're a high performer, you're an A player, right? And one of the things I think about is, early on in my career, there was such a focus, like I was the poster child for wanting to move up and up and up the org chart, like I just wanted to become, and I've talked about this here many times, I wanted to become the CEO of a very large company. That was my goal. So the only thing that I thought was validation, or me moving forward, was moving up the org chart, bigger title, bigger teams, all that kind of stuff. And so that's great when you are at a certain point in your career and you realize that you're you have so much more ahead of you than you have behind you. And I've even talked about that like, literally, I broke down an entire episode, which was 410, don't do it now, go to the wait until the end, but I go into the entire other ways that you can contribute, like promotion path is not the only way. So this is it's not exactly the same. This is a different angle on things, right? This is a different focal point, a different focus. And why you why focus on promotion is the wrong thing. It is the wrong thing if you are a high achiever and what you want to do is continue to expand and move up promotion. Is focusing there is having the focus is absolutely the wrong thing. Because early on, yeah, like I said, you want bigger titles. You want bigger teams. That's the validation. And you know what? As you continue to evolve as a professional, you will start to realize that what you want is to have that feeling that you're consistently moving forward, that you're not stagnant, that you're not complacent, that you're not just standing in place, or, heaven forbid, even feeling like you're moving back. That sucks. You don't want to be there. You want to have the feeling of being able to move forward contributing. I know I got that way in literally, like, the last what I was in corporate for 26 years. The last 15 years were were fantastic. The last four years were absolutely amazing. Because it was just like, I was going to work because I wanted to, I didn't need to. Well, I was going to that particular role in that job because it was pretty awesome. Because working in the enterprise software space, you're in a bubble, and once you recognize that you're in a bubble, and you can actually float without feeling the pressure, getting constantly poked, Life is real, real nice inside of that bubble. It is very, very nice when you manage it properly. Like I said, I've done kind of, I did it the wrong way in the beginning, and when I started getting it to the right way, it felt so much better. But you know, as you continue to go on and as you start to realize early on in your career, can make sense, but as you start to have life changes, as you get older, as your perspective changes, maybe you enter into marriage, maybe you go through aging parents, maybe you go through divorce. Maybe you go through a point where you're changing the place that you live in the world, with your career, all of that stuff starts to affect whether or not the right focus is on promotion. I'm here to tell you that focusing on promotion in itself is wrong, and so once you speak to someone who has actually understood like me, because that's why I'm sharing. That's why I got this microphone in front of me, because I want to share with you why focus on promotion is the wrong thing. Because when you have the perspective of it being the wrong thing, you want to start to focus on the right thing. Because I don't want you to go down the same path. And I feel that, feeling stuck, feeling frozen, feeling like you're moving back. Because, like I said, that sucks. So the point is, is to is to recognize that there is the opportunity. Because I see it happen all the time. I see it happen with my clients. It's being able to put the right perspective on relieve stress and anxiety, right, because you're not meant. To be complacent. As a high performer, you are meant to build momentum, build and create momentum for others, bring out the best in others. And that doesn't happen when you're being stagnant, when you're being frozen, stuck in place. It just doesn't happen. And so as you come up with your plans to be able to figure out where is the right way place for you to focus, you start to recognize, hey, listen. The thing is, it's great to be able to receive a promotion or ask to be in the the pool of candidates for promotion, but your focus, the focus needs to be somewhere else. I'm going to share that with you. That with you, because maybe the promotion happens, maybe it doesn't, but I can tell you that the best case scenario is that you're asked to be a part of a promotion selection, and you say, you have the power to say, hey, you know what? This is not the role for me. Hey, you know what? This is not the right moment for me. And feel absolutely fine with that, because you know why. And the reason that you've waited until now is because you want to focus on what you're thinking. Billy, well, where is the focus? You're a high achieving professional. You may have the promotion path. Sometimes you may feel that you have to take the promotion path. But the thing and where you want to focus on, it's not on promotion, absolutely not. It's on progress. You want to focus on moving that 1% better every single day. You want to focus on what is the the the activity that's going to give you the feeling in your gut that you're making progress better today than it was yesterday, better tomorrow than it is today, when you focus on progress and you focus on progressing in specific skills, feelings, time that you're investing with family, with friends, the way that you are becoming a better leader, the way that you are becoming better and more efficient at building your business on the side, just a little bit better, focusing on progress, that's the thing that's going to get you into the mindset that you don't feel complacent any longer, that you don't feel stuck, that you don't feel like you're in quick sin. Because when you're focused on promotion, you think that your validation is only one thing, and it's moving up the org chart. And every time you miss an opportunity, every time you're left out of a of a selection process, every time that you miss out on the connection with the mentor, the person you think that was going to help get the next role, you feel like you're stuck or you're moving back, and that's just not true. You're a high achiever. That's what you do. So focus on what's going to give you the highest emotional return, which is being able to make progress. That's what you do. And so while maybe this this specific episode, it's for you, it reached you in time. And at the same time, maybe you know somebody today who's struggling because they really they didn't get in the promotion pool, they weren't in part of the selection process, or they got passed over for the role, and they're feeling like they're complete failures. It's not true. I've been there. It sucks. That's what I'm saying to you. Focus on progress. Pick that one area in your life that you want to feel progress on and you want to move towards, and then build an action plan, get accountability and continue to progress. Because you can control progress. You can't necessarily control the promotion path. So with that, I want you to share the episode. I want you to help help somebody else contribute to the to their well being. And while you're doing that, and appreciate you doing that. Guess where I'll be? I'll be right here preparing for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.Billy Keels  9:05  Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's make it optional.com.