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How to Increase Your Odds of Being Promoted: A Mind Over Matter Experiment

By Phil Parker Do Dip E Hyp Psyc CMPNLP

Want to increase the odds of your chances of being promoted? The energy of your thoughts may be the most important factor in influencing the outcome of your experience. Take the following example…

In an experiment, a group of volunteers were asked to throw one of a pair of dice. They were told that a score of above three was good. In a series of 100 throws, those who did ‘well’ in the first few throws were consistently better throughout the next 100 throws than those who didn’t do as well on the first few throws. It seemed as though some people were just lucky while others were not.

A second experiment was run in which the dice were thrown under a partition, preventing the thrower from seeing the score. The dice was read by an assistant who was instructed to tell the thrower they had done well, independent of what there actual score was.

In this experiment, they found that even throwers who started off with poor scores had a higher than average throw rate. It seems that our luck is actually dependent on how lucky we think we are.

So, where are your thoughts? Can you see yourself sitting at your new desk? Endorsing your new paycheck with joy?

Isn’t it time you put yourself in the driver’s seat of your new job by keeping your thoughts positively focused on your goal.

How to do it

There are some key rules for generating the kind of positive thoughts that produce positive results.

1. Imagine it clearly, focusing on what you want rather than what you don’t want. A “new more enjoyable job” rather than “not being made redundant”. Try this experiment in negative thoughts; Try not to think of Elvis juggling twelve purple monkeys. You tried not to, but you did, didn't you. Remember the 'lucky' dice throwers.
2. Be specific. “a job in sales department of a large corporation, selling a product I’m proud of, with a minimum of $/£100k pa” rather than “a new job”
3. See it having already happened,
   1. Use the language of the present rather than the future “ I am in my holiday home in the Cayman’s” rather than “I will be enjoying my holiday home in the Cayman’s”.
   2. Avoid words that indicate struggle or difficulty, as in  “I’ll try to/ hope to/ might/ could/ have a holiday home in the Cayman’s”.
   3. Suspend any doubts or ‘reality’ checks whilst doing the thought creation process.
   4. Fill in as much detail as possible, the sights and sounds, the feelings, to create an in depth, full on experience.
4. Remind yourself why this is important to you and to the people you care about and what it will contribute to the world.
5. Examples of how to do it.
   1. “I’m sitting in my large office, over to my left I notice the sun glinting off the surface of a lake of breathtaking blue. My door is open and the sign on it that reads “vice president” is just visible from this angle; I’m checking the contract for my next year’s salary, terms and options, this package (….fill in your details….) is just perfect. It reminds me of how far I’ve come and how all this is now so normal and natural, as is the extraordinarily positive impact I am making on the company, workforce and customers.

2. ”I can feel the crystal blue water of the lagoon lapping at my feet as they dangle off the sun bleached decking of the pier; looking back to my house I notice the rays of the setting sun reflecting off the whitewashed roof, as the twilight sounds of the Caymans mingle the joyful noise of my family at play, increasing my sense of relaxation and well being even further. It’s good to know I have achieved this whilst making a valuable contribution to others in the process”

6. How to not do it.

   a.” I know it’s impossible, and this won’t work, but I’d like to try and one day in the very distant future, get some kind of home.. no probably a time share, or to be more realistic, maybe just go on holiday to the Caymans, or somewhere not too horrid; but I guess a trailer park in Toledo would be as much as I could really expect."

   b."I'd like to fool someone in to giving me a job, that I don't deserve, in an office that's not too cramped and shabby, one where I don't earn as little as I do now..etc"

As Henry Ford said, “There are those that think they can and those that think they can’t, and they’re both right.”

© Phil Parker

Phil Parker is based in London and works throughout the UK and Europe as a keynote speaker, executive coach, trainer, hypnotherapist, osteopath and healer. You can contact him at phil@hyp.no.com and visit the Communication and Change Consultancy at www.hyp.no.com to discover how they can help you and your organisation can become everything you can be.