How to Get a Promotion: You Have to Have It Before You Have It

Leadership Strategy Number One

You have to have it before you have it. Let me ask you this: how many of you are driving your dream car? Before you ever had that car, I would imagine you saw it in your garage, saw in your driveway, saw it in both. I’ll bet you saw yourself driving that car down the highway and saw the dashboard and ran your hand along the nice fabric in the interior. Personally, I went to the dealership on two different occasions and drove my dream car without any intensions of buying it that day, the next day or the next week.

You have to have it before you have it is a phrase that I hear used frequently by successful people. Put another way, you must fake it until you make it. Napoleon Hill in his tremendous book, “Think and Grow Rich”, put it this way, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Let me ask you this, “Can you see yourself in the corner office?” How about in the next rung up the ladder. If not, you need to change that. Before you ever accomplish anything worthwhile, you must first see the accomplishing. If at first you think, “No, I could never get that promotion”, do this for me – no strike that – do this for yourself. Over the next 21 days, picture yourself in that promotion. For the next 21 days, think and walk and talk like you already have that promotion. In the morning, before you open your eyes and at night when you close your eyes to sleep, see yourself sitting in that office.

For 21 days, see yourself sitting in that leather chair. See yourself working at that beautiful wooden desk. See your secretary bringing your coffee. For the next 21 days, see yourself directing your team. After about 15 days, you will go from, “No, I couldn’t accomplish that” to, “Well, maybe I could.” And after 21 days, you will go from, “Well, maybe I could” to, “You know, I think I can.” And you to start to think, “I think I can, I think I can” and all of a sudden you have bought a ticket on my favorite mode of transportation, “The Little Train That Could.” Remember the Little Train That Could? If you will recall, The Little Train That Thought He Could, did. Why 21 days? Research has shown that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Do something diligently for 21 days straight and it becomes a solidified habit.Then, do it for 21 more.

Form the habit of seeing yourself there. Never forget, you have to have it before you have it. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.