Dear Brooke,
I have worked in my current company for almost 8 years now and while most of people who joined at the same time have gotten their promotions in between, I am still at the same level. I moved to different functions within the company in between, currently serving in a highly responsible role. While I like my job and have great colleagues, I get very angry, disillusioned, sad etc. when I see other people getting promotions – mainly through knowing people – while I am stuck at my current level despite good/excellent performance reviews and very positive feedback from my managers.

I have tried modelling this and understand completely that it is my thoughts that influence my feelings, hence I should change the way I think about the whole situation… But I just find the situation so unfair, feel sad and unhappy that it doesn’t change, and sometimes resent myself that I do not operate through connections, which seem to be the way to promotions, hence not progressing in my career. As a consequence, I find the model by which I would think different thoughts, such as “good for them or they got promoted and it is ok” difficult to believe. I basically want the circumstance to change…. Grateful for your help.