Can you work seriously without wanting continual promotion?

Yes. Serious work need not make continual promotion the goal. Effort for livelihood and income is valid. You can also consider what you bring to those around you through the work.

A fellow practitioner in media shared previously focusing on completing immediate challenges. Later she considered helping colleagues enjoy work more and teaching them what she knew so everyone gained something. She need not force herself to become general manager, since she did not truly want that and pursuing it brought pressure.

She later viewed coworkers as people connected through mutual learning. What she had experienced and learned could be passed to others, forming a kind of continuity. Promotion and large earnings then ceased to be the only concerns. I agree: work can meet personal needs and consider others too, rather than make a job title the sole worthwhile aim.