Selected yes, because that is more than hypothetical. But I have also passed over a few opportunities while waiting for the one I wanted, and once directly declined one to the face of the person offering because it wasn't the one, either.
It was easier to imagine turning these things down before I actually arrived at that point - if this is a possibility for you, you've probably been in the workplace long enough to be thoroughly absorbed into its social workings and its meaning of status. Sticking to my specific objective while others around me moved up quicker by taking opportunities as they came was unexpectedly stressful - after that experience, I can't write off the need to belong as worthless or not real, at least for me. If I'm faced with a similar choice in the future, I might make the same choice, but will give this part of me more weight and consider whether a route of less social resistance will really hold me back so much on the goal if I still want it so badly, or maybe the connection or just the relaxation of blending in could even help. Also, I don't think that those who go about advancement in more open and opportunistic ways are any worse than me at it - actually, they're probably better.
Being a extreme results-oriented person has driven me to both say yes and no in this situation. If I decide that I want something, I am very certain of its worth and I err on the side of not thinking or caring enough about the experience of getting there, like the opposite of someone who doesn't try something because it would be too much effort. I might not even notice that I am running myself into the ground until some kind of physical pain arises. I agree that there is a dark side to this trait, and people can do bad things if the object of lust becomes worth more to them than their morals, themselves, or the people they love; or they don't know themselves well enough to choose the right object to direct this sacrificial energy at.
It is probably never going to go away, and some cycle of grind and release is just going to be the rhythm of my life, but I can make it humane by growing my sense of where to slow down for my health and what end goals are more authentic and worth what I can't help but dump into them. The latter growth is coming along better than the former, but they are both coming along.
If this promotion really will be that unpleasant but I say yes to it anyway, it's because getting it is of course not my desired result, but part of a larger process with something different at the end that I know to be much truer to myself. It will serve its purpose at a time I can already foresee when I take it, and at that time I will be done.
