Life and career coach Lea Berry shares how you can boost your career with self-love—one that doesn’t include posting motivational quotes. Instead, looking at what you do daily can help you in more ways than you know. This is where self-care trumps self-sacrifice.

It may seem like an unlikely pairing, but when you are looking for consistent results, high performance, and maximum impact both at work and at home, you may want to hit the pause button on the motivational movies and quotes.

Instead of swiping through Instagram, turn to your own routine. How well you take care of yourself correlates directly to your career performance in a number of unique ways. When you feel your best, is it when you’ve had zero sleep? You probably feel better when you’re well rested and rejuvenated. There’s a reason people who, after coming back from vacation, are likely to give creative and insightful comments and feedback.

Here are my top reasons for focusing on self-care when you need a long-term career performance boost.

It Gives You Perspective
Setting aside time for yourself connects you back to your roots. It helps ground you to what happens in the world outside of your work.

The world is big, super big. And although our own personal worlds can feel small when you go from day to day, changing your scenery and broadening your scope are important. This allows you to take off your blinders and see new patterns, perspectives, and connections that you wouldn’t usually see.

This connection of patterns translates well into any business environment. You can bring a real-world example or perspective that answers the question “How does this impact the person we are trying to help?”

Answering this question with authenticity makes a big difference not only in the lives of other people but your career potential as well.

It Teaches You Prioritization
You may think all job performance means self-sacrifice, but with each promotion and passing year, responsibilities add up. New challenges will continue to demand your attention. Self-care and taking the time to repeat the activities that really make you feel good can also help you gain a key management skill—prioritization!

Think of it this way, if your boss gives you two weeks to finish a project, you’ll map out a plan to complete the project and fill the days with activities to help you achieve the goal with a two-week deadline. If your boss gives you the same project and said he needs this in one week, well, you’re going to have to identify what needs to happen when and what may not be included in the final product due to time constraints.

The point is, the more time you dedicate to small, filler activities, the less time you have to devote to activities that really set you up for promotion and/or the position you’re really eyeing.

Self-care is an active practice of prioritization. Every time you do it, you receive the benefit, and by doing so you can effectively discern activities and projects at work that will set you up for success at your performance review.

What About Self-Sacrifice?
So what’s the harm with total self-sacrifice for your work? Well, it depends on who you ask. For some people, they feel fueled soulfully by performing their work. Creatives find their happiness in their art, project managers lose track of time while solving problems, and research associates get sucked into interesting articles or books on their topic.

There’s no “total perfect balance” to help you achieve the self-care you need with total high work performance. We all have activities that enrich us, and by focusing on them you’ll have a greater chance of working smart rather than just working hard.

So the next time you’re letting excuses win you over, think about your next pay increase or job change. That will get you up and out of your seat in no time!

The original version of this article was published on the Lea Berry Coaching website.

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