Why is self-love important for workplace performance?
In conversations surrounding career growth and workplace success, we’re often taught that building tangible skills, knowledge, and experience are important. But have you ever stopped to consider the role that self-love may play in your professional performance?
Despite the concept of self-love becoming quite buzzworthy and maybe even sounding “woo woo” or restricted to a spiritual crowd, studies show that self-love, the belief and act of valuing and accepting oneself, is an important foundation for success in all areas of life, including the workplace.
Here are a few reasons why:
Self-love boosts confidence and self-esteem. When we feel good about ourselves, we're more likely to feel confident and capable in our abilities. This can translate into better performance in the workplace, as we feel more comfortable taking on new challenges and tasks.
Self-love promotes healthy boundaries. When we love and value ourselves, we're more likely to set healthy boundaries with others. This can be especially important in the workplace, where it's easy to feel overwhelmed or taken advantage of. Being able to advocate ourselves and set healthy boundaries allows us to protect our time and energy, perserving precious energy that we can then channel into our work.
Self-love fosters resilience. When we love and accept ourselves, we're more likely to bounce back from setbacks and failures. This resilience can be crucial in the workplace, where we're often faced with challenges and opportunities for growth.
In short, self-love is an essential component of success in the workplace. By valuing and accepting ourselves, we can boost our confidence, set healthy boundaries, and foster resilience – all of which can lead to better performance and overall well-being.
Here are some tips for beginning to build self-love:
Say positive affirmations. There is an entire science surrounding affirmations and the positive impacts they have on our brains and neural pathways. Affirmations help us turn any negative self-talk or limiting beliefs we may have, into confidence that helps us feel empowered at work. You can check out a list of our favorite affirmations here.
Embrace a growth mindset. Professional environments tend to make some us harder on ourselves, as we push ourselves to exceed expectations at work or hit milestones in our careers. If we’re not careful, a yearning for success can turn into perfectionism, which doesn’t allow us to learn from the mistakes we make. Embracing a growth mindset, which encourages us to embrace failure as a way of building resilience, is a strong antidote for this.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance. The conditions of your internal mind and body, whether good or bad, will inevitably impact how you show up at work. Learn to always prioritize and take care of you first, so that everything else in your life can fall naturally and organically into place, supporting the atmosphere of self-love you’ve created, rather than take away from it.
Experiment with increasing your self-love and self-care routines in your life and see how it impacts how you show up at work. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results that occur when you prioritize yourself and your own well-being.
References:
Schiraldi, G. R. (2000). The self-esteem workbook. New Harbinger Publications.
Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101.
