Work is probably an essential part of your life.

While necessary, though, do you actually enjoy it?

Are you truly satisfied with your own work performance?

Do you feel you accomplish your goals? That you contribute something to your life, your company, the world?

Or has success at work long been lacking in your life?

Be assured, you don’t have to dread going to work and feeling like you’re not achieving anything worthwhile. There are things you can do to improve.

While there’s no magical trick to success there are certain insider tips that can help you apply valuable principles to effectively improve your work performance.

Consider some.

Out-of-the-Box Tips to Increase Your Work Performance

Tip #1: Expect the unexpected

Of course, optimism is important when you’re working on a project, but you shouldn’t overlook thinking about what could go wrong. That has nothing to do with being pessimistic but everything to do with being well prepared. Instead of waiting for what may go wrong during a project, you can improve your work performance from the start by envisioning the potential pitfalls that you may encounter and prepare in advance. That practice won’t wipe out your optimism but rather ground it in reality and help you avoid being caught off guard.

Tip #2: Adopt the simple but powerful “improving” mindset

The “winning is all” mindset may lead you to success at work, but it can also drag you down badly when you encounter adversity. In order to increase your work performance, you must learn to overcome difficulties and develop the mindset of aiming for improvement, not perfection. This includes being able to see challenges as opportunities to grow, sticking to reaching long-term goals and being motivated from within to follow their interest, not that of another person.

Tip #3: Be okay with discomfort

Certainly, that doesn’t mean you have to cause yourself pain. But the fact is that you won’t grow if you don’t step out of your comfort zone and push yourself at times. And, face it, growth is the key to a better work performance. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable can actually help you see what you’re capable of. So, keep forging on, keep seeking knowledge, and keep upgrading your work-related skills. Jump at the opportunity to take on that difficult project. Just don’t become stagnant.

Tip #4: Focus on nailing the steps

When handling work projects, being able to prioritize—separating the relevant from the irrelevant—is imperative. You may already be really good at implementing that aspect. However, to effectively manage the overall process, it’s even more crucial to separate a project into incremental steps that are within your control. This will help you to learn to judge your accomplishments by how well you nail each step in the process and not only on achieving your overall goal. In this way, your self-worth never depends on external factors that are not within your control. And, in turn, your work performance doesn’t suffer due to low self-esteem.

Tip #5: Learn to take your emotional “self” out of the picture

Finding your emotions running rampant when you’re confronted with a tough work situation isn’t unusual. The trouble is, your anxious feelings will block you from seeing the solution, which can decrease your performance. To overcome this block, you quite literally have to step outside your “self” to create distance from the problem. That will allow you to remove your emotions from the situation, give the rational parts of your brain room to function, and promote the insight to make a good decision. It’s similar to giving advice to a friend. Seeing the problem from a distance helps you to be more objective and obtain a more realistic point of view.

Tip #6: Understand that growth = immersion + inactivity

Success can’t be rushed. Patience truly is a virtue, an admirable quality. Though this doesn’t just apply to the fact that improving your work performance won’t happen overnight—it takes time. It also applies to the fact that every period of hard work must be followed by a period of rest. You can’t imagine that immersing yourself in your work all the time will bring the best results. Quite to the contrary—inactivity is just as important as activity. Too much work, not enough rest, and you’re heading for burnout. Too much rest, not enough work, and you won’t achieve anything. It’s imperative that you find a good balance for alternating them. Your creativity and performance depend on it.

Aside from taking these six tips to heart, you may also want to investigate and take a close look at those people who have achieved success. Analyze exactly what practices encouraged them to accomplish their goals, what principles kept them from being distracted, and what mindset helped them to overcome obstacles. Most likely, they learned to think outside the box and so can you.