They may start small, but they add up over time.

It can be pretty draining working a nine to five job. After you get past that initial trepidation of a new position, things have a tendency to settle into a big old rut. Nothing makes a boring job even more boring like walking in metaphorical circles. In these times, you need to take a look inside yourself. Your job isn’t magically going to become amazing on its own. Rather, you need to adjust the way that you approach your work in subtle ways. You may find, over time, that these little tweaks can give you a bit more productivity and positivity than you were expecting.

Give compliments
The first thing that can improve any droll workplace is camaraderie between employees. Unfortunately, talking to people isn’t always as easy as they made it seem in Saturday morning cartoons. If you want to get your foot in the door, the simplest course of action is to offer a compliment. “That’s a cool shirt.” “I like your hair.” You don’t need to go in-depth, just a pleasant comment here and there can help to endear you to coworkers. Once they start opening up, you can try to find common ground.

Make mistakes
A wise man once said that humanity’s greatest skill is its ability to learn from its mistakes. So if you’re all about perfectionism and nailing things on the first try, then you’re depriving yourself of important learning experiences. By all means, you should try your best in everything that you do. But if you make a minor mistake in something and get chewed out, it’s not the end of the world. You gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and say “okay, how can I do better next time?”

Invest in yourself
Life is hard, and sometimes, when the going gets tough, you need a little more incentive to keep doing your best. If you think you’re doing a good job, do something nice for yourself. Take a yoga class, buy a book you’ve been wanting to read, go eat a nice dinner. You’re worth it, and you need to keep reminding yourself of that. Don’t wait for someone else to tell you you’re doing a good job, prove it to yourself.

Be a leader
Not everyone enjoys being in leadership positions, but those same people seem to often find themselves in one regardless. Even if you don’t want to take charge, you gotta do your best anyway. Manage yourself, take an occasional risk, and try to get the most out of everyone’s individual skills.