People often push hobbies and activities they enjoy aside because of one common excuse we all fall victim to—I don’t have time. I can say with confidence that I owe my personal success in the workforce to everything I have learned off the clock.

Your interests outside of your career can play a key role in your success during your 9 to 5. I guarantee you’ll be a better employee because of what you take from immersing yourself in music, fitness, team sports, art, and beyond.

Here’s a few different ways of how your outside activities can benefit you in the office.

Making connections

Networking is one of the most important aspects in anything and everything you do in life. It’s a small world—you never know how the people you meet in your yoga class or pickup basketball game, will somehow connect back to your business. Having a personal connection with someone can make you stand out among your competitors. Every job I have ever had was because of connections I already had to the people in the business.

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Thinking outside of the box

Whether you love to perform music, act, play a sport, read, or write, these all require a great deal of knowledge and artistry. Thinking creatively will become a natural skill that has you asking the questions others didn’t at work, and brainstorming with ease. You’ll find yourself with an innovator’s mentality because of this way of thinking. Having individual interests means you have a unique skill-set that will bring new qualities to a company that others may not have.

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Acquiring transferrable skills

When you practice something, you are acquiring new skills and, more importantly, transferrable skills. Now, maybe being able to play a new chord on the guitar won’t help you impress your clients (or maybe it will, who knows) but the transferrable skills—like the patience and determination it took to learn that chord—will translate into your character as a professional.

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Establishing core values

There is an endless list— discipline, respect, compassion, determination—of core values you can attain or strengthen from working with a group or even just one other person. At the end of the day, these traits are what any client or employer wants to see above anything else. Success in the workforce goes beyond the monetary and academic excellence you have attained. Money and awards don’t define success, they are more so the result of being successful. The true cause of success lies within a person’s character.

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Start looking at your hobbies beyond face value. Do you notice where you learned some of your transferable skills that make up who you are in the workforce? Was it your old basketball team? Music lessons? Yoga classes? A reading group?

Say goodbye to making excuses and putting aside the things you love to do because of your career. Continue to be involved in your favorite hobbies for the bliss it brings and the personal development that will transpire in the workplace.