Atomic Habits for the Interior Designer
I have been weighing upon including more content about the business of interior design entrepreneurship. One of the things that shape my thoughts and then shape my business is the amount of reading that I do. I read everything- from magazines to fiction ( including crime and romance) to entrepreneurship books. Taking the lessons learned from James Clear’s Atomic Habits, I wanted to reflect on how this book could apply to interior designers in general and specifically, the interior design business.
A little segue- for quite some years around the years 2012 to 2015, I used to write a blog about design. It actually got quite a lot of traction but as my business, Eclectic Cool grew, I spent more time running the business rather than continuing to create content. This was a huge mistake. By letting the blog lapse, I lost one of the most fun parts of my business, I lost the opportunity to meet really interesting individuals in the design space. However, it never serves us to look backward, only forward…as I heard recently in one of Amy Porterfield’s podcasts …. it’s not a direction I want to travel in any way. So this month I am going to write every day and get back into the habit of writing and creating content.
It is no secret that I love to read. I actually am not a huge fan of social media and would prefer to create more long-form content that really serves my clients best. I have struggled with creating reels for Instagram but really feel that it is not for me (however, I reserve the right to change my mind). Getting back to the topic at hand, what are the lessons learned for interior designers from this book?
The Four-Step Model of Habits
Clear outlines a four-step model for creating habits. These steps are cue, craving, response and reward. Clear’s book describes these steps as the best ways to create healthy habits and therefore change your life. He goes into tons of detail. A quick view of the video below will give you the essence of what this book is about.
Lesson 1- Small habits make big differences. Clear begins his book by talking about the British Road Cycling team. He explains it so well in the video below.
I truly believe that if you want to change you can. As interior designers, technology & the dynamic society in which we live, has changed our lives and our business fundamentally. In order to build our business, we need to challenge ourselves to keep relevant and at the top of our game. This includes learning new ways to improve ourselves, whether it be creatively or in business.
Lesson 2- In order to create a habit, we have to set goals. For the interior designer, what are your goals? They could be to be profitable. It might be to work for a large firm or someone you really respect. It could be to get enough work to fit in between your family commitments. All of these are worthy goals but you won’t get there if you don’t have clarity on what you really want your life to look like
HOWEVER…and this is the kicker…
Lesson 3- As Clear says on p.27- “you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems”. Having a robust system is what brings your atomic habits together. This may be something simple such as ensuring that after every work day, you review your to-do list and ensure that nothing is missed. It could be doing 30 mins of that course 4 times a week. It could be having a Sunday planning meeting for an hour. It could be making sure that once per week you prep your lunches. Clear goes into strategies such as habit stacking (not to be confused with Habit tracking) to achieve these.
Lesson 4- Habits shape your identity. I have been doing interiors for around 15 years now. Unlike some of you who knew what they wanted to do when they left school, I did another degree and then a Masters in areas that I liked by did not love. I have always been passionate about design but didn’t even know when I left school that interior design even existed. I became a teacher for a number of years and it was only after I had three children that I thought of formalising my training and trying to become an interior designer. Even after studying for a number of years, sometimes I still feel that I need to learn more and more to keep up with my career. I am a lifelong learner but I also like to feel that I am ahead of the game and I also like to feel that working hard at aspects of my career, being business or creatively, will improve who I am as an interior designer. I think it is part of my identity as a designer to feel that I am not only creatively developed but technically developed as well. I take pride in my technical skill and that makes me a better designer. As Clear states, these habits change your identity- they become part of you. Thus Clear states- it is a 2 step process:
- Decide who you want to be
- Prove it to yourself with small wins
To be a successful designer, you should become the best designer you can be by continuously honing your skills and by upgrading and expanding your identity. This is done by creating habits that can help us run our lives, both personally, creatively and in business.
There is a lot to unpack in this book and I can’t possibly hope to summarise it here. So I encourage you to check it out.