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.