Interior Design is a powerful tool for making positive change in your life. The right home will invigorate you in your goals, providing you with the tools you need to live your best life. The key to CGD’s philosophy is centered around habits. You have habits you want to develop, and others you’d like to leave behind. We understand the power of new interiors to transform daily routine, designing environments that assist in habit formation based on your goals.
Minimize distraction
For example, you may want to streamline your current lifestyle. Personally, I love routine. I have a lot on my plate, so I like to take decision making out of the equation whenever possible. I’d rather save my mental energy for the tasks that can’t be automated.
A famous example of this mindset can be found with Barack Obama. During his presidency, he had just two suits styles that he rotated, blue and gray. This took the mental energy out of that daily task. Now, you may enjoy the process of choosing your look for the day, and wouldn’t want to streamline it. But there are probably other areas of your life where you would rather not expend energy, like your breakfast menu or how you structure workouts.
The goal in this case is to find comfort in routine. It doesn’t have to be mundane; it can be enriching. Designing a home to minimize distractions and minor details means different things to different people. For some, it could involve a small fridge in their home office, so they don’t ever have to stop working. It might mean getting a keyless lock for your door, so you never again do a frantic key search on your way out. You may want particular closet areas designed for your work apparel, arranged by interchangeable separates.
Enrich your life with variety
At the other end of spectrum we might work with someone who is trying to break their workaholic habits. Or at least disrupt them a bit. In this case, their designed environment needs to encourage a philosophy of, “stop and smell the roses.” This is a home that favors moments of repose, and encourages time away from the grind. It would include spaces that are determinedly not for work, and others that are, to allow for compartmentalization in the daily routine. Color themes might even be assigned to these spaces, to reprogram the mind to associate certain hues with rest, meditation, celebration or socializing.
Learning new things
Developing new skills is essentially about forming new habits. If you want to be more fit, you need a dedicated workout space. If you want to become a woodworker, you need a wood shop. Before you can form new habits, you must believe they’re worth pursuing. If you have always wanted to make art, but think you have no talent, then you might quit before you begin. But if you believe that your desires are there for a reason, then you might take that plunge and try it anyway, regardless where you land.
And the best way to form habits is to make your environment conducive to this change. Build that workout room, that wood shop, that art studio. If you don’t, you won’t get to know the satisfaction that comes with simply pursuing what you enjoy. You can focus on the process of learning, rather than on outcomes. And practicing new skills will lead to having new skills. You don’t know where you’ll land, but you will definitely get to a different place, and perhaps get to know yourself in new ways.
Big shifts
Major life events often inspire change. Whether it’s something wonderful or something devastating, there are moments when we find that we have crossed a threshold into a new way of existing in the world. These shifts are opportunities to assess your habits and routines, as well as your assumptions about the person you are. Whether you decide to make sweeping life changes or not, you have an opportunity to take stock of your feelings and goals.
In pursuing goals, we must have a system. The goal in itself is not enough to achieve results. When I wrote about habits, I discussed the simple solution of putting the things you want to work on in easy distance of yourself. It can really be as simple as making the new goal physically more accessible than the old, bad habit. If you want to learn the piano, you should feature one prominently in your home so you’re reminded to sit down and play often.
Change your life through designYou have the right to indulge your interests whatever they are. Whether you’re trying to streamline your life or enrich it with new depth, you can achieve this through design. Maybe you want to practice martial arts, or set up a telescope to indulge your love of astronomy. Perhaps you’ll create a sewing room to finally realize your dreams of fashion design. It may be a hobby, or it may be a second career, but it’s in you for a reason. And it doesn’t matter if it conforms to anyone else’s expectations of you. Or even your previous expectations of yourself.
Whatever our clients’ goals may be, their environment should support them. We design to encourage keystone habits (habits that drive significant change in your life). It can be as simple as organizing the space to generate cues and strengthen routine. This makes it possible for you to achieve the goal, and increases confidence in yourself. We can create a home that will bring you joy. We’re here to help our clients change their lives.
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