The Curation: Dining Chairs, Benefits of Identity-based Habits, and Beautiful Space
I hope everyone had a great start to the year! Today, we explore some curved-back dining chairs for your dining area, and why it’s hard to stick to new habits (from one of my all-time favorite books!)
Kaysville Curved Back Wood Dining Chair (2pk), $180, Target
Solid Real Wood PU Leather Cushion Elbow Dining Chair, $242, BED BATH&BEYOND
Ceremonie Green Mohair Dining Chair, $499, Crate&Barrel
Inesse Boucle Ivory Dining Chair, $379, CB2
Libby Black and Natural Cane Dining Chair, $399, Crate&Barrel
Valissa Armchair, $600, McGee&CO.
Ingleside Open Back Upholstered Wood Frame Dining Chair, $150, Target
Reid Wood Upholstered Dining Chair (2pk), $750, World Market
Minna, A$249, Kave Home (AU)
Simone Performance Bouclé Chair (2pk), $478, Castlery (US) (AU)
Claire Chenille Dining Chair (2pk), A$418, Temple&Webster (AU)
Weekly Learnings & Findings
With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become
James Clear
Why 95% of New Year’s Resolutions Fail
The start of every year is a popular time for people to start fresh, form a new habit, and try something new - New Year’s resolution is almost like a tradition. But, if you look at the statistics, most of these habits and resolutions never last. Slowly as our motivation or excitement fades, so does our habit and we fall back into old routines.
I’ve been following James Clear’s work for a while now, ever since I read his book Atomic Habits back in 2019. This book completely changes the way I approach habits - it goes deep into the understanding of how habits are formed, and what we can do to build cues, cravings, responses, and rewards to create systems that will help us achieve our goals. Each of these steps is filled with examples that are very applicable to any and every situation of our life, not the standard “if you want it bad enough you’ll do it” advice that we often get from self-help books.
As I got reminded of this book last week when I was flipping through my Kindle library, I thought it’d be good to write about this - as a refresher to myself, but also to anyone out there so we can all stick to our resolution!
It’s easy to get inspired and start doing things better, but it’s much harder to stick to those new behaviors. But why is that, and is there anything we can do to make the change easier?
One of the biggest things I learned from this book is the mindset shift from outcome-based habits to identity-based habits. Most of us, whether consciously or subconsciously, set goals based on outcomes. “I want to lose weight”, or sometimes you’ll get specific “I want to lose 10 pounds”. For me recently, this was “I want to post one video every week”.
But this is a backward approach to doing it. An identity-based approach will be, “I’m a healthy person”, therefore as a healthy person I’ll eat nutritious food and exercise regularly, which in turn will help me lose weight. In my case, “I’m a content creator (or YouTuber? Whatever it is, I’ve never found the right term for it :D)”, therefore as someone who creates content online, I’ll write daily, which in turn helps me to post video more consistently.
Most of us set goals and determine the actions we should take to achieve those goals without considering the beliefs that drive our actions. The problem with that? Over the long run, our self-image will often get in the way, and we will revert to our old habits.
Three levels where change can occur, according to James Clear’s Atomic Habits.
With identity-based habits, we can focus on who we wish to become. Once we decide the type of person we want to be, you’ll want to prove that identity to yourself. But this change won’t happen overnight, it happens gradually, bit by bit.
So, Start small: Small changes can lead to big results. Accept that the transformation can’t be instant. If, for example, you were not a healthy person for years, don’t assume you’ll become such within a week. Start with exercising for a couple of minutes per day and increase this duration over time. This way, every time you exercise. This activity will reinforce the person you want to become. I started writing daily in August. In the beginning, this was only 15-30 minutes, but every day that I didn’t skip writing, I took that as a win. Those small wins started to grow and slowly reinforce my identity, and now 5 months in, I write every morning for about 2 hours, and couldn’t imagine a day of skipping it. The result? I am able to post 4-5 videos per month, started this newsletter, and am also in the process of writing a course (btw if this is something that interests you, get on it here).
Whatever your identity is right now, you only believe it because you have proof of it. If you train every day regardless of the weather, you have evidence that you are an athlete or committed to fitness. If you go to church every Sunday for ten years, you have evidence that you are religious.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
By taking on an identity, you will shift the way you think, and then everything shifts with it. When you take on the identity of a healthy person, you’ll ask the question, Would a healthy person (or insert any dream identity) do that? If the answer is yes, it will help you reach your goals. If the answer is no, it’s likely not good for you.
Having this clarity is so important. Many people think they lack motivation when what they lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action.
If you’re someone who cares about achieving your goals (whatever that is; fitness, health, relationship, career, etc), looking to form new habits, or want to know how you can build systems to achieve your goals, I highly recommend to give this book a read if you haven’t already.
Beautiful Space
Struggling with decorating your home?
Check out my Practical Home Design course where I cover a step-by-step process so you, yourself, can confidently make your own choices and design a home that you’ll love. I'll also provide you with guides, handbooks, templates, and a bunch of resources to aid your learning.
See you in a fortnight!
Reynard Lowell