141. Running Toward vs Running From: The Mindset Behind Your Goals
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the idea of pursuing a vision for your business? Setting your vision and pursuing it boldly can feel daunting, especially when you’re focused on what you want three years from now. The pressure to get it "right" or the fear of changing your mind can keep you stuck in analysis paralysis. But sometimes, looking at what you don’t want can help you clarify what you do want through contrast.
In this follow-up to CEO Summer School's truth number two, I’m highlighting a crucial distinction that impacts your energy, effectiveness, and enjoyment as you build your interior design business. The difference between running toward what you want versus running from what you fear shapes every decision you make and action you take. This subtle shift in focus can determine whether you’re overcorrecting, settling for "good enough," or truly moving toward your vision with confidence.
Through examples from team management to systems building, you’ll learn how to recognize when you’re operating from avoidance versus attraction. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a simple but powerful question to ask yourself each day that will help you redirect your energy toward creating what you actually want in your business and life.
Click here to enroll in CEO Summer School! You'll receive a dedicated email resource every other week to take what you’ve learned and apply it directly to your business.
If you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching waitlist! Click here to learn more about Design to Thrive and secure your spot to be the first to know when availability opens up.
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
Why your internal orientation toward goals impacts your actions and effectiveness.
How running from what you don't want leads to overcorrecting and extreme behaviors.
The difference between settling for "fine" versus pursuing what would be amazing.
What happens when you have your foot on the brake and the gas pedal at the same time.
How to recognize when you're operating from fear versus moving toward your vision.
Why building systems against problems creates different outcomes than building toward solutions.
The simple daily check-in question that shifts your focus to what you want.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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140. Create Your Vision and Pursue it Boldly (CEO Summer School)
Enroll in CEO Summer School to receive a dedicated email resource every other week to take what you’ve learned and apply it directly to your business!
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you're listening to episode 141. This is going to be a quick follow-up to last week's episode where I shared truth number two in the CEO Summer School series. If you missed that one, it was all about knowing what you want and having the confidence to go after it, while also staying committed to what it is you want to create, even when self-doubt arrives and obstacles present themselves.
As you develop your business and life vision, I was thinking about something really important that I didn't address in last week's episode. And so I want to make sure we call it out today. As you make decisions, set that destination for yourself, including some specific, clear goals, and you take action, there is a really important distinction between running toward what you want and running from or trying to avoid something that you don't want. This really impacts how you approach your business and life vision, and how you can achieve it. And you really have to be aware of this difference because it impacts your energy, your effectiveness, and enjoyment of pursuing what you're building as an interior design CEO. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello, designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to be here with yo,u and it's been really great to hear from all of you how much you're loving CEO Summer School already.
Today, what I want to do is a follow-up to last week's episode. It's a really important piece of setting your vision and pursuing it boldly, which we talked about last week. What I'm sharing is really easy to miss if you're not clued into it, so I want to make sure you have this in your awareness, so that way this subtle difference to your approach and how you go after your goals doesn't block you from being bold and being confident, as we talked about last week.
If you're brand new to the podcast or just catching up on episodes, I want to make sure that you're aware of CEO Summer School. It's a special series I'm hosting on the podcast, and I've been sharing the essential truths that I've really come to know to be true as a designer myself and from coaching so many other designers on what is true about building a thriving business that is sustainable and fulfilling to run.
You can go back to episode 137, it's titled CEO Summer School: What I Know for Sure, to get the full details. It's not too late to join or invite a friend if you are loving the series. Go to desiid.com/summerschool, and you can just quickly enter your name. And it's been really cool. Like I said, I've been hearing from some of you all ready about the shifts you're experiencing from the bonus prompts I've been sending out from those first two episodes. And when you sign up, you get those bonus materials sent straight to your inbox.
All right, now that I've got that housekeeping out of the way, I want to dive into today's follow-up. Today's follow-up to truth number two, know where you're going and pursue it boldly. When I covered this truth, I talked about business and life vision, and one of the things that I'll notice with some designers is that they'll get overwhelmed when I bring up setting this vision.
And I think there is even, to me, a little piece of the word vision. It can feel a little bit weighty. Like, oh gosh, I've got to decide what I want three years from now. What if I change my mind? That sounds like a lot of responsibility to decide I'm going to go after all of that. And even some perfectionistic thinking might pop up. Like, I need to come up with the right vision that I know for sure is what I want, and I'm definitely going to want it forever, and that I can definitely achieve it, so I don't end up disappointed.
Does that sound familiar? Things like that. Now, that may or may not be true for you. But I think I just want to highlight that as a potential that might have happened as you listened to that episode. And then also, I think the other reframe here is that it can be useful to look at what you don't want when you're trying to figure out what it is that you do want. So this contrast of what doesn't sound good or is a non-negotiable for you can really help you dream and access what it is that you desire.
So that's all really helpful. But this is where we're going with today's episode, is once you use that line of questioning to make that subtle shift, or maybe you didn't even need to figure out what you didn't want, you came up with a clear vision of what it is you do want. You want to make sure that you don't stick with that mindset. This internal reorientation is essential, whether you resonate with not initially being clued into your vision or if you've got a crystal clear future in mind. A real shift starts to happen in how you set your goals and pursue actions that are going to help you achieve those goals when you switch the focus from “don't want” to “want.”
With today's episode, the question I want you to consider is, are you running toward what you want, meaning taking action, making decisions, investing, etc.? Or are you running from or trying to avoid or resist something that you fear or don't want? So, does your vision or your goals reflect a running toward or running away? When you reflect on what it is that you want for yourself, I want you to consider where are you directing your focus and energy? On what you want to create, or what you want to avoid?
This distinction and the shift that we're going to make throughout the episode not only applies to upgrading and implementing your vision, it's also applicable in so many other different ways. It could be in reinventing yourself and stepping into a new self-concept. So it's like the behaviors or habits that you want to establish, instead of being focused on what you don't want to do. It could be in regards to hiring and outsourcing, focusing more on what you do want to build with a team versus what you're afraid will happen with a team or any kind of relationship. It's around goal setting and planning, marketing and sales methods, even navigating problems you're trying to fix within systems, your profitability, or how you deliver your services.
A great example of this is with systems. Are you building your systems against what you don't want to have happen, or to help create these simple, fluid solutions to help lead your clients and yourselves to what you do want to happen?
Earlier this year, I actually came across a quote, and I'm going to read it to you because I've been sitting with it, returning to it since then. For me, this has been a really beautiful way to imagine what this question might look like or feel like. The quote is from Gerald Sittser, and it says, "The quickest way to reach the light of day is not to run west, chasing the sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one reaches the sunrise."
To me, the setting sun is the thing that used to work, but isn't what I want anymore. Or it's the version of you who got you where you are today, but that version of you needs to be retired and step into a new era. That setting sun could be a method that you heard about that you've tried to implement, but just simply doesn't work with the way you want to run your business, going all the way back to there is no right way. Chasing the setting sun is grasping onto what you think you can have instead of boldly pursuing what you want, which is so much of what we talked about just last week.
The thing is, when your internal orientation or your mindset is aimed at what you're trying to avoid or trying to resist or trying to prevent from happening, your actions tend to be really extreme. They tend to be reactive, or you end up staying frozen in inaction, which of course is not what's helpful in getting you closer to your vision and what you really, really want.
The types of behaviors and decision-making that happens from being more focused on what you don't want often also leads to overcorrecting. I see this a lot with my clients who are leading and managing a team but experiencing some kind of friction either with accountability, team dynamics, those types of things.
An example of this might be that the client or the designer I'm teaching, who is the leader of their firm, had a negative experience in the past with a previous boss. Maybe that employer was being too heavy-handed, or they were micromanaging, or had unrealistic expectations. You name it. It was some kind of negative experience.
And so what the designer does is they overcorrect. They then swing too far in the opposite direction of a management style that would be supportive of themselves and their employees, and start to create issues and outcomes that they don't want. So maybe they become too lenient, or they don't give enough direction for fear of sounding bossy, or they aren't asking for the support that they've hired this person to provide.
Essentially, what they're doing is they're running from being, quote unquote, “that boss,” instead of focusing on the qualities and skill sets that they want to embody as the leader. So their energy really ends up getting put into being likable or doing things they really shouldn't do anymore, so that they can try to look like a team player, instead of putting that energy and effort into learning leadership skills or empowering their employees and working on foundations to support the team in support of themselves.
There's the goal of the designer having a team in place that's going to help them achieve certain outcomes and objectives. And then there's the energy of pushing against what you don't want or putting that energy behind what you do want. And I think we can see what's going to be more beneficial and what's going to create more ease and more momentum and more success for everybody.
Another way this misdirected focus, the pushing against, avoiding, resisting what you don't want, can also be seen through subtle settling. And this could sound like, “well, it's fine,” or “it's good enough.” What ends up happening is we get comfortable with the status quo, and our brain becomes afraid to trade what is fine or even good for what it is that we really want, or what would be amazing, or what would fulfill those next-level desires that we have for our business.
Trading good for great is something I talked about in episode 87. That was part of last summer's CEO Summer School. And you can go back and hear more about that. It's a really great one. And if that idea of being comfortable in kind of accepting what's fine is hitting home, go back and listen to that episode.
So, essentially, when we settle, we get to avoid the fear, or at least set aside the fear a little bit, of what we might lose in pursuit of a bigger vision for ourselves. What I want you to think about is if you knew you could achieve the goal and grow the business in a way that you wanted, you would be moving toward it. There would really be no reason not to, because that result would be there waiting for you. Just like the rising sun in the quote that I shared. There's a deep level of self-trust there. You trust that your version of the sun will rise. Instead of clinging to the last hours of daylight or holding on to a tiny flashlight, shining it in the dark, hoping to get what you want, you start to turn towards the beginning of a new day, what is to come, where you're headed.
This week, I want you to focus on when you're running toward what you want or when you're running away from what you don't want. When you have these moments of awareness, just check in with yourself and see, if I continue to pursue my goals in this way, what might be the outcome? What will that be like, the whole journey of the pursuit of the vision? And what could shift if I focused more on what I do want versus don't want? It's really subtle, and you do have to pause to notice what you're doing here. But let me tell you, it makes all of the difference in how you show up, your experience going through these periods of transitions and growth, and also in how effective you are with the actions you're taking.
If you need to start dreaming with looking at what you don't want so you can experience the contrast and uncover what you do want, go for it. I think that's a great strategy, but make sure you don't stay there. When you align yourself more to what you don't want or don't like, it's really like having your foot on the brake and the gas pedal at the same time. Versus when you orient yourself to moving toward what you do want and what does feel good. It's like letting gravity and momentum roll the car forward without you having to press as hard on the acceleration.
Keep this question in mind as you move about your day. Maybe even put it on a sticky note so you've got a visual reminder. Ask yourself, am I taking action from a place of moving toward something? Or am I avoiding or resisting and using my energy that way?
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode, and that is going to be a new what I know for sure, truth number three, when it comes to building a thriving, sustainable design business. Remember, you can get the bonus questions sent straight to your inbox. I highly recommend you do that if you aren't already signed up, so that way you can take what you're hearing and integrate these lessons. I promise you, these are low lift, but they are very high impact. And joining CEO Summer School will be one of the best things you do for yourself and your business this summer. All you have to do is go to desiid.com/summerschool and enter your name, email, and you'll get that info straight to your inbox.
Until next Wednesday, when I'm back with a new episode, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
As you develop your business and life vision, I was thinking about something really important that I didn't address in last week's episode. And so I want to make sure we call it out today. As you make decisions, set that destination for yourself, including some specific, clear goals, and you take action, there is a really important distinction between running toward what you want and running from or trying to avoid something that you don't want. This really impacts how you approach your business and life vision, and how you can achieve it. And you really have to be aware of this difference because it impacts your energy, your effectiveness, and enjoyment of pursuing what you're building as an interior design CEO. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello, designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to be here with yo,u and it's been really great to hear from all of you how much you're loving CEO Summer School already.
Today, what I want to do is a follow-up to last week's episode. It's a really important piece of setting your vision and pursuing it boldly, which we talked about last week. What I'm sharing is really easy to miss if you're not clued into it, so I want to make sure you have this in your awareness, so that way this subtle difference to your approach and how you go after your goals doesn't block you from being bold and being confident, as we talked about last week.
If you're brand new to the podcast or just catching up on episodes, I want to make sure that you're aware of CEO Summer School. It's a special series I'm hosting on the podcast, and I've been sharing the essential truths that I've really come to know to be true as a designer myself and from coaching so many other designers on what is true about building a thriving business that is sustainable and fulfilling to run.
You can go back to episode 137, it's titled CEO Summer School: What I Know for Sure, to get the full details. It's not too late to join or invite a friend if you are loving the series. Go to desiid.com/summerschool, and you can just quickly enter your name. And it's been really cool. Like I said, I've been hearing from some of you all ready about the shifts you're experiencing from the bonus prompts I've been sending out from those first two episodes. And when you sign up, you get those bonus materials sent straight to your inbox.
All right, now that I've got that housekeeping out of the way, I want to dive into today's follow-up. Today's follow-up to truth number two, know where you're going and pursue it boldly. When I covered this truth, I talked about business and life vision, and one of the things that I'll notice with some designers is that they'll get overwhelmed when I bring up setting this vision.
And I think there is even, to me, a little piece of the word vision. It can feel a little bit weighty. Like, oh gosh, I've got to decide what I want three years from now. What if I change my mind? That sounds like a lot of responsibility to decide I'm going to go after all of that. And even some perfectionistic thinking might pop up. Like, I need to come up with the right vision that I know for sure is what I want, and I'm definitely going to want it forever, and that I can definitely achieve it, so I don't end up disappointed.
Does that sound familiar? Things like that. Now, that may or may not be true for you. But I think I just want to highlight that as a potential that might have happened as you listened to that episode. And then also, I think the other reframe here is that it can be useful to look at what you don't want when you're trying to figure out what it is that you do want. So this contrast of what doesn't sound good or is a non-negotiable for you can really help you dream and access what it is that you desire.
So that's all really helpful. But this is where we're going with today's episode, is once you use that line of questioning to make that subtle shift, or maybe you didn't even need to figure out what you didn't want, you came up with a clear vision of what it is you do want. You want to make sure that you don't stick with that mindset. This internal reorientation is essential, whether you resonate with not initially being clued into your vision or if you've got a crystal clear future in mind. A real shift starts to happen in how you set your goals and pursue actions that are going to help you achieve those goals when you switch the focus from “don't want” to “want.”
With today's episode, the question I want you to consider is, are you running toward what you want, meaning taking action, making decisions, investing, etc.? Or are you running from or trying to avoid or resist something that you fear or don't want? So, does your vision or your goals reflect a running toward or running away? When you reflect on what it is that you want for yourself, I want you to consider where are you directing your focus and energy? On what you want to create, or what you want to avoid?
This distinction and the shift that we're going to make throughout the episode not only applies to upgrading and implementing your vision, it's also applicable in so many other different ways. It could be in reinventing yourself and stepping into a new self-concept. So it's like the behaviors or habits that you want to establish, instead of being focused on what you don't want to do. It could be in regards to hiring and outsourcing, focusing more on what you do want to build with a team versus what you're afraid will happen with a team or any kind of relationship. It's around goal setting and planning, marketing and sales methods, even navigating problems you're trying to fix within systems, your profitability, or how you deliver your services.
A great example of this is with systems. Are you building your systems against what you don't want to have happen, or to help create these simple, fluid solutions to help lead your clients and yourselves to what you do want to happen?
Earlier this year, I actually came across a quote, and I'm going to read it to you because I've been sitting with it, returning to it since then. For me, this has been a really beautiful way to imagine what this question might look like or feel like. The quote is from Gerald Sittser, and it says, "The quickest way to reach the light of day is not to run west, chasing the sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one reaches the sunrise."
To me, the setting sun is the thing that used to work, but isn't what I want anymore. Or it's the version of you who got you where you are today, but that version of you needs to be retired and step into a new era. That setting sun could be a method that you heard about that you've tried to implement, but just simply doesn't work with the way you want to run your business, going all the way back to there is no right way. Chasing the setting sun is grasping onto what you think you can have instead of boldly pursuing what you want, which is so much of what we talked about just last week.
The thing is, when your internal orientation or your mindset is aimed at what you're trying to avoid or trying to resist or trying to prevent from happening, your actions tend to be really extreme. They tend to be reactive, or you end up staying frozen in inaction, which of course is not what's helpful in getting you closer to your vision and what you really, really want.
The types of behaviors and decision-making that happens from being more focused on what you don't want often also leads to overcorrecting. I see this a lot with my clients who are leading and managing a team but experiencing some kind of friction either with accountability, team dynamics, those types of things.
An example of this might be that the client or the designer I'm teaching, who is the leader of their firm, had a negative experience in the past with a previous boss. Maybe that employer was being too heavy-handed, or they were micromanaging, or had unrealistic expectations. You name it. It was some kind of negative experience.
And so what the designer does is they overcorrect. They then swing too far in the opposite direction of a management style that would be supportive of themselves and their employees, and start to create issues and outcomes that they don't want. So maybe they become too lenient, or they don't give enough direction for fear of sounding bossy, or they aren't asking for the support that they've hired this person to provide.
Essentially, what they're doing is they're running from being, quote unquote, “that boss,” instead of focusing on the qualities and skill sets that they want to embody as the leader. So their energy really ends up getting put into being likable or doing things they really shouldn't do anymore, so that they can try to look like a team player, instead of putting that energy and effort into learning leadership skills or empowering their employees and working on foundations to support the team in support of themselves.
There's the goal of the designer having a team in place that's going to help them achieve certain outcomes and objectives. And then there's the energy of pushing against what you don't want or putting that energy behind what you do want. And I think we can see what's going to be more beneficial and what's going to create more ease and more momentum and more success for everybody.
Another way this misdirected focus, the pushing against, avoiding, resisting what you don't want, can also be seen through subtle settling. And this could sound like, “well, it's fine,” or “it's good enough.” What ends up happening is we get comfortable with the status quo, and our brain becomes afraid to trade what is fine or even good for what it is that we really want, or what would be amazing, or what would fulfill those next-level desires that we have for our business.
Trading good for great is something I talked about in episode 87. That was part of last summer's CEO Summer School. And you can go back and hear more about that. It's a really great one. And if that idea of being comfortable in kind of accepting what's fine is hitting home, go back and listen to that episode.
So, essentially, when we settle, we get to avoid the fear, or at least set aside the fear a little bit, of what we might lose in pursuit of a bigger vision for ourselves. What I want you to think about is if you knew you could achieve the goal and grow the business in a way that you wanted, you would be moving toward it. There would really be no reason not to, because that result would be there waiting for you. Just like the rising sun in the quote that I shared. There's a deep level of self-trust there. You trust that your version of the sun will rise. Instead of clinging to the last hours of daylight or holding on to a tiny flashlight, shining it in the dark, hoping to get what you want, you start to turn towards the beginning of a new day, what is to come, where you're headed.
This week, I want you to focus on when you're running toward what you want or when you're running away from what you don't want. When you have these moments of awareness, just check in with yourself and see, if I continue to pursue my goals in this way, what might be the outcome? What will that be like, the whole journey of the pursuit of the vision? And what could shift if I focused more on what I do want versus don't want? It's really subtle, and you do have to pause to notice what you're doing here. But let me tell you, it makes all of the difference in how you show up, your experience going through these periods of transitions and growth, and also in how effective you are with the actions you're taking.
If you need to start dreaming with looking at what you don't want so you can experience the contrast and uncover what you do want, go for it. I think that's a great strategy, but make sure you don't stay there. When you align yourself more to what you don't want or don't like, it's really like having your foot on the brake and the gas pedal at the same time. Versus when you orient yourself to moving toward what you do want and what does feel good. It's like letting gravity and momentum roll the car forward without you having to press as hard on the acceleration.
Keep this question in mind as you move about your day. Maybe even put it on a sticky note so you've got a visual reminder. Ask yourself, am I taking action from a place of moving toward something? Or am I avoiding or resisting and using my energy that way?
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode, and that is going to be a new what I know for sure, truth number three, when it comes to building a thriving, sustainable design business. Remember, you can get the bonus questions sent straight to your inbox. I highly recommend you do that if you aren't already signed up, so that way you can take what you're hearing and integrate these lessons. I promise you, these are low lift, but they are very high impact. And joining CEO Summer School will be one of the best things you do for yourself and your business this summer. All you have to do is go to desiid.com/summerschool and enter your name, email, and you'll get that info straight to your inbox.
Until next Wednesday, when I'm back with a new episode, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
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