At the beginning of the year, I flew to Savannah, Georgia to meet up with my fellow solopreneurs and graphic designers. This is my fifth year as a member of the Creatives Roundtable—an accountability and support group for creative business owners. This was our first retreat—which means this was the first time we’ve met in person. I’m sure a lot of you have experienced this odd, modern phenomenon of knowing people only through zoom—and then finally meeting them person. Amazing!

Those meetings were the highlight of the trip for me. Working for myself, by myself, I don’t get out much! It was great to be around people who are doing such similar work to me, with the same struggles, questions, and paranoias…

I came away with a long list of “business to-dos” (which I will not bore you with, but you will be seeing the results of in the coming months!), podcasts to listen to, and books to read.

And I have already read one! How to Change, The Science of Getting from Where You Art to Where You Want to Be, by Katy Milkman. To be honest, I’ll often request books from the library that I think I should read for my business, and then they sit in my office for 3 months until I finally return them. This one though–I picked up and it immediately resonated with me. Maybe because I’m already using one of her techniques—Temptation Bundling. There is one TV show that I’m only allowed to watch if I’m using the rowing machine (we don’t need to get into which show it is, but let’s just say it has to be very addictive).

Here are my other main takeaways from the book:

Fresh starts are the ideal time for change (new year, birthday, seasons, moving house).
Long-term rewards are hard, but short-term rewards work!
Small and frequent commitments to yourself—or others—are more effective than large ones.
Making cue-based plans—like when, where, and how you’ll do something—make you not forget to do it.
You need confidence in the area you are working to change if you want to be successful.