Interior Motives: Designing a Career With Passion [Paperback]

“This is a book about approaching your life creatively by keeping your interests alive rather than pushing them aside or worse — actively giving up on them.”

Author Debbe Daley begins her at turns funny and heart wrenching reflection on the ups and downs of making a career as an entrepreneur with the question, “What is going to make me happy? ” That’s a question she finds herself needing to answer carefully at various transition points — like getting married, having a baby, getting divorced, starting her own business — up to and including the present moment, when she’s presented with yet another opportunity to creatively shape her own life.

Interior Motivestakes the reader on a journey through Daley’s attempt to establish a career as an interior designer in the New England area. Along the way, Daley offers readers insight into the role that negativity plays in keeping people from doing what they love. “Focusing on the monetary costs of the change we want to make is one of the most convincing ways that we set up obstacles for ourselves, ” Daley writes, before offering readers a hearty dose of encouragement. “ If you want to do something that’s going to make you happy, there will always be alternative paths than the first ones — or the easiest or fastest or most expensive ones — you imagine. There are always other avenues to take. The important thing is committing to taking the journey, believing that it’s worthwhile, getting on that path in some way or other, and seeing where it goes. ”

Daley’s career narrative is intricately interwoven with stories of family, friends, and love, and even offers readers a unique take on design industry challenges. She tracks a field undergoing its own major transitions from the 1980s, “...when a room full of traditionally trained designers gasped at the suggestion that there would be a majl£$