Today, I fired up my web browser to write a beauty review entry but I found myself pondering my goals and career milestones instead.
So I decided to pen this post – My reflections of 2015 so far.
Well, I’ve done quite a lot this year – hosted my very first health and wellness event with my husband, went on a nice honeymoon, got married again in the UK (haha!), took part in the Singapore Blog Awards and acquired a new office space for Honeyz Cube.
Even though I’ve got a lot going on for me and my young company, I realised I’m no longer as driven and enthusiastic as before. My creative juices seemed to have stopped flowing. I feel like I’m juggling too many roles at once.
I’m not even motivated to update my company or blog social media pages anymore. I’ve just been going where the wind blows and working like I have to, and not because I want to.
Everything that I’ve created today is what I envisioned and exactly what I wanted. But somehow, I was beginning to feel ‘work fatigue’.
What’s going on? Anyone ever felt like this?
I watched The Intern (starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway) last week and Anne Hathaway’s predicament in the movie actually made me question my career and business decisions. Ugh!
Okay, I won’t elaborate too much about the movie since it’s still playing in the theatres. All I can say is that it was very heartwarming yet thought-provoking for me. You have to go watch it! 😛
I had a meeting with my team yesterday about our upcoming website revamp and our goals for 2016 and that’s when it struck me – amidst all the planning, expanding and revolutionising, I’d forgotten why I started Honeyz Cube in the first place.
Here’s a recap – I used to have nasty skin problems and as such, I’d tried many beauty treatments and over-the-counter products to rectify the problem.
These beauty endeavours had good and bad effects. But I can tell you – the ramifications of using bad beauty treatments still linger today.
I wished there was an avenue for me to read others’ comments and feedback about treatments and regimes, or even share my own experiences so others wouldn’t commit the same mistakes. Bad skin or bad beauty practices can not only hurt your self-esteem, it can even be detrimental to your health.
Honeyz Cube was born out of this need – an informative platform and a community where like-minded individuals could convene, network, share their own pleasant or unpleasant beauty experiences and ultimately, help each other make more informed and optimised purchase decisions in the shortest time possible.
None of us realised during our meeting yesterday that all the new features and modules being suggested were no longer in line with what we wanted to achieve when we first started out.
Halfway through the meeting, my husband, Bobby, who had sat through the meeting in silence, suddenly banged one of our products on the table like it was a Judge’s gavel and said ‘What’s happened to the beauty encyclopedia?”
That literally woke all of us up.
We realised we’d been chasing the dollar instead of our dream. The rising bills associated with having your own office, the hunger for short-term gains had derailed us from our real goal and Honeyz Cube’s initial purpose.
That explains all the frustration and the deadpan attitude I’ve had recently towards my work.
(Thank you Bobby!)
So we went back to the drawing board to re-write our targets and goals.
I’m proud to say that we are now on track and we also have a new project schedule that is perfectly in line with our initial objectives. Think user-friendly interfaces, beauty video tutorials and workshops for beauty lovers to meet, discuss and learn new beauty hacks.
We promise that Honeyz Cube will continue to be your little coffret of delightful beauty finds and content.
And the best part is, we now have a new studio to support all our project activities! Whee!
Being your own boss and taking the path less travelled is never easy. You have to take care of your company’s welfare, take care of your staff and your colleagues, it really pushes you to the edge of your sanity. I guess the pressure really got to me and I began to make decisions that benefited us in the short term but could have actually been harmful in the long run. It was scary!
Right now, I’m just happy that I have my husband and my teammates’ full support. We’ll be able to get through this together.
Writing this post has helped me reflect on my personal resolutions and also reminded me of the reason why I created Honeyz Cube in the first place. I’ll never stop trying or believing.
You shouldn’t either! I hope my story can also spur you to stay true to YOUR own goals and not lose sight of your vision.
Life is too short to spend time on things that don’t matter.
Have fun and stay inspired!
Your friend, Juliana