Thoughts on New Years Resolutions

To be completely honest, I was kind of avoiding doing a New Year's post of any sort, feeling like 2015 was a little bit too all over the place for a "year in review" post, and since I'm not really big on resolutions (at least not in the traditional way), I wasn't sure if I really saw the point, and didn't want to do it just because I felt like I "should" be. If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that contrary to what we're often told, there's not always a right or best way to do things.

But as I started to plan out my blog calendar and look at my business goals for the next couple of months, I kept feeling like I couldn't quite get into the new routine without acknowledging the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 in some way.

I was chatting with my parents a couple of days ago as we were comparing New Year's Eve notes, and they mentioned that one of their rituals every year is choosing one word for the upcoming year instead of making resolutions. And that really resonated with me.

This past year was all about exploring and riding the waves of change. About being ok with not knowing exactly what the next step looked like, or what my next big dream was. Initially, that was really hard for me to accept, and I struggled with not having a plan in place, especially because there was a lot of change in 2015. But by the end of the year, I feel like I finally was able to accept that and come to terms with it.

When I closed the doors to Bicyclette Boutique, I didn't really have an idea of what my new Bicyclette business model was, and I struggled quite a bit with what that meant, whether I should still be creating and blogging under that name, and if so, what that content would even be. Before, with the boutique, I had a purpose, and all the content that was created and shared - photoshoots, DIYs, inspiration posts, styling ideas - were defined by that. Bicyclette was always more than a clothing boutique, it was a lifestyle brand, and that meant we shared content on the blog and social media that extended far beyond simply selling products, it was about creating a community and playing into this idea of who the Bicyclette Girl is and what kind of content would appeal to her. So when the doors to the boutique closed, it was a question of how that change would affect the online brand.

And it turned out that the content didn't change much, really, and it became more a matter of creating for the sake of creating, and I was reminded that it really is the process that I love, without being too attached to the final result or giving in to perfectionism. It's about solving creative problems, creating beautiful things, inspiring others and building that community. It's the true definition of a passion project.

This is also where the decision to relaunch as Studio Bicyclette came in. It meant that the clients I had started taking on would be under this new business, and the blog would be an extension of that, tying in to the services I was offering, and allowing everything to sit under one brand once again, but with a slightly different focus.

I know there's probably a bit of confusion as to what Studio Bicyclette is actually offering, and I know it's taken me awhile to get here. Trust me, this was a huge point of stress for me many times over the past year. I wanted to have a beautiful, clean relaunch months ago, but the truth of the matter is, I wasn't ready. I didn't know what Studio Bicyclette was going to be, I didn't know what I was going to offer. I was essentially still in a bit of a mourning phase over closing the shop, and I needed to acknowledge that and give myself time to deal with the changes and new reality. But I'm almost there now, and with the website relaunch in the next couple of months and a lot of other exciting things planned for Studio Bicyclette, I'd say the wait will be worth it. And I'm also very conscious that this vision will probably continue to change, and I'm ok with that now. That's life, after all.

So to tie it all back to resolutions and the new year, when I was sitting there trying to come up with my word for 2016, I realized that if last year was all about change, and feeling like I didn't always have as much control as I might have liked, I want this year to be about intention. So I'm putting that out into the universe.

And you know what? I'm starting to get excited about it.