As I begin my 33rd year of life, I reflect on my personal growth in the past year, as well as look forward to future progress.

Today is my 32nd birthday, and since it’s a slightly overshot halfway point of 2017, I wanted to check in regarding my resolutions this year. If you’ve been keeping up with my progress, you’ll know that, while I started strong (and don’t we all), I had some medical and emotional setbacks which I have been working to overcome. Here is a breakdown of the major resolutions for January 1st:

• Physical Health & Fitness: While I feel that I’ve maintained an adequate (though improvement is absolutely needed) diet overall, exercise (apart from daily stretches) has all but disappeared from my life. This is partly due to back problems that have resurfaced as far back as March, though I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a lot of the problem is depression, as well as sheer laziness. I’d say it’s an equal mix of the three.
• Business: Yeah. That one has been pretty dead in the water the whole year. I honestly don’t know what to do. I love Molly Rose Balms, I really do, but again, my depression makes me not care. I’ve tried so hard this year to motivate myself, and I’m just not getting anywhere. But more on that later.
• Mental Health & Personal Growth: As with the first two, my mental health has been in flux for the past few months. I stopped journaling when I realized that I was just going through the motions, writing the log of my activities for the day rather than anything meaningful. Writing my mood was about as in-depth as I got. I want a journal to do something for me, be something I can write my feelings in, not just “today I went to Whole Foods and bought some soybeans”. Until I feel I can do that, I’m putting that to the side. On the plus side, I would say that my emotional self-awareness is vastly improved overall.

Based on this progress, as well as my belief that I can do better for myself, I have compiled the following list:

By My 33rd Birthday, I Will:

• Sell my products in 5-10 stores
• Find my permanent indoor farmer’s market to personally sell products
• Move out of my family home
• Learn to mindfully journal in order to track my progress
• Continue to improve upon the great strides I have made with my 2017 New Year’s resolutions

As I did in January, I am writing this publicly to make myself accountable for my own progress and failures. I realize, also, that this self-indulgently assumes that anyone else cares or is even reading this. It doesn’t. But it does make my written word permanently etched into the internet, so that even if I get fed up with myself and delete everything, it’s never really gone. So I might as well own it.

On a cheerier note, I have two announcements! (in case you missed them yesterday):

Announcement #1:

TODAY, JULY 23rd ONLY, BUY BIRTHDAY CAKE BODY SCRUB AT 50% OFF!

Announcement #2:

On Tuesday, July 25th, we’ll be having our Christmas in July Sale, bringing back the entire Molly Rose Balms Holiday Collection for ONE DAY at 50% OFF! Also stay tuned on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter that day to find out what the BRAND NEW Holiday lip balm flavor will be this year!

Meet me back here on Wednesday for a brand new summertime recipe, Chesapeake Bay Cobb Salad!

~M