After re-reading yesterday's post, I realized my attempt to spend this week focusing on the color green might have gotten lost in my discussion of laundry and allowance.  Allowance most often comes in the form of money.  Money is green.  Greenbacks are another name for paper money in the U.S.  When typing in the wee hours of the morning none of this seemed like a stretch.

It's St. Patrick's Week, so we will see how long we can keep this green-thing going.

Today we will partner with M.J. Ryan to talk about being green.  Not sickly green or green with envy, but green as in inexperienced.

Some of you are wondering who M.J. Ryan is and why she is experienced enough to be talking about being inexperienced.  Well, not only does the last name Ryan seem suitably Irish, but M.J. Ryan is the author of a book titled, "This Year I Will... "  The book is a series of short chapters all intended to increase your possibility of success when trying something new.  Many members of the House of Shine committed to goals for 2010 and, in turn, we committed to providing on-going motivation by periodically revisiting Ryan's book.

Ryan shares her philosophy that there are three zones of existence: comfort, stretch, and stress.

When we first attempt to leave our comfort zone, we are green - inexperienced at whatever it is we are doing.  Being tongue-tied, all thumbs, and awkward is often all it takes to lull us back into the comfort of the familiar.  But Ryan is quick to point out that, "You absolutely can't change anything if you stay in the familiar."  Instead she suggests people who are intent on making change must tolerate some anxiety.  She says we must trust that, "...like adolescents, we'll grow out of that awkward state and blossom into mastery if we just hang in there."

For me, who has named 2010 the Year of the Book, Ryan's words ring very true.

I'm green as a writer.  My comfort zone is writing pithy blog posts where publishing means simply pressing, "publish post."  Stretch, though - according to Ryan - is where change occurs.  She describes it as, "feeling awkward, but not so stressed out that learning is impossible."  For me a stretch zone might be publishing an article in a newspaper or magazine where someone else actually has to agree it is worthy of printing.   My stress zone would be committing to a book complete with chapters, a forward, an epilogue, and a cover.

One more note.  Ryan explains that these zone are moving targets.  For instance, the more articles that I publish the more writing articles becomes my comfort zone and writing books becomes my stretch zone.  Maybe that leaves poetry or an autobiography as my stress zone (the idea of either makes me break out in a sweat). 

How about you?  What is something at which you are green?  Did (will) you name your year after it?  Take a minute to identify something  and then to consider your comfort zone, your stretch zone, and your stress zone.  Visit us in the Community Forum labeled, M.J. Ryan to tell us what you've come up with.  Who knows you who you'll meet and what goals you might have in common.

Shining off until tomorrow...