A week dedicated to thinking outside the box seems like the perfect time to join M.J. Ryan in revisiting our commitments to the year 2010.  

For those new to our community, M.J. Ryan is author of the book, This Year I Will.  Her short read is filled with more than forty excerpts describing common roadblocks faced by people who are trying to make a change in their life.

Members of the House of Shine jumped into the new year by engaging in Ryan's suggestion to, "Name Your Year."  She maintains that changing one's behavior requires quite a bit of energy, and that setting many resolutions for the new year is not likely to result in any long term change.

I named my year the Year of the Book.  Others named their years things such as: The Year of Art, The Year of Organization, The Year of Yoga, The Year of Me, The Year of the Calendar, and The Year of the Phone.

Four months later and all I can say is, "I suck."

I spend my days writing curriculum, writing text for our House of Shine website, writing our Shine Manifesto, writing blog posts, writing notes for the Yellow Envelope Project, but since NanoWriMo, I haven't written a single word toward the book that I am supposed to have finished by December.  And have I mentioned reading?  I read all kinds of things that other people write - books, books, books, magazines, newspapers, and even a blog or two.  The bottom line is that my Year of the Book is turning into the Year of Boo!

I have to believe I am not totally alone and, if I am, don't tell me.  It will make me feel like an even bigger loser.

I have decided what I need is a healthy dose of Thinking Outside the Box.  What might M.J. Ryan have to say about thinking outside the box in order to change a habit, keep a resolution, or make a dream come true?  Turns out, she has an opinion on the subject.  Ryan tells of a 410 pound man intent on losing weight.  Diets and exercise plans hadn't worked for him in the past, so Vaught decided to think outside the box and to walk across the United States from his hometown of San Diego to New York.

How about that?  A totally out of the box approach to attaining his goal.

Walking across the country isn't going to get me my book, but I am looking for an out-of-the-box approach or idea that will get me back in the game.  How about you?  Are you the vision of discipline, steadily moving toward your goal for the year (in which case, I'm jealous as #@!!) or could use your own out-of-the-box approach?

Visit us in the Community Forum labeled, M.J. Ryan and share either one or the other - an out-of-the-box idea I can use to get my book finished or the out-of-the-box idea you've come up to accomplish your own goal. 

Don't leave me hanging.

Shining off until tomorrow...