Here are 7 SEEDS of ideas to get you growing and sowing.  After all, Mother Nature herself needed seven days to get the earth in BLOOM, and even SHE rested!

1. To PLANT your SEEDS of accomplishment for 2010, first decide what you want to reap. Do you want to learn valuable new skills, gear up for a brand new, exciting and fulfilling career? Develop new connections, friendships and relationships? Maybe you have an even loftier goal, such as starting a multi-million dollar business.   Decide what you want your full-blown PLANTS to look like!
2. Once you determine how you want your flourishing GARDEN to look, you need a plan to make it happen. If you want to learn a new skill, why not sign up now for a finance class, a computer class, a ballroom dance class or music lessons?  Why not learn a new language – even if it’s about learning what WTF means – especially when your kid is texting that about you?
3. If your goal is finding a new career, April is the perfect time to set up informational interviews or networking sessions where you talk with people about their jobs and figure out whether their career might be a perfect career for you.  Even with all the slush and muck in the streets, people you want to know are ready to come out of hibernation for a quick lunch or espresso.  [For more helpful tips on job-hunting in these challenging economic times, click here.]
4. If you have to literally crack open your copy of What Color is Your Parachute?, then don’t wait for evidence of moth larvae infestation between the pages before you buy yourself the new edition. No one writes about career reinvention, midlife crises or having a “Plan B” the way that Richard Nelson Bolles does.
5. If you haven’t taken a career assessment test since you wore miniskirts the first decade they were in style (which would also be the decade that Cher could scowl and smirk with the lips, eyes and forehead that Mother Nature gave her), then sign up to take a Myers-Briggs personality test (www.mbticomplete.com).  Even though Myers-Briggs experts say that your personality traits stay the same as you move through your life, taking the test again will reaffirm for you who you are today, and what type of job would be a good fit for your personality now.  At the very least, it’s a way to PLANT new SEEDS in your own head, and then in others’ heads.
6. Speaking of heads, two (or more) heads are sometimes better than one. If you want to develop new networks of friends or relationships, make sure you have a profile on a business social network like LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), or update your professional profile, and make plans with people whom you haven’t seen in years.  Or, sign up for a group workshop like “Get DARE from Here” that will help you carve out time to Plan –  to brainstorm new ideas, research new careers and forge new friendships. How about hosting a dinner party for six friends that you think would have fun together brainstorming the next DARE-ing move in their lives – even if you have to order in?  Or, go to a panel sponsored by your alma mater or the local YMCA, so you can be exposed to new ideas while meeting new people.
7. Finally, this might not sound like an activity for a “day of rest” but if your daydreaming time tends to veer toward visions of having your own business, maybe this is the perfect time to PLANT the SEEDS for that.  Decide what type of business you want to start that fits in with the rest of your goals in life. In entrepreneurial finance, the term “lifestyle business” is used to define a business that will also allow you to have a normal life.  And, we’re all for that!   Start researching the industry you’re thinking about entering, and the companies that might be your competition.  Then think about what you would need to do to put together a kick-butt business plan.  To learn more about business planning, or how to PLANT any of the ideas we discussed in this blog, e-mail me at:  liz@thedareforce.com.  The DARE-Force Corporation can help you SEED that need and get yourself in full BLOOM!

So, how do you DARE?

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I did do it by staging a personal REVOLT – against my mindless eating, against my big lunches, against my elastic waistbands, against the threat of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Resolutions?  They’re OK for some women, but for this stubborn, unruly and cantankerous over-50 broad to really RULE over my bad habits once and for all, I needed to stage a complete REVOLT. 

Are you ready to REVOLT for your own good? Tell us about it – we DARE you!  We can get you DARE from Here!

On that day, I was elated.  As my name was called to go up on the dais to receive my MBA diploma,  the program administrator looked at my photo, and then back at me, and then at my photo again.  She kept saying, “But that’s not Liz Weinmann.  It can’t be Liz Weinmann.”

On the day I turned 57, the scale confirmed that I had lost 57 pounds.  Take that, meno-fat!  I went from a size 18 to a size 10 in six months, kept the weight off for an entire year, and I’m still dropping pounds.

As you think back on all the achievements and accomplishments of your life to date, weren’t some of those the experiences that involved a REVOLT on your part, even if just a little one – against the usual, beyond the comfortable, toward the unpredictable?

If you’ve never REVOLTED, this might just be your year to Go DARE! Need help?  Get DARE from Here!

By April 5, I had lost 20 pounds.  Which was also the day  I was so energized that I over-did it at the gym and then had to stay in bed for nearly a week.  Talk about wanting to REVOLT!

Then, I posted an online question to the Weight Watchers community about how I could do some kind of exercise while I was waiting to heal.  Boy, did I get a resounding REVOLT from them!  Their advice was to stop whining about how much weight I still needed to lose and focus instead on the fact that I had really hurt myself and my body was justifiably in REVOLT.

What I learned is that—duh—REVOLT goes both ways. 

As you stage your REVOLT to recharge your life, career or community in a positive way, make sure you’re prepared to deal with setbacks that could halt your progress.  Need help?  Get DARE from Here!

In fact, what distinguishes the most memorable campaigns – whether they are for marketing, for politics or for actual military battle – i.e., a real REVOLT! – is a mantra that grounds the leader (Ruler) and her team, a rallying cry that moves the action plan forward.  It was only after I dealt with the fear of what would happen to me if I didn’t lose the weight that I developed a mantra to help me achieve my goals.

The mantra was a command that I plastered at strategic points all over my house.  It was anchored by a SMART goal, which entailed a specific date, the amount I wanted to lose and milestones along the way to track my progress.

Like a lot of goal-oriented individuals, I chose my birthday as a deadline.  I was determined to lose 57 pounds by my 57th birthday.  So, the mantra I plastered all over my home – especially on my fridge – was this:  “57 by 57.”

What powerful and DARE-ing mantra would help you REVOLT to reach a Big Goal? Tell us about it – we DARE you!

In order to stage a successful REVOLT against my weight, I needed to be a strong Ruler – of my time, my resources, my diet, my exercise.

If you’ve ever staged a REVOLT – for your life, your career, for a cause you care deeply about – then you know that merely wanting to do something and actually getting it accomplished are two different things.  It requires discipline, goal-setting and all the other tips and advice you’ve heard thousands of times.   

Are there resolutions you would gladly “resurrect” if you knew you could stage a successful REVOLT to achieve your goals? Tell us about it – we DARE You!

For a big, brash and believable REVOLT, you need a lightning bolt.

To jolt myself to lose 60 pounds last year and keep it off, I decided to literally scare the fat out of my body (that Catholic-school fear thing again).

I set out to research all the ways that my appetite was a dictator over who I was vs. who I wanted to become.  I noted all the ways that my excess body weight could kill me and—considering that I am a 50-plus, type-A, childless, career-woman whose body mass index was at least 15 points higher than it should be—that was more of a lightning bolt than I had expected.

I obsessed about the fact that I was fattest in areas that put me at high risk for heart disease, cancer and other hideous diseases. I was almost as frightened as I would be in the face of an actual dictator.  That’s what ultimately did it for me, what pushed me to REVOLT.

What kind of dream, desire, fear or challenge could jolt you to REVOLT? Tell us about it – we DARE You!

A lot of us want to change ourselves, our careers or our communities in a year.  But, a REVOLT of that magnitude – a Big SMART Goal – can be daunting if you don’t set certain smaller goals, increments and benchmarks to hit along the way.

While a Big Goal, like a Big Cause, requires the dedication of a marathon or a fighting army, you don’t have the resources for that (unless you’re Hillary Clinton or Angela Merkel).  All the more reason to set goals that can be accomplished in sprints of a few weeks, a month, several months.

Staging a REVOLT involves specific measurable goals you want to achieve, plus a strategy for achieving them, especially if you’re the one who’s a dictator.  If you’re trying to do too much, with too little time, or always for other people, that requires a different kind of REVOLT.  It requires a re-envisioning of what you want to become, in light of what you have to deal with now, rather than focusing on where you were in the past.  

As a visionary, intelligent, motivated woman over 40, when was the last time you REVOLTED against trying to fix the past and instead DARED to envision a great future? Tell us about it – we DARE You!

If I didn’t set a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goal—with benchmarks, a deadline and timetable, I would be as sunk as I had been in previous years in trying to over-RULE my weight problem. 

SMART goals can help you REVOLT in ways that change your life, career and community for the better!

Set some SMART goals and tell us about it—we DARE You!