Supposedly, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Right. How about this: March is all about raging rip-roaring reality (Jeez, two months gone by already and I still haven’t done X or Y or Z?) combined with a fuzzy-frilly-floral free-wheeling pass to start over, or start something else – as in: PLANT some new SEEDS in your ever-fertile head!

We DARE you to regard March as your month to revisit, refine and re-PLANT the GARDEN that is your life.  So what if the SEEDS you PLANTED in those January resolutions didn’t take?  So what if they’ve got more mold on them than the half-bitten chocolates your nephews shoved between your couch pillows during the holidays?  Need help with those PLANTS?  [click here] Hey, I may not be Mother Nature, but I’m one DARE-ING Mother of Reinvention!!!

So – or SOW!!!  SPRING It On!  Hope you-know-what (SPRINGS!!!) Eternal!  March is the perfect time to shed your fears and inhibitions and DARE PLANT the SEEDS that are going to allow you to soar to new heights of motivation and accomplishment in 2010.

Our blog posts for March will focus first on DARE-ing to PLANT, how PLANTING new SEEDS now can excite you out of your winter doldrums so you’ll have better experiences to harvest later this year.

Next week, in DARE SUPPLY, we’ll let you in on some fascinating studies by experts who have proven that SEEDING your life with new activities and taking more risks can make you happier, healthier and even smarter. Did you know that there is a clear connection between having novel experiences and a rise in dopamine production in our brains? That means that trying new activities or even tasting new foods can instantly elevate our moods.  How great is that?

Our third March blogpost will give you tips and ideas to GO DARE, so you can turn your desires into actionable steps that will bring you closer to attaining your goals.  In that blogpost, we’ll give you a list of fun and even exotic activities to take your life from same-old, same-old to one that you’ll actually want to discuss at dinner parties!

Finally, in the last week in March, we’ll salute just a few of the DARE-APPARENT thousands of women over 40 who have taken their lives from ordinary to absolutely phenomenal.  Yes, they had to throw some caution to the wind, but they did it in a smart way, WEEDING out the old stuff to plant a new and fertile GARDEN.

Yes, March can be a cruel month weather-wise and otherwise.  All that Hallmark-card hype about Spring la-dee-dah, yet on most March days we’re still dressed in sturdier boots, hats and mittens than a first-grader!  After all, no smart 40-plus woman in her right mind is making like the silicone-slicked society sylphs photographed in The New York Times Style section doing leaps and laps over snow drifts dressed in stilettos and mini-skirts!

Still, even if you wait a few weeks and start on the first day of SPRING – March 21 – that’s OK too.  After all, Mother-frigging Nature Herself – the Goddess of all things fertile, fragrant and fresh -  decided March was the perfect month in which to PLANT SPRING. Think of DARE PLANT as taking the initial steps to open yourself up to a more bountiful life!

So, or SOW, as the case might be – regardless of your end goal, the key is making sure you PLANT something this month, because even the most verdant GARDENS and biggest ideas start with a tiny SEED.   You’ll be surprised at the rush you’ll get from just PLANTING something new!

DARE-INGly,

Liz DiMarco Weinmann

Photo by epSos.de.

So, how do you DARE?

DARE to take our quiz and find out!

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Take the quiz, publish it to your Facebook Wall, and let us know what you think!

For more information about the quiz—and to download our free PDF booklet about the DARE Profiles—visit our Profiles page.

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!