In previous blogs I have talked about going back to school (it was truly one of the best things I ever did, to go back and get my MBA from NYU!) With the continuing weakened economy, and global demand for higher levels of skills and education, adults are re-enrolling in college campuses across the nation and online. The stats are convincing:[1] studies are showing that 75% of future jobs will most likely need some type of certification or licensure, and those professions that demand a BS or BA will grow 50% faster than the national average. So a college degree looks more and more a necessity and a good investment.

You think, go back to school- not at my age! But by going back, you’d be one of huge numbers: recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education[2] are revealing that adult students are now the fastest growing demographic in the educational arena, with those numbers increasing steadily.

Baby Boomers know they will be living longer, and demand more from their lives. They want fulfillment, not just a job. More DARE-ing women aged 55 to 79 are deciding what they want to do in their next years. A report from The American Council on Education, entitled, Framing New Terrain: Older Adults & Higher Education, shows more that with older adults returning to college in record numbers, they are DARE-ing to pursue new career ideas, found new businesses, and create their lifelong dreams.

DARE MUSCLE: go back to school with your learning MUSCLE!

Have a look at the following stats. When asked what outcomes they achieved from coaching, clients most often say:[i]

• A higher level of self-awareness: 67.6%
• Smarter goal-setting: 62.4%
• A more balanced life: 60.5%
• Lower stress levels: 57.1%
• Self-discovery: 52.9%
• More self-confidence: 52.4%
• Improvement in quality of life: 43.3%
• Enhanced communication skills: 39.5%
• Project completion: 35.7%
• Health or fitness improvement: 33.8%
• Better relationships with boss or co-workers: 33.3%
• Better family relationships: 33.3%
• Increased energy: 31.9%
• More fun: 31.9%
• More income: 25.7%
• Stopped a bad habit: 25.7%
• Change in career: 24.3%
• More free time: 22.9%
• Increased profitability of business: 17.1%
• Started new business: 12.9%
• Empowered employees: 11.0%

Consider giving it a try. If you are thinking of personal or career coaching, remember to seek out professionals who have graduate degrees in respected disciplines, such as:  business (MBA); counseling (M.S. Psychology or Masters in Social Work and related areas); educational psychology (M. Ed. Psych.) or similar bona fide expertise taught at respected accredited universities (online or on campus).  For more information on these professionals, and other certified counselors or business consultants, contact Liz DiMarco Weinmann, MBA, Founder and CEO of The DARE-Force, liz@thedareforce.com

So, DARE MUSCLE with a business or life coach!

A Global Coaching Survey conducted by the International Coaching Federation found that the coaching industry is on a rapid rise, with 12,300 business coaches in the USA alone.

“On-boarding” – which is a form of business coaching that used to be reserved for executives, is now becoming available to employees at every level. Companies that are hiring are eager to accelerate the learning curve of new hires, so on-boarding has replaced what used to be called “orientation.” Books on the topic abound:  From titles like “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins, to “The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan” by George Bradt, both of which are very helpful and written in a non-jargon style.

Hay House Publishing, the most successful self-help publishing company in the world, recently announced that it has seen an unprecedented increase in self-help manuscripts. Because Hay selects only 100 books to publish from the thousands of unsolicited self-help manuscripts it receives each year, Hay just launched an alliance with a self-publishing book firm.  More help is on the way, literally!

To a large extent, women over 40 are driving this trend, seeing that taking charge through self-help books or employing personal development services empowers them; they take the DARE to become healthier, smarter, more highly skilled, more confident, and more energetic.  Americans are still worried about the economy, and more women over 40 are working full-time longer than they ever thought they would.  Many of them are the sole breadwinners in their families, meaning they have myriad responsibilities that include financing their children’s college education, taking care of elderly parents, and dealing with their own health concerns.  While few people can afford to get sick at all, let alone take what used to be called a “mental health” day, most women over 40 can’t even make time for a mental health hour, even once a week.

In a weakened economy, it may be even more important to DARE develop new self-improvement MUSCLES, to amp up your health regimen with more fruits, whole grains and vegetables, and commit to some form of exercise, even if it’s just walking more.  Most important, make time to rest your MUSCLES - sleep deprivation helps no one, especially not yourself!

But what does “personal development” mean to someone who is working 70+ hours a week, inside and outside the home, barely has time to shop for healthful food, and is battling major stressors in her life, including juggling her children’s education bills with taking care of elderly parents?

Recently, I heard from a woman who said that she is suffering from cancer, works because she needs to, and that not all role models for DARE-ING women should be celebrities.  At The DARE-Force, we reference celebrities because they’re some of the best-known and omni-present examples of what it’s possible for women over 40 to achieve and keep achieving.

However, we also reference women over 40 who arguably are contributing far more to society than any Hollywood actress or TV star could:  they’re running Fortune 500 corporations or major national nonprofits.  They’re running community action campaigns to improve our children’s education, or to increase safety in our neighborhoods.  Many women over 40 are accomplishing these feats while also fighting chronic illnesses, systemic disabilities, and life-threatening diseases.

These women are using their MUSCLE in a completely different way than celebrities or Fortune 500 powerhouse CEOs, or even the directors of major nonprofits.  Women who are juggling multiple stressors or illness, such as the woman who wrote to me, are the ones for whom we all need a different kind of MUSCLE.  For those women, we should all exercise the most important MUSCLE of all:  our HEARTS.

It takes a lot of MUSCLE during a down economy for even the healthiest women to juggle multiple responsibilities.   If there’s a woman in your life who’s juggling more than the strongest MUSCLES could handle, flex a different kind of MUSCLE just for her.  Reach out to her with a kind but not patronizing offer of help, or just an acknowledgment that she matters.  You would be strengthening your most important MUSCLE of all.

Look for pleasurable ways to take a break – be a “pleasure activist” (not the same as a hedonist!) Actually, the term “pleasure activist” is from Fred Plotkin, a master at a lot of intellectual strengths.  A writer, speaker, seeker, and a fascinating (and fascinated) individual, he is best known for his musical analytical talents, and these two books, Opera 101 and Classical Music 101.

Fred Plotkin urges us, when using the senses, “to not analyze what is being perceived while we are doing the perceiving.”  Women over 40, and indeed most people, tend to crash through their lives – constantly rushing, and not hearing the sounds around them, eating but not tasting, smelling but not really savoring, seeing but not perceiving.

So, here is the DARE. Today, try to take pleasure in something that crosses your path – perhaps that flute player in the subway. Stop for a minute and listen to the exquisite note he lets ring. Or perhaps that bit of dark chocolate from Switzerland that you popped in your mouth as you ran for the taxi. Can you sit in the cab and let the velvety taste fill every sense? Close your eyes and enjoy that sweet moment with all of your awareness. That is pleasure activism, and let me tell you, it feels very good! Use your imagination. When you slide into the swimming pool this weekend, feel, really feel, the water over your skin, the sense of weightlessness, the cool relief after the heat of our summer sun.

Let that complete change of brain activity recharge you.

DARE exercise a different kind of muscle!

There are many connotations to those two words, DARE muscle: body building, using brute force, or DARE-ING to eye down a bully. But I have been thinking about DARE muscle in a different way. To me it is about discovering, developing, and expanding the body and the “mind-as-muscle.”

This can be done in fun ways, in unusual ways, perhaps by utilizing Dr. Howard Gardner’s  Multiple Intelligences Theory.[i] Dr. Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed and published his theory in 1983. He stated that the usual idea of intelligence, based on the testing of I.Q., has limitations. He suggested that there are different forms of intelligence to explain the broad range of human potential.

• Linguistic intelligence (smart with words)
• Logical-mathematical intelligence (ability with numbers)
• Spatial intelligence (shapes and pictures)
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (physical body)
• Musical intelligence (musical ability)
• Interpersonal intelligence (people skills)
• Intrapersonal intelligence (ability to understand oneself)
• Naturalist intelligence (sensitivity to the things of nature)
• Existential (Sensitivity/capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence)

This is very interesting stuff. Check out: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.php

But the nutshell is this: pick one of these intelligence areas and stretch yourself. Learning the piano is an expanding experience, and is refreshing if it is out of your normal focus area. For example, if you work in a field where your intelligence focus is interpersonal, such as Human Resources, musical intelligence will be a complete change! As our English friends across the water like to say, “A change is as good as a rest.”

If you, as an over-40 woman, crank your brain for most of the year in heavy intellectual work, then the beach-reads (trashy novels and such) are a good way to give the brain a rest. Stretch your awareness to other art-forms (go to different museums, etc.), vary your CD listening (rock vs. opera, or the other way around), or take up belly dancing!

The long hot summer, now underway, can be a chance to let up on the heavy muscle stuff, and a time to learn tennis, join a volleyball game, or learn a new language – something out of your normal world! And have fun as you DARE work a different muscle!

“This is freedom. It is a stage of life that is free of many encumbrances and full of wonderful possibilities. We are still young enough to live life to its fullest and enjoy all the good things nature has provided us. During this period a lot of women experience a renewed zest for life, rejuvenated sexual desire, and look for exhilarating new adventures or new beginnings. It is like starting life all over with a better set of rules.”

Yes! She says it so well.  That’s because BLOOM, our theme for June, really is all about the freedom to EXPRESS your experience in the second half of your life.

In my new book, Get DARE From Here™, due out in a few weeks, I encourage women over 40 to be who you are, and furthermore, to not be afraid to show people who you are. I suggest ways to brand and exhibit yourself to the best advantage in both your career and your community.  EMBRACE yourself! Take care and “love” who you’ve become! Then you can focus on EXCHANGE, where you can give back- donate, mentor, teach, etc.

And  I ask you,  who better to do that- to start BLOOM-ing, than a mature woman in her prime?

Super-BLOOMING Woman: Paula Deen

Late BLOOMERS are all the rage. How about the over-40 women you see on the screen: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone─these empowered, confident women are great models of success, tenacity, and re-invention. Modeling agencies report that there is more demand for beautiful women over 40, and over 50, to help marketers sell to us boomers.  Everyone from cosmetics companies to car makers is courting us.  Some of the most popular women on TV are over 50, and certainly many of them are late BLOOMERS.

One of the most popular is Paula Deen. This well-known Southern cook suffered so badly from agoraphobia in her 20s that she wouldn’t even leave her house.  Today, no one would believe that about this brassy, loud, fun and totally BLOOMING broad!  She’s written 5 books, owns a restaurant in Savannah, has her own line of signature pies at Wal-Mart (but, of course, “Y’ALL!”), and hosts several shows on the Food Network. Her brazen, butter-everywhere, innuendo-infused (“Now, beat your meat, Y’ALL!”) commentary may not be for everyone, but her fans adore her. As a businesswoman who recognizes a shrewd mogul when I see one, I love that she has parlayed that platinum-poufed, gutsy-guffawing persona all the way to a big bruiser bank.  More power to her!  She  demonstrates that it takes determination, sweat, and some serious tilling of the soil for us to enjoy new BLOOMS (not to mention BLOOMING profits) well into our 40s, 50s and beyond.

So, to paraphrase Paula Deen, what about “Y’ALL”???? What’s in BLOOM for you this month?

Liz Claiborne: Super DARE-ing Woman!

I am so excited that my book is about to be published at the end of the month, hopefully in time for my birthday on June 19^th.

Entitled appropriately “Get DARE From Here™!” it the result of much research into the desires and achievements of women over 40 in our culture─ our dreams, motivations, and issues. In my research I came across inspiring stories of exceptionally passionate women over 40, some obscure, some famous, but they all had powerful traits in common. They all bravely applied their energy and leadership to empower themselves and their families, the companies where they worked, and their surrounding communities and society at large. A few good examples are Jean Nidetch (founder of Weight Watchers), Mary Kay Ash, Liz Claiborne, Julia Child, and you may know many more.

From the model set by over-40 women such as these, I devised the  DARE system, laid out in my new book,  to inspire, guide and challenge all you brainy, gutsy, passionate women over 40 who crave or need to pursue, develop, or lead something more fulfilling in your personal lives, careers, or communities.

You can Get DARE From Here™!

Today’s blog is a CALL TO ACTION! What we would like is for you wonderful women over 40 to write to us, as a comment, and share with us your DARES. I have shared with you some DARE-ING examples from our May 6^th workshop at NYU, and now we’d love to hear from you.  What have you DARE-D to do in your life, your business, or your community?

Looking forward to hearing your DARES and TRIUMPHS!