I WANT TO CHANGE THE STEREOTYPE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE 50, 60, 70 AND BEYOND.
“To help people achieve their goals and enjoy a healthy, happy, fulfilling life, so we can all connect more authentically, and together make the world a more loving and interdependent place.” That’s the opening line of Diane Amelia Read’s website www.DianeAmeliaRead.com.
I love when fitness intersects with personal growth and mindset. Today’s podcast guest, Diane Amelia Read, shows us how turning 60 can mark an exciting new beginning [retirement is just the beginning]. She’s on a mission to help women love and accept their authentic selves. This woman is a fireball!! At 65 she’s just getting started. There is no slowing down for this vibrant, dynamic Personal Transformation Coach.
Tune in to learn more about this woman who, at 65, sold or closed-up all she had and headed to Sayulita, Mexico (north of Puerto Vallarta) to learn to surf. This is a woman who had worked for years in traditional office jobs, from a staffing agency to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to a community college. She is also someone who has started a new life with a new career for herself in her 60s.
I'M ON A PERSONAL MISSION TO HELP WOMEN ACHIEVE THE LIFE THEY WERE MEANT TO LEAD.
She walks the walk. She is on a personal mission to change the stereotype of what it means to be fit 50, 60, 70 and beyond. She's an experienced advisor, accountability partner, motivator, and guide, skilled in teaching techniques for personal development, professional growth and sustainable transformation, lifestyle coach for mindset, health, wellness, income, and lifelong fulfillment.
“I was nearing 60 when I started to fear that my life was going to be getting smaller and smaller,” said Diane. “That any potential for glories, well I’d missed that train because my best years are behind me. I stopped and gave myself a big “dope slap”. I was riding that wave of self-doubt that many of us get caught in. “What are you doing?” “You’re too old to start something new”. To move beyond, I needed to feel good about who I am. I had to listen to the small voice inside that said not only do you not need to fit into anybody else’s ideas of what is right, I need to go after what makes me more. Just at that time I was watching a friend on social media working out all the time. First, she was changing her body and then she was changing her mind-set and then she started to make money off what she was doing.”
NO EXPERIENCE IS WASTED IF YOU LEARN FROM IT!
“I really believe that no experience is wasted if you learn from it,” says Diane. “I had an eating disorder that started when I was 23 and I carried it until I was 39. It was then that I said I’m not taking this into my 40s with me. I’d been doing work in therapy to help me understand myself. Even though I was born into a wonderful family in the 1950s, sometimes I just didn’t fit, and I learned that that was so ok. It didn’t make me wrong, and it didn’t make them wrong. If I chose not to have children, but that I love to be in the lives of kids and that I love people in general does not make me less than. It’s a choice. Like a lot of people, I just don’t fit neatly into a box.”
Side Note: Diane is talking to me from the west coast of Mexico during the rainy season. An epic thunderstorm with lightening is interrupting our conversation. This is one badass woman. She holds it together even though her home has a palapa roof made of thatched palm leaves. Pretty but leaky, specifically over the bedroom and bathroom. In her words, “Overall, I’m loving it, but palapa life is going to be like when I ran a 5k … once is enough.”
Back to our conversation. “My 60th birthday was a turning point for me. This was the year that I couldn’t zip up a dress that I could the year before. And we had just come back from a special trip with our second grandson. Thanks to my husband doing the hard work of parenting in his first marriage, I got to leapfrog into “Oma” status. We had promised each of our three grandsons that we would take them individually on a special trip for their 12th birthday. However, the third child would not be 12 for several years. I began to wonder if I would have the stamina to take him on a similar trip and I didn’t want him to have less than his brothers. And finally, I had tried surfing for the first time a couple of years before. I loved it. Not that I got to do much actual surfing. I’m such a wanna be. I do more falling off the board and getting back on, but I loved the whole process.”
I WANT TO TRAVEL THE WORLD VISITING BEGINNER SURFING SPOTS.
“I want to travel the world to as many beginner surfing spots as I can make. I will probably always be a beginner, but it is so fun trying. I’ve already tried surfing in some really cool places including Maui and Costa Rica.”
“Of course, all these visions were happening at the same time that I’m facing the reality of turning 65 and living on social security. I needed fitness to surf, and I needed another form of income that would augment my government pension. And I needed something to keep me sharp and alive.”
“I turned to my social media friend and figured out what she was doing, and I’ve been doing the same ever since. It’s really super cool to have a job description that keeps me fit, keeps my mind fit and requires me, every single day, to step into my best self. That’s what got me onto this new trajectory.”
“One of the things I really want to say… mind and body are intrinsically connected. You cannot tend your mental health without tending to your physical health. We are one big bag of mind, body and spirit and it all needs tending at the same time.”
I BELIEVE EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO BE WILDLY JOYOUS.
“I believe everyone has the right to be wildly joyous. The more we can stand in our most authentic selves, we give permission to others to be their truest selves.”
Through online workshops, one-on-one consulting, public speaking, and virtual wellness coaching, Diane mentors and motivates others in personal development, fitness, nutrition, and business building. It is a joy and privilege for her to share your journey. And we all journey. Diane battled bulimia for sixteen years… bearing the emotional load and consequences of that eating disorder. She also suffered so severely from CMP (softening and inflammation of the kneecap) that she thought she might never again walk without excruciating pain. With determination, Diane worked hard to understand and overcome emotional and physical struggles. She learned to treat her body and her spirit with respect, and she continues to level up… learning, growing, and gathering tools to share with others who want to live their best, most fulfilled lives!
Diane brings her experience and training as an adviser, the incredible transformational toolbox that she continues to fill, a quick sense of humor, and a big heart to all who choose to say, “IT’S MY TIME TO SHINE!”
Diane runs SHINE! is a 10-week mindset makeover workshop designed to help you fully embrace your personal power through a shift in perspective and habits, an expanded and more compassionate vision of self, and tools for sustained transformation. https://dianeameliaread.com/version3/shine/
She is also working on publishing a book called SHINE!
· Instagram: @realDianeAmelia
· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DianeAmeliaRead
FREE RESOURCES:
Receive three sample at-home workouts (barre, shadowboxing & metabolism boost) by clicking this link, complete the contact form with the words “Sample Workouts”!
Personal Power for the Common Good Podcast – go to www.dianeameliaread.com and sign up to be notified when it launches.
There is much more to learn. Listen to the full podcast https://traffic.libsyn.com/5a95947b-a58b-46b9-80c1-2a7d7ec75398/Diane_Amelia_Read_nc-03_vr2.mp3
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