Another 20 things

you can do right now

to find and live
your purpose
© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016
www.SueFitzmaurice.com/purpose

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Think big
Almost all of us constrain and reduce the size of our own potential world, life and experience.

Generally, it’s difficult to conceive of a bigger life if we’ve not lived a bigger life; and we tend to think
our lives smaller as we get older. It’s easier to have big dreams when we’re younger, but somehow
at some point those dreams vanish.

When we do try and think bigger, aside from how difficult it can be, it’s very difficult to follow
through and maintain a bigger vision.

The reality is we have to learn to do things in stages. None of us stood up for the first time as babies
and then straight away ran to the other side of the room. When we first stood up we probably didn’t
even conceive of running to the other side of the room. The very idea of running probably didn’t
exist in our consciousness. And yet now, well we may not be able to run very far at this point in our
lives, but most of us can run. We may not even think twice about it.

Thinking a bigger life likewise takes stages in our vision; stages we either lost when we were
younger, or stages we never got to because we just stopped going bigger at some point.

So you have to practice expanding your vision.

What’s the next biggest stage your life could take? In terms of income, lifestyles, career, purpose,
relationship…? How about increasing your income by ten per cent? And then when you get used to
the idea that that’s possible, whether or not you increase your income by five, ten or twenty per
cent, then expand your idea of what’s possible to another stage again.

Picture this new and bigger view of your life whenever you can remember to. Write about it in your
journal every day.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Get up earlier
The healthiest and most inspirational hours of the day are the first few hours of daylight in the
morning. You can tell me you’re a night person till you’re blue in the face – it didn’t doesn’t change
the fact that the best Energy of the day is in the first part of the day.

If you’re already an early riser, skip ahead!

If you’re awake till the wee hours, stop it!

It’s not a good energy period of the day to be awake after midnight.

If you’ve got yourself into a bad habit, then work on changing it. Wake up earlier and don’t nap
during the day – if you stick at this long enough you’ll alter your rhythm and be able to go to sleep
earlier.

Simply saying you won’t be able to, or insisting you’re an insomniac, doesn’t cut it with me, sorry.
The language you tell yourself is ruling you; change it. You will be happier and healthier and more
motivated in life when you can have a proper sleep cycle. Which means a proper waking up cycle
too.

If you make yourself get up at 6am, you are probably going to feel like crap for a few days. That’s just
your body protesting. It will thank you in the long run. It’s yours to command, not the other way
around. Take charge!

Then make sure you’re using those new early hours well. Don’t use them to turn the tv on and blob
out. These are some of the most useful hours you’ll have in the day. Get writing, making, tidying,
planning, creating, baking, cleaning, painting…

Pretty soon you’re going to wish you’d done this years ago.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Don’t put things off
Unless your life’s super-exciting and you’re just putting off the dishes, if there’s a job needs doing,
do it. If it’s a big job, break it down into stages and do a little each day.

Lots of people need to clean out the pile of stuff in their garages and basements and spare rooms –
it always seems to be a job that gets put off and put off and put off. And meanwhile also it usually
gets worse.

Start! If you sorted a box a day, how many days are you going to need? Commit to a box a day for
that many days. One box is going to take a maximum of an hour and as little as five minutes. Do it.
You’ll be so pleased you did.

Imagine in a month when it’s all done!

What do you put off? Taxes, accounts, the dentist, finishing writing a book, finishing that online
course you started, starting that online course you bought!

You can’t do it all at once, but you can start. If you don’t start, nothing will continue to happen.

Sometimes I find if my ‘to do’ list is too long, I don’t even start it. I feel weighed down by it. So I just
keep the ‘to do’ list to a maximum of 10 things. You don’t have to put everything on the list.

Are you putting off making up with a friend or a colleague? Are you putting off asking your boss for a
raise? Are you putting off visiting a relative you don’t like? Set a day, do it, don’t think about it
before you have to do it. When you think about it beforehand you make it bigger and scarier – we all
do – the answer is to not think about it at all. Truly, it’s not that hard to do. Don’t think about it!

Are you putting off quitting your job? Going back to school? Moving out? Big things like that? Well,
only you can know when, but more often than not ‘when’ is sooner rather than later. You may regret
taking the leap – I can’t say definitively that you won’t. But more often than not – by a very large
margin – most people will say “I wish I’d done it years ago!” Follow your dreams – they’re why
you’re here. Take the leap!

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Listen to peaceful music
Don’t listen to peaceful music you don’t like! Find what you do like. Preferably without lyrics; lyrics
are often distracting.

This is not about listening to any music that you like – it needs to be something that’s restful, that’s
going to allow you to be transported away in your mind.

You will have heard that Mozart is good for the mind; myself, I’ll happily listen to Four Seasons by
Vivaldi for hours. Maybe Tibetan drums or bowls do it for you. Gregorian chanting is amazing. Enya is
beautiful. Experiment – ask your friends what they like – build up a library.

For me, indulging in some lengthy music like this is more a weekend thing; maybe it’s an after-work
thing, although for most households that can be a busy time. Invest in some good quality noise-
cancelling headphones if you need to shut others out and/or keep your music to yourself.

Let the music take you wherever. Absolutely avoid wasting this time thinking about what went on at
work today and what you’re going to be doing tomorrow, or any kind of focused thought, especially
if it has any kind of conflict at its centre. You’ll defeat the purpose.

This is a time to relax. As well as letting your mind lightly wander, make sure you’re comfortable –
sitting or lying – and consciously relax every part of your body starting from one end or the other.

If thoughts of how indulgent this is come, or you starting thinking about what you should be doing,
banish them. If they won’t be banished, go do what you have to do and try again another time. If
having these kinds of thoughts is always the case for you, then you need to work on getting rid of
the thoughts, not the indulgence.

I recommend at least a half hour. More is better.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Draw
You don’t have to be an artist, or even want to be an artist, to draw. Get a small pocket-sized or
purse-sized sketch book; I like the kind with circular wire binding that allows you to flip the cover
right round. I suggest you use a simple range of plain pencils to draw with.

If you are an artist, one that draws or paints or sculpts every day, skip ahead.

Take five minutes a day to draw something, maybe during your lunch break. It’s especially good to
take your mind off your work for a while and have a creative moment. Use the whole five minutes.
Take ten if you’d like to.

When you allow some creativity into your daily routine you give your mind an opportunity to be
somewhere different, doing something different, opening up a new part of your mind that’s hitherto
been unexplored. Your mind will love it!

If you keep this practice up, you will begin to see some changes in the way you think and feel; it’s
like adding a new type of meditation to your day. Over time you may be able to connect with a flow
of creative energy when you draw; this is a great experience to have and demonstrates that you can
connect with different energies that feed your mind and your outputs.

Exposing yourself to different mindsets in this way can help you tune into your purpose. Your mind is
generally used to thinking in a particular way and has probably been used that same way for a long
time. Lacking any creative input or meditation will foster an increased rigidity. Thinking about your
purpose is a different way to think also, and requires your mind be able to loosen and explore. You
can help that process with any kind of creative activity. Drawing is one of the simplest and most
accessible types of creative activity. You have to hold the pencil in your hand and make something
happen at the tip, which is very different from sitting at your computer designing graphics, or taking
photos with a camera.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Let go the past
Nothing holds you back from your future more than the past. We all have a past, but some people’s
pasts have their claws into them and won’t let go; other people are so attached to the past that they
hold on and hold on and hold on, hoping to re-live their glory days. It never, ever works like that.

You absolutely cannot create the future you want for yourself as long as you’re stuck in that old
relationship, still angry at your parents, still seething over that old boss, still grieving for a loss.

Any one of those things could be ‘justified’ – I’m not saying you don’t have a right to be angry, but
how long are you going to keep holding onto damaging anger? How long are you going to let
someone keep breaking your heart every day? How long will your sadness block your way to living
your life?

You cannot go back and change any of it. You can choose to stay stuck thinking how you might do
that though. Or you can let it go and move on. Those are your choices. Simple.

Letting go isn’t always easy. You need to work on it every day and eventually the pain and the
attachment subside.

Regret and shame are two very strong emotions that hold us in the past. Neither has any value. This
isn’t to say that we shouldn’t acknowledge past mistakes – in fact it’s vital that we do acknowledge
them as that’s also how we move on. We’ve somehow learnt that to have a conscience and to be
responsible means we have to forever carry around our past with us and keep on apologising for it
forever and a day. This just isn’t so. You can separate the requirement to be a responsible adult from
having to carry guilt, shame and regret with you forever. The former is important, the latter not in
the least.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Read more inspirational books
Read about inspirational people. Here are some recommendations for biographies and autobiographies.
Press ctrl + click on the cover pics and you’ll go directly to these books on Amazon.
[If any of the links say 'Unavailable for purchase', click on 'See all formats and editions.']
Paramahansa Yogananda tells
the inspiring chronicle of his
life: his childhood, encounters
with many saints and sages,
his search throughout India
for a teacher, ten years of
training with a revered yoga
master, and the thirty years
he lived and taught in the US.
Tenzin Palmo, an English
woman, spent 12 years
alone in a cave in the
Himalayas and became a
world-renowned spiritual
leader and champion of the
right of women to achieve
spiritual enlightenment.
"During my boxing career, you
did not see the real
Muhammad Ali. You just saw a
little boxing. You saw only a
part of me. After I retired from
boxing my true work began. I
have embarked on a journey of
love."
A little known early
biography from a less than
famous Deepak Chopra
about his awakening to
ancient traditions and the
body’s relationship to the
mind and soul.
What makes a great
woman great? Seven
Women tells the captivating
stories of seven women who
changed the course of
history and impacted the
world in astonishing ways.
Tattooed, angry and profane,
this former stand-up comic
turned pastor stubbornly,
sometimes hilariously, resists
the God she feels called to
serve. But God keeps
showing up in the least likely
of people—a church-loving
agnostic, a drag queen, a
felonious Bishop and a gun-
toting member of the NRA.
© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016
When Indra Devi was born in
Russia in 1899, yoga was
virtually unknown outside of
India. By the time of her
death, in 2002, it was being
practiced around the world.
Here is the story of the
woman who helped usher in a
craze that continues unabated
to this day.
By eighteen, Blair Braverman
had left home in California,
moved to arctic Norway to
drive sled dogs, and worked as
a tour guide on a glacier in
Alaska. Determined to carve
out a life as a “tough girl” she
developed the strength and
resilience the landscape
demanded of her.
"Hilarious, inspiring, and
beautifully written. Karen
McCann proves that you can
head off on an adventure at
any age. Sixty is the new
twenty." - George Mahood,
author of Free Country
23-year-old Ernesto (Che) is a
middle-class medical student
looking for a break from his
studies, and the motorcycle
doesn't last through two
countries. A rare glimpse into
the young mind of a major
cultural revolutionary and a
unique look into South
America in the mid-20th
century. A wonderfully human
introduction to the people
and lands of this vast
continent.
Half a century into her career,
something funny happened to
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg: she won the internet.
People who weren’t even born
when Ginsburg first made her
name as a feminist pioneer are
tattooing themselves with her
face, setting her famously searing
dissents to music, and making viral
videos in tribute.
At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she
had lost everything. In the wake
of her mother’s death, her family
scattered. Four years later, with
no experience or training, she
would hike more than 1,000
miles of the Pacific Crest Trail
from the Mojave Desert through
California and Oregon to
Washington State—alone.
Schooled behind ancient palace
walls to become the leader of
Tibet, the Dalai Lama has become
a spiritual leader to the world
and a leading civil rights
advocate. My Land and My
People tells the story of his life.
Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook
COO and one of Fortune
magazine’s ‘Most Powerful
Women in Business’ – draws on
her own experience of working
in some of the world's most
successful businesses and looks
at what women can do to help
themselves, and make the small
changes in their life that can
effect change on a more
universal scale.
© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016
Keep a Journal
You don’t have to be a writer to find pleasure and gain understanding from writing. For many
people, the simple act of recording one’s daily experiences and insights in turn provides more
insight, as well as release from events that have taken hold of our mind and emotions.

And there’s a lot to be said for bullet points!

Here are some things I can really recommend covering off in your journaling daily, or at least weekly.

 Gratitude:
o People – the ones you love and the ones that are making life challenging (sometimes
that’s the same people)
o Events – the good, the bad and the ugly
o Body and health – especially the parts of your body you tend to be critical of
 Releasing: I’m letting go of … … … (people, events) and not allowing them/it to keep me
living in the past/ in anger / in turmoil…
 Relationships: Today I made these contributions to my important relationships: … … …
 Inspiration: Today I felt inspired to … … …
 Meditation: Today I made time to connect to the Divine.
 Goals: I would like to … … …
 Learning: Today I learned … … …
 … … …
 … … …
 … … …

Regularly recording what’s going on in your life, gives you the opportunity to reflect on where you’re
at and where you’re going. Adding some structure to this process adds further to that clarity and
creates some additional building blocks for breathing life into your purpose and the kinds of actions
you need to take to reveal your purpose and begin to make it a reality in your daily life.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Set an outrageous goal
It’s one of the best things you can do in your life to set completely outrageous goals without
stopping to think about it.

Now obviously you’ve gotta operate within your own values so I’m not suggesting you desert your
family or do something life-threatening, (notwithstanding doing something super-exciting like a
parachute jump or a bungy jump!)

The way I think of ‘outrageous’ is the kind of thing that it’s not quite possible for you to do in your
present circumstances, OR the kind of thing you’ve often said I’d really love to do that some day or I
wish I could do that OR the kind of thing that would make your friends and family raise their
eyebrows and look at you sideways as if you’ve possibly gone slightly nuts.

Outrageous ideas do in fact come to most of us quite often; we just usually discount them, generally
immediately. Try not doing that.

In the last 4-5 years, I’ve acted on some of my biggest, most outrageous ideas and amazingly they’ve
almost always moved me in the direction of my purpose. I didn’t usually have any idea that that was
the case at the time. It’s something I can see now in retrospect. So on that basis I’ve increasingly
become an advocate for setting outrageous goals.

I think – and you don’t in the least have to agree with me on this – that the outrageous ideas we
have (that we usually discount) come to us with deliberate intent from the Universe / the Divine /
God / our Angels / that kind of thing. And I’m of the opinion that the Universe / God / etc, has more
clues than me, so it’s also become a part of my tuning in to that higher realm, to take notice of the
outrageous ideas that spring to mind.

So go on! Do something outrageous!

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Set another outrageous goal
Just in case you thought you might put #9 off till later. Don’t.

Seriously.

Take a page in your daily journal – or two pages – and write a list of outrageous goals; all the things
you’ve thought of over the years that you’d like to do if only…

 The trips you’ve wanted to take, especially the ones to other countries.
 The people you’d like to meet.
 The shows you’d like to see.
 The adventures you’d like to go on.
 The book you’ve wanted to write.
 The business you’ve wanted to start.
 And so on…

Thirty years ago I decided to do a parachute jump. And then I did 19 more of them. Twenty-five
years ago I decided to no longer be a nurse because it just wasn’t authentically me somehow. Ten
years ago I decided to write a novel, and I did. Seven years ago I decided I would never work in the
rat race ever again, and I haven’t. Four years ago I very suddenly decided I was going to create an
online business so I could travel round the world with my daughter, and I did. Twice. I could go on.
And on and on.

Don’t just set an outrageous goal. Be like a Nike ad and just do it.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Start a new social media account
There’s something about putting yourself out into the world that gives you the opportunity to
experiment with who you are and how you’d like to be perceived in the world, and how that in turn
impacts on some of the things you want to do in your life.

It’s a bit like starting a new job or moving to a new town or even stepping out in some new clothes.
It’s good to experiment with who you are and how you want to be.

And it doesn’t have to be at all clear what that looks like. When I started my first Facebook
fan/business page, I had a loose idea of creating an audience for my new novel and that was all.
Amazingly within only a few weeks that page had not that much to do with my book and a whole lot
to do with expressing myself in the world. That soon changed as well and my main page became in
large part about this topic of purpose.

When you start to put yourself ‘out there’, the feedback you get then influences how you continue
to do that. Your social media is not you, but it is an expression of you. Allow those expressions to
grow and develop within the context of social media messages and it will almost certainly inform
you and your direction, very likely in ways you may not have foreseen.

Be aware – I’m sure you are – that there are pitfalls to having a social media presence as well. The
most obvious one is that sometimes people aren’t very nice to you online. You’ve almost certainly
experienced some of this already. I’ve experienced a great deal of it and it’s been one of the most
useful experiences of my life for a whole lot of reasons. Firstly, you eventually get a much thicker
skin. I don’t mean you lose your sensitivity necessarily but you do let a lot of things go a whole lot
more easily over time. Secondly, you learn to laugh a lot more and take a lot of things a lot less
seriously. This is a basic requirement of online success and it takes time and you may need to go
through a little misery before you get there, but you will get there. Third, you get very practiced at
sniffing out the good from the bad, whether it’s people or information or whatever, and that’s a very
useful skill to have. Don’t let the obvious pitfall of internet trolling be an obstacle to getting into
social media; you will learn from that experience as well.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Go on a retreat
You probably can’t go on a retreat right now. But you could organise to go on one.

With not too much effort you’ll be able to find a bunch of different retreats not far away, and they’ll
be anything from a day to a week to a month. Some will be ‘live-in’ and some you’ll be able to come
and go from each day. Some may be free. Many will cost very little.

Most retreats are designed to give your heart, mind and body a rest, and encourage you to spend
time with your spirit instead. Even just one short weekend retreat can feel like a month’s holiday at
the beach. Truly.

If money’s an obstacle right now, you’ll also find that a lot of people involved in organising retreats
are open to exchanges. Maybe you can offer to do some cooking or cleaning or marketing or some
other kind of service in exchange for being able to attend. I have many friends who operate huge
chunks of their lives this way in order to participate in personal development opportunities that
come along. Don’t be shy about it.

If you’ve not been on any kind of retreat before, believe me it’s a real treat. Especially if your work
or home life (or both) is chaotic. Do yourself a huge favour and make this one happen! I promise
you’ll develop a liking for it.

Taking time out – well, you know what I’m going to say about this kind of thing now… You get the
opportunity to tune in to the good stuff and tune out to the distractions and connect with your
purpose. Best thing ever.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Write a letter to yourself from 5 years in the future
One that assumes all that you’d love to have happen between now and then has come to pass.

So you’re sitting there, in 5 years, with all your dreams come true.

What’s it feel like? Tell your present you how it feels.

What’s it look like? Tell your present you that.

Thank your present you for being bold enough to take the steps you took 5 years ago. Remind your
present you what some of those steps were.

Tell your present you what you’ve learnt these last 5 years, about yourself and about how to live
your life.

Seriously. Do this exercise. You might want to take a couple of stabs at it over a few days. Give it
some thought.

Maybe ask your friends and family what they’d say to themselves in such a letter, too.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Get more sleep!
If you consistently skimp on sleep you are consistently putting your body under stress. If your body is
under stress your mind is not at ease. And if your mind is not at ease then nothing else in your life
will be either. And then you are in no position to be working on your purpose.

Of course there are times in our lives when we do go without sleep for consistent periods – having a
new baby is one of those. Or a sick child. Somehow Mother Nature gets us through those times, and
almost certainly if you have a new baby then you’re probably not thinking too much about other
aspects of your purpose right now and that’s probably a good thing.

If worry, deadlines, or exams, are getting in the way of your sleep, then do yourself a favour and add
some meditation to some part of your day. It’ll go some way to making up for the lack of sleep and
it’ll help ease your worry and help your mind to focus on your work.

If getting to sleep is your problem, there are a lot of things you can do to get better at falling asleep,
not the least of which again is meditation. Almost everyone I meet who says they suffer from
insomnia (most don’t truly have insomnia, they just have difficulty getting to sleep) or can’t get to
sleep, will also tell me they’ve tried meditating and they can’t. This is a nonsense they’ve told
themselves. They’ll usually have difficulty sleeping – and think they have difficulty meditating –
because they can’t switch off their brain and stop thinking. That’s true about the sleeping; it’s not
true about the meditating.

I’ve talked elsewhere about meditation, but briefly let me explain that thinking is a part of
meditating. Thinking doesn’t get in the way of meditating. But meditating sure gets in the way of not
sleeping. You can learn more about meditation on my website here. You’ll also find some practice
meditations on this same page.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Do a chakra-balancing meditation
Continuing on the meditation theme. You can use meditation in a host of different ways to effect a
limitless number of outcomes. It is one of the few ways – arguably the only way – you can balance
your chakras.

We have 7 chakras in our bodies, each of which is an energy centre for a set of organs and functions,
as well as emotional centres. Most illness is caused by blocks in these energy centres and can be
cured by releasing those blocks. These are the 7 chakras and the emotional centres they’re each
responsible for.

1. Root Chakra — base of spine in tailbone area: survival issues such as financial independence,
money and food.
2. Sacral Chakra — lower abdomen, about two inches below the navel and two inches in: sense of
abundance, well-being, pleasure and sexuality.
3. Solar Plexus Chakra — upper abdomen in the stomach area: self-worth, self-confidence and self-
esteem.
4. Heart Chakra — centre of chest just above the heart: love, joy and inner peace.
5. Throat Chakra — throat: communication, self-expression of feelings and the truth.
6. Third Eye Chakra — forehead between the eyes: intuition, imagination, wisdom and the ability to
think and make decisions.
7. Crown Chakra — top of the head: our connection to spirituality and pure bliss.

This is the most comprehensive yet straight forward article on the chakras I’ve yet found.

Search ‘chakra balancing meditation’ on YouTube for a huge range of possibilities.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Make a video of yourself
There are three reasons to make a video of yourself.

If you’ve never seen yourself on video before I guarantee it will surprise you. Almost none of us
come across the way we think we do, and very often we come across a whole lot better than we
think we do. It can be a real confidence builder.

Another reason has to do with being able to authentically present who you are and what you do. I
think we all know – even if not always entirely consciously – when we’re being our authentic selves.
It’s a great learning exercise in becoming authentic to be able to simply, in a minute or less, present
who you are and what you do. The exercise here though is to present the ‘what you do’ that you
dream about. And then see how convincing you sound.

Which leads to the third reason for making a video of yourself. When you talk about the ‘what you
do’ that you dream about, you start to develop the confidence to really and truly become that
version of yourself and you’ll start to take the steps to make it happen.

Confidence breeds confidence. Courage breeds courage. They are both muscles that work best when
they’re exercised.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Do my “Living a Life of Purpose” course
I mean seriously! You’ve got this far and you haven’t done it yet?! Go straight there now!

It’s an online course, with a huge PDF download of all of the course contents, including video links,
and extra reading for those who’d like to go deeper into any aspect.

The course is in 10 sections and you can take 10 days or 10 weeks or however long you need to
complete the course – you can go entirely at your own pace.

In the first section I explain what purpose is. It’s as simple or as complex as you’d like to make it but
for the most part I talk about an evolving life direction that has a practical basis in our spiritual Self, a
part of us with as much importance to our life as our physical, mental and emotional Self.

In the second section I talk about the most common obstacles to being able to find and live your
purpose, the most obvious and prevalent of which is our own negative self-talk: the messages we
consistently give ourselves about not being good enough, and so on.

In part three I explore the notion of ‘making a difference’, something almost everyone talks about in
virtually the same breath when they talk about wanting to find and live their purpose.

In part four, several exercises seek to uncover your many real qualities – the gifts you have to give.

In part five, I talk about money, a specific obstacle a lot of people put up to being able to find and
live their purpose, and I talk about how you can tear this wall down.

In part six, I deal with the vital task of building your connection to Source – God, the Universe, the
Divine, Energy, or whatever words you put around the idea that there’s something bigger than you
that acts as a principal aid to you being able to find and live your purpose.

I’m not going to tell you anymore. Go do the course. It’ll be one of the best investments you ever
make in living the life you were born to.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Write to me!
Seriously! Here’s my email address: sfitzmaurice@xtra.co.nz

Please do NOT add me to your business email list or give my email to someone else for their
business email list – that’ll really piss me off.

Write to me and tell me where you’re at in your life and where you’d like to head. I don’t wanna
read a book – a paragraph is good.

I promise I’ll write back and I’ll give you the best advice I can in a paragraph’s reply.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Get to the sea! (Or the mountains)
As far as I can tell, most people are either sea people or mountain people or bush people.

I’m a sea girl myself – I’ve always lived near it and I get a little strange if I haven’t seen it in a while. A
lake just doesn’t do it for me. It has to be the sea.

It refreshes and renews and inspires me. I get ideas, I get focused, I get relaxed, I get connected to
the Universe. Literally the closer I get to the sea – like right in it! – the better it is for me.

I’m a little spoilt in New Zealand – most beaches are not even that crowded or built up, so you can
walk for miles on a beach and never see another living soul! And the mountains and bush are much
the same. So our ‘getting away from it all’ characteristic is right up there.

Whatever it is about nature that grabs you, go get grabbed by it regularly. Live near it if you can. It is
a true expression of the Universe that has a rub-off effect on us if we let it. You cannot help but find
more truth about yourself and your path when you regularly commune with the planet.

At the very least it will give your body and mind a rest from their usual daily tasks, and anything that
takes you out of your usual routine, however briefly, helps to change the way you look at the world
and your place in it.

At best you may just find the inspiration you’re looking for.

“My soul is full of longing

for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

 I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.”

~ John Masefield, Sea Fever: Selected Poems

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

Ask your Guardian Angel
Here’s a story only a few close friends of mine know.

About 30 years ago – in my early 20s – I went to visit some guy in Auckland (New Zealand) who
channelled someone-or-other and he told me I had the biggest guardian angel he’d ever seen: about
8 feet tall and very male and very powerful. I probably thought about this for a few months and
never much since.

Just over two years ago, I had a reading with someone who is able to see and hear the angels around
us and what they have to say. She told me, right off the bat, Oh my god, you have the biggest
guardian angel I’ve ever seen – he’s so tall and he’s really male and wow is he powerful!

So I sat up and paid attention. And I’ve been paying attention ever since.

He – my Angel – made it really clear to me then what my purpose is, and I’ve been clarifying it and
refining it ever since. I talk to him every day – sometimes I ‘hear’ what he says, sometimes I’m just
not very tuned in. Most of the time now I’m aware of his presence 24/7.

He has a name but I call him James Bond – long story – or JB for short. He’s got a wicked sense of
humour and doesn’t always like to give straight answers ‘cos basically he’s also a bit of a tease.
These are frequent characteristics of angels – they’re not especially holy in the sense of being
serious or sedate – they like to be funny.

I don’t know that much about angels; what I do know is we all have them around us all the time and
they’re principally there to protect us.

We can also ask them for help. So whether you believe in them or not, ask. And keep asking. You’ll
be surprised how answers will turn up in your life.

If you want some help communicating with your Angels, then please talk to my friend Swati at
www.thepurpleflower.com. She’s the best.

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016

For more of Sue’s work, see:

 10-day online course Living a Life of Purpose www.SueFitzmaurice.com/purpose

 The Journey from Depression to health, happiness & purpose – a 30-day programme in
healing depression www.the-journey.me

 Sue’s book Purpose on Amazon http://amzn.to/1jtC9Xp

 Learn to Meditate – a free course www.SueFitzmaurice.com/how-to-meditate

 Networking & Coaching group for Heart-based Entrepreneurs (free)

www.facebook.com/groups/HeartbasedEntrepreneurs

 10-week programme: Create Your Own Online Business

www.SueFitzmaurice.com/e-courses/online-business

 Reading enthusiasts will also enjoy Sue’s book page on Facebook

www.facebook.com/TitleWaveforBooks

 Sue’s novel Angels in the Architecture on Amazon http://amzn.to/1Gapgf4

© Sue Fitzmaurice, 2016