If you’re not happy with money you’re making right now or if you haven’t found your soul mate tune in below!

Have you turned on your inner GPS?

If you’re worried about aging, give this thought a try: “When I’m using my innate talents with all of my passion to make a difference in the world through my work, I am successful and happy.” Is this statement true in your life? If not, make a course correction, career reinvention or whatever it takes to align yourself with work based on your unique gifts -the work you came here to do.

Once your life is aligned with work you love that uses your innate talents and is on-path for you, you become unstoppable. You attract every opportunity, circumstance and relationship you want. The only thing that can sabotage you is your fear.

To master agelessness, try this exercise: Stand in front of a mirror and think a negative, fearful or worried thought. Look at your face. Now think a thought of gratitude or love. Breathe in the gratitude and soak yourself in it. Look at your face again. Do you see the difference?

Consider that aging is simply accumulated negativity that creates an expression we identify as “old.” When we spend most of our time in a state of worry or stress, our negative energy ages us. We can become youthful again the moment we shift our focus. Here’s a simple exercise to help:

Pretend you have $5 million in your bank account, perfect love and perfect health. Spend a few minutes imagining this life of ease, fun, travel and meaningful work. As you picture this life, feel your energy rising on your energy continuum until you’re feeling pretty darned good. Congratulations! You’ve just shifted your energy to the high-end of your energy continuum – without changing your external circumstances. That in itself is pretty cool, and it shows how powerful you are. It demonstrates that feeling good is not dependent on your circumstances.

Here are some ways to win the anti-aging contest:

1. Focus on your innate talents. Your value in this world comes from using those innate natural talents with all of your passion to make the world a better place. Using those talents every day in your work creates lasting beauty that the world recognizes. The work you attract by using your talents is your true work.

Today, make a list of your top five natural talents, such as inspiring others or creating peace from conflict. Ask yourself if you’re using these talents in your everyday life and career. If not, change direction until your life and work become platforms for bringing those gifts to the world. That’s what you’re here to do. That’s your true purpose–and your true beauty.

2. Use energy shifters. Whenever you’re feeling “old,” say to yourself: “When I raise my energy (with gratitude, sweetness or humor), I connect to the divine fabric that we’re all part of, and I’m as brilliant and beautiful as anyone in the world.”

Practice that energy shift (from pitiful to powerful) wherever you go, whether it’s to a meeting or a dinner party. Whenever you’re going out socially, raise your energy with gratitude and humor before you leave the house. If you’re having a bad day, read books, watch movies and listen to music that lifts your energy and inspires you with new ideas. (And turn off the news, please.)

3. See yourself as divine. That’s hard to do sometimes, so here’s a trick that helps. Picture yourself looking and acting your best; see it as clearly as if you were watching a movie and seeing yourself in the leading role. Imagine yourself interacting with others in an attractive, graceful and charismatic way. Draw a picture of what this new, divine you looks like and hang it on your bathroom mirror. Whenever you’re being self-critical, shift your gaze to the picture of your ideal self and say, “Thank you, Universe, for connecting me to my innate beauty and grace.”

4. Surround yourself with great friends who live by these principles. Model yourself after their way of thinking and facing challenges. When we surround ourselves with small-minded thinkers, we prevent our own wisdom from showing up. We stifle our greatness to fit in. We make ourselves smaller and more trivial in order to be seen as “normal.”

In the world of small-minded thinkers, life is only a beauty contest and a trivia quiz. You’ll feel empty and off-path when you engage socially with folks like that. Get comfortable being around high-energy people, since your new job and new co-workers are going to be very high-energy. These high-energy people live in their truth, using their talents, purpose and passion. They don’t waste their time or yours. Stand amongst them.

5. Align your work with your true mission. Each of us has a path as revealed in our date of birth. By learning about your path, which reflects your true intention for this lifetime, you’ll know which careers are right for you. For more info about your path read I See Your Dream Job; A Career Intuitive Shows You How to Discover What You Were Put On Earth To Do

Sue Frederick, Intuitive, Life Coach, Career Coach, Author and TV personality will be visiting…

Dancing Moon Bookstore
1840 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27608
Saturday, April 14th from 3 PM to 6 PM

Reserve your seat now, space is limited. Click here to register.

Win a free copy of Sue’s book, I See Your Dream Job! Tweet with Sue live from the event for your chance to win. All you have to do is use hashtag #MeetSue to enter!

Come meet Sue in person and learn how to tap into your intuition, see the mission you came to accomplish, and move forward fearlessly – even when major reinvention is required. Everyone in the workshop will get a brief personal reading from Sue.

You know you’re here to help people and to make money. You have all the skills and experience you need to manifest this work successfully. First you have to get past the bogeyman (or what I call the “pitiful self”).

There is a self-doubt deep inside of you that makes you pull back just before you take the brave step into the light of your new direction, the work you came here to do.

It’s time to override that voice of the pitiful self and take your leap of faith into unknown territory. This is your moment, and it’s what you came here to do.

You’re here to be an explorer, a settler of unknown territory, a prospector into the divine. It’s why you came to planet earth, not to hide out in your self-doubt confinement.

There’s new territory waiting to be discovered by only you with the unique gifts you brought with you. This is sacred ground waiting to be blessed by your unsteady feet, and your children are watching to see how far you will go down the unknown path. They will, of course, go farther than you in their time. But you can make important progress for them, progress that gives them a better chance at success.

Who will your children be after they watch you cringe at the mention of change? Where will your children go after they listen to your misery about a world where no one gets to be successful doing what they love? Who will they be after watching you suffer every day because of a career that doesn’t fit your true gifts?

That voice of self doubt, the pitiful self, is an essential part of being human. It’s inside all of us. It pulls us back to the limited mind, to the limited consciousness that lives within the body. This heavy burden of limited flesh and a scattered mind is what we signed up for when we came here to evolve.

Yet the pain and self-doubt is designed to become our fuel for doing our great work – for offering to the world what we wish had been offered to us. Will you let your pain and doubt stop you now from living up to the mission you came here to accomplish? Or will you use it as your fuel for moving forward? It’s your choice. Everything depends on your decision.

You intended to use your energy (fueled by pain and doubt) to manifest greatness through your work, to push consciousness to a new level, to help make life on planet earth magnificent for everyone. Your children still carry that dream in their DNA. Will you diminish their dreams with your own fear?

Wake up! Take a deep breath. Fill your body with the light of new ideas! Open your eyes and ask gratefully, “Who did I come here to be?” You are not here to be afraid! Take a bold step in your true direction, the one you’ve always been afraid to take, the one that’s bigger than the rest – the unspeakably great one. That’s your true mission and your next step. Everyone is waiting.

Here are six steps to get you going:

1. Meditate, pray, or at least unplug for 20 minutes every morning to get your own powerful intuitive guidance – which is very different from your fear voice.
2. Understand your path and mission by studying the numbers in your date of birth to learn what they mean about your career.
3. Make a list of three baby steps you could take this week to investigate your next career step – the one that’s in alignment with both your path and dreams.
4. Use humor, gratitude, dreaming, and meditation or prayer to raise your energy and override the pitiful self.
5. Dream a little dream every night and write it down in the morning. Before you lay down to sleep, ask for intuitive guidance through your dreams. When you awake, write down everything you can remember.

This week take three baby steps into unknown territory and don’t look back.

The man in front of me carefully studies charts spread out across the table, amused by my impatience. Slowly he looks up and smiles. “You can do this,” he says softly. “It’s a big path, a strong mission. You’re ready.”

“What if I get lost? I’m not sure I’m ready.”

“You will get lost. But you’ll have help from soul mates whom you’ll recognize upon meeting.” He looks back up at me smiling. “You know who they are, don’t you?”

“Yes, my posse. Same as always.” I smile, remembering our great love for one another and our last incarnation together.

“This time, let me caution you, many of those agreements will be designed to spur your growth until you embrace your path and get down to work. Until then, the pain of those relationships will keep you moving. You’ll long for a resting place. But it won’t appear until you create it with your sacred work.”

“What is my true work?” I ask, starting to feel queasy about this journey.

“Using your spiritual wisdom to help others–sharing the gifts you bring in with you to help raise consciousness.”

“You think I can do that down there? And get paid for doing it? You DO remember they’re still a primitive and economically based world…”

“You’re up for the job, my dear,” he says, staring directly at me with disarming blue eyes.

“Will I be homesick?” I ask.

“And sometimes afraid,” he answers. “But these feelings will force you to search for truth and see beyond the illusions. You’ll experience pain so you can help others in pain.”

“Will one of my soul mates stand beside me to help do the work?”

“Later on, after you’ve found your strength and courage.” He pauses and looks directly at me. “Please remember that you’ll never be like others. Many get lost there thinking they should act the same as the others. Each one has his own mission, the sacred work brought to Earth to help shift consciousness. Just remember who you are and focus on your mission.”

“Why is there so much confusion in that realm?”

“The dense energy causes us to forget. But that’s changing…”

“Will I ever have what’s considered a normal family life while I’m there?”

He looks back down at the charts and papers spread out before him. He points to a section where several lines intersect. “Oh yes, very sweet…but later on.”

“How will I remember what I’m supposed to do?”

“Your heart will be broken every time you hide behind a partner. That heartbreak will be your fuel; it will push you forward.”

“What about money and comfort?”

“Not really until later. Too much of that in the beginning can slow you down.”

“Right…no money and comfort until I’m doing the work.”

“Right,” he says, smiling.

“What clues will I get to help me find my way?”

“Your powerful intuition. You’ll see what’s coming before it arrives. You’ll feel everything around you–good and bad. You’ll dream of your partners before they show up. You’ll recognize every soul mate the moment you meet. You’ll dream about your great work constantly and be restless until you accomplish your mission.”

“If I follow my intuition I’ll succeed?”

“That’s the plan. You’ll have to embrace those powerful emotions–loss, anger, fear, joy, and love. Those feelings will help you find your way. Don’t worry. We’ll be in touch,” he says, standing up and moving away from me.

“You’ll help when I need you?” I ask, getting up to follow him.

“Through your feelings, dreams, and intuition. I’ll see you again so quickly. The visit seems long when you’re in it. But it’s only the blink of an eye in your soul’s journey.” He turns and walks out of the room without looking back.

I have more questions and try to follow, but I’m quickly escorted into a large chamber with a platform in the center and told to lie down.

Soothing words and music fill the small space and help me relax. I begin to feel deliciously sleepy. Golden light illuminates from every direction. “It’s wonderful,” I whisper, lifting my hand up into the light to see the iridescence.

I awaken in a physical body struggling to breathe.

There has never been a greater time to follow that dream than now. When the conventional rules of career come crashing in around us, we emerge from the rubble holding onto our true selves – the divine potential we came to fulfill through our work. Nothing else remains.

It’s time to embrace this great potential inside of you and launch your big idea. Are you still hoping for a security-blanket-job that will take care of your every need? That system is crumbing now. Embrace your big idea and move forward.

Open your eyes. Do you see the gifted healer standing over there pretending to be a grocery clerk? Do you see the inspired inventor pretending to be a marketing director? Do you see the innovative engineer acting like a salesman? Are they abundantly wealthy, successful and happy? Probably not.

The question is, are you one of the few willing to believe your own inner voice, the intuition inside of you that has been whispering your mission for years?

I hear you saying it’s impossible. Everything is impossible. And yet you’re here anyway in this impossible world. The impossible has already happened.

It’s time to remember that this life IS a dream – and you created it. You meant to be the hero in your story.Focus on these baby steps to help you remember who you are and bring your big idea to the world:

Strengthen your spirituality, however you define it. Bring it into your life everyday through prayer or meditation. This means learning a tried and true meditation technique and practicing it EVERY DAY. This will open your pathway to inner guidance faster than any other practice. I recommend repeating the ancient and powerful Sanskrit wordsOm Namah Shivaya which mean I bow to the divine self.

Understand that your pain is on purpose; it’s your greatest fuel to do your true work. Ask yourself, if I signed up for my painful experiences in order to bring my wisdom to the world through my work, how can my pain serve others? Whom can I help with the wisdom I’ve learned from my own challenges?

Listen to your intuitive guidance rather than your mind – and learn to tell the difference. Here’s how: picture yourself doing a new job – one that you’re dreaming of doing. See yourself talking to people, sitting at your desk, or working from home. Pay attention to how that vision feels physically in your body. Does it make you smile and feel light? Do you giggle seeing it? Or does it make you feel heavy and tired? If it makes you feel heavy and tired, that’s your intuition saying “no, this is not the right career for you.” Instead, it’s probably a career idea that your mind created – to pay the bills and be practical.

Realize that abundance will only come to you from doing your true work – which is the reverse logic from what you hear around you everyday. This law of divine order is always in action. Look around you and observe it in the lives of people you know. When people choose a job for the money, that money slips through their fingers like water. It’s not rightfully theirs. It didn’t come from doing the work they signed up for, so it never sticks. When they do their true work, the universe supports their efforts in every way bringing opportunities and people into their path who will help their work succeed against all odds.
Take three steps towards the big idea that you woke up with this morning. First, test it with your intuition (see step 3). If it still feels right, take three steps to investigate this idea such as calling someone who does this work and asking them how they got started. Or research this career on the internet. Who else is doing it? How is your work different from theirs? Write down your ideas. Take three more steps each week.

Identify the voice of your pitiful self getting in your way. This is your fear and doubt. That pitiful self exists in everyone. (Give it a name like Sad Sadie or Doubting Debbie so you can tell it’s a different energy from your higher self). We choose to come into this dense realm to push past those negative emotions and evolve our souls – not to get stopped in our tracks by Doubting Debbie. Look around you. The people you admire have pushed past their fear and doubt or they wouldn’t be where you want to be. You’ve wasted time being stopped by your pitiful self. Picture how your life would look it this weren’t so. Take a step past the fear today. Get out of your own way, and start moving in the direction you already signed up for.

Decipher the numbers in your birth date according to the philosophy of Pythagoras who created the number system we use today. He said that numbers have energy and meaning beyond quantity, and that your date of birth reveals your destined work path. (Read my book – I See Your Dream Job – to learn about your path.) Evaluate whether your big idea is in alignment with your birth path mission or not. If it is, put all of your energy in that direction.

Your intuition is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets. The less you use it, the weaker it gets.

When I first started working as a career coach in the 1970s, I got intuitive hunches and visions about my clients. I saw them involved in careers other than the ones they were currently pursuing. I had dreams about them and knew their life stories before I worked with them.

But because I wasn’t comfortable owning my gift, I would ignore my intuitive guidance and function as a conventional career coach, asking my clients questions and making them fill out endless sheets of information.

Once I began honoring my intuitive insights and immediately sharing them with clients, my intuition became more and more powerful. I learned to prepare for my clients’ sessions by meditating on their paths to see their journeys, feel their gifts and talents, and download guidance designed especially for them.

Today, this intuitive insight helps my clients and students tremendously. Whenever a certain feeling or image pops into my field, I share it. Over the years, I’ve found that the most seemingly illogical tidbit of information that I receive for clients is often the most helpful. I’ve learned to trust what I get.

Today, I follow those hunches in every session and while making every decision in my own life–from where to have dinner to when to start a new book or what outfit to wear.

Several years ago, I spent a week in England visiting my daughter while she was studying at Oxford. I was by myself and had free time on my hands, so I bought a rail pass. From my base in Oxford, I decided to visit as many places in England as possible–guided by intuition.

Each morning, I intuitively decided where I would visit by meditating and picturing various cities and choosing the one that felt right. Once I arrived in a city, I continued to trust my gut. Each time I followed a certain street, took a particular turn, or stopped into a certain restaurant that felt right, my intuition rewarded me with a wonderful experience.

From fabulous meals to meant-to-be conversations, to once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and amazing new friends, my entire trip was an extraordinary experience. I even followed my intuition when waiting for buses (Did I miss that bus or not? Pause… Listen to the inner voice. Notice that feeling in my gut. OK, keep waiting for the bus.)

My intuition was ALWAYS right. By following my intuitive travel sense, I created a magical and divinely guided trip.

My favorite part was the day I spent in Liverpool. A lifelong Beatles fan, I arrived in Liverpool without reservations for the famed “History of the Beatles” guided bus tour.

During that extraordinary day of following my intuition, I received a free ticket to the sold-out Beatles tour, got a free sack lunch for the trip, and struck up a friendship with Yoko Ono’s hand-appointed guardian for John Lennon’s childhood home. It was one of the most amazing days of my life.

This unplanned, intuitively guided England adventure was the most enjoyable vacation I’ve ever taken. On the flight home, I made a decision that I would never again dismiss my gut feeling–even over the smallest details. I would completely trust my divine guidance in every area of life. My guides have since rewarded me a hundredfold with stronger and stronger guidance.

Don’t sit in your life hating your job and pondering “How can I possibly make a living doing what I dream of doing?” I just have to tell you divine order, the universe, only truly supports us financially when we are in alignment with who we really are and what we’re here to do and who we’re here to be. Then that money flows to us!

Maybe you’re smart, successful, practical, realistic and don’t believe in what you can’t see. But then why are you in this mess? Why are you rethinking your life? Why did you get laid off? You carry the solution to all of these problems right inside of you.

What did you dream last night? Sit down and remember. Conjure up those lost memories. Honor what your soul is trying to tell you. Be your own shaman. Your inner wisdom is banging on the door of your practical, logical left-brain as powerfully as it can. Are you listening?

Did you know that in the 1900 edition of Sigmund Freud’s book Interpretation of Dreams, the father of modern psychology, wrote about his own dreams and what he thought they meant? One of those documented dreams clearly foretells his future illness 28 years later and eventual death from mouth cancer. The dream even offers a solution (to stop smoking cigars). But Freud interprets this dream in his own narrow parameters of sexual metaphors rather than seeing the divine gift of premonition and solution that the dream offered.

Are you doing something similar with your dreams?

If life really isn’t as “realistic” as you imagine it to be – what are you missing?

Maybe you’ve had glimpses through the cracks in the façade of our physical world. Perhaps it was at the birth or the death of a loved one. Maybe you’ve taken a breath, had a moment where you knew there was something more, and you heard your higher guidance, your divine wisdom whisper: “Life is not what you think it is.”

This is your powerful higher self reminding you of what you already know but choose to forget because it’s not what the world tells you is true. Yet that’s the same higher self that can reveal your new life and new work to you as effortlessly as a dream in the night.

Are you afraid? Are you worried about your future? Then you’re not listening. You’re tapped into your fear instead of your intuition. Do you see the difference?

Fear is a low, negative energy and it resonates in the pit of your stomach, in the clenching of your hands, the tightening of your throat, and the weariness of your thoughts. Your intuition and divine guidance speak up in the quiet moments when time stops and you just know what’s true. Just know it in your bones. But first you have to stop and be quiet for this to happen. When was the last time you did that?

Sit down, shut up, and quiet your monkey mind. Shut down the part of your brain that you always listen to. You can pray, meditate, or just breathe. Think nothing and do nothing. Just wait. In the spaces between your breaths it will happen.

What is your soul whispering? Did you see that quick glimpse of an image from your future? It’s there in the corner of the room, in the corner of your eye when you look away.

See, you’re there working at something new and exciting and loving it. Did you notice that feeling of “YES” that spread through every cell in your body when you saw it? Did you notice the smile spreading across your lips even as you fought the image with your logical mind?

Go back and look again. Feel it. Did you hear a voice whisper, “You’re a teacher. You’re a writer. You’re a healer.” Write down what you heard.

Could it really be true that your soul ordered up this lifetime to get to you this point where you would have to wake up? Could it be true that your soul came in on a mission to bring your talents to the world in your unique way to help raise the consciousness of the planet? Is it possible that we really are all connected, part of the same energy membrane, and we all signed up for this together?

Could it be true that every failure, pain, challenge and victory from your past has been on purpose exactly as you preprogrammed it so that you would discover your great potential and live up to it through your work – which is your gift to the world?

The mere thought of this possibility wakes up your soul, pulls you out of fear, paralysis and grief, and allows you to see what’s coming next. Now you can remember your dream.

In your dream, you’re standing in a new world – this world – and you know it’s all on purpose. You know that you’re here to share your talents fiercely through your work.

You don’t “go to work” anymore. You give yourself to others in ways that are needed. And you’re paid for doing this. You lack nothing. You live on purpose, and make your money by offering your soul’s true gifts to the world. You honor your intuition in every moment.

This is my dream and you’re in it with me.

Sit down, quiet your mind, and tune out the fear.

When you open your eyes, you’ll see your next step.

Take it.

From this tiny room was born music that changed the world – especially my world. Yet it’s such a small cocoon – this room that fits only me and one other adult – the custodian hired by Yoko Ono to protect the home she refurbished to look exactly as it looked when John lived here until 1963. Yoko donated this home to the National Trust so that it would be forever preserved as part of history.

Colin Hall, the well-educated, soft-spoken custodian tells me that John spent many hours a day sitting on this bed dreaming up a better life – sketching his visions and writing music while he gazed out of this window at the tree tops – all the way to Strawberry Fields – an orphanage a few miles away.

It makes me cry to imagine how John’s powerful dream for a better life reached across the Atlantic Ocean in 1964 to touch me – a lonely, young girl growing up in Alabama – and how his dream traveled around the globe awakening so many other people.

It makes me cry to remember the moment I first heard a Beatles song and how deeply it rocked my world. Standing in this room, I can imagine the birth of that powerful music and the pain that inspired John’s genius. Closing my eyes, I feel John’s creative brilliance burning up these walls, his restlessness, and his dark and powerful grief – the pain that fueled his work.

This room brings many people to tears,” says Colin standing beside me. And yes, you can feel the sadness that hung over this bedroom when John was brought to live here in his Aunt Mimi’s house at the age of five – already abandoned by both parents.

By then, John’s father had long disappeared. And his mother, Julia, had gone to live with her new boyfriend. Young John was brought to this house to be raised properly by his mother’s sister, Mimi, and her husband George. John’s mother continued to visit him here and tried to maintain a relationship with John. But she soon started a new family with her boyfriend, and John was never brought to live with them.

In this house, John’s new life unfolded. He grew to love Mimi’s husband George who became a nurturing father figure to him. But when John turned 15, Uncle George died suddenly – leaving Aunt Mimi broke and desperate for income so that she and John could stay in the house. Mimi took in student boarders – as many as five at a time – to help pay the rent for this two-bedroom house. And John, once again, felt the devastating loss of someone he loved and needed.

It was in this abandoned, struggling world that John spent his hours sketching, writing poetry, playing guitar and writing music. He excelled in art class at his local high school, but flunked his other subjects -which caused endless arguments with Aunt Mimi.

Mimi was convinced that John’s fascination with rock and roll would ruin his life, and she only allowed him to play guitar on the front porch. This didn’t stop John from pursuing his music passion; in High School he started a rock band called Johnny and the Moondogs – which soon became The Quarry Men.

When John turned 17, his mother Julia, on a visit to see him, was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of Mimi’s house. She died instantly. John was, once again, devastated by loss and poured his pain into music.

That same year, John’s band was invited to play for a local church feast and after the gig was over, John was introduced to Paul McCartney, a young musician who was also grieving the death of his mother.

Just a few blocks across town, in an even poorer neighborhood and smaller house, 15-year old Paul McCartney had lost his mother, Mary, to breast cancer. She had been a loving presence in Paul’s life and was well-respected in the community as a nurse and midwife.

Her death had devastated Paul, his father, and brother Michael. The McCartneys comforted themselves with memories and music; Paul taught himself to play guitar and write music in the living room of his cramped home in this poorer section of Liverpool.

When John invited Paul to become part of his band, the Lennon-McCartney genius was born. Even though they were still young high school boys, they quickly began writing music together – hanging out in the front porch of Aunt Mimi’s house, smoking cigarettes, exchanging lyrics, laughing and dreaming up a better life.

Their inspired music that the world came to love so passionately didn’t come from privilege, opportunity, brilliant teachers and all the advantages of life today. Instead, their music came from dreams that were launched in loneliness and grief.

From grief, came their longing to uplift and inspire others who needed love, who felt lonely, or abandoned. This passionate music that spoke of love reached across the universe – to millions of people longing for connection.

When Beatle music first began filtering into my local Alabama radio station and filling the airwaves of my world with a new sound, a new dream – I was only 12 years old. Yet it spoke to me in ways that John and Paul, light years away, could never have imagined.

From their brilliant new sound, I understood that life was expansive and carried endless possibility. When I heard their voices in harmony, I realized we were truly all connected, and that anyone from anywhere could have an extraordinary life – even me.

How that inspiration was delivered around the world in simple words such as “She Loves You” – was the miracle of the Beatles. Somehow their pain, dreams, and energy carried hope to anyone who felt alone, confused, or lost.

The Beatles created an intuitive connection between people everywhere that started a shift of consciousness in the early 60s. Their simple heart-felt music changed millions of lives for the better. I was one of those people and the Beatles were truly the miracle of my early life. I’m forever grateful for that.

Now, as I turn to leave John’s small room and follow the custodian down the stairs of Aunt Mimi’s house, I offer a simple prayer of gratitude to John for turning his pain into music. I tell him that I can’t imagine a world without his lyrics. And I can’t imagine the course my life would have taken without the Beatles. I blow a kiss into the empty room and say “Thank You John.”

How ironic it is that my husband Paul died only months before John died in 1980 – two of the most influential people in my life exiting within months of each other. And now, today, I get to come full circle and thank the first man whose extraordinary gift changed my life.

Whenever you feel lost, alone, depressed, or hopeless, consider this: That dark, powerful pain is your gift. Dig deep and feel it, then use it as your fuel. Make the world a better place by offering to others what you wish had been offered to you.

Take a moment right now to imagine two teen-aged boys from Liverpool living in poverty, with no opportunities for a better future, and grieving the losses of their loved ones.

Now picture these boys hanging out on Aunt Mimi’s small front porch, playing guitar, laughing, and writing music about love – in spite of the grief and pain in their lives.

Imagine their pure fearless intention, their innocent inspired joy turning itself into magic, into love, and spreading across the universe – changing everything in its path. That was the gift of the Beatles.<.

Now, YOU try it… See if you can imagine taking one small step in a brave new direction – in spite of all your pain and losses. That step will be your greatest gift to the world.