Maureen F. Fitzgerald, PhD
WHO I AM
I am a recovering lawyer, change agent and author of eleven books. I practiced law for nearly 20 years before discovering my calling. My mission is to wake up the planet, one word at a time. I do this by writing books and articles that make the world a better place to live. I have the following credentials:
- Doctorate degree (PhD) (UBC)
- Law degree (JD) (WesternU)
- Masters of Laws degree (LLM with Merit) from the London School of Economics (UK).
- Commerce degree (BComm) (UofA)
- Professor of Law (UBC and UVIC)
- Law practice – Business, Labour and Policy Law (Toronto and Vancouver)
MY STORY
I was born one of five children in a strict Catholic family. I learned to be invisible, obedient and hard-working. However, I always questioned everything. So I never felt that I fit in.
I obtained a business degree and a law degree, and I was considered a rebel by professors and peers. I was painfully curious and always searching.
I ended up practicing law in Toronto (which is truly a rat race) and then completing a Masters of Laws in London England. I then practiced law and taught law in Vancouver and Victoria, BC. I got married, bought a home and had two daughters.
But the truth is that my life and career did not take a straight line, by any stretch. Indeed my sister once told me that I had a “checkered resume.” I could never sit still and was always looking for more. I was often bored and often felt my work was meaningless. I kept thinking that life should be more fun and things should not be this hard.
So after practicing law for 20 years it should be no surprise that I finally broke down and quit.
I finally realized that I had been running my whole life, trying harder and harder, pushing through and trying to control everything. I ran faster and faster until I just couldn’t do it any more. I refused to believe that anything was wrong until everything fell apart. I left my marriage and fell into a dark depression.
At a personal level I suffered what is called “existential angst” trying to make sense of why we are on earth and what life is all about. I filled this sense of hopeless with thousands of books on philosophy, religion and spirituality.
I could not bear the thought of practicing law so began writing books. My skills as a policy lawyer set me up perfectly. I adored reading, researching and writing books. It came naturally to me. Little did I know that it would lead to writing 11 books.
Although my first book was a (very successful) law school textbook and my second and third were about lawyers and human resources, I eventually found my way to writing books that could change the world.
ABOUT MY BOOKS
I never planned to write books. I simply found myself with a burning question and could not find a book to help. So I usually read hundreds of books and then synthesized them with my personal experience into a book. I just wanted to teach people what I knew without all the reading!
For example, I wrote my best-selling law school textbook (Legal Problem Solving) when I was teaching the same course at two universities. I was tired of photocopying materials for the students. It’s now been in print for 25 years!
Similarly, I wrote If not Now When during my mid-career search for meaning. I found that the career books were too superficial and the philosophy books were too complex. So after reading hundreds of books I created a five-step process to find your life purpose.
The same goes for all my other books. For example:
- Mindfulness Made Easy was written to help my daughter with her panic attacks because her school provided no education on meditation or self-awareness.
- A Women’s Circle was written to help me create a women’s groups that would last. Mine had just fallen a part after many years.
- Invite the Bully to Tea came out of my work at resolving workplace conflicts. Most of the tools and books were superficial so I created a resolution process based on restorative justice rather than punishment.
Meanwhile I was drawn like a magnet to whistle-blowers and people like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, who were leaders in surfacing corruption and hidden systems and institutions. Thus I was led to write the following books on the systems that hold woman back:
- Lean Out was written so women could see the hidden discrimination that I faced as a lawyer.
- Motherhood is Madness came out of the difficulty of being a lawyer and mother and realizing there are real systemic barriers holding all mothers back.
- Occupy Women arose out of my desire to free all women and educate them about the real reasons they were not getting ahead, namely a hidden patriarchal system.
Today I am writing a few books:
- Raising Girls to teach parents how to navigate a toxic “girl” culture, like I did as a mother.
- Men and Women in Love to educate couples about how “pink and blue” programming harms intimacy, as it did in my marriage.
- Wake the F Up to help people remove the mental programming that prevents us living lives of bliss. I am working on raising my consciousness now.
Here are the words of Charles Eisenstein that I borrowed to describe my writing: “I know that my books and other works come from a deep inspired source but that source is not me! It’s more like I am connecting to a field of knowledge … If I weren’t doing it, it would find someone else.”
WHAT I BELIEVE
In my opinion, the biggest problem in the world today is that we do not know the truth. In fact, we humans have been lied to and duped.
There is a current epidemic of suffering on this planet. More and more of us are noticing the insanity of day-to-day life, which typically involves working to the bone all week and taking a few holidays each year. Although our world is much richer than it has ever been, we are at a shockingly low psychological, emotional and vibrational level. As well, our earth is being destroyed
We have become disconnected from our true selves, separated from others, and distant from the natural world. And we accept this type of life that consists of wars, pollution, and degradation as a natural cost of living. But it is not.
We have allowed our whole society (including governments, corporations and media) to convince us of ideas that have literally created a prison in which we live. They use fear to keep us weak, fearful and under their control. Importantly, we have also fallen for the lie that we humans are random, irrelevant and replaceable. We are told that we are flecks of dust that are simply born, survive and die.
The truth is that we humans have all that we need on this planet. We have enough food, water and shelter, yet we are running around like rats. We are essentially living in a type of prison that we helped create. We just can’t see it and the truth has been hidden from us.
MY MISSION
My mission is to surface the truth and free humans from this prison. I do this by waking people up to two things:
- The internal programming that holds us back – from childhood socialization to adult media manipulation.
- The external systems and culture that keep us enslaved – from the school system to the corporate, economic and social institutions.
As I often say: “If you knew what I knew, you would revolt immediately”
Most of my books and articles are about surfacing the hidden programming and systems as well as providing the tools to dismantle them.
When we wake up and take action. we not only free ourselves, but also contribute to the collective so we can together create heaven on earth.
By reading my books you will:
- See the ways in which our whole society holds you back.
- Gain some very practical ways to break free and become more empowered.
- Be better able to make sense of this insane world.
- Have more skills and capacity to navigate and solve life’s struggles.
- Gain self awareness and thus more loving relationships.
WHERE TO START
The best place to start is always within. If you are new to all this then I would suggest you read my book If Not Now, When and find your life purpose. If you don’t have time just know this: we each have a particular role to play on this planet and it is unique to you. In most cases it aligns with your skills and your interests and its usually aimed at what you care about. So go do that.
The next best place is to read my Substack posts. First, because they are fresh, but also because so far, most of them are on the topic so waking up because they are excerpts from the book I am currently writing (Wake the F Up). Please sign up to get my postings if you like what you are reading.
The next best place is to watch my TEDx talk .
MY INVITATION TO YOU
I am just one writer among eight billion people but if I can wake up a few people and make their lives more blissful and loving, then my job is done.
I feel honoured to share all the gifts that I was given and I am so thankful for all the gifted writers before me. As the saying goes: I stand on the shoulders of giants. I hope one day to be the shoulders that others stand upon.
If you would like to support my work:
© 2024 Maureen F. Fitzgerald . All rights reserved.