A Life Map: How to Attract the Life You Want and Deserve

By Derek Fox

This book has the potential to change your life and awaken in you the potential that already exists there. Using simple terms and writing, the author gives a step-by-step explanation of how you can use the law of attraction in your life for the better. The book explains how the writer tested and used the law of attraction to change his own life in a truly amazing way and also how he used what he refers to as life tools (such as meditation, positive thinking, and mindfulness) to help change his life and live a happier, joyful, and more authentic life. The book asks the reader to open their mind to consider the evidence, much of it scientific, that the law of attraction is a very real law that can work in astonishing ways when used it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524513634

Derek Fox

Derek Fox was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1956. He grew up in one of Dublin’s most deprived areas, where a lot of the young people around him seemed destined to be headed for drug addiction, prison, or an early death (and indeed, many of their lives did end up as such). Derek, however, was always intrigued by the question “Is our life preordained?” In other words, is your life’s path merely an accident of birth in that if you were born into deprived and unhappy surroundings, you received a deprived and unhappy life, or if you were born into prosperous and happy surroundings, you received a prosperous and happy life? Could anybody have control over their life regardless of the start they may have been given? Derek’s own life experience proved that people can, in fact, have a tremendous amount of control on their lives. After leaving school at just thirteen years of age, he went on to manage two PLC companies and own a number of successful businesses himself. As well as being successful in business, he also enjoys a long and happy marriage, rearing two children and having the joy of now spending time with his three grandchildren. His experience, and later his studies, introduced him the law of attraction, which ultimately results in an individual attracting the life they want directly as a result of their thoughts and actions. Vitally, Derek learned what he needed to do to attract the life he wanted. He became his own research laboratory as he explored this law and gave it the ultimate test—with his own life. Along the way, he also learned what he calls life tools, which had a major effect on his life. In this book, he shares his life experience and his learning in a way that, he passionately believes, will have a positive influence on the lives of his readers.

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© 2016 by Derek Fox.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016910531

ISBN:   Hardcover      978-1-5245-1365-8

             Softcover        978-1-5245-1364-1

             eBook             978-1-5245-1363-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/22/2016

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Contents

SECTION ONE

Introduction

A Word On Self-Help Stuff

Lessons From Life

What About You?

Press On Regardless

A Bit About Me

Hard People, Soft Hearts

Legal And Illegal Highs

Death Visits Our Door

Mother Mary

A Thin Lizzy In Our Garden

Work Life Begins

We Had Olympians Around, But No One Told Them

Perception Is Reality, Or Is Reality Only Perception?

Secret Is, There Are No Secrets

Garbage In—Garbage Out

Start Your Journey

SECTION TWO

A Little Help Along Life’s Journey

Awakening

Living In The Now

Ten Tips To Set You In The Right Direction To Now Mindfulness

Meditation

So How Do You Meditate?

Releasing Or Letting Go Of Old Emotions

So How Does It Work?

The 90/10 Principle

Positive Thinking

Ten Tips To Get You On A Positive Road

SECTION THREE

The Law Of Attraction

Introduction To The Law

Down To Earth For A Moment

Small Is Actually Very Big

What We Can Learn From Science

Nothing Is What It Seems

My First Introduction To The Law Of Attraction

So Why Doesn’t Everyone Use The Law Of Attraction?

‘I Am Only Passionately Curious’

Get On The Right Frequency

Tuning In

The Best-Kept Secret

My Personal Experiment

Material Things

Time For You To Soar

Happiness And Relationships

Why Do Opposites Attract?

How To Listen To Your Intuition

What If The Polarities Are Wrong?

General Relationships

Attracting Health

Review

How To Align Yourself

Consciousness—Inner Being And Thoughts

Belief And Your Heart’s Desire

Emotion (Passion)

Positive Action

Conclusion

Review Of Aligning Yourself To The Law Of Attraction

My Recommended Reading List

Dedicated to my wonderful wife, Marie, and my

two beautiful children, Gavin and Abigail.

SECTION ONE

INTRODUCTION

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

—Albert Einstein

I would like to give you a very warm welcome to this book, and I want to tell you that it is my sincere desire—in fact, it is my sole purpose—to be as helpful and practical as possible with the information I present to you. I truly wish I had read, and more importantly understood, a book like this when I was young—because I have no doubt it would have short-circuited so much of the unnecessary pain and challenges I personally experienced in my own life. Of course, the operative word above is understood, because had I read a similar book to this one when I was younger, it is entirely possible that it might not have penetrated or awakened my true potential. I might not have been able to get on the right wavelength, so to speak, to understand this information. The saying ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear’ is somewhat apt when it comes to understanding this kind of information. What I mean is, we all find ourselves in different places mentally, physically, and spiritually at different stages in our lives. Especially if we are experiencing difficult situations, this can mean new thoughts and ideas may not always resonate with us. These problem times generally create what may be described as static noise in our minds, and like static interference on a radio, this prevents you from hearing clearly the helpful guidance available to you. This guidance is in fact the real inner essence of you just waiting to be discovered and awakened.

I would like to stress at the outset, if anyone is experiencing negative thoughts that are resulting in depression, then they should seek the help of a professional doctor or therapist. I would also like to state that nothing in this book should be considered to be mental or medical health advice, or is it in any way designed or meant to be. I again stress to always seek the advice of a specialised professional in any of these areas. That said, many of us are simply challenged with life’s problems and how to deal with them. Realistically, being imperfect humans living in a very imperfect world means it’s not possible to reach a permanent trouble-free utopia in life. But what is possible is to have a set of tools that can help us deal better with life’s problems and challenges when they arise, and maybe even prevent many of them from happening.

Most people pay serious attention to the endless stream of thoughts that their minds produce daily. The majority of these thoughts are from their past, and created from these thoughts is an imagined identity based on their minds’ conditioning, which of course is a total misconception of who they really are. But I’m here to tell you that your thoughts are not reality—well, at least the vast majority of them are not; in fact most thoughts are random, repetitive, and completely meaningless. Many of the big problems experienced in the world today relate to the people in power, who also listen to and act on their thoughts, many of which are dangerously senseless. Because of this, we see actions taken by ‘leaders’, both past and present, that could only be described as completely insane. Ordinary people do the same, and consequently, they create dysfunctional and unhappy lives for themselves. I will discuss this in more detail as we progress through the book, but please start right here and now by becoming aware that you are not your mind, or your thoughts for that matter. Know and believe that you can control your life, learn to step back from meaningless thoughts, and begin to create the life you want and deserve. Notice that I used the expression ‘step back’ from your thoughts. I say this because it’s obviously not possible to stop thinking altogether. It is possible, however, to watch and ignore, and even laugh at, many of the endless chatterbox thoughts that often dominate your mind. Hopefully, by the end of this book, you will have an awakening to this possibility, and you will let the beautiful essence of your true inner nature, which is your true being, shine through the fog of thought, which is peace, love, and joy. It is these that bring true contentment in life.

In this section, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself and the reason why I have written this book, and to assure you that all the information is here to help you live your life to its fullest possible potential. This potentiality does not require genius or extensive education; it only involves becoming aware of what already exists in you, and all you need to do is awaken to it. All the helpful life tools I speak about in section 2 I have personally tried (and still use). I have found them very supportive when dealing with life’s problems and challenges. It is not that any of these life tools in themselves hold any intrinsic power or wisdom, but rather, they are really just signposts to where your own true power lies. I pass them on with the heartfelt hope that you too will also find them useful.

When I discovered that there are so many books, courses, teachers, and genuine help available, and when I began to apply what I had learned from these into my own life, everything started to change for the better. My one profound discovery—and you would think a blindingly obvious discovery—is that all we ever have is this one moment. I say ‘blindingly obvious’, but in reality, it is anything but obvious to the vast majority of people. Most people live in their past memories, which produce their present thoughts, or they live in imagined future thoughts, none of which are real, and both take us out of living in the present moment. (I will discuss this in more detail in section 2.)

My personal discovery of the existence of the law of attraction has also had a profound effect on my life. Although it’s not an easy subject to explain, I hope what I present about the law of attraction is helpful and that you begin using it to good effect in your own life. I have absolutely no doubt that you too can, and will, benefit from all this help, and you can change your life for the better.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. (Maria Robinson)

The most important thing for you to realise is that you already possess everything you need to be, to do, or to have what you want in your life. The big trick is working out what it is you truly want. As mentioned above, at the very core of your being are true peace, love, and joy. The problem is, your true core has been buried under layers of conditioning from your past, from your thoughts, from the conditioning of your culture, and even from the collective conditioning of the world itself. Most people, based on all their mind conditioning and experiences, create a story that they then identify with, and this ‘imagined self’ is who they think they are, like ‘I [have been conditioned to] believe that I’m worthless’ or ‘I’m stupid’ or that ‘I could never achieve what I want in my life’, ‘I had a bad experience in my past, and this prevented me from ever living a normal life’, and so on. Of course, in reality this is not the truth, because you are a completely unique being who possesses all the potentiality you need for a happy life. What I refer to in this book as ‘helpful life tools’ are nothing more than useful keys to help you unlock and discover the treasure of peace and joy that is available to you. For sure it takes time to overcome ingrained lifelong negative habits, beliefs, and behaviours, so be kind to yourself and don’t expect instant change. Also, because of your life experience and your conditioning environment, you may at first find it difficult to replace your old habits and limiting beliefs with new positive ones. But know that there is a universal energy that pervades everything, including you, which is flawless, and that once you become aware of it and begin to work with it, good things begin to happen. A good illustration I once heard on allowing change to happen naturally was when old miners used to fit new wooden beam supports into an old mine shaft, they would simply leave the old wooden beams in place alongside the brand-new supports and let the old ones just fall away naturally with time. I think if you view your new learned thoughts and ideas in much the same way, you will find that over time, ingrained old thinking patterns and limiting beliefs will just fall away and be replaced naturally.

You will notice that I have not mentioned religion specifically throughout this book, simply because this is very personal and something only you can, and only you should, decide upon for yourself. I don’t want to spend much time on this vast subject other than the following observations: Firstly, no human has a monopoly on truth, and therefore no one should disrespect another. It’s generally true that a person’s religion almost always tends to be an ‘accident of birth’, depending on what country or the particular family they happen to have been born into. In my experience, I have found there is a difference between religion and spirituality; someone can be viewed as being extremely religious but may not necessarily be a spiritual person. Most mainstream religions are identifiable by a conceptual idea and a required set of beliefs that generally involve ritual, hierarchy, special buildings, and their history. But few actually concentrate on helping individuals to find their true inner spirit. This is not to say that people can’t, or don’t, find comfort in their religion, because clearly, many do. But for sure, many people have turned away from religion, and the statistics in many countries, especially in the West, bear this out. This is because a lot of people have become disillusioned, not so much by the words of their religion, but by the actions of their ‘spiritual’ leaders. This decline in religion is also because, in many countries (including my own), religion in the past held total power over people and governments, and they did not allow people to think for themselves. Of course, this is still the case in many countries around the world, some of which will execute someone if they dare say something contrary to what they are instructed to believe. I do want to emphasise, though, that I fully respect everyone’s personal beliefs and religion, and you can substitute any terms I use throughout this book for ones that are more in keeping with your own personal views.

A WORD ON SELF-HELP STUFF

I have tried to avoid using any unnecessary jargon or mumbo jumbo talk that is sometimes used in self-improvement and inspirational books. I have kept it as simple as possible.

I really want this book to be a real benefit to you, and the information and helpful tools that are offered to be practical and usable in your everyday life. If, when you complete the book, you find I have managed to achieve that, then I will be truly happy. Please don’t misunderstand me regarding self-improvement books, because I am an absolute believer in lifelong improvement; everyone should have a continuous schedule of helpful and inspirational material. In fact, I will be quoting from some of the authors that have inspired me a great deal in my own life. I only made the above comment regarding the overuse of jargon in self-help books because I have read some books labelled ‘self-help’ or ‘self-improvement’, and when I had finished reading them, I was left scratching my head, asking ‘What was that book actually about?’ I have, at times, felt that some ‘self-help’ authors seem more interested in seeking disciples or elevating themselves rather than genuinely trying to help their readers. I am happy to say, though, that many of the books I have read did give me something I could, and indeed do, use in my life. (See my recommended reading list at the back of this book.) Some books I have read have challenged my way of thinking on several ideals that I once thought were unmovable and unchangeable on a personal level. Other books have opened my mind to a completely new and refreshing way of looking at life that is just wonderful. I have found that the best way to get the most from self-improvement material is to take a study approach to it. View it as material you really want to learn, use, and remember. Taking notes and doing extra research help reinforce the ideas being put forward and also help