The Five Thieves of Happiness

by John Izzo Ph.D.

Overview

“The only things holding you back from complete peace of mind are mental, and this book shows you how to remove these barriers once and for all.” —Brian Tracy, New York Times-bestselling author of Eat That Frog!
 
Happiness is our natural state, for each of us and for humanity as a whole, argues John Izzo. But that happiness is being stolen by insidious mental patterns that he depicts as thieves: the thief of control, the thief of conceit, the thief of coveting, the thief of consumption, and the thief of comfort. He discovered these thieves as he sought the true source of happiness during a year-long sabbatical, walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and living in the Andes of Peru. This thoughtful and inspiring book describes the disguises these thieves wear, the tools they use to break into our hearts, and how to lock them out once and for all. Izzo shows how these same thieves of personal happiness are destroying society as well. This book will help us all discover, develop, and defend the happiness that is our true nature while creating a world we all want to live in.
 
“Brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and thoroughly engaging. It’s a sparkling gem of a book, rich in timeless wisdom and abounding in contemporary truths—a book that you will want to return to again and again as you ponder what it means to live a good life.” —Jim Kouzes, international bestselling coauthor of The Leadership Challenge
 
“Skip this book and you will steal from yourself. The Five Thieves offers a gift of awareness and a vision for finding peacefulness within ourselves and our society.” —Noah Blumenthal, author of Be the Hero

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626569324
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	01/02/2017
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,087,553
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John Izzo, PhD, is a sought-after speaker and powerful storyteller who is the author or coauthor of six books, including The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die, Stepping Up, and Awakening Corporate Soul.

Table of Contents

Foreword viii

Preface xii

Chapter 1 Happiness is our natural state 1

Chapter 2 The first thief: control 11

Chapter 3 The second thief: conceit 37

Chapter 4 The third thief: coveting 61

Chapter 5 The fourth thief: consumption 79

Chapter 6 The fifth thief: comfort 93

Chapter 7 Kicking the thieves out of your house 107

Chapter 8 Imagining a world without the five thieves 115

Notes 124

Acknowledgments 128

Index 130

About the author 139

Editorial Reviews

Most of us are waiting for happiness to be given to us from the ‘outside.’ John shows us how to find it on the ‘inside.’ I hope this book helps you as much as it helped me.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“A powerful guide to becoming world-class happy.”
—Robin Sharma, #1 bestselling author of The Leader Who Had No Title and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and founder of The Titan Academy

“Brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and thoroughly engaging. It’s a sparkling gem of a book, rich in timeless wisdom and abounding in contemporary truths—a book that you will want to return to again and again as you ponder what it means to live a good life.”
—Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

“The only things holding you back from complete peace of mind are mental, and this book shows you how to remove these barriers once and for all.”
—Brian Tracy, author of The Power of Self-Confidence

“Five Thieves is a perfect complement to Five Secrets. Dr. Izzo gives us not only a pencil with which to sketch the good but now the eraser to rid the bad.”
—Dr. Geoff Smart, founder and Chairman, ghSMART, and coauthor of Who

“In a world on the brink of either returning to the dark ages or entering the next great renaissance, John’s book comes along to help us remember that happiness is available to us all, despite our circumstances, if we become present to the things that are keeping us from it and choose it for ourselves.” 
—KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, founder and CEO, Sustainable Brands

“Skip this book and you will steal from yourself. The Five Thieves offers a gift of awareness and a vision for finding peacefulness within ourselves and our society.”
—Noah Blumenthal, bestselling author of Be the Hero

“The Five Thieves of Happiness is brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and thoroughly engaging. John Izzo gently challenges, provokes, and nudges us to rethink our fundamental assumptions about the pursuit of happiness and how we may just be picking our own pockets of the well-being that we seek. It’s a sparkling gem of a book, rich in timeless wisdom and abounding in contemporary truths—a book that you will want to return to again and again as you ponder what it means to live a good life.”
—Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

“I continue to be inspired by John Izzo as a professional and as a friend. I hope that The Five Thieves of Happiness can help you as much as he has helped me!”
—Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Happiness is a choice, but it requires effort and wisdom to pursue. In this thought-provoking book, Izzo helps identify the biggest stumbling blocks so that you can find a clearer path to sustained happiness and meaning in your life.”
—Shawn Achor, happiness researcher and New York Times bestselling author of Before Happiness

“A powerful guide to becoming world-class happy.”
—Robin Sharma, #1 bestselling author of The Leader Who Had No Title and founder of The Titan Academy

“Many people have spent many decades searching for the lost secret of happiness, but John Izzo is the one who found it and shows us how to steal it back, naturally! For anyone hoping to live better, this book is an essential—and perhaps life-changing—read.”
—Richard Leider, bestselling author or coauthor of The Power of Purpose, Repacking Your Bags, Life Reimagined, and Work Reimagined

“Dr. John Izzo brilliantly depicts the five thieves that separate us from happiness. Not only does he powerfully explore what this means for each of us as individuals, but he elevates the conversation to the implications on society. This is a must-read for personal and societal transformation.”
—Arthur Woods, cofounder of Imperative

“A new book by John Izzo is a cause for celebration. That’s because Izzo tackles meaning and purpose in ways that are honest and hopeful. His latest book, The Five Thieves of Happiness, is no exception. In it, he challenges us to lean into our better nature and recapture a state that was ours to begin with: happiness. An important and entertaining read.”
—Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius


Retailing Insight (Column for 1/1/17)
BY
Anna Jedrziewski

Introduced by “happiness professional” Marshall Goldsmith, this book recounts John Izzo’s search to understand what makes us happy. It has been the guiding light of his life.
In his Wise Elder Project, he asked older people what they did that made them happy. From their answers he derived five secrets to happiness. Now he has similarly distilled five things that rob people of their happiness.
Merging long-standing spiritual tradition and modern psychology, he postulates that one of the key factors in the survival of the human species is our ability to replace competition with compassionate cooperation. That raises an important question. Are we, as a global society, losing sight of the very thing that ensures our ongoing success? This is a very timely treatise about the thought patterns that bring us happiness and the thought patterns that promise happiness, when their real intent is to undermine that very thing. Clear and engaging, Izzo's book makes his case in very credible terms.

From the Publisher