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Title: The Five Thieves of Happiness
Author: John B. Izzo Ph.D
Narrator: Tom Dheere
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
Language: English
Release date: 11-28-16
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 21 votes
Genres: Self Development, Motivation & Inspiration
Publisher's Summary:
From best-selling author John Izzo comes this practical and inspirational guide. He shows that happiness is our natural state and explores five "thieves" that rob us of that innate sense of contentment.
A few years ago, Izzo was puzzled that he didn't feel happier. He was a successful consultant, a much-in-demand speaker, and a best-selling author. Sure, he'd had some setbacks and disappointments, but he knew enough to know he had it pretty good. And, as he shows in this book, both ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience say that we're naturally happy - it's our default setting. So why didn't it seem to be his?
Izzo went on a journey - a kind of pilgrimage - to try to understand what was going on. Reflecting as he walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain and spent time in the deserts of Morocco and in the Peruvian Andes, he began to identify five mental thought patterns that take our happiness from us. He calls them the five thieves of happiness: the thief of control, the thief of conceit, the thief of coveting, the thief of consumption, and the thief of comfort.
Drawing on recent psychological research, the world's spiritual traditions, and personal stories from his journey, Izzo describes the disguises these thieves wear, the tools they use to break into our hearts, and what we can do to lock them out once and for all. He shows how the same five thieves that rob us of our personal happiness are destroying society as well. This book will help us all discover, develop, and defend the happiness that is naturally ours as human beings while finding ways to create a world we all want to live in.
Members Reviews:
Endless sermonizing killed it
I kept losing track of the topic due to the author's endless spiraling tangents with politics, personal anecdotes and social views layered in. If I hadn't volunteered to listen, I would have stopped even earlier. From boredom. The author obviously worked hard on this. I simply couldn't bear to sit through the last hour.
Pros: Highly educated author references other faiths than Christianity on a regular basis. Thank you!
Obviously well-researched, if not well organized.
Cons: Combined with the narrator's textbook style (great voice, but read in a voice suited to calculus or chemistry lectures), this became the sermon from Hades.
The author's perpetual sermonizing and politicizing became painful after a few hours. Imagine the dullest, most wandering sociology lecture you ever sat through...
Takeaway: I found my own happiness by analyzing where this text went wrong so that I try to avoid putting anyone else through such an endless session of torturously tangled tangents.
I was really looking forward to listening to this as the author has other offerings out that with good reviews. Hopes dashed, alas. Unless you're a fan, pass on this one.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.
Layperson enlightenment presented in the reverse
He takes concepts from Buddhism , Sikhism and Christianity and pulls out their teachings on the way we humans falter in keeping our innate happiness . He presented it in 5 chapters with 5 thieves of happiness. What I found missing in this book, was a discussion on the way we pursue self soothing , whether that is eating, drinking, sex, shopping, or anger outbursts.