The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die

“What brought you the greatest joy? What do you wish you had learned sooner? What ultimately mattered and what didn't?” asks Dr. John Izzo. Based on a highly acclaimed public television series, this book takes the reader on a heartwarming and profound journey to find lasting happiness. Imagine for a moment that you are about to take a foreign vacation to an exotic destination. You have saved your entire life to travel there. It is a destination with almost unlimited choices of how to spend your time and you know you will not have enough time to explore every opportunity. You are fairly certain that you will never get to take a second trip to this destination; this will be your one opportunity. Now imagine that someone informs you that there are several people in your neighborhood who have been to that country, explored every corner. Some of them enjoyed the journey and have few regrets, but others wish they could take the trip again knowing what they know now. Would you not invite them over for dinner, ask them to bring their photographs, listen to their stories, and hear their advice? This is precisely the journey explored in this book. Dr. John Izzo and his colleagues interviewed over 200 people, ages 60-106, who were identified by friends and acquaintances as “the one person they knew who had found happiness and meaning.” From town barbers to Holocaust survivors, from aboriginal chiefs to CEOs, these people had over 18,000 years of life experience between them. He asked them questions like, “What brought you the greatest joy? What do you wish you had learned sooner? What ultimately mattered and what didn't?” Here Izzo shares their stories—funny, moving, and thought-provoking—and the Five Secrets he learned from listening to them. This book will make you laugh, bring you to tears, and inspire you to discover what matters long before you die.

For this remarkable book and the upcoming companion television program to be aired on PBS, Dr. John Izzo and his colleagues surveyed more than two hundred people ages 60 to 106 on what it means to find happiness. These people, identified by others as having lived happy lives and as having found purpose and contentment, offer valuable advice on what really matters in life. Presented here by Dr. Izzo, he also gives guidance on how to put this cumulative wisdom into practice. The interviewees, ranging from aboriginal elders to town barbers, from Holocaust survivors to former CEOs, reflect back on their lives to identify the sources of happiness and meaning as well as lessons learned, regrets, and major crossroads. Based on these interviews and Dr. Izzo's twenty years of experience helping people find more spirit and purpose, the book is an exploration of the secrets to finding contentment and happiness.

Stop Seeking Happiness; Just Get Out of Its Way! 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.

A guide to solving problems presents seven principles that enable individuals to be their own agents of change.

Do you want to finally, conclusively, and at (very) long last, learn the Secret? Are you REALLY sure? Because now's your chance to escape... No? You're staying put? Have you any idea of what lies between these perilous pages? (How could you? ... except perhaps if you were to smell that faint aroma of musty mummy, or catch a glance of the deviously despicable Lord Pharaoh). Well, if you really want to learn the Secret I suppose you'll HAVE to read this. But you won't like it. The fifth and final fantastical adventure in the 'Secret' series in which Cass, Max-Ernest and Yo-Yoji are accused of stealing a very-valuable-and-not-to-be-touched ancient Egyptian mummy from the local museum. They are determined to clear their names, but after getting accidentally trapped in a crate with a mummified cat, the three youngest members of the Terces society unwittingly find themselves on their way to the great pyramids of...Las Vegas. Amongst the dusty corridors of the Cairo Hotel and mysterious hieroglyphs of the Nile Nail Salon, Cass draws ever closer to uncovering the Secret...

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

The creator of the groundbreaking Fearless Living program shows readers how to overcome unrealistic expectations and live a life based on instinct and intention rather than fear, clinging, and regret. Reprint.