The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning, and Happiness in an Out-of-Control World [Hardcover]

Joe Caruso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2003

A popular motivational speaker, syndicated columnist, and cancer survivor shares priceless life lessons in this moving and inspiring guide to letting go in order to find greater power, peace, faith, and meaning in our everyday lives.

When he was eighteen, Joe Caruso was diagnosed with incurable testicular cancer. Certain that he was living on borrowed time, he accepted the inevitable and began looking inward. His quest to understand the meaning of life led to the discovery of timeless truths about our spiritual and emotional existences. In The Power of Losing Control, he shares the knowledge and insights he has gained that have helped him not only to overcome the daily battles with his devastating illness but to survive.

Twenty-three years later, Caruso is an internationally acclaimed speaker with his own radio show and newspaper column, an author, and business consultant whose client list boasts such corporate giants as American Express, Ford Motor Company, United Airlines, and Century 21. Famous for his motivational seminars that have literally transformed people's lives, Caruso now takes readers step-by-step through these amazing self-help techniques and strategies that show us how to stop wasting valuable time and energy, learn how to trust in something greater than ourselves, and embrace simple basic truths that include:

o The five stages of wisdom
o The four rules of engagement
o Choosing faith over fear
o How to find power in any situation, even if you don't have control over it
o Be undeniable: How to create your own destiny
o Personal driving myths: We are the stories we tell ourselves

Filled with anecdotes and poignant real-life stories, here is the book that tells you how to reclaim personal power and gain worldly success- from the man today's top psychotherapists and leading behavioral experts call one of the premier corporate teachers of our generation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this earnest volume, consultant and motivational speaker Caruso encourages readers to "remember that the only control you really have is over yourself," and demonstrates how readers can keep their focus on the things that they can control rather than waste time and energy struggling against a situation or a person they can't. In letting go of the need to control, he believes, readers can attain find power in situations that used to make them feel powerless, "move past" their fears, achieve greater self-knowledge and understanding, and take great strides towards happiness and satisfaction. The author underscores his points with apt quotations from great thinkers and philosophers, from Confucius and Aristotle to John F. Kennedy and Sam Snead. He also includes poignant stories from his own life-his struggles with sports and music and a miraculous recovery from cancer-and the wisdom that helped him gain perspective.. Some anecdotes of success from his work as a corporate teacher and inspirational speaker seem too simplistic, and his overuse of italics and "quotes" are distracting, but this friendly and readable book is an inspiration to make small but meaningful changes in the way one views and responds to the world.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Joe Caruso offers powerful insights that are straightforward and easy to put to work in your everyday life to create meaningful change.” (Gerald G. Jampolsky, author of Love Is Letting Go of Fear) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: Gotham (February 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592400035
• ISBN-13: 978-1592400034
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Caruso was only 18 when he lost control of his life in a dramatic way. He was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Joe decided to commit whatever short time he had left to studying life and learning what he calls the simple, common, timeless, human truths. After radical, experimental chemotherapy and four major surgeries, Joe became one of the first people cured of advanced testicular cancer.

For the decades since his diagnosis, Joe has become an authority on transforming individuals, leaders, organizations and companies to produce better results, faster. Joe is a frequent keynote speaker, a syndicated columnist, and a sought-after business advisor who provides unique insights on the fundamental process of how and why perception, meaning, and behavior determine outcomes. Through his company, Caruso Leadership, Joe applies the simple, common, timeless human truths he learned from his studies to businesses. Joe advises CEOs, admirals, and other leadership teams on building a strong foundation guided by the three fundamental drivers of business in order to surmount challenges (or predict them) and make millions.

Having grown up in Downriver Detroit with his parents and three brothers, Joe currently resides on an island between Michigan and Canada with his wife, Carol.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It could change your life., March 6, 2004

By 

Niki Collins-queen, Author "author" (Forsyth, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning, and Happiness in an Out-of-Control World (Hardcover)

The Power of Losing Control by Joe Caruso is a book about how the true power of losing control lies in knowing the difference between what you can control, what you can effect, and what you need to accept. When you realize the only person you can change is yourself and stop wasting energy trying to change others you will have more peace and personal satisfaction. Caruso's book gives you an opportunity to experiment with yourself, learn new truths and become more aware of how you can enhance the meaning of your life. He points out how you are the stories you tell yourself and how rewriting your personal driving myths can reshape how you live your life. His book has helpful insights such as the real story of who you are isn't about what happens to you as much as it is about how you interpret it and define what happens. Also the more you repeat the story to yourself the more powerful it becomes and the more you allow the story to determine your behavior and behave as if it were true. My early life illustrates his point. I felt abandoned as a child so I believed I would be abandoned as an adult and I was until I wised up. He says the key to fulfillment is to keep asking, "Is the story I am telling myself serving me?" Caruso's book is packed with other powerful insights and advice: the difference between responding and reacting and a commitment and a decision. Also the 10 ideas and attitudes you need to let go of and the five stages of wisdom. If you use what you read in this book and apply it to the five stages of wisdom it could change your life.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Help for the inner soul, February 10, 2004

By 

JT "JT" (Hyde Park, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning, and Happiness in an Out-of-Control World (Hardcover)

While the basis of the book deals with the energy consumed on things we have little or no control over, I found far more wisdom than this morsel. From my prospective of the book, what grabbed me most was this insite; We all own images of ourselves based on myths and fears and I own myths about myself that prevent me daily from being the best version of myself at work, home and play. The author does an excellent job of using stories and examples to light a path to self-betterment from within.

Most self-improvement books I have read deal with external processes such as setting priorities and time managment. This book deals with the inner set of beliefs we maintain true that hold us back from being the best version of ourselves. One example: Why do physically abused people choose frienships and partners that continue to abuse them? Answer: Until they change the inner belief that say's I'm not good enough, the cycle will continue.

The book challenged me to differentiate from precept and preception. The author includes exercises that I found very helpful.

This is an extrordinary book, easy to read but challenging to read. It has changed my life. Buy it! Believe that you're worth the $20 investment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple, powerful tools for living life in joy and service, March 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning, and Happiness in an Out-of-Control World (Hardcover)

Simple powerful tools, yes, but not simple to truly master. You can spend a lifetime with the lessons in this book. So what does this author give you that you can't find in other self-help books? Well, for me it was a few things: First, it's clear that there's nothing in his book that Joe Caruso hasn't completely experimented with and committed to in his own life. His book is full of examples drawn from his own experience, from those who have come into his life, and from his study of many of the world's greatest teachers throughout time. Which leads me to the second point: This book reads as if the author is sitting across from you at the kitchen table. You get so engrossed in his stories, and as you're smiling or laughing with recognition, Joe has gently persuaded you to see inside yourself. And the last point: this book is so rich with tools for living that no matter where you are, right now you will find an "a-ha!" lesson that is right on time for you.

The one caveat is that at times while reading "The Power of Losing Control" you may feel that so much good stuff is coming at you that you can't absorb and connect it all at once. My advice is to hang in and read the whole book, because the key messages boil down to just a few and really hit home by the final chapters. Just mark up the pages as you go, because you'll have to come back and re-read portions later.