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When we're feeling stuck or unhappy with the way our lives are unfolding, we often fixate on certain kinds of self-improvement.

Things like getting into shape, making more money, eating healthier, or landing a promotion at work.

Goals like these are super common at the start of the new year.

But what we don't tend to hear about are goals that are less self-focused, trying to

become a better friend, or committing to supporting our surrounding communities. Could goals like

these be a more effective path to becoming unstuck in the new year? Could intentionally building

our character be a more happiness-inducing strategy than we think? These are the questions

that we'll be tackling with

today's guest. My name is David Brooks. I am a columnist at the New York Times and a former fellow

at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. David is also the author of several books on the

importance of character development, huge bestsellers like The Road to Character and his most

recent work, How to Know a Person.

David's interest in character development began as a personal self-help project.

I'm not a naturally deep person.

And so I think I've read all these damn books and I go to religious services

and I do all this stuff to try to make myself a little deeper than I was

yesterday. And one of his early realizations was that he and so many others were focused on the

wrong kinds of goals when it came to living the good life. So way back in the road to character,

I know you made this distinction between resume and eulogy virtues, which lots of folks know,

but for listeners who don't know that framework,

can you explain what you mean and what the difference is between these two sets of virtues?

...