Why Chasing Success Can Leave You Feeling Stuck (with David Brooks)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Pushkin. 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.

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