Pushkin.

If you're hoping to make big changes to your life in 2025, you're probably viewing those goals through a lens that's very much focused on yourself.

I want to achieve this, or I want to become like that. The whole idea of self-improvement involves centering ourselves,

putting our own hopes and worries in the spotlight.

But if you're feeling this self-improvement bug in the new year,

you may need to get over yourself.

And I mean that in the nicest way possible,

because the science shows

that checking your ego may be a faster path to happiness than you think. But how can you get

over yourself? And what are some strategies for taking yourself out of the spotlight? Today,

we'll get some tips from Bruce Hood. Bruce is a professor at the University of Bristol in England,

and the author

of The Science of Happiness, Seven Lessons for Living Well. Like me, Bruce turned to happiness

science after seeing the mental health crisis that his students were going through. But Bruce and I share

a bond that goes beyond our shared study of well-being. You know, I've reached 25 years at Bristol

University here and I've just been applying for

teaching fellowship where they ask you to reflect upon your career and how you felt you've made an

impact.

I always say I talk about this new, recent kind of change into the work on happiness, and I

attributed that to you, Laurie, and I make a big point of saying that this is an interesting

situation where the student is now mentoring the tutor.

Because we met when I was visiting MIT and you were coming from Harvard as this kind of fiery young undergraduate working in comparative psychology at the time.

...