Verified by 
Key points
- It takes time to master self-improvement skills, so dedicate time to practice them.
- These skills, such as resilience, kindness, and humility, can enhance social connections, joy, and well-being.
- Curiosity is the driving force behind almost all self-improvement skills.
New Year's is an exciting time. It is a time for a fresh start and new traditions. It’s a time to reflect on your accomplishments and your life and set intentions for the new year, with specific goals. To help you move forward in 2025, consider setting eight self-improvement goals to master the eight traits that I scientifically identified in my new study and Common Wisdom books.
As a scientist, I was not satisfied with the anecdotal and subjective definitions of wisdom based on hearsay. To help others, I created The Wisdom Research Project, interviewed 60 “wise” adults, and summarized the results. What emerged were eight important traits—Resilience, Kindness, Positivity, Spirituality, Humility, Tolerance, Creativity, and Curiosity (in that order)—that helped these “wise” people increase their joy, happiness, and success.
While these eight characteristics define wisdom, they are really life skills that can help make your 2025 magical. Remember that you should study and practice these traits to help you live not just a good life, but a great life.
Also remember that these eight elements can take time to implement, and a lot of trial and error. What goes up quickly comes down quickly, and what goes up slowly sticks. Don’t expect perfection, as we are human and can and should make mistakes. To help you master these new skills in the new year, let’s take a brief look at each of these elements.
1. Enhance Your Resilience Skills to Overcome Obstacles
To build your resilience, think about ways to enhance this skill, starting in January. Resilience was the most important element of wisdom identified in our study. It is the idea that, regardless of the obstacle, you keep moving forward and do not give up. Believe that you are a warrior, and not a victim. With every obstacle comes lessons learned, leading to greater wisdom. Things don’t happen to you but for you. Obstacles help build our mental muscle and prove that a difficulty can be overcome.
2. Surround Your Life With Kindness
Set a goal to add more Kindness to your daily life by taking more care of yourself and those around you. For our interviewees, Kindness was the next most important element. It was not only how they interacted with the world, but how they treated themselves. They also surrounded themselves with kind people. It is easy to be kind, and your random acts of kindness will be forever remembered by others.
3. Be More Positive
To increase your joy, adopt a more positive attitude in the new year. Positivity is about perspective. While you can’t control your environment, you can control your thoughts. Positivity attracts positivity and can often counter negativity. Adopt a firm belief that you deserve to be happy. It not only feels good to be positive, but a positive outlook can also help improve your health and well-being.
4. Explore Your Spirituality to Increase Inner Peace
To increase your inner peace, set personal goals that include spirituality in 2025. Spirituality is the belief that a higher power exists. This higher power is not something that can be seen in our physical world, but that does not mean that it does not exist. This higher power can be called various terms, such as the universe, the divine, the Great Spirit, or God. The key is that even though you do not see this higher power, you feel it. It is the feeling that some unseen power is watching over us, or guiding us through our lives. This belief brings us comfort and peace.
You can also develop your spirituality in 2025 by practicing mindfulness and meditation, spending time in nature, and being grateful for the smallest things and those that are non-obvious.
5. Gain Humility With More Emotional Intelligence
Consider gaining humility in 2025 by more accurately viewing your talents and flaws, and removing ego and arrogance. Humility grows from combining an attitude of being modest with the ability to reflect on the bigger meanings of life.
Humility is a virtue that has been recognized throughout time, yet now with the age of social media, this life skill has taken a back seat to an almost pathological need to show off. This life skill allows for better social connections and a heightened sense of emotional intelligence. A humble person is down-to-earth, courteous, polite, quiet, respectful, and unpretentious.
6. Increase Tolerance and Social Connections
Tolerance can allow you to improve your social connections in the new year. A tolerant person is open-minded and considerate of other people’s perspectives. By being tolerant, you respect other opinions and are not judgmental or prejudiced. A tolerant person realizes that we are all important and everyone deserves respect.
7. Add Creativity to Increase Your Imagination
Think more creatively in 2025. Creativity is an innate skill that we learn during our childhood years. It allows for imagination that goes beyond possibilities. It allows for thoughts that transcend ideas. Being creative allows us to question what is, and then think about what could be. You can practice being creative in the new year in many ways, which may include creative writing, painting a favorite scene, keeping a journal, and/or brainstorming ideas with others.
8. Master Curiosity
While curiosity is the final element, it is the driving force of all the eight elements. It allows for change, growth, and discovery. Similar to creativity, curiosity is an innate talent you have possessed since childhood. Being curious means never taking things at face value and questioning the most obvious and simple concepts. This thirst for differing perspectives is even more important in this day and age, with the rise of misinformation.
Incorporating these eight skills in 2025 will truly enhance your life, so set goals to incorporate some or all of these traits. These elements are interconnected. View obstacles with resilience, positivity, and creativity. Regard situations with an air of curiosity. Treat people with kindness, humility, and tolerance. Most importantly, while going through life, maintain spirituality and live in faith, not in fear.
By using these core life skills as a road map to master life, you can increase your joy, happiness, and success. Happy New Year!
References
