This evening, I’ve been working on a workshop I’m leading tomorrow at work about personal vision and goal setting for 2021. I’m focusing on choosing a word/theme for the year and touching on some accountability hacks. Which led me back to Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies.
As a reminder, the framework is about how you respond to inner and outer expectations and can be useful in understanding others and yourself when it comes to motivation and getting things done.
- Upholder – meets inner and outer expectations
- Obliger – meets outer expectations, struggles to meet inner expectations
- Rebel – rejects both inner and outer expectations
- Questions – meets inner expectations, struggles to meet outer expectations
Gretchen Rubin talks about these at length in her book Better Than Before and on her podcast Happier and she eventually wrote a book called The Four Tendencies. To start though, you can take the 5-minute quiz and validate your tendency. The follow up will give you more detailed information.
Understanding this about ourselves can be helpful in habit-forming. For example, if you’re an Obliger (most people are) you benefit from external accountability. If you’re an Upholder (like me) schedules and tracking habits work well. Questioners need to do their research and clearly understand their why. Rebels need to tie it in with their identity. It’s an oversimplification of all four, but it’s a start and a useful tool headed into the new year!
With Love,
Natalie