When It Comes to Habits, There Are Four Types of People. Which Are You? | Gretchen Rubin

About this episode

<p><em>New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.</em></p> <p><em>---</em></p> <p><br /></p> <p>The New Year is approaching and this is a time when many of us think about making and breaking new habits. So today we're bringing on one of the smartest people when it comes to habits, best-selling author and speaker Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen's contention is that before you embark on a self-improvement project, it's crucial to have some self-awareness about what kind of person you are. She has devised a framework called the Four Tendencies, which helps you identify your personality type in order to gain powerful insights into how you make or break habits. </p> <p><br /></p> <p>Rubin is a lawyer by training and began her career clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Gretchen then went on to write a series of books that examine small and doable ways to boost our happiness in everyday life. These include: <a href= "https://gretchenrubin.com/books/the-happiness-project/" rel= "noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Happiness Project</em></a><em>,</em> which spent two years on the bestseller list and sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, and <a href= "https://gretchenrubin.com/books/better-than-before/" rel= "noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Better Than Before</em></a>. We initially conducted the interview you're about to hear back in 2017, when Gretchen released a book called <a href= "https://gretchenrubin.com/books/the-four-tendencies/" rel= "noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Four Tendencies</em></a><em>.</em> </p> <p><br /></p> <p>In this episode we talk about:</p> <ul> <li>How and why Gretchen developed the Four Tendencies framework</li> <li>How Gretchen's framework can give each of us a recipe for successful habit change</li> <li>Breaking down the Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, or Rebels</li> <li>How these Four Tendencies are an overlapping Venn diagram </li> <li>What "obliger rebellion" is and how to spot it in your relationships</li> <li>The value of forming an accountability group</li> <li>And why Gretchen sometimes calls herself a happiness bully  </li> </ul> <p><br /></p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>Full Shownotes:</strong> <a href= "https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/gretchen-rubin-99-rerun" rel="noopener noreferrer" target= "_blank">https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/gretchen-rubin-99-rerun</a></p>