Which personality type are you? Rebel, questioner, obliger or upholder? The answer could change your life
- Author Gretchen Rubin says we fit into four personality types who respond differently to expectations
- Knowing which you are helps achieve your goals, make better decisions, meet deadlines and reduce stress
Gretchen Rubin – an influential writer on the linked subjects of habits, happiness, and human nature, suggests that by asking the simple question ‘How do I respond to expectations?’, we can gain life-changing self-knowledge.
In her best-selling book, The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) Rubin explains that based on peoples’ answer to this question, people fit into four personality types: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels, and that discovering your type can make you happier and more successful.
The author has sold more than 3.5 million copies of books, including The Happiness Project and Better than Before.
A member of Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul 100, and podcast host of the award-winning podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, says that knowing your tendency can improve your ability to achieve your goals, make better decisions, meet deadlines, keep promises to yourself, reduce stress, and engage more deeply with others.
We all face two kinds of expectations, she says: Outer expectations such as work deadlines and requests from friends, and inner expectations, such as a desire to keep a New Year’s resolution or to go for a daily run.
