Which “tendency” are you?

Here’s a fun little quiz to help you get over Hump Day 😉

Maybe you’ll learn something about yourself?

Hi J$,

I’ve been listening to Gretchen Rubin’s audiobook “The Four Tendencies” (are you familiar?) and I’ve been completely obsessed with determining what tendency people are.

The framework is fascinating. Basically it breaks everyone down by how they handle expectations internally and externally.

• Upholder
• Obliger
• Questioner
• Rebel

There is a quiz on her website if you wanted to take it and see what you are. Myself, I’m a questioner. After digging into this framework, I would love to know what you are.

I expect that many in the (FI)RE community are Rebels or Questioners. (The things that keep us up at night, am I right?)

– Samantha

Ask and ye shall receive, friend!

And I’ll admit – the results totally took me by surprise… I’m not the “Questioner” I thought I was all this time! I’m actually an “Upholder!” (*gasp*)

What exactly does that mean?

That I basically do what others expect of me, but I also do what *I* expect of me too.

In other words,

Upholders respond readily to outer and inner expectations. They wake up and think: “What’s on the schedule and the to-do list for today?” They want to know what’s expected of them, and to meet those expectations. They avoid making mistakes or letting people down—including themselves…

They’re self-directed and have little trouble meeting commitments, keeping resolutions, or hitting deadlines (they often finish early). They generally want to understand the rules, and often they search for the rules beyond the rules—as in the case of art or ethics.

And I’ll be honest – a lot of that really is me, haha… I get made fun of ALL THE TIME for following rules! Even if they seem ridiculous to people! And I’m really good at knocking items off my to-do lists too and following my “little man” inside of me.

But on the flip side I’m very slow at changing my routine or even expanding my mind/potential since I follow these “rules” so often – which are the down sides of being an “Upholder.” For example, there’s a lot of things I consciously do NOT do on this blog, even though I know it could double my income or growth, as well as a ton of things I DO do, but might make no sense at time-management or profit-wise.

I’ve tried to break free from some of these in the past, and often have, but I’ve also come to the realization that a lot of it is just part of “my code,” and therefore focus on ways to use my traits FOR me vs AGAINST me 😉

And this very much works in personal finance too! Do you know how many “rules” there are with this stuff? Spend less than you make. Don’t go into debt. Save for a rainy day. Make sure to have insurance. NEVER PULL FROM YOUR INVESTMENTS!

It’s a haven for Upholders! Haha…

So it just may be that we have more of those here than Rebels or Questioners indeed 😉

And the Rebels, btw, just gives me so much anxiety! They don’t like to do stuff as soon as someone tells them they need to do it, even if it’s *themselves* telling them so! I’d be a hot mess always trying to fly in the face of everyone, haha… With maybe the exception of hair and clothes, as I’m good at ignoring everyone there 😉

But enough about me – let’s talk about you now! Where do you fall within these 4 tendencies? Take the quiz and find out –> The Four Tendencies Quiz

Or if you’d rather skip it and guess based on the synopses, you can do that too, however you might find there’s more to it like I did:

• UPHOLDER: “I do what others expect of me – and what I expect from myself.”
• QUESTIONER: “I do what I think is best, according to my judgment. If it doesn’t make sense, I won’t do it.”
• OBLIGER: “I do what I have to do. I don’t want to let others down, but I may let myself down.”
• REBEL: “I do what I want, in my own way. If you try to make me do something – even if I try to make myself do something – I’m less likely to do it.”

(Reading these alone I would have 100% considered myself a “Questioner” as I definitely do what I think is best for me, however the key to this tendency is *research and analyzation* which are certainly not my strong suits… And then there are all those “rules” I didn’t even know I enjoyed following! :))

The point of all this, of course, is that the more you know about yourself the better prepared you’ll be in reaching your goals – whether financial or otherwise.

“Knowing our Tendency can help us set up situations in the ways that make it more likely that we’ll achieve our aims. We can make better decisions, meet deadlines, meet our promises to ourselves, suffer less stress, and engage more deeply with others. Just as important, knowing other people’s Tendencies helps us to work with them more effectively. Managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people reduce conflict and make significant, lasting change”

So big thanks to Samantha for passing this over to us today, and hopefully you learn something good about yourself too! To learn more about Gretchen and these tendencies click here, or to pick up her book on these tendencies, click here.

Let’s see what the most popular tendency here is indeed!

*****
PS: You do have to enter your email to get your results at the end (gah), but at least there are check boxes you can uncheck if you don’t want to be signed up to her newsletters…. which is what I did, even though I love her stuff, fwiw.

// Links to books above are Amazon affiliate links

 

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from Finance http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/quiz-which-tendency-are-you/