Habit Change on the PR Talk Podcast

Tricking Ourselves Into Doing Our New Year’s Resolutions

We Uncover Our Personal Tendencies from Gretchen Rubin’s Habit Change Quiz

Already broke your New Year’s resolution? If so you might fall into one of these tendencies discussed in Gretchen Rubin’s habit books: the Questioner (who’s questioning the point of the resolution), the Rebel (who’s always rebelled against resolutions), or the Obliger (who’s Rebel friend didn’t show up for the New Years commitment they made together). If you’re still going strong with your New Year’s resolution, damn you, you annoying Upholder.

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With it being the start of a New Year, Mike and I thought it was apropos to dig into this topic, taking advantage of the deliciously blank slate a new decade brings. New commitments, new habits, new ideas. I know you all have them! But rather than throwing around huge resolutions that were made to be broken, we’re learning about our personality types in order to turn our resolutions into actual habits.

Rubin’s research outlined in the books “The Four Tendencies” or “Better Than Before,” suggests there are four tendencies everyone in the planet falls into when trying to create a habit.

A quick eight-question quiz will tell you what your main tendency is.

In this PR Talk episode, Mike and I uncover our own tendencies, discussing how they relate to each other, while also touching on the other tendencies and how each might approach PR.

Here’s a cheat-sheet, or my own humorous interpretation, of each tendency.

Upholder

They will do what they say they’re going to do no matter what, even if they only made a promise to themself. This is what I thought Mike was, listen to hear how wrong I was!

Obliger

They need external motivation in the form of people expecting something from them. So they need to meet a friend to workout because they won’t leave that friend hanging. They imagine the client waiting for the document to get it done.

Rebel

They just can’t do anything! Can’t keep external or internal expectations. Many of them can be successful creatives or entrepreneurs if they have an Upholder or Obliger staff/partner.

Questioner

They have to ask why and if they like the answer, they will do it. If not, they will move on. They are independent, don’t care what others are expecting or thinking, but they probably spend a lot of time ruminating.

This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon

Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.