Interesting quiz: What's your Habit Personality?

PeachyPlum wrote: »

Pop psychology is fun! And it's Friday, so...

Exactly!

By the way, there are some short videos where Gretchen Rubin explains the four types, which offer some more insight into each type:

• Upholders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jym9X6ijjio
• Questioners: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oOQGgbfx9ns
• Rebels: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jli-sW5LP-Q
• Obligers: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CUU99WhRu5Q

PeachyPlum wrote: »

Actually, wait, no. This is what bothers me about the test: A lot of the questions have no bearing on how I form habits.

Wearing a collared shirt is not a habit. It's a compliance with authority issue. I never committed to Collared Shirt Fridays and I give exactly zero ****s about wearing a collared shirt, but I like wearing a collared shirt more than I like being hassled by HR.

Attending a BS training meeting is not a habit. I never made a resolution that I was going to go, and I give exactly zero ****s about the meeting.

If I make a commitment to someone, I feel Obliged to meet it. If I don't, I'm inclined to say "screw it" ( like the meeting). If someone's going to give me a lot of grief about it (like the shirt) I'll just wear the damn thing so everyone leaves me alone.

Because most of all? I'm highly motivated by not having to interact with other humans.

Love this! But I think that the theory goes that an upholder or an obliger would see the collared shirt thing or the training meeting as a commitment that they inherently made to their boss or workplace simply by agreeing to work there.

I have lots of issues with authority, too, so I agree with you that those things sound pretty BS. But my reason for wearing the collared shirt might be that I don't see any reason to or I don't believe that it will achieve anything, whereas a rebel's reason might be "screw you, you can't tell me what to do, I'm not gonna wear that collared shirt!"

...Anyway, it's all pop psychology anyway. Don't go looking for it to make more sense than it does.

A little about how each habit type can find success on MFP:

Upholders probably have the easiest time sticking to weight loss and exercise plans if they simply decide to make these things part of their habits. They're the ones who likely respond best to "just do it". If you're an upholder, deciding to schedule calorie tracking or workouts into your routine, and focusing on the how, probably work best for you. Fitbits and trackers and convenience meal plans are useful for upholders, since these things help them with their habit forming. External support is helpful for upholders, especially at the beginning, but they're likely fine without it too because once they decide to lose weight, they just do it.

Questioners probably need to understand the 'why' instead of the 'how'. They will lose weight not because their doctor tells them to or because of any external expectations, but because they understand the reasons -- the health implications, or the logic. They also are the people who do best by taking control of the process by understanding why it works; the science or math behind CICO, the ability to manipulate calories based on diet or exercise choices. If you're a questioner, you're probably also a skeptic, and less likely to accept all the fad diet or quick fix ideas out there. Once you understand why it works, you'll probably do fine, with or without external support.

Rebels are probably the ones who are most likely to avoid wanting to lose weight if they feel pressured by the people around them or by society's expectations to do so. "Screw you, I'm not going to turn into some skinny media ideal just because you tell me to" might have been their rebel-minded reason for not doing it sooner. The best way to motivate yourself as a rebel? Set yourself a challenge. Get someone else to say (or say to yourself) "hey, I bet you can't lose the weight / deadlift 100lbs / run a half-marathon". Then prove yourself wrong, because nobody -- not even you -- is gonna tell you that you can't do something, amirite? Finding exercise you love is another great way for a rebel to do something because you want to run / lift / train / dance. If you're doing it because you enjoy it, not because anyone expects you to, you're more likely to stick with it. Rebels often do best when they have a lack of support, or even negative support, since people doubting them tends to motivate them more than people supporting them.

Obligers are usually the ones who find the most success by creating external accountability. Saying "I'm going to lose weight so I can be there for my children" or "I'm going to the gym because I made a commitment to my friend that we'd go twice a week and I don't want to let her down" can be powerful motivators. If you recognize that you're an obliger, you probably want to seek out as much external support as possible. Obligers respond well to group diet pledges, team sports, or anything where failure to stick to their MFP plan would let someone else down.