Gretchen Rubin: The 4 Ways to Successfully Adopt New Habits

About this Presentation
When someone (even yourself) gives you a rule to follow what do you do? Are you a Rebel, refusing to follow all directives? Or are you more of an Obliger who will respond to outer rules, but so much to inner rules? In this 99U talk, bestselling author Gretchen Rubin shares the four personality types when it comes to adopting new habits or "rules." Knowing your personality type and its pros and cons are instrumental to adopting new habits and behavior.
Watch more: www.99u.com/videos
About Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin is the author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project-accounts of her experiences test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. On her popular blog, The Happiness Project, she reports on her daily adventures in the pursuit of happiness. Rubin is an enthusiastic proponent of using technology to engage with readers about ideas, and she has a wide, active following on social media. Not only that-The Happiness Project was even an answer on the game-show Jeopardy!
A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, Rubin started her career in law, and she was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized she wanted to be a writer. She has written several books, including three novels that are safely locked in a desk drawer.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.

[@1kaseyjane]

I have been reading her book. I love all the tips. When you try to create some habits, and make a few changes, it just improves everyday a little better than the day before.

[@joools1953]

So now I know what sort of person I am, I wish this video had told me how to successfully adopt new habits!

[@ericaboxwell6342]

qq.

[@ericaboxwell6342]

qq. the

[@jayalexander6798]

Now there are two books by her about habits.

[@alisondeane8481]

Always love listening to Gretchen.

[@swapniljadhav3239]

Finally someone who actually addressed my problem. I'm a Questioner and i burn myself out by asking Why. Also helping people by going out of my way also burns me out. Man, no wonder i struggle so much at my job.

[@OrleneE]

Found this video after watching Gretchen's interview on creative live, with Chase Jarvis. I thought this was great, albeit a tad brief. In saying that she only has a short amount of time to unpack a concept. if you watch other videos you will get all the information you need to fully understand the concept. In the creative live vid she mentions actionable steps each type can do to increase productivity/overcome some of their faults.

[@ShashaRavacio]

I have been through all 4 tendencies in my life, and each one wasn't just a tendency but more of a strategy because that was the needed survival tool at that period in my life. When I was a child, I was more the rebel. My mom would love to recollect that time when I was 3 and I was happily tearing up papers which happened to be important documents. They were probably annoyed, but since I was just a child, they gave me new sheets of paper to tear apart, and nope, I didn't tear them. I didn't want them to tell me what to do! Then I grew up to become a questioner, started loving books and asking people around why they do things that or this way. And then, I either grew into an obliger during high school and college because I had to survive the harsh environment that it was. Later when I started earning, I did become a bit of an upholder, but got married a few years later only to get back to the obliger mode. Now, though, I think my situation is making me both a rebel and an upholder, tossing between these departments depending on the activity I am engaged in. I think these tendencies were formed because of the certain prolonged situations presented to us at one point in our lives. And I think we are ll 4 tendencies. And to be happier, we only need to know what works with the situation we are in at the moment.

[@user-fu1nw7kh2h]

Very well put . I feel the same way , I have been in all four categories during my life so far . I have been an obligor mostly... developing a rebel’s streak of late . I want to be a upholder with a sense of discernment. I enjoyed the talk as it brought a lot if clarity and insights about our response and motivation about Rules.

[@jerseygurlinmaryland]

Great comedy along with great insight.

[@ianpatrick23]

Outstanding insights

[@ramihelmi5816]

Perfect analysis

[@frankschannel9378]

Love this.

[@tubeberk08]

she has a lovely smile... that matches her outward nature

[@aaronbrigham4743]

Thanks for sharing this video I think it can help improve myself about new habits and how to overcome bad habits as a Johnson Wales University equine business management student I am constantly trying to get rid of stupid habits and trying to gang new habits to not just make commitments for other people but commitments for myself I need to learn to stick with my personal commitments instead of always commitments for other people.

[@sonusingh-zr6xw]

Monica Geller from FRIENDS TV Series is an upholder.

[@audreyang8879]

ouch! So accurate!

[@TheBurek88]

this explains alot

[@BEEZEYEVIEWLLC]

I'd love to have a copy of that slideshow! Great presentation.

[@jordanbrown5435]

Lesbooooo

[@MegaPsychodrama]

Gretchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@charleekarina6359]

So, how do I adopt a new habit ?

[@nguyenhuynhnhu8814]

thank u :)

[@rjbfelicia]

Adopting a new habit is really intrinsical to what type a person u are. And thats what she is trying to indirectly taught us in this talk. Nevertheless, the title isnt misleading at all. To adopt a new habit u must first know yourself: self knowledge. What works for you and what will not. For sure this is an amazing and an eye opener talk.

[@thriftwithkari]

OMG shes great! I am SUCH a questioner lol OH WOW!! It is sooo exhausting to me too haha

[@ScarboroughFair68]

Would like her to expand on how to bring better habits into life while letting go of other unwanted habits. She barely even touched that part of conversation.

[@tubeberk08]

the only way to create a habit is by ritual (over and over) ....and to be rid of bad habits is by substituting them for the good new habits :)

[@maurowws]

The title in this video is wrong... on purpose or by mistake. This vid is about analysing and categorising ppl. Not about having better habits... Maybe this title brings more ppl here..

[@jayalexander6798]

She wrote a whole book about it.

[@RicardoMartinez-yk7md]

@@jayalexander6798 what is it called?

[@jayalexander6798]

Ricardo Martinez “Better than before” if I remember correctly. My favorite book of hers, and one of the favorite books on habits.

[@deepanshusharma7013]

I am an upholder and I believe people should be bound themselves with some rules in their life. 💯

[@shekarmathur]

thanks it was very useful,informative & was also well presented.shekar

[@JonYang-oy8vj]

cool

[@KaffeeAura]

I took this test a bunch of times in one day and i kept straddling questioner, obliger, and rebel what does this mean?

[@Douglas_Gillette]

That this is a Bs hypothesis.

[@missjennemeg1]

Work with an Upholder. Painful for this Rebel 😆!

[@Nadd108]

I think Obligers is the worst one, people pleasing behaviour is one of the worst forms of suffering I just found out that I am one. Gotta change that !!

[@Andicus]

I'm like... the cons of all of these.

[@andytaylor4831]

What a poorly titled video. I actually really like the content, but it wasn't what I was looking for, and feel like others have said that it's just wasted 18 minutes of my time. More including the stopping to take notes. That said it was useful, but who was responsible for posting this and assigning that title???!

[@Mushroom321-]

Misleading title, alert!

[@Peachyaxe]

Who else just dont give a shit but your teacher tells you to watch this

[@allisonlucas324]

The title is misleading, She didn't talk about "The 4 Ways to Successfully Adopt New Habits", She just spoke about 4 different personality types?? What a waste of 18 minutes /-:

[@ulyssesromero2449]

First Know thyself.Then you can Successfully Adopt New Habits, that's what she said.

[@andyspark5192]

Well, i'm type 5, universal. a little bit of each, some more, some less

[@hopperthemarxist8533]

I am sure Gretchen is a great writer but she makes it sound like these 4 categories are some kind of revelation.. just more needless categorizations... there are literally thousands of books like this with these kinds of meaningless distinctions... everyone has parts of all 4 categories.. the psychological literature identifies promotion and prevention based individuals

[@RoyIIIRamirez]

she definitely believes in horoscopes.

[@vicj2141]

Yikes! Humans labelled as "losers" within the first few minutes? Although Rubin may have left the legal profession, it feels to me as if she is still operating fully within a rational, Western paradigm based on using humans as commodities as efficiently as possible. I had a hard time listening after that. Humans are valuable completely apart from what they are able to produce or accomplish. I had to fight my way out of that paradigm years ago to find my sanity.

[@stepa3442]

completely agree

[@brianashby160]

Hey

[@silas5748]

And because it was hard to listen after that, you missed the parts when she basically said how these people can be hard to deal with. It wasn’t about how much a person can amount to in life, it was more about how these types of people treat others especially on a team

[@CoachingDeco]

Obliger 😬🙄😒

[@flamingowen]

this kind of thing only applies to people above poverty level. she's preaching to the middle and upper class. I watch this shit for entertainment but put no real value on it. some of it is intellectually interesting but it means nothing.

[@Douglas_Gillette]

This is pseudo BS.