I read the book The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. I think I've
talked about it before but it's a book where she talks about
personality types and says personality type tests didn't quite do it
for her But after she started observing behaviors and doing a bunch of
surveys, she started to see patterns in tendencies that people have.
And she came up with four tendencies to explain how people tend to
behave. They're not boxes, they're just a tendency that someone has. I
find that a lot more appealing than other personality test type
things.
I tend to react poorly when I'm put in a box and I tend not to fit in
any box. When I take personality tests, I tend to be an introvert and
tactical, but also strategic with extrovert tendencies and lots of
different things.
The Enneagram test didn't do it for me. I remember taking one
personality test a long time ago that told me that I needed to find a
job where I worked in an ivory tower and didn't interact with hardly
anybody. Which I enjoy, but I also enjoy being with people just on my
own terms. And so, Gretchen Reuben's book laid out these four
tendencies that people have. The main two that I focused on were
Upholder and Rebel.
And it's funny because the Upholder is where when I take her test or
survey that's the main tendency that i have. I like to know the rules
and then I like too abide by the rule. I tend to be on time to a fault
and I tend to not understand why other people aren't on time.
If someone has an expectation of me I do my best to meet that
expectation and I tend be successful at it.
But I also seem to have a lot of rebel tendencies. The way that
manifests itself in my life is not liking when people tell me how to
do things.
I'll uphold your objectives, I will even uphold you rules, but don't
tell me how to do it. Don't try to micromanage me. Even with myself,
which is comical because she talks about how rebels tend to rebel even
against their own expectations.
And I find myself doing that over and over. So I come up with ways to
put these two together and make them work for me. I've been pretty
successful in my life. The phrase I use is "I have met all of my
objectives" and that continues to happen.
They don't make much sense to anybody else, but man, I'm firing on all
cylinders and nobody's telling me how to do it. Although I do watch a
lot of videos and read a lotta things on the Internet to try and
different ways of approaching things.
Since I started meditating with the Calm app and doing my lessons
daily that's helped give me a firm point in the day to get away and
focus on my growth and learning.
I tend to listen to a book of Proverbs every day. That book is the
chapter that correlates with that day of the month. So if it's the
15th then I listen to Proverbs chapter 15 and I find that soaking
myself slowly in Proverb's has those teaching oozing out in different
ways.
But if you're looking for a different approach to personalities and
trying to learn more about why you do the things you, do you ought to
give Gretchen Rubin's book a tumble. Check it out at
https://a.co/d/0bh2Mamd
#book