{"id":14718,"date":"2015-06-24T16:30:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T20:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=14718"},"modified":"2020-03-30T18:38:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T22:38:44","slug":"want-a-happier-life-author-gretchen-rubin-says-the-key-is-healthier-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/want-a-happier-life-author-gretchen-rubin-says-the-key-is-healthier-habits","title":{"rendered":"Want a happier life? Author Gretchen Rubin says the key is healthier habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gretchen Rubin is in the business of happiness. When the New York Times<\/em> bestselling author completed her last book, The Happiness Project<\/em>, she wondered what her next move might be. Inspiration didn\u2019t take long. While her last book set out to explain in plain terms the elusive emotion of happiness, Rubin realized that she needed to answer the question: \u201cHow do we achieve long-lasting happiness?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubin soon found her answer in healthy habits. Describing these habits as \u201cthe invisible architecture of a happy life,\u201d Rubin set out to investigate how successful people form good habits\u2014and keep them.<\/p>\n

Rubin recently stopped by WeWork Soho West<\/a> to discuss her new book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives<\/em>. Throughout the book, Rubin gives advice on finding the motivation to form healthy habits. While Rubin acknowledges that there\u2019s no \u201cmagic bullet\u201d that works for everyone, she breaks down the psychology of habit forming into easily digestible tips and tools. In case you missed it, here are the top tips she shared on how to achieve long-term happiness.<\/p>\n

Know your own source of motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you an upholder, an obliger, a questioner, or a rebel? According to Rubin, our unique \u201ctendencies,\u201d or personality types, say a lot about the way we form habits. These four tendencies each come with different sources of motivation.<\/p>\n

Obligers feed on external motivation. They enjoy accomplishing goals set by their colleagues or peers. An obliger needs a framework of outer accountability, even when it\u2019s their own goal.<\/p>\n

Rebels hate being constrained by rules or guidelines. Entirely internally motivated, a rebel needs to be challenged to accept and perform a task.<\/p>\n

Upholders need sources of both internal and external motivation. They enjoy fulfilling what\u2019s expected of them, but their goals for themselves are equally as important as outer directives.<\/p>\n

Questioners require justification for everything they do. When given a task, theirr first question is always: Why? Once a questioner has bought into the relevance of a task, they will perform it with gusto.<\/p>\n

Setting a goal is not forming a habit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hitting a specific goal, says Rubin, should not be the objective. A one-time accomplishment does not easily convert into a long-term habit. For Rubin, this is the key reason why most diets fail. Once dieters reach their goal, she says, they tend to give up the practices that allowed them to reach that weight, often gaining back everything they lost.<\/p>\n

Rather than choosing a specific number of pounds to lose, Rubin urges us to form a long-term habit of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This is also why people who train for a specific marathon don\u2019t necessarily keep the habit of exercising.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to form a habit, it\u2019s very dangerous to have a deadline,\u201d Rubin says. \u201cIf you have a deadline, then you finish, then you\u2019re done. Then you have to start over, and starting over is hard. It\u2019s training for a marathon, not becoming a lifelong runner\u201d.<\/p>\n

The key, says Rubin, is not shooting for a specific date or goal, but rather using an accountability system to keep us steadily on track.<\/p>\n

Be an effective leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

To become the best possible leader, you must first understand the tendencies of your colleagues. Do you manage a lot of questioners? Give justification for the tasks you assign and speak in \u201cbig-picture\u201d terms. Work with obligers? Have regular check-ins to create a sense of external accountability, but beware of assigning workload that are too heavy. Obligers tend not to speak up when they are experiencing burnout, says Rubin.<\/p>\n

Understanding your colleagues will not only make you a better manager, but will create a happier workplace. Not sure how to determine the personality types of your colleagues?<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk them how they feel about New Years\u2019 resolutions,\u201d says Rubin. \u201cIt will tell you a lot about their tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get a new set of tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of trying to change your internal tendencies, harness your personality type to form healthy habits and make them stick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to change your circumstances than to change yourself,\u201d says Rubin.<\/p>\n

By working with our own natures, Rubin argues, we can achieve the same positive results in the end, no matter what tendencies we have. By examining our own idiosyncrasies and learning to love our quirks, we can find what motivation types work best for us. Even if we have failed before, we can understand what drives us to succeed by first taking the time to understand ourselves. You don\u2019t need a personality makeover \u2014just a new set of tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gretchen Rubin is in the business of happiness. When the New York Times bestselling author completed her last book, The Happiness Project, she wondered what her next move might be. Inspiration didn\u2019t take long. While her last book set out to explain in plain terms the elusive emotion of happiness, Rubin realized that she needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1519,"featured_media":14720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWant a happier life? 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