It's that time of the year when everyone's talking about New Year's resolutions.
You come up with a list of goals you would like to meet and hope to be part of the 20 percent of people who actually achieve them.
But let's face it, setting these lofty goals can not only seem daunting, but discouraging, especially if you've failed at them in the past.
Bestselling author and happiness expert Gretchen Rubin says your odds of meeting these goals actually have a lot to do with your personality.
"Setting New Year's resolutions depends on what kind of person you are and what works for you. All of us do better when we think, 'What works for me?' not what works for your sister-in-law, not what works for Steve Jobs," Rubin tells CNBC Make It.
The personality type Rubin says is most likely to succeed at New Year's resolutions are called upholders.
Rubin has an online quiz to assess your tendency. Here are the Four Tendencies based on how you respond to inner and outer expectations:
- Upholders: You readily meet both outer expectations and inner expectations. You meet your work deadlines and you keep your New Year's resolutions without much fuss. You prioritize what others expect from you and your expectations for yourself because both are equally important to you.
- Questioners: You question all expectations because you don't like doing anything arbitrary, inefficient or irrational. You will meet outer expectations only if you think it makes sense and as a result, turn everything into an inner expectation.
- Obligers: You respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet your own inner expectations.You work well when held accountable by others, but you find it difficult to accomplish your expectations for yourself.
- Rebels: You resist all expectations, outer and inner alike. You do only what you want to do, in your own way and in your own time. If someone asks or tells you to do something, you're very likely to resist.
"Anything that acts as a catalyst for self-reflection is great for upholders, whether it's your birthday, an important anniversary or the new school year," Rubin says.
If you are a questioner, you likely think January 1st is a completely arbitrary date. Instead of feeling pressured to set goals for the New Year, start whenever you feel like it.
"There's no magic to New Year's Day, unless there's a magic in it for you," Rubin says. "So if you want to start on a different day, that's great."
Obligers are most likely to give up their New Year's resolutions because they're constantly surrounded by to-do lists and goals they want to meet.
"If resolutions don't tend to work well for you as an obliger, think about how you've succeeded in the past and how you can similarly set yourself up to succeed with goals you want to meet," Rubin says.
Lastly, rebels often don't like to lock them into something like a New Year's resolution, but sometimes they think it's fun, Rubin notes. They might say, "Why am I going to tell myself to meditate every day in 2018?" if it's something they wouldn't genuinely want to do.
"One of the things that's very striking in happiness, good habits and human nature generally is how much your nature, your temperament, your interests and your values, matter," Rubin says. "There are no magic, one-size-fits-all solutions that can work for everyone."
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Video by Andrea Kramar
