Log #5

Better Than Before

I choose "Better Than Before" as the reading material for my personal project. When my classmates introduced this book in last semester, I was impressed by its content. This book is mainly talked about how to develop good habits. Moreover, the author teaches people with different ways of developing habits according to their characteristics. The content of how to master habits is not the most attractive for me. I am interested in the way the author analyze a person. She also provides lots of concrete examples which really happened around her. I think I can through those analyses to find out what kind of person I look like.

Initially, the author divides people into four tendencies: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel. Upholders respond readily to outer and inner expectations. Questioners question all expectations, and they respond to an expectation only if they conclude that it makes sense. Obliger meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet inner expectations. Rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner alike. There are two standards to classify the four tendencies---meets or resists outer expectations and meets or resists inner expectations. According to the author's experiment, most of the people are Questioner and Obliger.

Basically, I think I am an Upholder. I always do my best to make myself and others down. I will try my best to make whatever I can do perfect. Sometimes I will have a sense of achievement when I receive good comments. Sometimes I will feel disappointed when it comes out with bad results. To avoid others' and my disappointment, I always try my best. It also reminds me one of the slogan from Adidas--- "All in or nothing." It means that do it as perfectly as possible. Otherwise, you can just choose not to do it and you don't waste your time.

Maybe, I am a so called "perfectionist." However, I am not always an Upholder. To be honest, I feel stressed when I want to make everything perfect. I am still striking the balance between perfection and moderation.