Understanding the Upholder

In life, we all confront two kinds of expectations. We face the outer expectations that others impose on us-such as submitting a report on time. We also face the inner expectations that we impose on ourselves-such as going to bed every night by 11. In the Four Tendencies framework, Upholders are those people who readily respond to outer and inner expectations alike. They meet the work deadline, and they keep the New Year’s resolution, without much fuss. For the most part, they want to do what others expect of them0and their expectations for themselves are just as important. Because of their readiness to meet outer and inner expectations, Upholders also tend to love schedules and routines-they’re the people who wake up and think, “What’s on my schedule and to0do list for today?” They like to know what’s expected of them and they don’t like making mistakes or letting people down-including themselves. More than the other three Tendencies, Upholders find it fairly easy to decide to act and then to follow through; they also more easily form habits.