So what is the Enneagram anyway?
At its most basic, the Enneagram is an ancient personality-typing tool that outlines nine basic personality types. At a more complex level, it gives you language to speak what rumbles in your heart, soul, mind, and body. It gives voice to your motivations, desires, coping mechanisms, and defaults.
To understand the Enneagram, it’s important to understand what it is not.
- The Enneagram is not who you are.
- The Enneagram is not a weapon to inflict on others.
- The Enneagram is not an excuse to stay stuck in poor behavior.
Here’s why the Enneagram is important to your spiritual growth:
When you know your Enneagram type, you:
- Know your default sin, patterns, behaviors, temptations, and traps.
- Understand how God wired you so you can keep what you love and discard what doesn’t serve you well.
- Have language for unhealthy behaviors so you can work on what’s tripping you up hand-in-hand with Christ.
- Can take all parts of you – your wounds, fears, longings, dreams – out into the open so they can be exposed to the light of grace.
A brief overview of all nine Enneagram types
Type 1 is The Reformer
Ones are reliable, responsible, honest, conscientious, and hard-working. You are diligent, practical, and analytical. You strive for flawlessness and love order. Rituals, routines, and rules make you happy and where you find security.
You are motivated by perfection or rightness. You want everything to go as you plan in your head. Type Ones are obsessed with best practices. You get things done with high expectations, hoping against hope, that reality will mesh with the idealistic image in your head.
Type 2 is The Helper
Twos are warm, open to others, supportive; cheerful, and optimistic. You are friendly, driven, energetic, competent, and get lots done. Twos can be shape-shifters, cute, the “Teacher’s pet,” funny, playful, and excellent leaders.
You are motivated by your desire to help others and believe that you have the resources, time, and ability to help any person or organization any time, all the time. You hate to say “no” and will push down your own needs to help others. Your type operates from the heart more than any other.
Type 3 is The Achiever
Threes are hard workers who know how to make a good impression. You are extremely competent, an efficient do-er, and make hard work look easy. You love completing tasks in the most rapid/efficient way possible so much that “Effective” should be your middle name. You are optimistic, practical, busy, and self-sufficient. There’s an undercurrent of stress that runs right beneath the surface, but you tend not to show your stress because you don’t want to show weakness Your magnetic personality draws people to you and you put a lot of energy into pleasing those in your life.
You are motivated by your desire to achieve and put a premium on your image, a.k.a. how others see you. Type Threes obsess about productivity and looking good while achieving, even if you feel like you’re drowning on the inside. No matter what you achieve, you feel like it’s never enough.
Type 4 is The Individualist
Fours are the most emotional of all types. You are intellectual, introverted, and empathic. You are very aware of your individuality and emotions. You are constantly on the lookout for beauty, and see it wherever you look. However, your desire to be understood may lead you to over-identify with your flaws, so you feel like you never quite fit in.
You are motivated by the desire to be yourself and for others to recognize your “you-ness.” As a Four, you love expressing yourself and you’ve creatively crafted a unique way to do it. There is so much activity in your inner world that it’s easy to get lost in all that’s going on inside.
Type 5 is The Investigator
Fives are analytical, rational, self-sufficient, objective, and calm in a crisis. You are a loyal and trustworthy friend. You err on the side of minimalism and economy. You also feel more comfortable thinking than feeling. Fives have a thirst for knowledge so they accumulate it. You are sensitive in your core and prefer privacy to flashiness.
You are motivated by the desire to know and to figure out what makes sense. This means you collect information and prefer to compartmentalize life into boxes, which leaves little space for mystery and areas of gray.
Type 6 is The Loyalist
Sixes are analytical, extremely loyal, steadfast friends, good strategists, trouble-shooters, and problem-solvers. You are calm and effective in a crisis. You are wise, deeply thoughtful, and faithful. You like to play “devil’s advocate” because of your natural skepticism. Sixes question almost everything. And everyone. You are also cautious, a worrier, and anxious.
You are motivated by being safe and you believe you can do this by following all the rules, which means you get frustrated when others don’t. You are constantly on the lookout for threats, so you prepare and develop support systems to feel safe.
Type 7 is The Enthusiast
Sevens are positive, idealists, youthful, enthusiastic, hopeful about future, active, charming visionaries. They are fast movers and quick thinkers with lots of hobbies and a lot of friends. You’re the most energetic of all nine Enneagram Types.
You are motivated by your desire to experience joy and have freedom. This means that you don’t like to make a lot of commitments and you’re always on the search for the next big thing.
Type 8 is The Challenger
Eights are intense, energetic, powerful, strong, fearless, fun, and generous. You are a good leader, a “big-picture” thinker, hard workers, and a passionate advocate. You can also be overbearing, impatient, intolerant of frustration, and strong-willed. You embody the phrase, “Go big or go home!”
You are motivated by a desire to protect yourself, which means you prefer to be in control. You live your life with passion, force and autonomy even as you look to protect and bring justice to others.
Type 9 is The Peacemaker
Nines adaptable, likable, energetic, and fun. You like order and control, but resist being controlled by others. You go with the flow and won’t rock the boat. You’re an excellent referee, but you’d prefer to leave discipline, hard conversations, and confrontation to others.
You are motivated by feeling settled and experiencing peace. This desire for peace-at-all-costs leads you to self-forget so you may forget your opinions, preferences, and dreams to accommodate others. Most devastating is you may forget your presence matters.
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Key Quotes
The Enneagram gives hope, insight, language, explanations, peace, and discomfort all at the same time.
You are not your Enneagram type. You are God’s girl.
Mentioned in the Podcast
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