The Enneagram

What is this?

“From one point of view, the Enneagram can be seen as a set of nine distinct personality types, with each number on the Enneagram denoting one type. It is common to find a little of yourself in all nine of the types, although one of them should stand out as being closest to yourself. This is your basic personality type.

Everyone emerges from childhood with one of the nine types dominating their personality, with inborn temperament and other pre-natal factors being the main determinants of our type. This is one area where most all of the major Enneagram authors agree—we are born with a dominant type. Subsequently, this inborn orientation largely determines the ways in which we learn to adapt to our early childhood environment. It also seems to lead to certain unconscious orientations toward our parental figures, but why this is so, we still do not know. In any case, by the time children are four or five years old, their consciousness has developed sufficiently to have a separate sense of self. Although their identity is still very fluid, at this age children begin to establish themselves and find ways of fitting into the world on their own.”

Enneagram Institute

No. 7 is the Enthusiastic Visionary – (also the highly-excitable, eager-to-please, sometimes-foolishly-optimistic, over-involved short-attention-span, and sometimes short-fused one!

Being a 7 – I am, naturally, all over the Enneagram learning pages, as I have recently taken notice of this amazing self-learning info. A flurry of mental activity, daydreaming, imagining, planning and hoping. It’s exciting and I am feeling hopeful.

Here is the brief summary from The Enneagram Institute –

“Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over-extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

• Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
• Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled
• Enneagram Seven with a Six-Wing: “The Entertainer”
• Enneagram Seven with an Eight-Wing: “The Realist”

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

When moving in their Direction of Disintegration (stress), scattered Sevens suddenly become perfectionistic and critical at One.  However, when moving in their Direction of Integration (growth), gluttonous, scattered Sevens become more focused and fascinated by life, like healthy Fives.”

This has given me so much insight recently. Into my marriage, my parenting, and my (misdirected) career aspirations. It has been nothing short of revolutionary. And I have my cousin to thank for doing the test on me.

I shall be applying my new-found knowledge to all areas of my life, including work and family and marriage, and this blog. Let’s see what emerges!