As a Five on the Enneagram, I love to learn and want to be competent. But my desire to observe and learn also has a major drawback: it鈥檚 hard for me to actually act on things.
Community and Relationships
My parents didn鈥檛 know about the Enneagram back in 1989. If they had, it would have been pretty clear to them what was up: I was a Four. My flagship quote could be this bit of dialogue from Doctor Who: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 good about sad?鈥 鈥淚t鈥檚 happy, for deep people.鈥
When I heard about a Christian group on campus, I knew it was something I didn鈥檛 want to just join鈥攊t was an opportunity for me to step up and lead. I was driven, ambitious, and a little too eager to shine. I was, in short, a young Three on the Enneagram.
Twos will never run out of people to help. At our best, we are loving, generous, and unselfish. We can provide a healing presence for others, reflecting God鈥檚 love.
Ones see in the world an invitation to fix its problems. And while that may be exhausting for you, just imagine what it鈥檚 like inside our heads.
Calm, content, even-tempered, and most of all, conflict avoidant, the Enneagram Nine description fit me.
As I鈥檝e learned more about Eights I鈥檝e realized that they are generally self-confident, confrontational, strong, assertive, honest (sometimes brutally), and decisive people. When I read that description now I feel like it pretty accurately describes me.
What is the Enneagram? Join us at the blog over the next nine weeks to get a little taste of this helpful tool.
A lot of us, I鈥檓 sure, have heard how important it is to make a good first impression, which is true. But at the same time, people are complicated. It takes time to see who they really are, why they act the way they do.
Over the years, the Lord has done a lot of work in my heart to help me better love my family, dysfunctions and all. Here are a few practices I have found helpful along the way.