What the Enneagram Taught Me About Myself

While driving to work one afternoon, I was listening to a podcast and the topic of the enneagram came up. I have always been interested in personality tests and what they teach me about myself, but this one particularly piqued my interest when I learned that it is based on what motivates you and what holds you back in your life. I did a little bit of research and I took an enneagram test at https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test. It can be easy to cheat yourself and to bias your answers towards which type you think is most desirable, but I was brutally honest with myself in answering each of the questions. I took the test before looking at what each type is “supposed to be like,” in order to minimize bias further. I appreciated that each question was based on a spectrum rather than being black or white, yes or no, true or false. The test took me around 7 minutes to complete, and when I submitted my responses, I had no idea what my results would be. Something else that I appreciated about the test is that it acknowledged that everyone has a bit of each “Type” in them, and it ranked your most likely types based on the percentage of your responses that aligned with typical reactions of each “Type” of person. 

These were my results:

Reading and acknowledging some parts of my results was challenging, as they pinpointed my exact strengths and weaknesses, however, I can appreciate the fact that the results reflect me with astonishing accuracy. I even talked about my results with my partner, and he agreed that they “hit the nail on the head.”

My results said that I am strongest in Types 1, 3 and 5 meaning that I am a perfectionist, an achiever, and an investigator. These seem to align strongly with the things that I pride myself on, but they can also be my biggest downfall. They helped me to realize that I can lean too deeply into perfectionism and that I can fall into the “trap of achievement,” or the “hustle mentality,” where achievement is valued at the expense of appropriate rest and self care. 

The types that I was weakest in were Types 2, 8, and 9. This was difficult to analyse because of the accuracy with which the test picked out my challenges. Type 2 is the giver, and it was hard to recognize that being giving was not one of my strongest traits or motivators. It is true that I tend to lean on others and sometimes I can take a little more than I give. Although this was a difficult realization, it is something that I can easily work on, and that I plan to make a goal, now that I have more clarity. Type 8 is the challenger, and it is true that I tend to avoid confrontation where possible. What I am taking from this, is that I should work on my confidence, speak up when I should, and work on challenging myself to be more disciplined and to do more things that scare me. Type 9 is the peacemaker. This outcome was the most difficult for me to unpack, because after growing up in a house of 6, I thought I had learned how to keep the peace. What I took away from this result is that I am okay with not being the peacekeeper, and that I would rather be confident and stand up for what is right (and what I believe in).

Overall, the enneagram allowed me to dive more deeply into myself and to see the strength in my weaknesses, and the challenges in my strengths. I would recommend that everyone try out the enneagram, keep an open mind, and see what you can learn about yourself.

• Enneagram
• introspection
• personality test