Hey, everybody, I wanted to talk for a second about the Enneagram, those of you who know me know I’m a little bit of an Enneagram freak, and I actually was introduced to this show probably over 10 years ago by a really good friend. And just it’s really grown on me in that time. And I will say, honestly, I probably used it almost every day since. So that’s kind of a disclaimer. But let me tell you, as I use it more in my own life and talk with friends about it and use it in counseling, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that it can be really healing and it can be really helpful and has been really helpful for me, but it can also be misunderstood and lead us in the wrong direction.

And I wanted to talk for a second about why. So with its popularity as it’s grown exponentially in the last few years, so have a lot of different assessments and tests and all this stuff that that people are doing to try to figure out their number. Right. And that’s all well and good. And I use some of that stuff, but I always use it with the understanding that it’s just to point you in the right direction. OK, so the Enneagram is not a personality test, OK?

It was originally developed and used by spiritual directors and other people like that as a as a means of personal growth. And that’s where the strength of it lies, is that it helps us understand our core motivations and the things that are really deep and really affecting us at a base level. OK, now the difficulty of that is that sometimes that really deep stuff is hard to get to. OK, so the analogy that I always use is you can have the same foundation and you could build a multiple different houses on that foundation.

Right. You could have the same foundation and you could put a ranch on it. You could put a Cape Cod on it. You could have a two story with a two car garage and an addition off the back. But the foundation is the same. So the Enneagram helps us look at that foundation and figure out what that is. The downside is sometimes we have to do some digging to get down to it. So I always encourage people don’t get stuck on your number, but stay open and stay willing to consider that you may not know everything because you may get down to another level and find out that that, you know, it’s a false floor.

There’s another level below that one. The other thing I want to say about this just briefly, is that as I’ve come to know my number, one of the things I’ve realized is that I’m always offended when people talk about my no, I’m like, no, I’m not that way. That’s not how I am. Right. And then I have to stop and go, OK, I’m growing. So I’m not that way most of the time. Right.

But the base of it is very few of us want to be who we are. And so we spend our lives a lot of times trying to be somebody that we’re not. And so the beauty of the Enneagram is that when we get to know who we are, we find out the strength of who we are and we can really love who we authentically are. But in the beginning stages of this journey, a lot of times we will answer these profiles as we’re reading will highlight stuff that would suggest that we’re the person we want to be instead of the person we really are.

So the good news is that you can find out who you really are. The bad news is that you may have to stop and just take a deep breath and go, OK, I’m really offended by this. And maybe there’s a reason for that.

Not always, but maybe so. I would just encourage you, if you’re in the Enneagram, if you’re doing any of this stuff, I think it’s a powerful, powerful tool. But stay open. Don’t get locked into I am this no and use it as an opportunity for self exploration. Always questioning why do I feel this way, what’s lying underneath. And of course I nerd out on this stuff so hard. So if you if you want more information, just let me know.

I’d love to talk about this all day, every day. And like I said, it’s been like that for over a decade, so I’d be happy to chat with any of you about it and answer questions or, you know, point as a resource as any that kind of stuff. So hopefully that’s helpful.

And good luck with those numbers.