How to use an Enneagram chart to understand your personality

Key quotes:

• "Now there are behavioral-science-based systems, too: One data-backed system, developed by researchers at Northwestern University, sorts people by clusters, identifying four basic types — average, reserved, self-centered, or role model — based on over a million respondents who took an intensive personality test."
• "He argued for nine basic personality types, four of which were based on Hippocrates’ humors: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic."
• "It also provided the underpinning of personality typing systems to come after that, emerging in the works of Carl Jung and in the Enneagram."
• "Personality typing systems are arguably the most useful when they provide a common language and shorthand for communicating something about yourself quickly, and astrology is the perfect system for that because many people (particularly millennials) have a baseline familiarity with it."

Key quotes:

• "Each one represents something different (Zodiac Sun Sign, Hogwarts House, MBTI Type, and Dungeons & Dragons Alignment) and I can list all of these personality signifiers right off of the top of my head."
• "Now, I don’t want to get into a whole “astrology is fake” rabbit hole here (I don’t think that for the record), but all of these personality tests are intentionally a little bit vague."
• "“Perhaps it is a millennial thing to be leaning into [personality tests] because for the most part I feel that previous generations had an easier time just being a part of a group: suburban families, their church, country clubs, etcetera, but those institutions have fallen to the wayside in recent generations so grouping ourselves in fandoms or personality types is a fun, maybe less problematic way, to get to be a part of that great village,” Diop said."

Transcript: This is the Enneagram Enneagram simply means nine sides this personality typing system has nine types it looks a bit like a star you can think of it as a star to help you find your place in the world the Enneagram dates at least as far back as Homer's Odyssey and probably much further early Catholic fathers taught and used the Enneagram the Enneagram personality system is based on the idea of man being spirit soul and body the antia Graham is mainly concerned with the soul which has three aspects mind will and emotion there are three types relating to each aspect of the soul three will types eight the boss or leader nine the mediator or pacemaker one the perfectionist or reformer the three heart types are to the giver or helper 3 the driven success loving achiever for the romantic or individualist the 3 mind types are five the observer or teacher six the loyalists or trooper who gains identity and security from participation in a group and seeks to overcome fear through gaining strength 7 the Epicure who is filled with sussed for life the Daisy a happy and restful flower represents the mediator or... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Called Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), this is considered the original personality assessment tool that changed the game."
• "And yet it’s used frequently by Fortune 500 companies and the military, as Merve Emre, author of The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs And the Birth of Personality Testing, points out in her book."
• "The Myers-Briggs test separates people into 16 categories of personalities, providing insights into general strengths and weaknesses, desires and ambitions, communication styles, how people perceive you, and how you see the world."
• "As crazy as it may sound, personality tests have often been used as a way to assess the qualities of potential work candidates, as well as their overall fit within a company."
• "Today, the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator is the most popular personality test in the world used by Fortune 100 companies, universities, hospitals, churches, and the military to sort-of summarise who you are and what you bring to the table."

Transcript: What observation other people can be very interesting from you I studied the Enneagram to be honest people become endlessly fascinating and going into a social situation where there's a lot of people around and there's food and drinks the different types are likely to react quite differently so if you are a good observer of people you might pick up on some of these types the ones likely to walk into the room and it almost immediately see what is not been done well or it's not it's not perfect enough you're likely to find the one going around straightening pictures or tidying up the rows of cutlery or reorganizing things on the table that the nitpicking quality of the one is what tends to show even though the one might not necessarily show you the one that's what going on inside the one but the one observes things in the room when the two comes into a situation like that they tend to focus on people and their they tend to pick up very quickly on anybody that's not be not feeling particularly happy or doesn't seem to be fitting in and they will approach people and encourage... See more →

Key quotes:

• "The best way to create relatable characters with whom your readers empathize is to understand how human nature can change over time."
• "The Enneagram details 9 internal levels of development where your main character can find him or herself at any point in time."
• "Each of these 9 levels of development represents a major paradigm shift in awareness, meaning your main character changes — for better or worse."
• "Have a look at the different levels below and see if you can place your main character(s) at the beginning of your story and where you want them to be at the end."
• "The key is to make your main character use his or her personality traits to climb from their initial “developmental level” to a higher one (in the case of a successful denouement) or sink to a lower one (in the case of a tragic ending)."
• "This level of development has your character manipulating or controlling their world and others to try to get their basic desires met."

Key quotes:

• "Personality meets Spirituality in “The Wisdom of the Enneagram” by Riso & Hudson (Book Summary) This post dives deeper into Enneagram types 3, 5, and 1."
• "Post Contents: Enneagram Type Test #1 The first “test” in the book includes reading brief descriptions of the nine types to determine which ones resonate the most."
• "Main Themes of the Competency Group: Cut off feelings and solve problems logically Main Themes Self-Analysis: In the past, I believe I resonated most with Types 3 & 1."
• "Core Identifications: Core Identifications Self-Analysis: In the past, I believe I resonated most with Types 3 & 1."
• "Something along the lines of Steve Prefontaine’s quote, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Basic Desires & Distortions: Basic Desires Self-Analysis: In this case, I resonate with all three types."
• "I will become present to my life only when: Becoming Present Self-Analysis: I resonate with all three types here."

Transcript: The iniya gram a liberating theory of personality we start small and innocent in this world life was safe in the womb but just the struggle to breathe when we make our appearance in this world is an indication that life is sometimes painful no one likes pain and it is human nature to protect ourselves to cope with pain is as if we put on armor another term for that armor is personality problem is sometimes we think our personality armor is who we truly are and we lose sight of our true selves the armor that once protect us often ends up keeping us from being who we truly are and causes all kinds of problems in relationships and life in general wouldn't it be nice to people identify what is our personality armor and what is our true selves there is a way it's called the inia gram while modern personality tests are intended to identify pathology and create labels for diagnosing the ideogram is a system of studying personality armor patterns that actually provides an awareness of the pattern which then allows for a release of that personality pattern the ideogram is an ancient system of... See more →

Transcript: From the heart space to the head space even though I hope you're seeing as I go on I hope you have time to go into it these are melding into one another there is an overlapping and in fact if you look at the classic diagram of the anagram the biggest space in the diagram is right now between the 4 and the 5 if you have one in front of you see right there it's the biggest space now that was intentional in the in the geometric diagram the reason being if you can bridge that gap between head and heart that person is especially creative holistic and again I'd speak to Thomas Merton Thomas mertens books will speak to your heart and your head simultaneously but it's one of the hardest bridges to gap to be fully in your heart and fully in your head and have them not cancel one another out huh good intellectual work and good emotional work and have the emotions feed the head and the head feed the emotions but let's pretend we've jumped over that gap we're now under the five space the five is the pure obvious compulsion remember that... See more →

Transcript: Hey guys super excited to wrap up our series called you and we saved the best for last the nines the peacemaker and the reason that we picked him to be last is because we knew they wouldn't start a fight with us because we made them last so we're super grateful for all of our peacemakers in our church man we're so grateful for you we love you so much look I'm gonna challenge you today I hopefully I'm gonna inspire you to be all that God has called you to be but peacemakers are absolutely amazing we're gonna look at an incredible peacemaker in your Bibles let's open our Bibles up to Genesis chapter 18 verses 20 through 33 it's interesting that when God starts our faith he chooses a nine to begin with somebody who has a heart for peacemaking who has a heart to literally see both sides and just be an incredible incredible person but it takes an extraordinary person to negotiate peace with God and that's where our story begins Genesis 18 chapter or Scott chapter 18 verse 20 it says so the Lord told Abraham I have heard a great outcry from Sodom... See more →