rach was telling me and shanno last night about enneagrams. i'd heard of them before. she had turned brendan on to them in the spring, and i forgot to look up mine. it's similar to myers-briggs personality profiling, but is a different system. rach likes this one better because she says it takes things like childhood trauma into consideration.
so i did an online test, and it determined that i'm a 7, loosely named "the enthusiast". the description is unbelievable, it told me things about myself that i didn't know but are definitely true. it surmises that...
my basic fear is of being deprived or in pain
that my basic desire is to be satisfied and content - to my have needs fulfiled.
that my key motivations are a want to maintain my freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, and to keep myself excited and occupied, and to avoid pain.
yes. as i thought back over the last decade of my life, i'd say this is remarkably accurate. my freedom is VERY important to me, i hate the thought of missing out of meaningful experiences, and i generally strive for my next adventure so that i maintain my level of excitement and remain occupied. it also talked about my need to write things down as a means of "downloading" the contents of my head. SO INTERESTING!
one of the most significant things that i've learned so far is that this personality type has a unique desire for freedom and to experience as much of the world as possible. oh man! what a relief it is to know this. no wonder i fear convention. realizing this is helping me let go of the frustration and (i must confess...) distain i've felt towards certain life-styles. actually it's not even the life-style so much, it's really that i want to shake the people and say "don't you know there's way more to life than following the footsteps of social norms??" but different personality types desire different things. such as... to be loved unconditionally; to be good and have integrity; to be valuable; to be unique and authentic; to feel safe; to maintain inner stability and peace of mind. it's a relief to finally understand this about others. i feel remorseful for feeling annoyed and being judgemental.
i've also learned the difference between myself functioning poorly and functioning fully. i'm also coming to understand brendan better after reading his enneagram. he's a peace maker (9).
it seems some people are more into personality profiles than others. i'm not really sure why that is. one guy i knew mostly didn't like being boxed in. if you haven't done a myers-briggs or enneagream test before (they don't take very long) i really encourage you to (click here). it's super helpful and sightful. it reveals weaknesses that often go unnoticed. if you do the test tell me what you are, i'm really interested!
i got a call from the passport office about being a reference on joanna's application. how odd, since we'd just been talking about how people never get called. so funny! i was kind of nervous. i didn't know what kind of things they'd ask me. in the end i had to give a physical description of her, explain what her job is, where she lived, where she used to live, i think i did ok. hopefully!! i have my passport application all filled in, i just need to get some photos taken. maybe i'll try to do that tonight when i'm downtown. b's taking me to chien noir tonight for dinner!! fancy :D
so i did an online test, and it determined that i'm a 7, loosely named "the enthusiast". the description is unbelievable, it told me things about myself that i didn't know but are definitely true. it surmises that...
my basic fear is of being deprived or in pain
that my basic desire is to be satisfied and content - to my have needs fulfiled.
that my key motivations are a want to maintain my freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, and to keep myself excited and occupied, and to avoid pain.
yes. as i thought back over the last decade of my life, i'd say this is remarkably accurate. my freedom is VERY important to me, i hate the thought of missing out of meaningful experiences, and i generally strive for my next adventure so that i maintain my level of excitement and remain occupied. it also talked about my need to write things down as a means of "downloading" the contents of my head. SO INTERESTING!
one of the most significant things that i've learned so far is that this personality type has a unique desire for freedom and to experience as much of the world as possible. oh man! what a relief it is to know this. no wonder i fear convention. realizing this is helping me let go of the frustration and (i must confess...) distain i've felt towards certain life-styles. actually it's not even the life-style so much, it's really that i want to shake the people and say "don't you know there's way more to life than following the footsteps of social norms??" but different personality types desire different things. such as... to be loved unconditionally; to be good and have integrity; to be valuable; to be unique and authentic; to feel safe; to maintain inner stability and peace of mind. it's a relief to finally understand this about others. i feel remorseful for feeling annoyed and being judgemental.
i've also learned the difference between myself functioning poorly and functioning fully. i'm also coming to understand brendan better after reading his enneagram. he's a peace maker (9).
it seems some people are more into personality profiles than others. i'm not really sure why that is. one guy i knew mostly didn't like being boxed in. if you haven't done a myers-briggs or enneagream test before (they don't take very long) i really encourage you to (click here). it's super helpful and sightful. it reveals weaknesses that often go unnoticed. if you do the test tell me what you are, i'm really interested!
i got a call from the passport office about being a reference on joanna's application. how odd, since we'd just been talking about how people never get called. so funny! i was kind of nervous. i didn't know what kind of things they'd ask me. in the end i had to give a physical description of her, explain what her job is, where she lived, where she used to live, i think i did ok. hopefully!! i have my passport application all filled in, i just need to get some photos taken. maybe i'll try to do that tonight when i'm downtown. b's taking me to chien noir tonight for dinner!! fancy :D
mark my footsteps,
tread in them boldly.
2 comments:
I'm a 4 on the enneagram. I also learned things about myself that I didn't know. I found it incredibly enlightening.
My basic fear is that I have no identity or personal significance.
My basic desire is to find myself and my significance (to create an identity).
When I learned that, suddenly my whole teenage-hood made sense to me.
I feel like it has also helped me learn things I can do to keep myself from feeling stressed out and on a even keel.
When I take the test you linked to, Les, it tells me I am a 1 - the perfectionist, basic desire to be good and perfect. HA! I am one of the least perfectionistic people I know. And I really don't care if people think I'm good or not.
It might be helpful for people to know that with enneagram it is often more useful to just read through the descriptions of the types and see which one resonates most with you. Once you come upon your basic fear, motivation and desire, it'll usually jump right out at you. The tests can be very misleading for this one I find. And when Jason and I had the big, huge book about it, it said that, too. It actually discouraged taking enneagram tests (not to say they're always wrong, but just good to know).
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