5 Reasons to Learn More About Your Enneagram Type

Better well-being starts with a better understanding of yourself.

If you want to make changes in your life and take steps towards self-improvement, it’s really important to start with a solid foundation of self-awareness. This is where knowing your Enneagram type can be really helpful.

The key reason to learn more about your Enneagram type is to understand your core motivations, fears and driving emotions. By diving into your Enneagram type, you can learn how you respond to stress, how you adapt to different environments and the steps you can take for personal development.

Shift your mindset this year by getting to know your inner motivations and how to make the most of your strengths. Here are the top benefits of knowing more about your Enneagram type.

1. Increase your confidence

The Enneagram maps out your deepest fears, your strongest motivators and your key personality traits. The result? It can feel like your whole personality is falling into place, laid out on a page in black-and-white.

Think about your Enneagram like an in-depth insight into what makes you who you are. Armed with this knowledge, you can feel more confident in yourself, helping you to anticipate your weaknesses and make the most of your strengths.

By learning more about your Enneagram type, you can start to celebrate your unique abilities. Embrace your personality type to feel more capable, powerful and self-assured, whatever life throws at you.

2. Find pathways to self-improvement

What do you want to achieve this year? Chances are, you have a few goals that are related to self-improvement. Whether you’re looking to develop healthier habits, reduce stress or focus on a new skill, your Enneagram type can help you achieve your goals.

Your Enneagram type reveals challenges or situations that you might find especially difficult. By understanding your motivations and fears, you can find the pathway to self-improvement that works for your specific personality type.

This method of self-improvement also leaves more space for patience. To take an example, an Enneagram Six’s core motivation is their deep need for safety and security. When they understand how the need for safety drives their responses and actions, they can acknowledge this aspect of their personality and make allowances for it. 

That might mean Sixes would prefer taking a close friend or someone they trust with them to a new hobby or opting to travel with an organized group rather than solo backpacking. They’re still opening themselves up to new experiences, but they’re also appreciating their emotional needs and not setting unrealistic expectations.

You don’t need to be anyone other than who you are. Focus on your emotional health by appreciating what makes you special and let that guide your self-development journey. Treat yourself with kindness this year.

3. Boost your productivity

By understanding your core motivations, you can also boost your productivity. Rather than battling against your personality type, you can work with your core traits to make this year your most productive yet.

When you learn more about your Enneagram type, you get a clearer insight into what makes you tick – including what makes you excited, what you’re most likely to be passionate about and what will negatively impact your inner motivation.

Take Enneagram Eights for example. They have a strong sense of justice and are natural protectors of others. They easily get motivated to achieve their goals if they feel like they’re working towards a worthwhile cause. But they can equally get unmotivated and frustrated if they feel like they don’t have control over their choices or if they aren’t making a difference. 

Eights can use this knowledge to shape their goals. For instance, they might choose to focus on a career path that has a meaningful impact on the lives of others or volunteer for a cause they’re passionate about in their spare time. 

By appreciating the different facets of your Enneagram type, you can create an environment where you can be your most productive and most successful self!

4. Build closer connections

Enneagram types reveal patterns about how you interpret the world and the people around you. By learning more about your Enneagram type, you also get a sense of what might be holding you back when it comes to relationships, and therefore how you can turn that around and thrive in your relationships. 

Your Enneagram type can help you develop a better understanding and appreciation for others. It also reveals where you might have unconscious barriers or biases. For example, Enneagram Nines fear pushing people away so they suppress their own needs in order to avoid conflict. But sometimes, their passive-aggressiveness can end up straining their relationships even more than if they’d been honest about their feelings.

For Nines, understanding their Enneagram type can help them to develop healthier connections with others. By learning the importance of expressing themselves and being more direct with the people they love and trust, they can build stronger, more meaningful relationships.

5. Gain more compassion 

At its heart, the Enneagram personality system can help you to gain more compassion for yourself and others. By understanding the patterns of fear and emotional motivations that everyone has, you can work to reduce judgment and self-criticism.

Instead of seeing your colleague simply as being belligerent or difficult, for example, you can appreciate that maybe they’re dealing with their own fears that hold them back and prevent them from being the person you want them to be. Maybe your partner isn’t pulling away from you, they’re actually struggling with their own anxiety around rejection or vulnerability. 

Your Enneagram type can help you to foster greater compassion for people, especially when you see them struggling. Rather than criticizing others, you can get a sense of the unique challenges they’re facing in their own private lives and even get an insight into how to motivate them. 

Get to know yourself by knowing your Enneagram type

Learning more about your Enneagram type this year can open the door to a healthier, happier and more productive you. By appreciating the different Enneagram types of the people around you, you can foster more compassion and build closer relationships. Equally, you can learn to be kinder to yourself when things aren’t going the way you hoped they would and unlock new ways to motivate yourself every day.

Ready to learn more about your Enneagram type? Start by taking the FREE test here.