The Enneagram, a funky, 9-pointed geometric structure, has been all the talk in personality testing and career coaching over the past decade. The nine distinct points are conjoined with the deeper facets of the psyche (i.e. the unconscious) to pinpoint core motivations, fixations, virtues, fears, desires and temptations. If that sounds a bit woolly, then we’re here to add some clarity to the process for you.
Are you a dreamer and an innovator? Do the words empathetic, compassionate, humanitarian and cooperative resonate with you? Something is just unique about the way you’re wired, right? You have a knack for being a unique visionary who sees all the potential and “ideal” things that are out there in the world.
Being a woman sucks when it comes to income. The median salary for American women is about 85 percent of men’s, which means a woman would have to work an extra 39 days to earn what a man did in 2018. These numbers are pretty incendiary. Even if you’re not shocked, they’re going to leave a nasty taste in the mouth.
Money isn’t really about money at all. It’s about how you feel about it, or what money means to you. How you value money will determine how you use it (or don’t).
Consider these questions:
So you were hired for your dream job (or so you thought). Only now, you’ve realized that it’s not what you expected it to be. Maybe you were a bit idealistic about the industry and thought the work would be more meaningful than it actually is. Or maybe the working environment doesn’t play to your strengths—you prefer independent work when everything’s based around teams, or there are just too many rules to follow. Now you feel let down and restless, and you’re wondering whether your expectations were just too high.
My husband and I were married in 1988. While you do the math, I want to mention in passing that we had not taken any personality tests at the time, so we were blissfully unaware that we were both TJs. The fact that he had firmly decided against getting married before we were both twenty years old should have raised a flag, but at the time it seemed like common sense.
As an ENFP, I have often felt that I don’t know how to be a “real adult”—as if there is such a thing. While I may be good at listening to others or expressing my feelings, I’m not so great at everyday things like folding laundry or figuring out how to sign up for healthcare benefits. While I always wanted children, I feared I wouldn’t be a natural at caring for them.
You aren’t totally happy with your current career. Maybe it’s just a mild dissatisfaction or a yearning for a change of pace that keeps nagging at you. Or, perhaps it’s full-fledged misery that makes it difficult to pull yourself out of bed in the morning.
Either way, you feel itchy, restless, and like something needs to change in your professional life.
What superpower would you choose to help manage your health? I imagine some people might choose the power to instantly gain or lose weight or to turn their favorite junk food into healthy food. Or maybe you would like to stop time to get some extra sleep. For most Introverts, having time to themselves to process their thoughts and enjoy their inner world is not only a powerful way to re-energize, but it is essential in managing their overall health.
But what happens when you don’t get the time you need to feel your best?