Blossom Into You

The enneagram is a geometric figure symbolizing 9 personality types.  It developed out of ancient wisdom traditions and combined with modern psychology to evolve over the years into a personality system.  The primary use of the enneagram is self-discovery and personal growth.  As with personality typing the goal is not to label you and put you in a box, but rather to make you aware of the box you are in.  Once you know and understand your ‘box’, you can take control and use all the different aspects to your advantage.

The enneagram helps you to identify your positive traits as well as the unhelpful, self-limiting ones.  Your type will alert you to your basic fears and desires as well as your compensatory self concept, the image that you project to the world.  The arrows of integration help you to make conscious decisions and identify goals that will fulfill you while the arrows of disintegration help you become aware of unconscious and compulsive behaviour.  Levels of development help you to map your growth and make you aware of your ‘wake up calls’ and what red flags to look out for to keep you from slipping into the unhealthy levels.  Being aware of your type can help you in relationships to know what you are looking for and what gets in the way of satisfying relationships, with loved ones as well as working colleagues.  Parenting is made a lot easier if you understand yourself better, not to mention the enormous impact of fully understanding your child and allowing and accepting their being different from (or the same as!) you.

Regarding career development your enneagram type can give you a lot of information on the kind of work you would like, the ideal workplace for you, the kind of things that will motivate you and add to your energy levels, those things that will drain you and leave you unfulfilled; as well as insight on your behaviour and relationships at work.

It is not always possible or necessary to make a complete change of work once you gain a better understanding of yourself, sometimes all you may need is to tweak your current job a little, shift the focus, do a little more of what makes you happy and a little less of what saps your energy.  Being aware of what works for you and what not may be all you need to take control of your working life to slowly and consciously creating the career you really want.