So Typically Lydia: An Enneagram Series Part 1

My obsession about the Enneagram grew slowly over the past year. As one who loves personality quizzes and learning about myself, the Enneagram originally seemed like another one to just add to the list. A list that consists of:

• 16 Personalities: The Protagonist
• Myers-Briggs: ENFJ or INFJ depending on my mood and the way the questions are asked

• Strengths Finder 2007: Communication, Woo, Connectedness, Adaptability, Strategic
• Strengths Finder 2019: Input, Connectedness, Strategic, Belief, Individualization

As you can see, I changed quite a bit between 2007 and 2019. Not to mention that if you simply searched Star Wars Myers-Briggs you would get a bunch of different interpretations of which characters are what combinations. Knowing that I will change over time as a person, personality tests are mostly for fun and to see how close they get to understanding who I am. Until recently, I never really looked at them as a way to learn about myself since they identified what I already knew. 

Enter the Enneagram. If you've never heard of it, I will not judge you if you leave this post to go down the rabbit hole of information about it. If I may, I would like to offer some starting points. The person you need to look into is Ian Cron. He wrote the book that changed my life, but I need to slow down and start from the beginning.

The Enneagram is not like a conventional personality test. In addition to providing insight into who I am, it lays bare the motivations of WHY I am. Let me tell you, facing the many facets of Lydia Croupe proved tougher than I thought it'd be. 

The basic idea is that everyone falls into one of nine types. No one falls 100% into one type, so there are wings for the numbers to either side. For example, I am a Type 1. My wing possibility is either a 9 or a 2. (I happen to be a Type 1 Wing 2). Additionally, I can take on the traits of other types under situations of stress or when I'm in a healthy place. 

I know this is a gross simplification of how awesome and moving understanding your Enneagram type can be. Start here with this online test to see where you fall in the types. Please understand, you should not hold the results as gospel which I will explain in a moment; and you should know that you will need to provide an email for results which may mean removing yourself from a list later.   

The thing about the Enneagram that is different from other personality tests is you don't rely on the test to decide your type. Sometimes, two types may be very similar to each other, but the motivations differ. This is why the online assessment is a starting point. It will at least provide you with types to look at first. Once you begin reading up on the various types, you may find the online test assessed correctly. That is fine too.

The next step after taking the online test is studying up on your Enneagram type. There are plenty of resources out there. I will be using The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile for this series and highly recommend it. Now, it does come from a place of exploring your spirituality since Cron is an Episcopal priest, but there is so much more that I still highly recommend the book even if this is not your faith of choice. Once you read up on your possible types, you'll know exactly which type you are. Trust me. It becomes pretty obvious once Cron and Stabile start opening up the heart of each type. 

This blog series is partly to spread the word about Enneagram and partly to share more of myself with others. If any of you have known me for a long enough time, there might be very little I share that you don't already know. Ha ha ha. If nothing else, I hope that showing how better understanding myself helps me understand others inspires you to do the same.

I will leave you with one of the quotes about Ones that resonated with me, "...the One's commitment to living an exemplary life can quickly degenerate into a rigid perfectionism that can be tortuous both for Ones and for others."