So Maybe I’m Not Sure of My Enneagram Type

This post is #9 in my September Writing Project. Details are here.

Prompt: What’s your enneagram number?

Before I jump into my enneagram type, how about a quick overview?

The enneagram is a personality-type test. After completing a questionnaire, you’re given a number 1-9. These names are from here and the descriptions are from here.

1. The Reformer – principled, purposeful, self-controlled, perfectionistic 
2. The Helper – generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, possessive
3. The Achiever – adaptable, excelling, driven, image-conscious
4. The Individualist – expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, temperamental
5. The Investigator – perceptive, innovative, secretive, isolated
6. The Loyalist – engaging, responsible, anxious, suspicious
7. The Enthusiast – spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, scattered
8. The Challenger – self-confident, decisive, willful, confrontational
9. The Peacemaker – receptive, reassuring, complacent, resigned

Beyond that, you usually have a wing as well. A wing is one of the numbers on either side of yours and provides some shading. 

So this was an interesting post to put together. I took the enneagram test for the first time years ago at a work event and was split pretty evenly between a 3 and a 9. The facilitator suggested I was more 3 than 9, and we eventually settled on me being a 3w2 (3 with a 2 wing). 

Then I took the test again in another work training… and the results were different. This time I was a 9w1. 

No one type is better or worse than another, but it was confusing. One of the principles of the enneagram is that your base type doesn’t change. 

To try and solve this conundrum for today’s post, I took two more tests online. Today I’m apparently a 2w3. I’m researching though and it seems that moms who are 9s often mistype as 2s because so much of their life revolves around helping their kiddos. 

For the last few years I’ve been identifying as a 9. So much of the peacemaker persona feels good to me. I am ALL ABOUT peace and harmony and optimism and staying the hell away from conflict.

Right? Isn’t that who I am?

I’m not totally convinced.

Both 2 and 3 feel like they could be right, and since they “wing” each other, I’m starting to wonder if I might fit more solidly in one of those two personality types. They both fall in the “feeling center” which seems right for me. Different sections of the enneagram have issues when one loses contact with the core of the self. The 2s and 3s both feel shame, as opposed to the 9s that feel rage. I’m more in line with 2 and 3 here too.

I had no idea that this post would lead to an identity crisis. Commence research.

The Enneagram Institute’s website is FULL of information. I’ve read a lot of it and don’t feel any closer to identifying my true type. I can decisively rule out every other type, but the 2-3-9 conundrum has me confounded.

So I’m off to my next source: the @enneagramandcoffee Instagram account.

I’m not sure I’m much closer to making a determination, but I’m going to scroll through this account for another 2 hours and maybe I’ll report back later.

Have you ever taken the enneagram test? Did you get a clear answer?