Can Your Enneagram Type Change?

Do you want to know if your Enneagram type changes? 🤔 It's a curious thought! So, let's dive into this question and discuss it together!

Getting to Know The Enneagram and The Core Motivations

The Enneagram is a dynamic and insightful personality tool that shows nine different types of people based on their core motivations. These core motivations are made up of a core desire and a core fear. You can think about these nine core motivations as nine different patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior that are driven by pursuing the core desire AND avoiding the core fear.

For example, suppose you are a type One in the Enneagram. How you think, feel, and behave is driven by pursuing your core desire to be good and right, AND avoiding your core fear of being morally corrupt, evil, or wrong. Or, if you're a type Four, the way you think, feel, and behave is driven by pursuing your core desire to be special and unique and avoiding your core fear of being insignificant and ordinary.

Nobody knows for sure how these patterns are formed, but it's wise to believe that it's a combination of nature and nurture, the traits that we were born with interacting with our life experiences and relationships. These patterns stay consistent, but what's interesting is that the expression of these patterns may look different in various seasons and settings.

The Enneagram is a Dynamic Personality Tool

Unlike other personality typologies, the Enneagram is a dynamic personality tool that helps us to understand not just how we think, feel, and behave in general but also how we think, feel, and behave in different situations and contexts. As we know, we show up differently at work vs. at home with our family. We show up differently when life is all fine and dandy vs. when life keeps throwing us one problem after another. So, though our core motivation stays the same, the expression of that motivation can look different. We can learn more about these differences in expressions by learning about the paths of the Enneagram.

For example, an Enneagram type Seven is generally upbeat, energetic, and optimistic. Type Sevens are truly the joy-bomb of the Enneagram. However, at work, they might show up more as a type One and become more meticulous and perfectionist. Another example is a type Nine, who is generally calm and easy-going can show up more as an unhealthy Six in stressful situations and become more anxious and paranoid.

TL;DR

So, can your Enneagram type change? The answer is no, not really. Your core motivation, what drives your thinking, feeling, and behavior, stays the same. However, the expression of those motivations can look different in various seasons and settings.

To learn more about other types' core fears and desires, download the free guide Discover Your Enneagram Type below. 👇