[MBTI General] Using the Enneagram for My Own Personal Growth

[ygolo]

Well, what is the point of learning this stuff if we aren't going to try to use it?

So, I am a Type 5 with balances wings. When I was younger, I think I was 5w4, but my six wing became quite a bit stronger in my mid to late 20's.

Reading through the level's of health, I place myself at level 4 (the top average level). You can decide for yourself whether this is correct or not. I appreciate honest, constructive feedback. Note: I don't believe overall mental health equates with the "enneagram health"

So anyway, here is what 5 - Enneagram Type Five: The Investigator gives as level 4:

Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.

The next level up is:

Level 3: Attain skillful mastery of whatever interests them. Excited by knowledge: often become expert in some field. Innovative and inventive, producing extremely valuable, original works. Highly independent, idiosyncratic, and whimsical.

In Riso-Hudson's book: Amazon.com: Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery (0046442798679): Russ Hudson, Don Richard Riso: Books there is an even more in depth discussion.

The basic difference between Level 4 vs. Level 3 is that level 4 is constantly preparing while level 3 is doing. Level 3 acknowledges that you don't need to be fully prepared to start a project. Level 3 has confidence that what needs to be known or learned can be learned on the fly.

So the question is: How does one gain the confidence to start projects without "full" preparation?

Would you start a business without being completely prepared?
Would you commit to being able to take on a project at work without knowing ahead of time that you could handle it?

Interestingly enough, there is a career development class I am going to take through work, and part of the theory that class will use says a similar thing is necessary for me to move into the next stage of my career.

It says, specifically, that I must learn to develop my own ideas and judgments, cultivate my own standards of performance, and develop confidence in my own judgment.

 

[1487610420]

Don't waste your energy on these matters. It's better channeled on the actual projects, improving the said preparation. Just use your knowledge and common sense. We had an [engineering] undergrad discipline about innovation & enterperneurship , and the teacher said the goal was for us to realize how much we need professionals for the other areas that we are not specialists in. That's how you increase your chances of success, with a multi-disciplinary team. You handle what you know, and let others to the same.

Life isn't about making arrangements, otherwise we'd get a second round.

 

[TopherRed]

Ygolo! Spontaneity! It's something ENFJs are good at.

Quite frankly, this requires failing forward; meaning, you cannot always prepare for a project...sometimes you need to wing it, and sometimes you lose. That means going full boar into something and trusting your instincts (intuition) reguarding whatever you're working on, rather than studying up and preparing all the data.

In other words, you won't be able to have confidence in it, at least not at first.

Your instinct/intuition gets better with time. It will probably never be as good as a project you've fully prepared for. But the more you rely on it, the sharper it becomes.

 

[ygolo]

I guess I just have to start in on the projects I have in mind, even if I leave most of them unfinished.

Just wish work wasn't so incredibly busy.

 

[1487610420]

Try one at the time first.