The Honest Enneagram

This can look like frantically doing tasks as a way to feel like you’re making up for what hasn’t been done—the same kind of energy you experience when you’ve slept through your alarm and need to get ready in five minutes.

In childhood, type nines learned that the best way to keep the peace was to minimize their own presence.

Turn That Into Something Beautiful
Creativity is important for all types. But having a creative outlet is important for type nines because it can be such a great way to get to know yourself, experience a comforting and peaceful outlet, and allow you to find things that you truly love doing.
So what do you as a type nine need to keep in mind when it comes to creativity?
Break it up into tiny, bite-sized pieces; do the tiniest first step, and go from there.
Everything is Google-able. If you don’t know how to do it yet, you can always find out. There are great resources, like tutorials on YouTube and Skillshare, or you can always take a class.
Make sure that you’re doing something that is yours and not the interest of a partner or close friend. This is your creative expression, not an extension of theirs.
There is no wrong or right way to be creative—just do stuff and see what happens.
If you’re not sure how you’d like to get creative or what outlet interests you, just start doing things. Don’t try to figure it out in your mind, just do one thing this week and see how it feels. Then try something else next week, until you find one thing you want to keep doing.

4. Start to view hiding yourself as lying to people you care about.
This may seem really intense, but that’s what we’re doing when we’re not open with others about who we are. We’re lying to them. We’re playing a role that makes them comfortable with us without having to be open and vulnerable ourselves. We convince them we’re what they want us to be and create a dynamic not built on honest connection, but instead on hiding who we are. Next time you consider hiding who you are to make others comfortable, ask yourself if you feel OK lying to them and choose radical honesty instead.

3. Do something “hard” every week.
It’s important for our type nines to practice building muscle—not necessarily physically, but mentally—by building up the habit of pushing through uncomfortable steps in the process. I encourage type nines to do one hard thing each week, something that pushes you out of your comfort zone and past what you think you’re capable of.

2. Focus on knowing your priorities.
One of the biggest struggles our type nines can experience is with the ability to truly prioritize. When looking at a list of tasks, everything seems equally important and, therefore, equally overwhelming. Taking the time to set your priorities each month will aid you in creating a filter through which to run opportunities and tasks. If your priority is finishing a quilt, then ask yourself, “Will this task help me get closer to finishing my quilt?” If not, let it go.

1. Spend more time out alone doing things.
It’s important for type nines to take time away from others to see what they truly love doing. What kind of food do you enjoy? What kind of activities make you happy? What would you do if no one were impacted by your decisions? This will help you get more intimate with your identity and preferences so that it’s easier to share them over time.

I want to give you these four soft internal shifts to make—just four things to hold on to each and every day that will help you in the work of being your healthiest type nine self

Take a few minutes to think of your own lists. Write down what you personally bring to your relationships, both positively and negatively.
Now, take a few moments here to think of the three most important relationships in your life. Write out how you would like for them to feel. How would they change if you could imagine a world where they were exactly as you hoped?
What about your lists would need to shift in order to have the relationships that you want?

nowing what you can control and what isn’t yours to worry about can be an extremely relaxing move to make. That tiny list up there, that’s it. Think about that! You are doing so much right!