The Enneagram—A Map Home, Not Just Another Personality Tool

Beyond Personality: What the Enneagram Reveals

Personality typing is everywhere. From LinkedIn posts to pop culture quizzes—people love to identify with categories. The Enneagram has gained mainstream traction, often treated like another self-improvement tool alongside Myers-Briggs, astrology, and StrengthsFinder. But unlike those systems, the Enneagram isn’t about defining who you are—it’s about seeing how you mistake your personality for yourself.

Personality is a strategy. A well-worn set of habits, reactions, and defenses that developed as a way to navigate childhood, and now, as adults, still governs our behavior in ways we don’t realize. The Enneagram exposes the particular fixation that runs beneath the surface, distorting how we experience life. It shows us how we habitually see, react, and defend—without realizing we’re doing it.

Your Type Isn’t Who You Are—It’s What You’re Stuck In

Unlike Myers-Briggs, where the goal is to lean into your strengths, the Enneagram’s purpose is to liberate you from your automatic patterns. Your type isn’t an identity to embrace—it’s a mechanism to observe, question, and ultimately loosen.

For example, if you’re a Type 2 (The Helper), you don’t just “love to give”—you may be unconsciously motivated by a need to be needed. A Type 3 (The Achiever) isn’t just driven—they may be fixated on external success to avoid feeling unworthy. A Type 6 (The Loyalist), like me, doesn’t just seek security—I spent years unconsciously structuring my life to create the illusion of safety, all while acting strong and decisive so no one (including myself) would see the fear underneath.

This is why finding your type can be difficult—our fixations are hidden from us. We don’t see our motivations clearly because we are inside them.

Liberation, Not Self-Improvement

If we use the Enneagram correctly, it isn’t a tool for self-betterment—it’s a tool for seeing. When we recognize the underlying motivation that drives us, we stop reacting automatically. We stop mistaking personality for self. We stop reinforcing the same suffering.

Personality, when unchecked, narrows our perception. But when we bring attention to it—when we sense, feel, and observe the movement of our fixation—it begins to lose its grip. We wake up, even just a little.

And that’s the point.

The Enneagram isn’t about becoming a “better” version of your type. It’s about using the map to find your way home—to what’s beneath it.