In October 2019 I took the plunge and decided to connect with Amy of Enneagram with Amy, a local Enneagram coach. My friend Courtney prompted my curiosity with this personal development tool and after taking a basic quiz online to determine my type, I wanted to understand why everyone was raving about this. Sure it was cool seeing others online relate to my internal message, but I didn’t develop that sense of understanding the Enneagram is know for, after receiving my type results. In fact, I thought I took the wrong test or wasn’t understanding it properly. Amy spoke at a local event I attended and interpreted this as a divine intervention. Amy and I scheduled our sessions and began meeting one-on-one for coaching specific to my Enneagram type and my goals. I thought it would be fun for myself while helpful to others, if I published my takeaways of my 6 week coaching journey. For the next few weeks I will be sharing that week’s theme we went through, in addition to my thoughts and how I pursued those in-session prompts the rest of the week.

my experience with enneagram coaching:

Enneagram typing

Before the official sit down session, Amy sent me a link to take the Enneagram type quiz online. Beforehand I browsed the nine types from a resource online and had an idea of what I was. Taking the test, my suspicions were confirmed but since the results aren’t available on my end after, I waited for my first in person coaching session. I enjoyed the enneagram typing test because the questions were hard. They were more “what would you do” versus “what do you like”. I was stumped on a few options having to figure out what the slight difference looks like in my life and which of those eerily similar options is the most accurate reflection of me- decision making and core beliefs. During the first coaching session Amy confirmed I am an Enneagram one with a two wing- also written as 1w2. Next week I will be sharing in depth what the remainder of the first session looked like. Until then, I’m including information from the Enneagram Institute on the Enneagram Type One and recommend connecting with Amy to find out your type!

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“To be clear, the enneagram is just a tool, albeit a really really good tool, that helps to identify the lies we are believing and where we are still wearing our “old selves”. The Gospel itself is where the power is for transformation and the daily putting on of the new self. Partnered with God’s Word, and His Spirit, the enneagram truly has been a gift to me. I have experienced more freedom, more growth and more peace in myself, and more flourishing in my home, marriage, family and relationships in the past couple of years than ever before. Which leads me back to the question Why the Enneagram? Well, I just can’t keep this to myself! I want more and more people to experience freedom and fullness of life. I want people to bring their whole selves to their lives. I want people to have relationships that are flourishing and growing. And, if you are a follower of Christ, I want you to be able to live fully into who God says you are and love Him and your people whole-heartedly. If you are interested in knowing more I would love to talk with you. I am available for large group events, staff trainings, team building, as well as coaching for individuals, couples or families.” – Enneagram with Amy

THE REFORMER | Enneagram Type One

The Rational, Idealistic Type:

Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

Type One in Brief

Ones are conscientious and ethical, with a strong sense of right and wrong. They are teachers, crusaders, and advocates for change: always striving to improve things, but afraid of making a mistake. Well-organized, orderly, and fastidious, they try to maintain high standards, but can slip into being critical and perfectionistic. They typically have problems with resentment and impatience. At their Best: wise, discerning, realistic, and noble. Can be morally heroic.

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective
Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced
Enneagram One with a Two-Wing: “The Advocate”

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

Examples: Confucius, Plato, Salahuddin Ayyubi, Joan of Arc, Sir Thomas More, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, Jimmy Carter, Michelle Obama, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Elliot Spitzer, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Osama bin Laden, George Bernard Shaw, Thoreau, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), Martha Stewart, Chef Thomas Keller, Michio Kushi (macrobiotics), George Harrison, Joan Baez, Celine Dion, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Bill Moyers, George F. Will, William F. Buckley, Keith Olbermann, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Tina Fey, Katherine Hepburn, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Julie Andrews, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford, Helen Hunt, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, “Mary Poppins,” “Mr. Spock,” SNL’s “The Church Lady”

Type One Overview

We have named personality type One The Reformer because Ones have a “sense of mission” that leads them to want to improve the world in various ways, using whatever degree of influence they have. They strive to overcome adversity—particularly moral adversity—so that the human spirit can shine through and make a difference. They strive after “higher values,” even at the cost of great personal sacrifice.

History is full of Ones who have left comfortable lives to do something extraordinary because they felt that something higher was calling them. During the Second World War, Raoul Wallenburg left a comfortable middle-class life to work for the protection of thousands of European Jews from invading Nazis. In India, Gandhi left behind his wife and family and life as a successful lawyer to become an itinerant advocate of Indian independence and non-violent social changes. Joan of Arc left her village in France to restore the throne to the Dauphin and to expel the English from the country. The idealism of each of these Ones has inspired millions.

Ones are people of practical action—they wish to be useful in the best sense of the word. On some level of consciousness, they feel that they “have a mission” to fulfill in life, if only to try their best to reduce the disorder they see in their environment.

Although Ones have a strong sense of purpose, they also typically feel that they have to justify their actions to themselves, and often to others as well. This orientation causes Ones to spend a lot of time thinking about the consequences of their actions, as well as about how to keep from acting contrary to their convictions. Because of this, Ones often persuade themselves that they are “head” types, rationalists who proceed only on logic and objective truth. But, the real picture is somewhat different: Ones are actually activists who are searching for an acceptable rationale for what they feel they must do. They are people of instinct and passion who use convictions and judgments to control and direct themselves and their actions.

In the effort to stay true to their principles, Ones resist being affected by their instinctual drives, consciously not giving in to them or expressing them too freely. The result is a personality type that has problems with repression, resistance, and aggression. They are usually seen by others as highly self- controlled, even rigid, although this is not how Ones experience themselves. It seems to them that they are sitting on a cauldron of passions and desires, and they had better “keep the lid on” lest they and everyone else around them regret it.

Ones believe that being strict with themselves (and eventually becoming “perfect”) will justify them in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. But by attempting to create their own brand of perfection, they often create their own personal hell. Instead of agreeing with the statement in Genesis that God saw what He had created, “and it was good,” Ones intensely feel that “It wasn’t—there obviously have been some mistakes here!” This orientation makes it difficult for them to trust their inner guidance—indeed, to trust life—so Ones come to rely heavily on their superego, a learned voice from their childhood, to guide them toward “the greater good” which they so passionately seek. When Ones have gotten completely entranced in their personality, there is little distinction between them and this severe, unforgiving voice. Separating from it and seeing its genuine strengths and limitations is what growth for Ones is about.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 99-100)