Mastery Mondays

The Enneagram is a tool that awakens our compassion for people just as they are, not the people we wish they would become so our lives would become easier.

If you seek to better understand yourself and others you're probably really into personality typing tests. Aside from the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the enneagram is another deep dive into personality typing. But, how accurate is the enneagram test? "The accuracy of the enneagram types depends to a great deal on how well the user of the model can interpret the elements of the model," the website Enneagram User Guide explained. "The difficulty in learning the enneagram types doesn't come from a lack of learning resources. The difficulty comes from learning how to interpret all the concepts and labels used."

At first glance the enneagram can look like complex geometry. With nine types, 27 subtypes, and three basic centers, there's a lot to learn. I took an enneagram testand it revealed that I am type five, also known as the investigator. This means I tend to be cerebral, intense, perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.

"T

he difficulty comes from learning how to interpret all the concepts and labels used. For example, the passion of type [seven] is said to be 'gluttony.' If I look up 'gluttony' in the dictionary it says something like this: habitual greed or excess in eating," the Enneagram User Guide noted. "That is NOT what type [seven] is about. The idea of 'passion' and the word 'gluttony' need to be reinterpreted in terms of the enneagram types. Often that reinterpretation begins with a statement such as the passion of type [seven] is 'a gluttony of the mind' and then continues. There are dozens of words like 'passion' and 'gluttony' that are associated with the types. That's a lot of interpretation to learn."

Basically, you shouldn't take all of the words literally. The enneagram is subjective, kind of like astrology, which means you have to interpret the results as they apply to you. HelloGiggles writer Toria Sheffield took the enneagram test, for instance, and revealed that her results were eerily accurate. "The results got into things like my deepest fears, my greatest insecurities, and my key motivators for doing many of the things I do — both the good and the bad," Sheffield wrote. "Sometimes it was almost cuttingly accurate — as if your most honest, no-BS friend sat you down and told you exactly what you needed to work on."

Like Sheffield, I also found my results to be pretty spot on. According to the enneagram, my basic fears are being useless, helpless, and incapable. My basic desire is to be capable and competent. In addition to my basic type, I also have two wings, or adjacent types. One is the iconoclast, which means I am always questing beliefs and institutions that other people blindly follow. My second wing is the problem solver, and this could not be more accurate: I am the go-to person friends come to when they want advice because options that others don't consider are glaringly obvious to me.

The website Statistical Solutions reported that The Enneagram Institute's Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI) is 72 percent accurate, which is a pretty high score for this type of test. "Studies concluded the instrument as scientifically 'valid and reliable' as a test instrument with 'solid psychometrics.' The internal consistency reliability scores show that the RHETI ranges from 56 [percent] to 82 [percent] accurate on various types; with an overall accuracy of 72 [percent].

However, only you can determine if your results are accurate for you. Whether or not you're a reformer, a helper, an achiever, an individualist, an investigator, a loyalist, an enthusiast, a challenger, or a peacemaker depends on how you interpret your enneagram results, which means that you shouldn't take all of the words in your type literally. Curious? Take the enneagram test to see how accurately it describes you. It's kind of creepy how on the nose it was for me.

Passions & Strengths

Have you taken the Enneagram test? What number are you/did you think it was accurate?