Terry's 3M's

In one of the mailing lists that I am subscribed to, there have been posts of people who are interested in enneagrams. This is an ancient/rediscovered form of personality analysis. It is intended to be a way of showing you how you instinctively react/behave and from that you can make a conscious decision to change from instinctive to rational behavior. At least that is my understanding of enneagrams (pronounced any-a (short vowel)- gram) at this point.

There are subcategories, wings, and other indicators of that show what your personality is like and what motivates a lot of your actions.

It starts with nine basic types:
one is seeking perfection
two is the nuturing type
threes are go-getters
fours are emotional
fives are thinkers and anti-social
sixes are phobic but may respond to fear by acting counter-phobic
sevens are sociable
eights are strong and fight for what they believe in
nines want peace

Those are gross simplifications, of course, but they will do for now.

It came as no surprise (to me) that my basic typing is a 5. Also know as "the thinker". While others will acknowledge my intellectual capabilities, I don't think that I present a 5 personna to the world. For 5s are the most anti-social of the basic nine types. And Ebenezer Scrooge is the quintessential 5.

I doubt if my friends see me as a 5. Several will see me as a strong 8 -- an assertive type who will stand up for my rights and the rights of others. My son wouldn't see me as a 5 -- in spite of the fact that I sometimes assert that he has to go to bed on time so that I can have my alone time. And my friends know that while I do know how to make a penny or nickel scream for mercy, I am not really stingy when it comes to family and friends. Some of my friends might even think that I'm quite generous. Others might see me as a 9 -- the peacemaker. And I do try to be a peacemaker at times. I can usually see both sides of the story and I attempt to show the people involved that they are usually both right or both wrong.

It's not that I don't love or care about people. It's just that (like a lot of other 5s) I find people to be draining of my inner resources. I wasn't aware of these enneagram typings when I told Bryan that I often stay up so late at night because I need about an hour alone time for each kid. So, I often take 4 hours alone time after the kids are in bed to unwind enough to go to sleep. This sometimes means that it may be between 1 and 3 AM before I go to sleep at night. And because I am a morning person, that often means that I only sleep 4 or 5 hours a night. I sometimes supplement that with a 1 or 2 hour nap in the afternoon. But, not so much while the kids are out of school.

It was my five nature that made me choose to stay home on the fourth of July instead of going to either of the parties that I was invited to. People tend to overwhelm me and I like to be in control...at least in control of my environment.

Fives are also usually great readers and absorb knowledge. Which is why I can seldom find anyone who will play Trivia Pursuit with me...I've never lost a game. (Of course, there are two versions of the game that I would find difficult to win--the sports edition and the music edition.)

My friends and family have often suggested that I try out for Jeopardy. And while they do ocassionally have try-outs in Las Vegas, they are often held by lot because there are too many applicants. I did put my name into a drawing one time, but, my card wasn't chosen. I think I would be afraid of embarrassing myself if there were categories about which I know little--like hockey, nuclear physics, or ancient history.

Computers are wonderful tools for fives. We can communicate with people in chat rooms or on icq and just turn those programs off if we don't want company.

So, how do you discover your type? You could take a test. Or you could read about the nine types and decide which one you think you are.

When I study things, I tend to immerse myself in the studies for awhile until I decide that something else looks more interesting. That's probably why I haven't continued with the study of Greek. It's too time consuming and there are so many other things that are more fun to study.

I've finished three books in the past week. (Which is amazing considering how much time I've spent playing rpg (role-playing games) on the Super Nintendo this past week or so. One book I've misplaced and I can't seem to recall the author's name. Except that I think his initials are CF. It was an X-Files book called The Goblins. They could easily make an X-Files 2 part episode from the book. The other two books that I read were Tony Hillerman's The Fly on the Wall and Marjorie Holmes' Two from Galilee...a love story of Mary and Joseph.