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Enneagram 8

Type Eight—Levels of Development

Posted on by DrToni

Type Eight—Levels of Development

Healthy Levels

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Level 2: Self-assertive, self-confident, and strong: have learned to stand up for what they need and want. A resourceful, “can do” attitude and passionate inner drive.

Level 3: Decisive, authoritative, and commanding: the natural leader others look up to. Take initiative, make things happen: champion people, provider, protective, and honorable, carrying others with their strength.

Average Levels

Level 4: Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, “rugged individualists,” wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.

Level 5: Begin to dominate their environment, including others: want to feel that others are behind them, supporting their efforts. Swaggering, boastful, forceful, and expansive: the “boss” whose word is law. Proud, egocentric, want to impose their will and vision on everything, not seeing others as equals or treating them with respect.

Level 6: Become highly combative and intimidating to get their way: confrontational, belligerent, creating adversarial relationships. Everything a test of wills, and they will not back down. Use threats and reprisals to get obedience from others, to keep others off balance and insecure. However, unjust treatment makes others fear and resent them, possibly also band together against them.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, “might makes right.” The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.

Level 8: Develop delusional ideas about their power, invincibility, and ability to prevail: megalomania, feeling omnipotent, invulnerable. Recklessly over-extending self.

Level 9: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Don Riso Enneagram Point 8

Posted on by DrToni

8
THE CHALLENGER
Enneagram Type Eight

The Powerful, Dominating Type:
Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

Type Eight in Brief

Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive, but can also be ego-centric and domineering. Eights feel they must control their environment, especially people, sometimes becoming confrontational and intimidating. Eights typically have problems with their tempers and with allowing themselves to be vulnerable. At their Best: self- mastering, they use their strength to improve others’ lives, becoming heroic, magnanimous, and inspiring.

  • Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others
  • Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life
    and destiny)
  • Enneagram Eight with a Seven-Wing: “The Maverick”
  • Enneagram Eight with a Nine-Wing: “The Bear”

Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.

The Meaning of the Arrows (in brief)

When moving in their Direction of Disintegration (stress), self-confident Eights suddenly become secretive and fearful at Five. However, when moving in their Direction of Integration (growth), lustful, controlling Eights become more open-hearted and caring, like healthy Twos. Learn more about the arrows.

Examples: G.I. Gurdjieff, Richard Wagner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Oskar Schindler, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Saddam Hussein, Senator John McCain, Donald Trump, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Serena Williams, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Queen Latifah, Courtney Love, Jack Black, Chrissie Hynde, Pink, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Mae West, Sean Connery, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Harvey Keitel, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Roseanne Barr, Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, “Dr. Phil” McGraw, “Tony Soprano”

Type Eight Overview

We have named personality type Eight The Challenger because, of all the types, Eights enjoy taking on challenges themselves as well as giving others opportunities that challenge them to exceed themselves in some way. Eights are charismatic and have the physical and psychological capacities to persuade others to follow them into all kinds of endeavors—from starting a company, to rebuilding a city, to running a household, to waging war, to making peace.

Eights have enormous willpower and vitality, and they feel most alive when they are exercising these capacities in the world. They use their abundant energy to effect changes in their environment—to “leave their mark” on it—but also to keep the environment, and especially other people, from hurting them and those they care about. At an early age, Eights understand that this requires strength, will, persistence, and endurance—qualities that they develop in themselves and which they look for in others.

Thayer is a stockbroker who has worked intensively on understanding her type Eight personality. She recounts a childhood incident in which she could clearly see the development of this pattern.

“Much of my tenacity and toughness comes from my Dad. He always told me not to ‘let anybody push you around.’ It was not okay to cry. I learned to master my weaker side early on. At the tender age of eight, a huge horse ran away with me. When an adult caught the horse, I resolutely dismounted without a tear. I could tell my father was proud.”

Eights do not want to be controlled or to allow others to have power over them (their Basic Fear), whether the power is psychological, sexual, social, or financial. Much of their behavior is involved with making sure that they retain and increase whatever power they have for as long as possible. An Eight may be a general or a gardener, a small businessman or a mogul, the mother of a family or the superior of a religious community. No matter: being “in charge” and leaving their imprint on their sphere is uniquely characteristic of them.

Eights are the true “rugged individualists” of the Enneagram. More than any other type, they stand alone. They want to be independent, and resist being indebted to anyone. They often refuse to “give in” to social convention, and they can defy fear, shame, and concern about the consequences of their actions. Although they are usually aware of what people think of them, they do not let the opinions of others sway them. They go about their business with a steely determination that can be awe inspiring, even intimidating to others.

Although, to some extent, Eights fear physical harm, far more important is their fear of being disempowered or controlled in some way. Eights are extraordinarily tough and can absorb a great deal of physical punishment without complaint—a double-edged blessing since they often take their health and stamina for granted and overlook the health and well-being of others as well. Yet they are desperately afraid of being hurt emotionally and will use their physical strength to protect their feelings and keep others at a safe emotional distance. Beneath the tough façade is vulnerability, although it has been covered over by layer of emotional armor.

Thus, Eights are often extremely industrious, but at the price of losing emotional contact with many of the people in their lives. Those close to them may become increasingly dissatisfied with this state of affairs, which confounds Eights. (“I don’t understand what my family is complaining about. I bust my hump to provide for them. Why are they disappointed with me?”)

When this happens, Eights feel misunderstood and may distance themselves further. In fact, beneath their imposing exterior, Eights often feel hurt and rejected, although this is something they seldom talk about because they have trouble admitting their vulnerability to themselves, let alone to anyone else. Because they fear that they will be rejected (divorced, humiliated, criticized, fired, or harmed in some way), Eights attempt to defend themselves by rejecting others first. The result is that average Eights become blocked in their ability to connect with people or to love since love gives the other power over them, reawakening their Basic Fear.

The more Eights build up their egos in order to protect themselves, the more sensitive they become to any real or imaginary slight to their self-respect, authority, or preeminence. The more they attempt to make themselves impervious to hurt or pain (whether physical or emotional), the more they “shut down” emotionally to become hardened and rock-like.

When Eights are emotionally healthy, however, they have a resourceful, “can-do” attitude as well as a steady inner drive. They take the initiative and make things happen with a great passion for life. They are honorable and authoritative—natural leaders who have a solid, commanding presence. Their groundedness gives them abundant “common sense” as well as the ability to be decisive. Eights are willing to “take the heat,” knowing that any decision cannot please everyone. But as much as possible, they want to look after the interests of the people in their charge without playing favorites. They use their talents and fortitude to construct a better world for everyone in their lives.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 289-291)

Type Eight—Levels of Development

Healthy Levels

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Level 2: Self-assertive, self-confident, and strong: have learned to stand up for what they need and want. A resourceful, “can do” attitude and passionate inner drive.

Level 3: Decisive, authoritative, and commanding: the natural leader others look up to. Take initiative, make things happen: champion people, provider, protective, and honorable, carrying others with their strength.

Average Levels

Level 4: Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, “rugged individualists,” wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.

Level 5: Begin to dominate their environment, including others: want to feel that others are behind them, supporting their efforts. Swaggering, boastful, forceful, and expansive: the “boss” whose word is law. Proud, egocentric, want to impose their will and vision on everything, not seeing others as equals or treating them with respect.

Level 6: Become highly combative and intimidating to get their way: confrontational, belligerent, creating adversarial relationships. Everything a test of wills, and they will not back down. Use threats and reprisals to get obedience from others, to keep others off balance and insecure. However, unjust treatment makes others fear and resent them, possibly also band together against them.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, “might makes right.” The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.

Level 8: Develop delusional ideas about their power, invincibility, and ability to prevail: megalomania, feeling omnipotent, invulnerable. Recklessly over-extending self.

Level 9: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Compatibility with Other Types

Type 8 in relationship with type:

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

Misidentification with Other Types

Type 8 compared with type:

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     9

Addictions

Ignore physical needs and problems: avoid medical visits and check-ups. Indulging in rich foods, alcohol, tobacco while pushing self too hard leads to high stress, strokes, and heart conditions. Control issues central, although alcoholism and narcotic addictions are possible.

Personal Growth Recommendations
for Enneagram Type Eights

  • It goes against the grain, but act with self-restraint. You show true power when you forbear from asserting your will with others, even when you could. Your real power lies in your ability to inspire and uplift people. You are at your best when you take charge and help everyone through a crisis. Few will take advantage of you when you are caring, and you will do more to secure the loyalty and devotion of others by showing the greatness of your heart than you ever could by displays of raw power.
  • It is difficult for Eights, but learn to yield to others, at least occasionally. Often, little is really at stake, and you can allow others to have their way without fear of sacrificing your power, or your real needs. The desire to dominate everyone all the time is a sign that your ego is beginning to inflate—a danger signal that more serious conflicts with others are inevitable.
  • Remember that the world is not against you. Many people in your life care about you and look up to you, but when you are in your fixation, you do not make this easy for them. Let in the affection that is available. Doing this will not make you weak, but will confirm the strength and support in yourself and your life. Also remember that by believing that others are against you and reacting against them, you tend to alienate them and confirm your own fears. Take stock of the people who truly are on your side, and let them know how important they are to you.
  • Eights typically want to be self-reliant and depend on no one. But, ironically, they depend on many people. For example, you may think that you are not dependent on your employees because they depend on you for their jobs. You could dismiss them at any time and hire other workers. Everyone is expendable in your little kingdom—except you. But the fact is that you are dependent on others to do their jobs too, especially if your business concerns grow beyond what you can manage alone. But if you alienate everyone associated with you, you will eventually be forced to employ the most obsequious and untrustworthy operatives. When you do, you will have reason to question their loyalty and to fear losing your position. The fact is that whether in your business world or your domestic life, your self-sufficiency is largely an illusion.
  • Eights typically overvalue power. Having power, whether through wealth, position, or simple brute force, allows them to do whatever they want, to feel important, to be feared and obeyed. But those who are attracted to you because of your power do not love you for yourself, nor do you love or respect them. While this may be the Faustian bargain you have made, you will nevertheless have to pay the price that whatever power you accumulated will inevitably be at a cost to you, physically and emotionally.

Don Riso on Enneagram 8

Posted on by DrToni

8
THE CHALLENGER
Enneagram Type Eight

The Powerful, Dominating Type:
Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

Type Eight in Brief

Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive, but can also be ego-centric and domineering. Eights feel they must control their environment, especially people, sometimes becoming confrontational and intimidating. Eights typically have problems with their tempers and with allowing themselves to be vulnerable. At their Best: self- mastering, they use their strength to improve others’ lives, becoming heroic, magnanimous, and inspiring.

  • Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others
  • Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life
    and destiny)
  • Enneagram Eight with a Seven-Wing: “The Maverick”
  • Enneagram Eight with a Nine-Wing: “The Bear”

Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.

The Meaning of the Arrows (in brief)

When moving in their Direction of Disintegration (stress), self-confident Eights suddenly become secretive and fearful at Five. However, when moving in their Direction of Integration (growth), lustful, controlling Eights become more open-hearted and caring, like healthy Twos. Learn more about the arrows.

Examples: G.I. Gurdjieff, Richard Wagner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Oskar Schindler, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Saddam Hussein, Senator John McCain, Donald Trump, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Serena Williams, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Queen Latifah, Courtney Love, Jack Black, Chrissie Hynde, Pink, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Mae West, Sean Connery, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn, Harvey Keitel, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Roseanne Barr, Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, “Dr. Phil” McGraw, “Tony Soprano”

Type Eight Overview

We have named personality type Eight The Challenger because, of all the types, Eights enjoy taking on challenges themselves as well as giving others opportunities that challenge them to exceed themselves in some way. Eights are charismatic and have the physical and psychological capacities to persuade others to follow them into all kinds of endeavors—from starting a company, to rebuilding a city, to running a household, to waging war, to making peace.

Eights have enormous willpower and vitality, and they feel most alive when they are exercising these capacities in the world. They use their abundant energy to effect changes in their environment—to “leave their mark” on it—but also to keep the environment, and especially other people, from hurting them and those they care about. At an early age, Eights understand that this requires strength, will, persistence, and endurance—qualities that they develop in themselves and which they look for in others.

Thayer is a stockbroker who has worked intensively on understanding her type Eight personality. She recounts a childhood incident in which she could clearly see the development of this pattern.

“Much of my tenacity and toughness comes from my Dad. He always told me not to ‘let anybody push you around.’ It was not okay to cry. I learned to master my weaker side early on. At the tender age of eight, a huge horse ran away with me. When an adult caught the horse, I resolutely dismounted without a tear. I could tell my father was proud.”

Eights do not want to be controlled or to allow others to have power over them (their Basic Fear), whether the power is psychological, sexual, social, or financial. Much of their behavior is involved with making sure that they retain and increase whatever power they have for as long as possible. An Eight may be a general or a gardener, a small businessman or a mogul, the mother of a family or the superior of a religious community. No matter: being “in charge” and leaving their imprint on their sphere is uniquely characteristic of them.

Eights are the true “rugged individualists” of the Enneagram. More than any other type, they stand alone. They want to be independent, and resist being indebted to anyone. They often refuse to “give in” to social convention, and they can defy fear, shame, and concern about the consequences of their actions. Although they are usually aware of what people think of them, they do not let the opinions of others sway them. They go about their business with a steely determination that can be awe inspiring, even intimidating to others.

Although, to some extent, Eights fear physical harm, far more important is their fear of being disempowered or controlled in some way. Eights are extraordinarily tough and can absorb a great deal of physical punishment without complaint—a double-edged blessing since they often take their health and stamina for granted and overlook the health and well-being of others as well. Yet they are desperately afraid of being hurt emotionally and will use their physical strength to protect their feelings and keep others at a safe emotional distance. Beneath the tough façade is vulnerability, although it has been covered over by layer of emotional armor.

Thus, Eights are often extremely industrious, but at the price of losing emotional contact with many of the people in their lives. Those close to them may become increasingly dissatisfied with this state of affairs, which confounds Eights. (“I don’t understand what my family is complaining about. I bust my hump to provide for them. Why are they disappointed with me?”)

When this happens, Eights feel misunderstood and may distance themselves further. In fact, beneath their imposing exterior, Eights often feel hurt and rejected, although this is something they seldom talk about because they have trouble admitting their vulnerability to themselves, let alone to anyone else. Because they fear that they will be rejected (divorced, humiliated, criticized, fired, or harmed in some way), Eights attempt to defend themselves by rejecting others first. The result is that average Eights become blocked in their ability to connect with people or to love since love gives the other power over them, reawakening their Basic Fear.

The more Eights build up their egos in order to protect themselves, the more sensitive they become to any real or imaginary slight to their self-respect, authority, or preeminence. The more they attempt to make themselves impervious to hurt or pain (whether physical or emotional), the more they “shut down” emotionally to become hardened and rock-like.

When Eights are emotionally healthy, however, they have a resourceful, “can-do” attitude as well as a steady inner drive. They take the initiative and make things happen with a great passion for life. They are honorable and authoritative—natural leaders who have a solid, commanding presence. Their groundedness gives them abundant “common sense” as well as the ability to be decisive. Eights are willing to “take the heat,” knowing that any decision cannot please everyone. But as much as possible, they want to look after the interests of the people in their charge without playing favorites. They use their talents and fortitude to construct a better world for everyone in their lives.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 289-291)

Listen: Don Riso Discusses Type Eight

Individual Type Audio Recording for Type Eight (excerpt)
Don Riso
4:04 5:22

Type Eight—Levels of Development

Healthy Levels

Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Level 2: Self-assertive, self-confident, and strong: have learned to stand up for what they need and want. A resourceful, “can do” attitude and passionate inner drive.

Level 3: Decisive, authoritative, and commanding: the natural leader others look up to. Take initiative, make things happen: champion people, provider, protective, and honorable, carrying others with their strength.

Average Levels

Level 4: Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, “rugged individualists,” wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.

Level 5: Begin to dominate their environment, including others: want to feel that others are behind them, supporting their efforts. Swaggering, boastful, forceful, and expansive: the “boss” whose word is law. Proud, egocentric, want to impose their will and vision on everything, not seeing others as equals or treating them with respect.

Level 6: Become highly combative and intimidating to get their way: confrontational, belligerent, creating adversarial relationships. Everything a test of wills, and they will not back down. Use threats and reprisals to get obedience from others, to keep others off balance and insecure. However, unjust treatment makes others fear and resent them, possibly also band together against them.

Unhealthy Levels

Level 7: Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, “might makes right.” The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.

Level 8: Develop delusional ideas about their power, invincibility, and ability to prevail: megalomania, feeling omnipotent, invulnerable. Recklessly over-extending self.

Level 9: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Compatibility with Other Types

Type 8 in relationship with type:

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

Misidentification with Other Types

Type 8 compared with type:

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     9

Addictions

Ignore physical needs and problems: avoid medical visits and check-ups. Indulging in rich foods, alcohol, tobacco while pushing self too hard leads to high stress, strokes, and heart conditions. Control issues central, although alcoholism and narcotic addictions are possible.

Personal Growth Recommendations
for Enneagram Type Eights

  • It goes against the grain, but act with self-restraint. You show true power when you forbear from asserting your will with others, even when you could. Your real power lies in your ability to inspire and uplift people. You are at your best when you take charge and help everyone through a crisis. Few will take advantage of you when you are caring, and you will do more to secure the loyalty and devotion of others by showing the greatness of your heart than you ever could by displays of raw power.
  • It is difficult for Eights, but learn to yield to others, at least occasionally. Often, little is really at stake, and you can allow others to have their way without fear of sacrificing your power, or your real needs. The desire to dominate everyone all the time is a sign that your ego is beginning to inflate—a danger signal that more serious conflicts with others are inevitable.
  • Remember that the world is not against you. Many people in your life care about you and look up to you, but when you are in your fixation, you do not make this easy for them. Let in the affection that is available. Doing this will not make you weak, but will confirm the strength and support in yourself and your life. Also remember that by believing that others are against you and reacting against them, you tend to alienate them and confirm your own fears. Take stock of the people who truly are on your side, and let them know how important they are to you.
  • Eights typically want to be self-reliant and depend on no one. But, ironically, they depend on many people. For example, you may think that you are not dependent on your employees because they depend on you for their jobs. You could dismiss them at any time and hire other workers. Everyone is expendable in your little kingdom—except you. But the fact is that you are dependent on others to do their jobs too, especially if your business concerns grow beyond what you can manage alone. But if you alienate everyone associated with you, you will eventually be forced to employ the most obsequious and untrustworthy operatives. When you do, you will have reason to question their loyalty and to fear losing your position. The fact is that whether in your business world or your domestic life, your self-sufficiency is largely an illusion.
  • Eights typically overvalue power. Having power, whether through wealth, position, or simple brute force, allows them to do whatever they want, to feel important, to be feared and obeyed. But those who are attracted to you because of your power do not love you for yourself, nor do you love or respect them. While this may be the Faustian bargain you have made, you will nevertheless have to pay the price that whatever power you accumulated will inevitably be at a cost to you, physically and emotionally.

Learn More

The Riso-Hudson Books offer the most complete type descriptions available anywhere. Personality Types is the most complete, in-depth, systematic treatment of the nine types and the Enneagram system as a whole, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram provides the comprehensive guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types.

Reflections from an Enneagram Eight

Posted on by DrToni

Let me start by saying that I’m not an Enneagram expert—far from it actually. I still feel like I’m learning exactly what it means to be a type Eight. When I was first hearing about the Enneagram I had lots of questions and doubts about what type I was. I took a bunch of different tests a ton of times, and even though I tested as an Eight the majority of the time, I wasn’t convinced.

If I’ve learned anything about the Enneagram it’s this: this is a tool for understanding yourself better, for making yourself more aware of who you are and how you interact with others. This tool should make us people who are better able to partner with Jesus in loving ourselves and loving others, not put us in a box and make us feel trapped!

As I’ve learned more about Eights I’ve realized that they are generally self-confident, confrontational, strong, assertive, honest (sometimes brutally), and decisive people. When I read that description now I feel like it pretty accurately describes me, but if you’re looking for someone else who’s also an Eight to compare this description to, think Donna Meagle from Parks and Rec. She gives off an intimidating, my-way-or-the-highway kind of vibe, but once other characters get to know her, she becomes fiercely protective and challenges her friends to be the best versions of themselves. She expects those in positions of power to do their job well and she won’t accept anything less than that. (Also, if you don’t know who Donna Meagle is then you should rearrange your priorities and make time to watch Parks and Rec. It’s amazing. Knowing that I’m in the company of Donna as a fellow Eight makes me so proud because she is #hilarious.)

Eights are primarily driven by their desire to be in control of their environment, especially the people around them. When Eights are healthy they are confident in themselves as well as their ability to take control in any situation, driven, and natural leaders. They are great champions for others, pushing those they care about to be the best that they can be. But when Eights are unhealthy or feel threatened, they can become egocentric, domineering, and manipulative.

I have seen all of these qualities in myself at one point or another. But when I was trying to figure out my Enneagram type, the thing that kept deterring me from believing I was an Eight is that Eights are very guarded people. They use their strong and self-confident nature to put up a front and often struggle with being vulnerable because it means letting go of the control they crave and letting others in. I just felt like that wasn’t me. I always viewed myself as a vulnerable person, willing to share exactly what was going on internally with those around me.

But as I learned more about my type and became more aware that Eights tend to shy away from vulnerability, I started to notice that when I felt out of control of a situation, all of these walls would go up and suddenly I wasn’t this vulnerable person that I thought I was. Knowing my Enneagram type in those situations is so helpful, because I’m able to recognize what’s happening and attempt to work through it. For me, working through it usually involves admitting I was wrong, and I really don’t like doing that because it means giving up control. It’s been really helpful to work on this in relationships where I have a lot of trust, where I know the person who I’m speaking with isn’t going to say, “I told you so,” or make me feel bad about being in the wrong. As I’ve practiced this with people like my husband and my closest friends it’s made these types of conversations easier in other areas of my life as well.

I have to be honest. People that know me know that I’m a very confident person. I believe that I have a lot to offer the kingdom of God as an Eight, but the majority of you don’t know me, so it feels weird to be writing about what strengths I bring to the kingdom of God. I don’t want to come across as prideful, but the reality is, I do believe that Eights have a lot of strengths to offer the body of Christ and I possess some of those strengths! As an Eight I am really good at challenging people, asking them good questions, and urging them to overcome obstacles to take risks and reach their fullest potential. As a full-time campus minister I am able to challenge my students to listen to the Lord and actively respond to what he is revealing to them. I’ve recently been working with a student who wants to reach Black students on our campus. Some fears, doubts, and barriers are keeping her from being excited about fully diving into this new challenge, and I’ve been able to walk with her through that, praying with her and urging her to see what it could be like if she took this risk and started this new small group. I know that part of this is just being a good campus staff, but I believe that my Eight-ness contributes to being able to challenge and spur her on in this new mission.

Because I struggle with a desire to be in control, especially of people in my life, I have to be very careful that when I’m challenging others, I check my own desires and make sure I’m challenging them to pursue what God has for them and not what I have for them. Sometimes as an Eight, I’ve decided that X is what someone else should do, and I push and push and push for that to get done, when in reality I’m just advancing my own agenda, not the Lord’s. I have to be aware of my desire to be in control of others and really, really listen to what people are telling me. There have been times in my campus staff work when I just kept challenging students who told me they wanted to step down from a leadership position instead of really listening to them and to their hearts. Sometimes, not doing X is the right thing, and that’s something I really need to be aware of as an Eight.

Sometimes I also feel like I’m in a constant battle with myself. My human desire is to control, manipulate, and dominate and, well, with Jesus that doesn’t really work. My truest desire is to let him be in control of my life and surrender all of myself and my plans to him, but this human desire to control all people and aspects of my life takes over a lot. I have to remind myself to remember that Jesus is in control, that his plans are best, and that I need to trust him. Remember when I said Eights struggle with being vulnerable? Sometimes it’s even challenging for me to be my full self with Jesus, but when I realize that I can be, I experience so much freedom.

In my relationships with others I have to be aware of my intensity. Sometimes my need and desire to control can come across as being a bit over the top. I like to be right, I like when people pick my decisions over others, and I like when my plans and my direction are valued and pushed forward because it means that I have maintained control. But I also need to learn to be okay when that doesn’t happen, and to practice not shutting down or bullying people into choosing what I want. This can honestly be really hard for me, but becoming aware that I struggle with these things has been really helpful.

Knowing my Enneagram type has made me more self-aware. Now when I’m experiencing tension when something isn’t going the way that I planned, I’m able to realize that my Eight-ness is showing. My fear of being out of control is coming out and I have to watch my tone, my motivation, and my reactions. I am also more able to live into the good parts of being an Eight. I know I’m good at challenging people and inspiring them to take risks, so I live into that in my job and my relationships. I know I’m good at helping people live into their full potential, so I strive to help them reach that. I know that it’s helpful that I’m decisive, so I try and serve in roles where I can be an asset in that way. Knowing my type allows me to serve in a way that hopefully honors and glorifies God.

If you relate to any of the things I’ve talked about in this post, you might be an Eight. But you could also be another type as well. My best advice is to take your time in figuring it all out. You’re still growing and maturing and developing as a human. As you pursue figuring out what type you are, try not to box yourself in or wrap your identity up in one single type. You may possess a lot of or even all of the traits of your type, or there may be parts of the description that you really feel like don’t describe you. Either way is okay. Your number doesn’t define who you are. You’re still you, beautifully and wonderfully made by Jesus, and this is just a tool for helping us learn more about who he made us to be.

Carrie Carey

Carrie has served as campus staff since she graduated in 2013. She works in Maryland at Montgomery College. You can support her ministry at https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate#17478.

Type Eight

Posted on by DrToni

Personality Style EIGHT: The Powerful Person

Core Value Tendency: EIGHTS are attracted to and appreciate power. They desire to be strong, independent, straightforward, assertive persons, who use their strength and influence to make the world a more just place to live in. They value equity, the equal distribution of power, and show a concern for the underprivileged and disenfranchised. Being your own person, doing your own thing, protecting your own is what life is all about.

Adaptive Cognitive Schema: The objective principle that keeps EIGHTS aligned with their real self and with reality is the realization that the laws of the universe are inherently just and that what goes around, comes around. Justice means EIGHTS don’t have to enforce or vindicate the laws of the universe. Justice will out and the universe will ultimately be fair. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord” vs saith the EIGHT.

Adaptive Emotional Schema: Innocence is the attitude that flows from the EIGHTS’ objective paradigm and keeps EIGHTS connected to their better self, to others, and to reality. Innocence is the disposition of not harming, expressed by the attitude of why would you want to harm anyone and why would anyone want to harm you. Innocence experiences each moment freshly, approaching life and expressing love as a childlike response to the current situation without cynical judgments or jaded expectations.

Adaptive Behavioral Schemas: Forceful actions that follow from a proper understanding of justice and from an attitude of innocence are tempered by a compassionate concern for oneself and others. EIGHTS can tell the truth, tell it like it is, in a way that is challenging and up-building while not being punitive or tearing down. They are self confident, self-assured, magnanimous, good leaders, energized by a challenge and appreciating a good contest. EIGHTS can move against others to get what they need and to protect their territory. They can take charge, act on their own, and get things done. They enjoy exerting energy, protecting the weak, and empowering the disenfranchised.

Maladaptive Cognitive Schema: When EIGHTS exaggerate their powerful qualities, they over-identify with the idealized self image of I am powerful; I can do. To compensate for the maladaptive beliefs that they are going to be neglected, not listened to, and not have their needs met, and that they are going to be affronted and taken advantage of, they become overly offensive. On the lookout for challenges and injustices, they survive by being strong, tough, and fierce.

Maladaptive Emotional Schema: As a consequence of perceiving the world as hard, hostile, and uncaring, EIGHTS experience the passion of lust. For fear they are not going to get what is their due, they grab as much as they can. You only go around once in life, so live it with all the gusto you can. EIGHTS do everything with intensity. They work hard, play hard, love hard, etc.

Maladaptive Behavioral Schema: Perceiving the world as hostile, and feeling lustful and intense much of the time, EIGHTS develop a forceful, grabbing, take charge attitude toward the world. They use their power to protect and aggrandize themselves vs building up their community. Going beyond assertion, they move against others in aggressive intimidating behaviors. Becoming overbearing and intimidating to get heard and get their way, they can become bullies.

What is Avoided: Since they need to feel and appear strong, EIGHTS avoid any kind of weakness. To show weakness or inadequacy would give others power over them. They are slow to show their feminine, compassionate, kindly, gentle side. While it is easy for EIGHTS to express their anger, they find it difficult to express their tender warm emotions or their fragile feelings like fear, sadness, and embarrassment. Being comfortable with moving against others, they find it difficult to move towards or away from others.

Defensive Maneuvers: EIGHTS ward off any tender feelings or manifestations of weakness by denial. They simply deny any presence of what they consider to be weakness, such as kindness, considerateness, sensitivity, etc. They debunk and put down any show of sentimentality, suffering, error, etc.

Childhood Development: Some EIGHTS may have had caretakers who were aggressive or abusive, and so they learned how to fight by imitating them. They learned that the world was a hostile or unjust place and the way to survive was to be tough and make sure you were treated fairly. If they had to seek vengeance or get even to maintain the balance of power, then so be it. Mistrusting incompetent authorities, EIGHTS felt secure when they were in control. They understood they had to stand up for their own rights and not count on others to do so for them. They learned they had to stand up to people.

Non-Resourceful State: When EIGHTS are under stress, they try to be tougher, more aggressive, more in control. If their influence doesn’t work on others, they may turn their power against themselves, beat up on themselves, get depressed, and withdraw. Instead of exploding, they implode their energy and isolate themselves. They may feel inadequate and unable to influence the situation. They may intellectualize instead of sympathize. They may exaggerate their independence even more and not let others support or comfort them.

Resourceful State: When EIGHTS are in a resourceful relaxed state, they believe that the world is just and that justice will come about without their having to seek vengeance. They trust others and respect their rights as much as they demand respect for their own rights. Assuming an attitude of innocence, they use their power to build others up and help them vs intimidating or debunking them. In touch with their tender gentle side, they are compassionate toward themselves and others. They personify the saying: There is nothing stronger than true gentleness and nothing gentler than true strength. I am therefore I am powerfully present replaces Yeah, though I walk through the Valley of Darkness, I shall fear no evil, for I am the meanest SOB in the valley.

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