This was the thought that went through my head the first time I took an Enneagram test and looked over my results. How did these people I had never met know what was going on inside my head? Was this freeing or freaky? I couldn’t decide in the moment, but the more I read up on my number type the more I realized that I wasn’t alone and that was such a HUGE weight off my shoulders!

One of the biggest things as entrepreneurs is that we feel like we’re the only ones going through whatever is bringing us down. Most of us work alone in our offices, or coffee shops behind a computer screen. And while online communities, Marco Polo’s, texts and emails are fun they don’t give us that human aspect of things. So, knowing that I wasn’t a crazy person ( or maybe not so crazy) allowed me to give myself grace. But the beautiful part of it was not just grace for myself, but for other people. Which if we’re honest is hard to do amiright?

If you haven’t taken an Enneagram test yet, this is my favorite one from the Enneagram Institute. You can purchase it for $12 HERE. 

But before you take the test, I want to give you some tips to making your results the most accurate they can be.

1. Answer the questions honestly. I know that seems really obvious, but I have worked with people that have answered as they would like to be not as they really are. This isn’t doing anyone any favors if you do that so answer the questions honestly.
2. Answer the questions as if you were in your 20’s. For those of us that aren’t in our 20’s anymore, we know that life happens and experiences could have caused us to grow in certain areas. We are looking to get to your core fears, desires and motivators and when you answer as if you were in your 20’s it gives us a clearer look into that.
3. Take business completely out of your answers. I know, that might seem counterintuitive to a lot of you because you live and breathe business but, we can act differently in our businesses than we do personally and we want to get ourselves at the core of who we are personally, not professionally.

And lastly, as a note, online tests are 75% accurate. I tell you this so you don’t get your test results back and label yourself as that specific number without much more thought. Do your due diligence and research your top 4 scores to see how they resonate with you. Or you can talk to someone that has been trained in the Enneagram (like myself). I ask qualifying questions to help point you in the direction of your dominant Enneagram number.

So, there you have it. The first steps on your Enneagram journey to helping to discover who you are on a deeper level.