Who are you?

My Enneagram Type

Type 3

The Achiever/Perfomer/Motivator

As a Child:

• I loved my mother, because she helped me believe I could do anything and everything.
• I always achieved my goals.
• I saw all of my dreams as realities.
• I never really had any true friends.
• My emotions never got in my way.
• White lies were okay.
• I had to be doing something important or worthwhile all the time.
• Everyone commented that I had lots of energy, but I felt like I needed more to accomplish everything I wanted.
• Nobody knew or loved me for me, they just loved my accomplishments.
• Things didn’t happen fast enough. I wanted everything NOW.
• Others seemed to slow me down or get in my way.
• Others admired everything I did.

Achievers are energetic, optimistic, self-assured, and goal oriented.

How to Get Along with Me

• Leave me alone when I am doing my work.
• Give me honest, but not unduly critical or judgmental, feedback.
• Help me keep my environment harmonious and peaceful.
• Don't burden me with negative emotions.
• Tell me you like being around me.
• Tell me when you're proud of me or my accomplishments.

What I Like About Being a Three

• being optimistic, friendly, and upbeat
• providing well for my family
• being able to recover quickly from setbacks and to charge ahead to the next challenge
• staying informed, knowing what's going on
• being competent and able to get things to work efficiently
• being able to motivate people

What's Hard About Being a Three

• having to put up with inefficiency and incompetence
• the fear on not being -- or of not being seen as -- successful
• comparing myself to people who do things better
• struggling to hang on to my success
• putting on facades in order to impress people
• always being "on." It's exhausting.

Threes as Children Often

• work hard to receive appreciation for their accomplishments
• are well liked by other children and by adults
• are among the most capable and responsible children in their class or school
• are active in school government and clubs or are quietly busy working on their own projects

Threes as Parents

• are consistent, dependable, and loyal
• struggle between wanting to spend time with their children and wanting to get more work done
• expect their children to be responsible and organized

Worldview: Life is about presenting a successful image.

Unconscious Drive: Self-Deceit

Gift: Efficacy and Adaptability

Multitasking, high energy people, Performers get things done. They make things happen. Threes can adapt to any situation or group with a chameleon-like ability to match the environment. Performers inspire and motivate through charm and presentation of a successful image. No type on the Enneagram is more aware of the power of image. They are natural salespeople.

Dark side of the gift.
Three's focused attention on goals and tasks can overshadow other aspects of their lives. Feelings are often relegated to the back burner in service of doing. Performers may use others to get task done or run over anyone who is in the way of completion. Threes may cut corners to complete goals or projects, so long as it looks good to others.

Inner Landscape
Threes can become so identified with the image they present or with what they do that they lose themselves. They may not be sure of their real feelings or desires. "I'm successful at this, but do I really want to do it?" Their talent for adapting presentation to fit the audience, or identifying with their doing can leave them fearing they have no authentic self. "If I stop doing or performing, others will find out that I am a fraud and there really is nothing inside. " Love and survival depend on maintaining a successful image.

Competition’s the game, 3’s the name! Winning is everything and the unhealthy 3 doesn’t feel anything for anyone when on the road to success. Goal-focused average and unhealthy 3’s don’t even concern themselves with their own feelings, not to mention anyone else’s. This is especially true when a project that will make them look good is involved. There’s no room for incompetency in the world of unhealthy 3s, so just let them speed by you on their path to the next success. A word of caution: there’s no limit to what the unhealthy and some average 3s would do to earn approval.

3’s believe we all make our own reality. They were convinced of this at an early age. So that is precisely what 3s do, concentrating only on the reality of whatever they can perform well and in areas where they will shine brightly. At times the 3 can become really confused about who they are because they have done such a good job at the image they were trying to portray that they are the image. Unhealthy 3s believe they are the image not the self. Motivated by what they accomplish, 3s even make love a project. It’s never the 3 that is loved, but what the 3 has done which means something.

When the 3 realizes that all the projects in the world have nothing to do with their Higher Self, they share their hearts with those close to them and experience intimate relationships. Healthy 3’s lead others into loving and being honest with themselves.

Healthy loop controlled by Basic Desire:

Need to be admired -> self-improvement -> admired -> Need to be admired

In the healthy state, the need to be admired induces Type Threes to work hard to improve themselves and succeed, which often cause others around them to admire them. When Threes feel admired, the need is satisfied and a balance is reached.

In the average state, when Threes' are not working hard to improve themselves, others admire them less, which increases Threes' need to be admired. Thus this helps Threes to again work hard to improve themselves. Thus the balancing loop can help Threes to recover.

Unhealthy loop controlled by Basic Fear:

Fear of being rejected -> compete -> admired -> Fear of being rejected

In the unhealthy state, the basic fear of being rejected can cause Type Threes to be competitive and hostile towards others as a defense, which makes them even less admirable, and further increases Threes' basic fear. The cycle continues to build up.

Insight:

We can see from the diagram that a way to help break the control of the basic fear is to weaken the unhealthy loop. Threes can refrain from being competitive but focus on self-improvement instead. This will lead to genuine admiration from others and lessen the fear of rejection.

Descriptive Adjectives for High Functioning Threes

Descriptive Adjectives for Average Functioning Threes:

Descriptive Adjectives for Low Functioning Threes

Threes you may know: Tom Cruise, Arnold Swarzenegger, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Dole, Cindy Crawford, Johnnie Cochran, O. J.Simpson, The CEO's of half the corporations in America, Oliver North, Sharon Stone, Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Jane Pauley, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Tony Robbins, Dick Clark, Sylvester Stallone, Sting, Paul McCartney, O.J. Simpson, Donald Trump, Michael Jordan, McDonald's, Federal Express, Hong Kong, USA.

More infos on Type 3 : http://www.fccj.org/~dwl/egram/personality/overview/ninetypes/type3/authors.htm ,

A few links to take the free tests :

General links : From Idiodynamics , 9points, yahoo info ,

English: http://www.9types.com , http://www.intl-enneagram-assn.org , http://www.enneagramspectrum.com, http://www.enneagraminstitute.com , Dave's site

French : http://www.enneagramme.com ,

Tests: http://www.enneagramcentral.com/testa.htm, http://www.9types.com/rheti/homepage.actual.html , Fergus Duniho