Page 104 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

Strive for Self-Mastery 81

self to acknowledge and share more of your weaknesses. Commit
to discussing at least one of your weaknesses or areas of anxiety
with one new person each day.

Enneagram Style Fours

Fours desire deep connections both with their own
interior worlds and with other people, and they
feel most alive when they authentically express
their personal experiences and feelings.

CHART 3.5 Fours: Levels of Self-Mastery

Descriptions
Extreme self-mastery The Appreciative One
Core understanding: Everything has meaning and
significance, and everyone is connected at the deepest levels.
Enneagram Fours with extreme self-mastery emanate
centeredness, tranquility, and calm. Their artistic expression
is universal because they are open to both the delight and
the sadness that life brings. Grateful and graceful, they
deeply appreciate what they have rather than lamenting what
they lack. These Fours exhibit an inner wholeness and
constancy, and their gentle empathy and genuine concern
draws others to them. When facing a difficult challenge, they
do not go into emotional turmoil because they are able to
reflect on their own experience, understand the other
person’s point of view, and examine the related contextual
factors.
Example: In the past, Andrew would often be so
overwhelmed by his feelings that he would become
immobilized, then lash out at either himself or others. After
experiencing a life-threatening illness, Andrew chose to make
the effort to appreciate who he was and what he had rather
than focusing on what was missing. He now demonstrates
great emotional balance; when a difficulty arises, Andrew is
able to handle it with poise and grace.

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