Worldview & Motivation

Driving your personality type is the worldview that to gain approval you need to be successful, work hard to be the best and maintain a positive image. Your sense of value is tied to what you do and to your accomplishments rather than who you are as a human being.

As a type 3, your underlying motivation is to achieve success in the eyes of others through your accomplishments. You are driven, have abundant energy for getting things done and have a hard time slowing down. You are very competitive and strive to be the best you can be in all that you do. You are good at managing your image, and failure is very hard for you.

Habitual Patterns of Thinking

Because of this underlying belief, your focus of attention naturally goes to task, goals, getting things done efficiently and how to be successful. Your habitual patterns of thinking also include how to win and be your best, how others are perceiving you and how to get them to think highly of you.

Your blind spots are your own feelings and the feelings of others, your value beyond your accomplishments and personal wants apart from what others think.

To expand your focus of attention, practice becoming more aware of where your attention naturally goes. As you notice these habits of mind they will begin to loosen and allow you to intentionally shift your attention and be more open and available to the present moment. Develop a practice of intentionally looking for your blind spots in order to gain a more balanced perspective.

Habitual Patterns of Feeling

The emotional drive of type 3 is called deceit and refers to “living for the eyes of others” and needing to be seen in a positive light. The deceit is toward oneself about who you really are apart from how you are perceived by others. In Enneagram language, deceit is the Passion or Vice of type 3.

What is missing is the authentic expression of your true self that comes from within and is beyond what you do or how you may be perceived. It is a recognition that your value comes from who you are rather than what we do. In Enneagram language this is called veracity and this is the Virtue of type 3.

The path from deceit to veracity is to recognize how much attention and effort you put into managing how people perceive you and to get more in touch with what you really want. Practice letting go of the need to be seen in a certain way and the relentless drive for success in the eyes of others and tune in to what is truly yours to do.

Strengths & Challenges

As a type 3, you have many strengths which when integrated in a healthy and balanced way support you and your well being. Paradoxically, these strengths can work against you when they are overdone or not
appropriately integrated.

When you are at your best, you exhibit these strengths:

  • You are personable, enthusiastic and self-assured

  • You are hard-working and great at problem solving to get things done 

  • You are a good leader and are good at motivating a team towards a goal

  •   You are diplomatic and are good at reading people

  • You excel at efficiency and practical solutions and lead very successful projects

  • You are poised and inspire hope in others

When you move toward the unhealthy aspects of your personality you exhibit these characteristics:

  • You work too hard and have a hard time slowing down or just being present

  • Your value is tied to doing, and your self-image is tied to your success

  • You are like a chameleon and shape shift in order to get people to think highly of you

  • You are devastated by failure and seek to avoid it in ways that don’t serve you

  • You are not in touch with your feelings or the feelings of others

  • You lose track of what it is that YOU really want in your pursuit to be successful in the eyes of others

Centers of Intelligence

The Enneagram recognizes our three centers of intelligence: the head center, which is the intelligence of the mind; the body center, which is the energy and sensations of the body; and the heart center, which is the intelligence of feelings and emotions. While we each have all three centers, most people tend to favor one center over the others. Ideally, we want to balance all three centers because each carries valuable wisdom.

Each Enneagram type is rooted in one of these three centers. The way this affects us is that we tend to perceive the world and rely most heavily for information from our own center of intelligence. We also tend to have the most dysfunction in connection with this center. It is both our strength and our weakness.

As a type 3, you are a heart type and likely filter information through the heart by tuning in to others. Heart types are particularly tuned in to their image and how others are perceiving them, and type 3s specifically want to be seen as being competent, successful and likable. Heart types also tend to feel shame and regularly compare themselves to other. Type 3s tend to be self-assured and compare themselves favorably to others.