Worldview & Motivation

Driving your personality is the worldview that the world is unpredictable and unsafe and you need to seek certainty and predictability by anticipating what could go wrong and being prepared. In order to be safe you need to always be on the lookout for potential problems or hidden agendas.

As a type 6, your underlying motivation is to make sure that you are prepared for whatever may be coming at you. By anticipated worst-case scenarios you will not be surprised and can plan and prepare so that everything can go smoothly. You are tuned into authority figures, looking for hidden agendas and whether you can trust them in order to feel secure. Others may think you are being negative, but you are just trying to plan for a successful outcome.

Habitual Patterns of Thinking

Because of this underlying belief, your focus of attention naturally goes to potential problems, hazards, difficulties, pitfalls or anything that could go wrong. Your habitual patterns of thinking also include looking for incongruities, inferences, hidden meanings or motivations and whether you can trust others.

Your blind spots are potential positives, your own magnification and projection of potential problems and your own courage.

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 6 is fear, which refers to worry or anxiety about what could go wrong and can also manifest as uncertainty, self-doubt or shame. It is a fear related to using your imagination to anticipate what could happen in the future rather than actual danger in the present moment. In Enneagram language fear is the Passion or Vice of type 6.

What is missing is courage, which refers to a sense of confidence and trust that you have an innate ability to competently handle whatever occurs without needing to anticipate, plan or prepare for all eventualities.

The path from fear to courage is to notice and then let go of uncertainty and doubt, trusting that you have all the courage you need in the moment. Practice sourcing safety inside yourself rather needing external circumstances to be safe. Stay present to whether there is an actual threat in the present moment and engage with life directly. Relax your defenses, develop trust and open your heart.

Strengths & Challenges

As a type 6, you have many strengths which when integrated in a healthy and balanced way support you and your well being. Paradoxically, these strength can work against you when they are overdone or not appropriately integrated.

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

  • You are responsible, reliable, trustworthy and have a good work ethic

  • You are good at trouble shooting, contingency planning and problem solving

  • You are analytical, logical and practical and very well prepared

  • You are loyal, warm, thoughtful, friendly and a good listener

  • You are intuitive and good at seeing hidden meanings or agendas and ulterior motives

  • You are witty and have a good sense of humor that you use to diffuse uncomfortable situations.

When your strengths get out of balance or are used in unhealthy ways, they result in these challenges:

  • You are skeptical, overly focused on potential problems and can get stuck in contrarian thinking

  • You question and doubt yourself resulting in procrastination, indecision and insecurity

  • You are overly anxious, magnify danger and project your fears onto others

  • You are suspicious and lack trust in other people, particularly authority figures

  • You can get stuck in endless questioning and overanalyzing

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 6, you are a head type and most likely process information primarily through your mind, which for type 6s looks like questioning, doubting, anticipating and planning. The underlying emotion of head types in fear. As a type 6 you likely overdo fear by focusing on what could go wrong and worst case scenarios and projecting your fears onto others.

The path to growth is to balance the three centers of intelligence, which for you as a type 6 means to quiet your anxious mind by getting more grounded in your body and connecting more with your heart.