Enneagram Type Seven - The Visionary

Area of Avoidance: Feeling anxious about constraints, negativity & emotional pain.

Core Positive Attribute: Vision

Often Attracted to…

• Socially vibrant environments.

• Lots of social contact.

• Light-hearted, easy-going people.

• Variety and busyness.

• Stimulating experiences and adventures.

• Visioning and conceptualising new projects.

• Planning big picture rather than detail.

• Popularity.

• Being perceived as an expert.

Often Avoids…

• Feeling constrained, deprived, trapped in pain or bored.

• Lack of variety and stimulating experiences.

• Commitments to long-term projects.

• Attention to fine detail.

• Lack of social contact.

• Over-analytical people.

• Intensely emotional people.

• Pessimism and melancholy.

High Integration – characteristic behaviours

• Builds realistic and optimistic visions of future scenarios.

• Inspirational and motivational to others.

• Able to work comfortably with the ‘big picture’ and also in the detail.

• Able to see and experience the negative as well as the positive aspects of life.

• Able to be still, grounded and focused.

• Comfortable in social environments and also being alone.

• Able to enter commitments, agree to expectations and to honour them.

• Comfortable complying with rules, procedures, and boundaries that make sense.

Low Integration – characteristic behaviours

• Constantly busy, in perpetual motion.

• Starts many projects and tasks but often doesn’t complete them.

• Difficulty being ‘present’ and ‘grounded’.

• Seems ‘scattered’, unfocused and distracted.

• Difficulty staying in the detail for long.

• Very sociable and fun-loving – often to excess.

• Difficulty being alone and still.

• High risk-taker, to the extent of possibly putting self and others in danger.

• Great difficulty focusing on anything negative and tends to re-frame negative events in a positive way, often unrealistically.

• Tends to break rules and has difficulty complying with standard norms.

  
  

  Typical development needs

  • Learning to slow down; to be present and grounded.

  • Learning to experience and deal with the negative things in life.

  • Learning to listen well.

  
  

By Colin Adam