Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 988 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
The Enneagram System - Type Number Eight - The Challenger - Ask Gramps
Thank you for joining us for our five days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio. This is Day 988 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’ Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.
Today is the fifteenth episode in our series delving into what makes each of us respond differently to life situations and circumstances. Understanding ourselves and how others may interpret life through their paradigm will allow us to interact with each other with more love and compassion. This empathy can be achieved by utilizing a profound tool call ‘The Enneagram.’ If you have missed any of our past fourteen Friday series, I would recommend going back and listen to them or read the Wisdom Journals. As a review, the tool that we refer to as the Enneagram (Any-a-Gram) is a circle with nine interconnected points (Ennea refers to 9 and Gram referring to a drawing). Check out today's or prior week’s Wisdom Journal for a representation of it. I have also included in today’s Wisdom Journal a copy of ‘The Enneagram At-A-Glance’ which was compiled by Suzanne H Eller. If you would like a PDF copy, click on the link in today’s Wisdom Journal located on our website Wisdom-Trek.com.
I would also recommend the book ‘The Road Back to You’ written by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile. It is an excellent book about an enneagram journey to self-discovery from a Christian perspective.
In the first seven episodes, we explored how The Enneagram System works and then presented an overview of all nine personality types. Since then we took a deep dive into ‘The Reformer,’ ‘The Helper,’ ‘The Achiever,’ ‘The Individualist,’ “The Investigator,” “The Loyalist,” and “The Enthusiast.” This week we will explore type Number Eight “The Challenger.” Next week we will focus on the final type number Nine “The Peacemaker.”
Since we are exploring the Enneagram in detail, and I would also recommend reading the Wisdom Journal for each Friday to see the diagrams presented each week. As helpful as the Enneagram is, keep in mind though, it is still only a tool, and cannot replace or usurp the precepts that are found in God’s Word. All decisions and actions that we make in life must be in harmony with God’s precepts.
So the questions for the next several months will be:
“Hey, Gramps, why do people act and react to situations and circumstances in life differently? How can I gain wisdom to better understand myself and others so that I can love, serve, and minister to them on a deeper level?”
The Enneagram System – Type Number Eight – The Challenger
8 - THE CHALLENGER
Enneagram Type Eight
The Powerful, Dominating Type:
Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational
· Type Eight in Brief
Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive, but can also be ego-centric and domineering. Eights feel they must control their environment, especially people, sometimes becoming confrontational and intimidating.