Let me entertain you!

I’m going to try and avoid using a whole lot of unnecessary exclamation marks in this post!!! The problem is, how else will everyone know I’m excited and here to bring the fun???!!! #catchthevibe. 😎🥳🤪🎈

(Truthfully, I can’t keep this level of enthusiasm up for more than two sentences, because it exhausts me and feels cringey. Even though I am, in fact, an Enneagram Seven.)

It was way back in the noughties that I started learning about the Enneagram. Sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a hotel conference room, with fluorescent lighting, artificial air, and essential oils burning in the back, we spent long days examining each point in detail.

Despite the uninspiring environment, it all felt like a great adventure to me. And because I was new to the Enneagram, I didn’t yet spot my curiosity and desire for new and different information as being classically Seven responses.

Here’s how my teacher described Sevens;

Sevens are adventurous and optimistic. They love to party. They seek variety, excitement, and new experiences. In their pursuit of stimulation, they dive into things (people, circumstances, areas of study, internet rabbit holes) but become easily bored and abandon them just as quickly as they pick them up.

They avoid discomfort and difficult emotions by focusing on the positive. They can be superficial, avoid commitment, and can be impulsive and restless. They can easily become scattered or overindulgent in their pursuit of fun and freedom.

At the time I overlooked the Seven as a possible Enneagram point for myself. Sure, I was a party person, but I saw that as a reflection of my age rather than as a core aspect of my personality.

Having grown up in Sydney, I was also surrounded by people trying to do too much, responding with ‘busy’ when asked how they were, and ever enthusiastic to experience the newest restaurant or bar opening. I didn’t know that cities have their own Enneagram type and that what I was perceiving as ‘normal’ behaviour was a Seven city in full swing.

So, my teacher’s description sounded more like a reflection of contemporary life than it did a distinct personality type. Which saw me skipping over it - in a classically lighthearted and dismissive Seven manner - and focusing instead on Enneagram Eights (more on the Eights next week).

 

I was also struggling with PTSD, depression and anxiety at the time, all of which kept me from being still, or even, sitting comfortably in my body. (I remember sitting in the theatre one night and in that moment between the lights going down and the curtains coming up, I suddenly noticed just how anxious I was and how awful it felt to be in a body that was so ill at ease. Staying busy was the strategy I had unconsciously employed to avoid looking at the cause of that.)

Recently I read a novel that encapsulates that time in my life perfectly. The passage went like this;

Impulsive, restless, filling up my diary to avoid feeling fear and terror… I ticked every Seven box. But because trauma can be so all-encompassing, it was difficult to know what was my personality and what was a trauma response. (Over the years, as I’ve healed from trauma, this has become much clearer. The healing meant I needed the coping mechanisms less, and more space was created for my authentic self to reveal itself.)

Perhaps if I’d focused on some of the other traits of the Seven, I would have seen myself earlier. They include:

Future-orientation. Sevens are curious. They tend to spot trends ahead of time and are filled to the brim with ideas (containing the ideas is a problem though). They’re adaptable generalists who quickly pick up new skills. They’re joyful, spontaneous, grateful, resilient, and creative.

Industries that are Seven-ish in their behaviour and that value a Seven’s expertise include:

• travel and tourism (the travel blogging world is jam-packed with Sevens)

• entertainment and media (including comedy - the fast mind of the Seven particularly suits stand up. The late, great Robin Williams, for example, was a Seven.)

• workshop facilitators (where they draw on their creativity and natural friendliness to keep everyone engaged)

• event planning (in which they draw on their curatorial skills, their adaptability, and their innate understanding of how to create fun experiences)

• technology and startups (the speed and creativity of a startup make this a dream environment for a Seven)

• entrepreneurship (the level of adaptability, creativity, resourcefulness, and optimism required as an entrepreneur, means Sevens are a good fit. Richard Branson and Walt Disney are two of the world’s most famous Enneagram Seven entrepreneurs)

• hospitality (Sevens are naturally friendly and hospitality allows them to create unique experiences for customers in an ever-changing environment)

• adventure-based wellness and retreats (Sevens are more naturally experience-oriented than any other point on the Enneagram)

• lifestyle and culture (Sevens are known as the Enthusiasts, but they’re also known as the Epicure. They know all the best restaurants and cafes, have been to all the latest shows, and are the people within your friendship group who are most likely to have travelled or lived overseas. Ask a Seven about their travels and you’re likely to get a tip about a great little bar they came across in a tucked away side street in Barcelona that serves the best sangria in town)

• advertising (is a place where a Seven’s idea creation can be fully utilised), and

• e-commerce and subscription or membership services (which utilise their curatorial skills, innovative nature, and love for creating new experiences).

 

Sevens and expertise 

Whilst Enneagram Fives are the ultimate specialists, Enneagram Sevens are quintessential generalists so really, give them any task and they’ve probably taken a course, listened to a podcast about it, gone to a lecture on it, or watched a TV program about it.

Sevens have an enormous breadth of skills to draw from so as long as you keep it interesting, a Seven will stick around and focus on getting the job done. Leave them on their own for too long though, and they can become scattered and unfocused with a great many half-completed projects floating around.

Sevens in storytelling

Sevens bring technicolour and/or positivity to storytelling. Think Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, The Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and Pippi Longstocking from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren.

Sevens are also naturally good storytellers. (Some of the authors who present as Sevens include Roald Dahl, Douglas Adams, Glennon Doyle, and Tina Fey.) They love a detailed anecdote and because they have minds that can jump very quickly from one idea to another, tangents abound in their conversational approach.

Sevens use storytelling as a way to connect with others and build rapport. They’re typically energetic and animated in their communication, and their interesting and adventurous lives, mean that they often have rich and varied experiences to draw from in their stories.

As a reader, a Seven won’t be held back by one genre and is likely to stop reading if a book fails to hold their interest. Their to-be-read (TBR) lists also tend to be long because they’re so interested in so. many. things.

Sevens are likely to have several books - of different genres - on the go at once. Some of the literary genres that can appeal to Sevens include adventure fiction, fantasy, science fiction and travel writing, and something that combines all these elements would be ideal. The recent ‘The Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley could fit the bill nicely.

 

Best social media platform

Sevens are going to play well on most social platforms. There’s enough going on to keep them occupied and there’s ample room for creative expression. Instagram and TikTok will be particularly good fits, and YouTube is a comfortable home for the great many Enneagram Seven content creators.

Sevens’ visibility blocks

When I first started teaching visibility work, I attracted a lot of Sevens. As a Seven myself, I wasn’t particularly surprised. What did surprise me is, where that took the visibility work.

Rather than looking at some of the more traditional visibility blocks I might have expected - such as fears around judgment or rejection, feeling unworthy or inadequate, struggling with perfectionism, or a fear of being misunderstood or trolled - I found a whole other set of issues taking precedence.

The issues that were affecting each Seven’s capacity to expand their reach included:

• wanting to be everyone’s friend and feeling worried about growing too big for that to be possible

• a fear of commitment

• a fear of missing out, and

• a fear of being constrained if they had to stick with one topic for too long.

Some of the more problematic Seven traits that were undermining people’s visibility efforts were; inconsistency, distraction (because of all the interesting opportunities and ideas), and a lack of follow-through (caused by dropping tasks which started to get boring).

Fortunately, by that point in my career, I’d spent many years working on these issues myself.

 

Slowing down

A Seven’s busyness is fuelled by their fear of being deprived or trapped in emotional pain. Slowing down feels like confronting boredom or pain, or like turning down the colour in their otherwise technicolour lives.

My own path around this was to approach personal development as an adventure. I was curious and found it fun and interesting.

The world of personal development might have ended up as one more nice thing I’d explored and then moved away from, but for the fact that personal development has a funny way of actually helping you to heal your wounds and become a generally healthier person. So, the more I explored it, the less I exhibited the unhealthy characteristics of the Seven. This meant that within a few years of learning about the Enneagram, I was ready to drop all the avoidance behaviour and meet the lesson of stopping.

Arriving home one day from a long day of work, exhausted by all the things, and very ready to try something new, I flopped on my bed, called out to the universe and said, ‘I don’t know how to stop. Please teach me.’

Three days later I was hobbling to the doctor like a 90-year-old woman, asking for help. Blood was taken, glandular fever was diagnosed and four years of chronic fatigue (ME/CFS) later, I had mastered the art of slowing down and stopping.

 

Although that was an extremely difficult time in my life, I’m eternally grateful for the unravelling that occurred. ME/CFS is, in many ways, a Seven’s worst nightmare. For a long time, I was deprived of all stimulation. Light, sound, and even the electromagnetic waves coming off a screen were completely depleting. So I regularly lay in a dark room, staring at the walls for days, weeks and sometimes months at a time.

Eventually, a profound and sustained peace replaced my restlessness. Now I’m more grounded and present with the people in my life. I don’t feel stressed about getting all the things done because I’m not trying to get all the things done. And I’m no longer uncomfortable in my own body. Blessed be!

All Sevens are capable of this level of stillness. Once we move through our resistance to boredom, a new adventure awaits us. One that starts within.

A final note to the rest of the Enneagram, when Sevens get way too much and you just want to squash their enthusiasm with your bare hands and never hear another positive word again about anything, remember this; enthusiasm can mask fear. While it’s not universally true that enthusiasm in a Seven is directly proportional to their fears, they use it as a protective mechanism to maintain a sense of control and keep their terror at bay.

Plus, in a world that’s full of gloom and doom and anger and violence, let’s be grateful that one Enneagram point has appointed itself humanity’s chief cheerleader. Surely we’re all better off having some cheerfully optimistic people in our midst.

Samantha x