Enneagram 1

Motivation: To be good

1s are people who are searching for a way to feel good and right in the world. They often hold themselves to a very high standard and may have trouble releasing themselves (and, potentially, their loved ones) from the expectations they place on themselves. 1s are constantly searching for a better way to do things, and highly value justice and doing the right thing. 1s often spend their days improving the world around them and fixing the mistakes and breaks that they see.

1s are valued for their steadfast commit to a better world. They are often the “fixers” in their place of work - or even in their family - and can be routinely counted on to pull people back to a hopeful view of what can be accomplished when we work together. They often worry about how they come across to others, and will often beat themselves up if they think they were too harsh or critical in their interaction with someone.

In their hardest moments, 1s have a hard time not viewing the world in black and white. They may fall into a hole of speaking to themselves in an unkind manner, and their anger at the imperfections around them may bubble up and spill out onto their loved ones. A 1 will know that they are doing the good work when they find themselves being more flexible in how they solve problems, and even in their approach to labeling something as a problem in the first place.

 

Center: Body

Body Triad number (8, 9, 1) are all motivated to find agency in their life. This means that they are searching for a way to affect their own life and want to find the freedom to live their life the way that they want to. This search for agency is often accompanied by a feeling of anger when their personal boundaries are pushed up against or overtaken.

1s are interesting in the fact that they push almost all of their anger inwards on themselves. The world outside is not necessarily what will constrict the 1s agency; it is the wants and needs of the 1 themselves that get in the way. This causes the 1 to be extremely hard on themselves and push down what they want to do in favor of what they feel like they should do.

 

Stance: Reactive

Reactive numbers (1, 2, 6) are all thinking repressed and have an external reference point. This means that these numbers are united by a difficulty accessing productive thought and are all quite affected by what happens in their immediate environment.

Thinking repression often shows up as a very strong emotional connection to doing and the inability to step back from a problem. For 1s, this means that they have very strong value judgements about what should and must be done, and they have a very hard time not solving problems that they have deemed worthy of fixing. It is near impossible for an average 1 to notice that something is wrong and unjust and not jump in to fix it immediately.

An external reference point means that these numbers are all fixated on their environment and responding to it very quickly. As mentioned above, this means that 1s are constantly on the lookout for problems to be fixed and injustices to be righted. If something happens, a 1 will be right there to fix it - almost as if they don’t have a choice.

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Vice: Resentment

Resentment is anger that is turned in one one’s self. 1s experience resentment daily, although most 1s who are new to the Enneagram would shudder at the thought of saying that they are angry. New 1s often have a very hard time recognizing their anger because they believe that anger is not a “good” emotion and, like the rest of their “bad” impulses, must be stuffed away. 1s will often say that they are tired or frustrated instead of admitting or understanding that what they are really feeling is anger.

Because 1s turn their anger in on themselves, they constantly repress their own needs and wants in favor of what they feel is best for the world around them. This leads to high feelings of resentment because the 1 may look around and notice that no one else seems to be repressing themselves in the same way, and that feels quite unfair to the 1.

Resentment can be a very dangerous place for a 1 to live, because they have no experience letting out their anger in a healthy and timely way. A lot of 1s must do a lot of work to learn how to handle this resentment when it shows up in them.