Why do you do what you do?

Motivation. The why behind by the what. If you were to ask 9 people representing the 9 types on the Enneagram why they do what they do, you might here some responses like:

“Because it’s the right way to do things. “ – Type 1

“Because I want to be loved by others.” – Type 2

“Because I want to win.” – Type 3

“Because its new and exciting.” – Type 4

“Because it’s the logical thing to do.” – Type 5

“Because it’s the safest thing.” – Type 6

“ Because its fun!” – Type 7

“Because I want to.” – Type 8

“Because you want to.” – Type 9

While those things may ring true to the various types, they only tell part of the story. A person’s motivation for why they do what they do is much more complex than we can see at first glance.

Motivation is a combination of how God wired us to operate and how our environment has conditioned us to survive. Understanding these two things takes time, patience, and often some guidance from a coach, counselor or mentor. But we will go ahead and take a stab at it here too.

The Enneagram tool tells us that each of us have a set of “core motivations” that drive our behaviors. One of the reasons the Enneagram is often considered a more helpful assessment tool than some of the others is because it focuses on the motivations for behavior and not simply the behaviors themselves.

Each type has a core fear, core desire, core weakness, and core longing/message. Each type’s 4 motivations are different but the common foundation is that at any given moment a person is actively trying to either attain or avoid. This may seem simple but its very difficult to recognize it in the moment, especially if you’ve never worked at understanding it before.

Take, for example, someone struggling with relational conflict with a co-worker. If that person were for example a type 9, they might benefit from recognizing their core desire of “having inner stability and peace of mind.” In their minds relational conflict is a threat to that inner stability so their response to the conflict might be lashing out in anger or maybe pretending like they want what the other person wants to make the conflict go away, even if they really don’t. Neither of these are healthy behaviors but they’re common for a type 9.

In order to determine a strategy for overcoming relational conflicts, especially consistent ones, understanding this and other core motivations are a vital foundation.

This a very brief overview but hopefully will give you an idea of how to get started understanding why you do what you do. If you or someone you know could benefit from considering their core motivations, and how they influence their lives, please let us know!