Enneagram Type 9: The Peaceful Mediator

By Beth McCord and Ryan O'Neal

The Enneagram Collection is for anyone who wants to have a deeper understanding of their Enneagram type. TheEnneagramType 9: The Peaceful Mediator is an interactive book that focuses on those who have a core desire to gain inner stability and peace of mind. The book explores the unique motivations, longings, strengths, and weaknesses of a Type 9.

The Enneagram Type 9: The Peaceful Mediator is a great self-assessment resource for all spheres of life, including:

• Personal and professional relationships
• Faith communities
• Students and even pop culture

Author Beth McCord teaches readers how to transform self-limiting behaviors into life-enhancing personal empowerment. Books from The Enneagram Collection are great for anyone newly interested in the Enneagram or longtime Enneagram enthusiasts. Inside readers will find:

• Space to journal about their uniqueness, goals for inner stability, and ideals for achieving peace of mind
• Teachings about the strengths, challenges, and opportunities that a Type 9 needs in order to build a more meaningful life, lasting relationships, and a deeper understanding of God and one's self

This ancient personality typing system identifies nine types of people and how they relate to one another. The system helps people discover what motivates them, their fears, and how best to interact with others.

Not a Type 9 or want to learn about the other Enneagram types? Check out the rest of The Enneagram Collection by Enneagram coach, author, and speaker Beth McCord.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781400219308

Beth McCord

Beth McCord is an accomplished Enneagram speaker, author, coach, and teacher with over two decades of dedicated experience. Her passion lies in helping individuals rewrite their life stories, empowering them to realize that lasting change and meaningful relationships are possible. Beth’s mission led to the creation of the Your Enneagram Coach community--a nurturing space where individuals safely explore the Enneagram. As a recognized Enneagram leader, Beth has honed her expertise through extensive training and certifications under renowned experts. Today, she simplifies Enneagram insights from a faith-based perspective, making it accessible to people from all walks of life. Beth offers personalized coaching, immersive events, online courses, and comprehensive training for aspiring Enneagram coaches. Her contributions extend globally, having trained over two-thousand coaches, authored eleven Enneagram books, has a vast online following, and reaches millions through her free Enneagram assessment and podcast.

Book preview

Foreword

As a Type 9, my interest in the Enneagram was originally rooted in my desire to understand the people closest to me. Sure, along the way, I’d love to figure myself out too. But mostly I wanted to uncover what makes my friends and family tick and learn how to love them better. This wasn’t as selfless as it may seem at first glance. I’ve learned that, yes, those things are true—I do want to learn how to love my friends and family better—but it’s also true that by doing so, I may be able to keep the waters of my life calm and easy.

If you identify as a Type 9, I suspect that you may also be drawn to the Enneagram by the same magnetic force of wanting to unify the relationships around you. This is a beautiful part of who you are! Cherish it. But if I may, I’d like to offer a tiny bit of counsel, from one 9 to another. As you learn more about yourself in the pages ahead, you may think, Hmm, yes. That’s true. I do that. Or, Yeah, that’s definitely me. Or, Yep, I’ll do just about anything to avoid conflict!

All the while, you’ll be subconsciously filing everything you learn about yourself into a nice and tidy folder in the way, way, way back of your mind labeled Interesting Things to Process Someday. Process them now. Choose to open yourself up beyond comfort. When you read things about being self-forgetful or being asleep to yourself, please take it to heart. It’s all true! You may be tempted to hit the snooze button over and over again and self-forget your way through this entire book. So make certain that every time you crack open this truth-filled book, you’re also cracking open your heart to all that Beth has to share.

I spent a bunch of years studying the Enneagram. But I’ve recently realized that I was only learning about eight Types. And as only a Type 9 could, I successfully forgot myself and dismissed and disqualified the baggage I’ve been quietly dragging around with me. Honestly, that’s because it was easier that way. But as we all know, easy and right are rarely in step with one another. So yes, the bummer news is that there’s a ton of hard work ahead, and for as long as we’re breathing, there will be more work to be done. But the really good news is that the work is not so much an obligation or duty as it is an invitation to be fully alive and to live a more whole and beautiful life.

You, my fellow Type 9, sitting there at the top of the strange Enneagram symbol—you are invited. You are welcomed. You are valued. You are necessary. Remember who you are.

Ryan O’Neal, Singer-Songwriter, Sleeping at Last, http://www.sleepingatlast.com

Introduction

I’m so glad you’re here! As an Enneagram teacher and coach, I have seen so many lives changed by the Enneagram. This is a perfect place for you to start your own journey of growth. I’ll explain how this interactive book works, but first I’d like to share a little of my story.

Before I learned about the Enneagram, I often unknowingly committed assumicide, which is my word for damaging a relationship by assuming I know someone’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations. I incorrectly guess why someone is behaving a particular way and respond (sometimes with disastrous results) without asking clarifying questions to confirm my assumptions or to find out what actually is going on. I’ve made many wrong and hurtful assumptions about people I dearly love, as well as destructive presumptions about myself.

When my husband, Jeff, and I were in the early years of our marriage, it was a difficult season in our relationship. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out Jeff, or myself. I had been a Christian since I was young and desired to live like Christ, but I kept running into the same stumbling blocks over