Enneagram type 3

Enneagram type 3 (also written Enneagram 3) is called The Achiever, also known as The Performer. Here you will find a thorough description of type 3: core traits, basic fear, wings, love and relationships, stress and growth. In the Enneagram, type 3 belongs to the heart centre along with types 2 and 4.

Characteristics

Enneagram type 3s are diligent and efficient people who are concerned with achieving their goals. They need to be successful and have therefore developed a flexible ability to adapt to different situations.

Enneagram type 3s have a very high activity level. They often speak quickly and can have many balls in the air at once. They often forget to take care of themselves, because their attention is directed at all the tasks to be performed and the goals to be achieved. This leads to threes collapsing before they discover that they might need a break.

Their goal-oriented attitude to life is also reflected in their slightly forward-leaning posture, with their nose pointed at the next target. Many threes have problems with a sore lower back in later life for the same reason.

Contributes with

Enneagram type 3s are effective and incredibly good at building networks and contacts, so they always know who they can turn to. So even though they have the answers to most things, they can quickly get help if there is something they cannot do themselves.

Thrives best with

Enneagram type 3s thrive on competition and a fast pace. Visible rewards and recognition also work well, such as appointments, award ceremonies and salesperson of the year.

Resources

• Effective
• Many balls in the air
• Flexible
• Builds networks

Direction of stress

When Enneagram type 3s are emotionally pressured or feel paralysed, they find it difficult to prioritise: all tasks are equally important and difficult to finish. The movement goes toward type 9, The Mediator.

Direction of security

When Enneagram type 3s feel resourceful and confident, they look more realistically at the tasks in relation to the time and the resources actually available. They take the time to analyse. The movement goes toward type 6, The Skeptic.

The subtypes of type 3

All nine types come in three subtypes, depending on which instinctual drive weighs heaviest: self-preservation, social or one-to-one. Two people with the same core type can seem surprisingly different, precisely because the subtype colours the entire expression.

The self-preservation type 3

The self-preservation type 3 works for security rather than applause. There is a diligence and a reliability here that does not shout, and a certain discomfort with putting itself forward. The pitfall is working without pause and never asking what kind of life all that effort is meant to buy.

The social type 3

The social type 3 goes for the visible: titles, recognition, being in the right room. It knows exactly what confers status in a given setting and can adapt to it effortlessly. The pitfall is that the image becomes more important than whatever the image was meant to show.

The one-to-one type 3

The one-to-one type 3 wants to be attractive and supportive. It happily promotes other people's success and finds its own worth in being wanted. There is warmth here, but also a risk of disappearing into a role the other person has written.

Type 3 through the nine levels of development

The Enneagram describes not only which type you are, but how that type looks in different shapes. Riso-Hudson divide each type into nine levels of development, gathered into three bands: levels 1, 2 and 3 are the healthy ones, levels 4, 5 and 6 are the average ones, and levels 7, 8 and 9 are the unhealthy ones. You move between them over the course of a life, and often within a single day.

Below, the three bands for type 3 are described in outline. Riso-Hudson describe each of the nine levels in depth, and we work with that material on our courses, where you learn to recognise your own movements between the levels.

The healthy levels — 1, 2 and 3

At the healthy levels, the performance and the person coincide. Type 3 can be capable without having to prove anything, and the energy that once went into holding the image up is freed for other things. The type becomes a genuine role model — not because it wants to be seen, but because it is something.

The average levels — 4, 5 and 6

Here the worth becomes tied to the result. Type 3 adapts to whatever the situation rewards and gets good at it. The feelings are pushed aside because they slow the momentum down, and the question of who you are without your results is consistently postponed.

The unhealthy levels — 7, 8 and 9

At the unhealthy levels the image takes over completely. The truth gets embellished, in small things first and then in larger ones. The type can turn exploitative and hostile towards anyone who threatens the facade, and the collapse comes when there is nothing left to perform its way out of.

Your personal path of development

Enneagram type 3's path of development goes through letting go of the fixation on making a good impression and instead being honest with themselves and others about what they can manage. The path also lies in making contact with their feelings and working with the belief that they are loved whether they are successful or not. Through this, threes experience contact with the particular aspect of essence: a state in which the three knows that everything is going in the right direction, and that it is not up to the individual to make sure of it all. It is okay to be who you are.

Passion

Deception

Fixation

Vanity

Special ability

Honesty

Essence

Hope