Transcript

Jessica's Story

All right, core pattern seven. So let's begin with a story about Jessica.

After years in consulting, Jessica's thrilled to join an exciting new tech startup. Finally, she thinks, a place where my ideas can really make a difference. When she joins, she's full of energy. She goes on a listening tour meeting with everyone from engineering to sales, absorbing information and possibilities like a sponge.

By the end of her first month, she's prepared a really impressive presentation full of forward looking opportunities for the team, new markets to enter, partnerships, features, etc. But the leadership team receives her presentation with tempered enthusiasm. These are really interesting ideas, her manager says. But first we're going to need you to spin up on other priorities. Got to do customer onboarding to streamline documentation. We're behind on quarterly reporting.

So Jessica dives into those tasks. But something feels off. The work is tedious and she finds herself frustrated. Sometimes she's frustrated by her own lack of experience and familiarity with the startup scene. And then sometimes it's by the way other people think. She's surprised at how linear their thinking is, and wonders like, why are they so focused on keeping their old ways rather than thinking outside the box?

As the weeks and months pass, Jessica starts to wonder if it's time to explore other opportunities. During meetings, she finds herself daydreaming about an accelerator program she heard about or wondering if her old consulting firm has any interesting new clients. She's physically there, but mentally she's designing her escape.

When her manager finally sits her down about her distracted performance, Jessica fumes in private. No one appreciates visionary thinking here. They just want someone to do the same old, same old. Six months later, Jessica's back in consulting, telling folks that she's learned an important lesson about culture fit.

But privately she starts to wonder, why is it that every opportunity that seems so promising at first seems to lose its luster once I'm actually in it. And so that's the core pattern of the seven at work here.

Understanding Gluttony

You have the passion of gluttony. So what is gluttony? We typically think of that as an appetite for food. And in the Enneagram, it's a much deeper kind of appetite. It's hedonism. It's a weakness for what's easy, a weakness for what's pleasure, pleasurable.

It's wanting to taste the new, wanting to try everything, taste, but not really digest. Like a buffet or a smorgasbord of opportunities. This kind of gluttony looks a little bit like drug or alcohol addiction. And sevens can have that addict energy of trying to get the next fix. And so that's gluttony.

And in some ways gluttony sort of sounds like it sort of sounds less serious than some of the other sins, right? If you compare it to pride or envy or avarice gluttony, well, what's what's so bad about liking some wine and some food? But as Naranjo points out, he references Chaucer, who writes that he that is addicted to this sin of gluttony may withstand no other sin. In other words, gluttony is a kind of weakness to the easy way out. And if one has that sin, then all the other sins are sure to follow.

But I also want to say about this gluttony is we are in the thinking triad, which means that we are in the fear triad, the aversion triad, the moving away triad. And so this gluttony, even though this is a weakness for things, it's a fleeing into possibility as an escape mechanism.

The Core Pattern

The core pattern 7 says, I'd rather dive into the new than face the current, face the real. So it's an escapism that's the gluttony that we're talking about. And as a result, that gluttony is never satisfied. As soon as we're in the new job, at the new party, having the new experience, we're already thinking about the next experience. We have to, because otherwise this gluttony wouldn't perform the escapist role that it has for us.

And so, drawing this line from the passion to the fixation, as soon as the core pattern 7 is projecting itself into new possibilities, it's already thinking about future possibilities. The seven is always future oriented.

The Fixation: Planning and Scheming

And so I've chosen the fixation planning here, which Naranjo references. But Naranjo, I think correctly points out that planning can be a little neutral. And lots of types plan the three pattern plans. Planning is something that we all do. And so I want to offer alternates scheming.

The seven has an eye toward manipulation. How do I manipulate in the most basic sense, how do I maneuver, steer, reorganize situations, people, things to elicit better futures. And so that scheming quality speak to the kind of agenda planning. It's not a neutral planning. And it is ultimately a survival based, self, self oriented planning.

Other words that we use sometimes in the language of the seven pattern is charlatanism. Or fraudulence. I think of the Court Jester as a classic Seven character. The Court Jester is very fast and the Sevens are very fast. The Court Jester probably likes to indulge in the treasures of the royal court.

And the Jester jokes and finds a way to survive and can even sort of say all sorts of things about the king, but always finds a way to survive. They survive through their intellect and through their humor and cheekiness. And Sevens are quite positive, fluid types, hard to pin down a seven. So that's the kind of planning attitude or scheming attitude of the 7.

The Paradox of Planning

But if you're always hatching a plan, you're never really at rest. You never really get that safety or that satiation that you're looking for.

I remember I had a friend, I was so fortunate to have this friend and he would just throw the best parties in the city and was always coming up with the plans where we're going to go. And as soon as we got there he was already thinking about the next place. And so even though he would create these incredible environments of fun and enjoyment, his enjoyment was, was always surface level. He didn't stay still for long enough to start to soak in and kind of marinate in the enjoyment of other people and other situations. So Seven sort of skip along the surface and that's the way that their planning sort of ultimately only drives their appetite for more pleasure seeking.

The Self-Perpetuating Cycle

So this is a pattern, like all the patterns, that simultaneously frustrates. Right? The Seven pattern frustrates its own appetite because it tastes a little bit of everything and never digests. But it also self perpetuates because sure, we're having fun now, but we could be even having more fun in this other way.

It's very difficult for the Seven to stop because if the seven were to stop, there's this feeling of depression and darkness and entrapment that's like right under the surface for the Seven. And the Seven is almost like knows they have a debt to pay. But I just got to keep moving because if I were to stop, that's like a bottomless pit. And so Sevens are known for not really engaging the darker half of the emotional spectrum. Feelings of melancholy or anger or hurt are not easily available for this pattern.

The Emotional Volume Dial

Tom Lehue, who's an Enneagram teacher, has an interesting analogy for the Seven and he's a Seven himself. Where something happened with the Seven early on where they experienced pain that was so unbearable that they sort of turned down the emotional dialogue, the emotional volume dial sort of down completely so that everything got dampened. Pain got dampened, sadness got dampened, but pleasure also got dampened. And so therefore the seven has to do more, pursue more extreme pleasure or more volume of pleasure, more quantity of pleasure to sort of compensate for this original action they took to sort of dial down the intensity of emotions.

So they might need extreme sports or extreme experiences to light them back up.

Challenges to Transformation

So there are a few reasons why the core pattern of the seven is a tough nut to crack. One is sevens, maybe along with threes, are, their patterns are among the most pro social. This is a type that likes to have fun, is fun to be around, sees the positive in things.

Their transformation work often involves them being less fun to be around. They might actually hear pressure or perceived pressure from family or people at work, whatever. What happened to you? What happened to you used to be so fun because they're starting to feel things that they haven't stopped to feel in the past.

And the other piece is that sevens have, because of their pattern of gluttony, there's a certain level of perseverance that might be lacking. And so I think it's Suzanne Stabile who's pointed out that sevens are the least likely to come to Enneagram workshops. And if they're there, they're the most likely to leave early.

And so the 7 is going to not naturally be that invested in doing the deep work that gets hard. That's exactly against the pattern. So these two qualities sort of serve to obscure what's really going on here and be obstacles for the seven doing work on their own pattern.

The Three Subtypes

Social Seven: Sacrifice

I'll speak briefly to the subtypes of the seven. So the social seven is the seven who gets their sense of meaning and safety from groups, potentially from workplaces, or society in general. And so the keyword for the social seven is sacrifice.

And this is like kind of a surprising keyword for a type that we've just described as pleasure seeking, hedonistic, etc. This social 7 gets their yayas, gets their kicks from sacrifice. So there's a kind of idealism here around contribution. And the idea of like, serving a bigger cause lets them channel their hedonism into a superficially noble cause.

That said, you still might see them jump around, you know, different causes and have typical sort of seven pattern difficulties around kind of stick to itiveness compared to other social justice types like A one. Still the sacrifice seven, sacrificing seven can be a total workaholic and throw themselves into that and suffer burnout.

And so if we're going to give a protocol for the sacrifice seven, we might say something like, must be virtuous, can't be indulgent. So the social seven is always going to be moving toward a sort of a noble cause. Incredibly and admirably sacrificing their hedonistic urges for this noble cause, and then ultimately getting frustrated.

You know, a whole bunch of different ways. Right. One is they might not ever receive that level of kind of recognition that they're looking for. They're never going to hear that, wow, you're so virtuous. They're never necessarily going to get that applause that they're looking for.

They also may need to then pursue their indulgences sort of in secret, and they'll have to maintain this dissonance. So whether they fully suppress their need for pleasure or act it out in secret, there's going to be some frustration that sacrifice where will sort of be continually demanded for them in a way that doesn't satisfy.

Sexual Seven: Enchantment

For the sexual or the one on 1 7. The keyword we could use is enchantment. Nuran Ho also uses suggestibility for the sexual seven. The world is just, I mean it's. It's a lovely kind of filter to put on the world. It's. This is the Pollyanna view. Everything is just incredible and exciting and, the sexual seven wants to throw themselves into adventure.

They look for intense experiences. They, they might be the ones who like, have you heard about this new coffee shop or this restaurant? And this is such a great city, such a great town. They're hooked on excitement and, their reality becomes a little bit like a fantasy, until it doesn't and reality sort of sucks them back in, somebody's upset with them, there's difficulty. And then the sexual seven will choose enchantment over moving into that kind of harsh or cold reality.

So if we're going to come up with a protocol for the sexual seven, it might be something like, must have. So like excitement or possibility. Must have possibility. Can't have routine, can't have the same old, same old life is sort of only 3D and colorful when there's new things happening. So there's sort of this, you know, that really describes the core pattern of the seven so well. It's like there has to be this Constant positivity engine that's running. And if I were to stop pedaling, the world would sort of be drained of quality, drained of energy. So really the seven, the core pattern seven has quite a bleak worldview hidden underneath the enchantment and the fantasy. Can't have routine.

Self-Preservation Seven: Alliance

And for the self preservation, seven. So self preservation seven is, you know, the self preservation instinct is most survival oriented, caring about resources, they draw in. Whereas the sexual seven looks for one on one relationships either with people or with art or with work. So the self preservation in the seven, the keyword here is alliance.

Naranja also suggests the word mafia. A kind of family, but a family designed not by blood, more through. We all want the same thing. I always think about like the zombie apocalypse for some reason, like one of those shows like Walking Dead when I think about The Self Preservation 7, this is a type who builds relationships and networks and communities from a survivalist instinct. Again, these are all fear based and aversion based. So even though the seven presents as moving toward and positivity, we have to understand this pattern as ultimately, a fear aversion, pattern, an offshoot of the six, a strategy that sits on top of the six.

And so for the self preservation seven, they're looking for deals, they're looking to introduce people. But why do they want to introduce people? Because the more relationships they build around themselves, the more they're safe and established as an important node in the network. So for this type we might have something like must have options. Can't get stuck.

Can't get stuck. You could say can't be alone. But aloneness is a concern for all nine types. For the self preservation seven, the aloneness would be scary because they would be without, resources that keep them safe. Relationships that keep them safe. Options that keep them safe. Why does this fail?

Again, like I've said before, the self preservation seven, along with the other seven subtypes, these are pretty good social strategies. But again, it comes down to surface level. The Self Preservation 7 builds alliances. But those alliances are so surface level and so utilitarian that inevitably there will come a time when self preservation 7 really needs deep help, deep support, deep love. And maybe won't be able to offer anything in return.

And at that moment they'll feel incredibly stuck, incredibly exposed, incredibly alone in a way that'll be kind of unbearable for the seven. And rather than face that, they'll just dial down the volume like they're used to doing and distract, go back to, well, maybe it's not that bad. And I can see this friend. And maybe I'll even sort of mention to the friend that I'm having a tough time. But I'll couch it in a way that we can keep it really light, keep it moving.

So the possibility of profound support and profound presence is not available for this pattern.

Conclusion

This pattern does not afford or make possible, true virtue, true possibility, true union. Those are not made possible from this pattern.

So that's the core pattern 7. And as with all these patterns, the invitation here, whether you identify as a Seven or not, is to steep yourself in what it feels like, what this pattern feels like when it operates.