As I alluded to in last week’s post, I have recently been spending a fair amount of time learning the intricacies of the Enneagram. While I still have a great deal to learn, for me one of the most interesting discoveries I have made about myself is where my mind is generally focused.
For those of you not familiar with this centuries-old description of personality types, there are nine different types divided into three triads. For each of the three types in each triad, the people in each are generally focused either on the past, the present, or the future. Where do you fall?
I, myself am focused on the present. I could make a very rational argument of why that is the best and safest place to be, although I will say I have a definite bent to ruminate on the past rather than projecting myself into the future. As I am learning, there is no right or wrong answer about where the best place is to be, at least according to the teachers of the Enneagram. I have to somewhat respectfully, disagree, however.
The people I am learning from say that your Enneagram number never changes but you can adapt your thinking to adapt to how you are wired and make adjustments so that your relationships, especially with those closest to you are more rewarding. Therefore, I am learning to not try to relive the past and to focus on how things could have gone better. Rather, I am to take the lessons in the past and use them to create a more fool-proof present and future.
The other adjustment I am currently pondering is how to focus more on the future and to better project myself and my results going forward. Admittedly, I have had to set goals, budgets, plans, and the like throughout my business career in order to give my stakeholders and concerned parties concrete targets to shoot for. I must admit, however, that I am mediocre, at best at projecting the future.
It’s not that I don’t value the future and see the benefit of projecting myself into the future. It’s just that it’s so much darn fun to embrace the present and to seize each and every current opportunity to get the most out of life today. For many of you, this may be a foreign, strange, and somewhat crazy perspective. For me, it is the juxtaposition of doing what my wife has been telling me to do for years: Live in the Moment.
Now, it’s not just an “encouragement” from my wife, but it’s a daily exciting challenge to try to add as much value and to serve other people as much as I possibly can. I am learning to be really content with who I am and where I am in my life right now.
How about you? Have you invested the time into yourself to know who you are, what you aspire to, and how you need to continue developing your skills along with the way you are created in order to maximize your daily efforts? This is not a call to change your wiring or thinking, but rather to embrace them, utilize them, and invest them in creating an exciting future, or should I say “Present” for yourself?
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