As a Type 7: The Adventurer...
As a Creative Enneagram Type 7, The Adventurer, you are incandescent creative energy in action. Like a ball of fire, you spark creative energy and activity with every person and organization you touch. But, like a brush fire that rages and then disappears, you must actively work to stay engaged and interested in one place for long enough to effect true and lasting creative change. When you can channel that creative fire, there’s no limit to what you might do.
You are generous with your time and your ideas. After all, you can always think of more ideas, right? And you often do. But you can’t get more time back, and this joyful and expressive generosity can become a weakness in that you might look back over the years and wonder what you’ve accomplished because your ambitions have been so all over the place.
You are the ultimate team player, both fun to be around and a real asset to any group. You must learn to balance serving others with also having a specific calling from God that you must live out. The key, of course, is that you serve others by living out that calling, but you’ve taken many detours along the way to finding that out. But when you do, watch out, because your creative energy allows you to create for change in a special way.
The Creative Enneagram Type 7, The Adventurer, has both healthy and unhealthy manifestations.
Healthy
You are ready to try out something new at a moment’s notice. You can mold yourself to fit into any creative team and provide value. You image our Creator’s joyful, expressive, and generous creativity.
Unhealthy
You don’t stick with creative projects after the initial glow wears off. You hop around from one creative project to another without committing yourself to the grind necessary for real and lasting creative fruit.
Famous Enneagram Type 7 – Bob Goff
Bob Goff is an attorney, a human rights activist, and an encourager to millions. His message is simple. We’ll become in our lives what we do with our love. His book, Love Does, recounts larger-than-life tales of Bob living out the simple message of God’s love in wildly outrageous and adventurous ways.
We may read about child abuse and human trafficking around the world and shake our heads, maybe even donate money to a cause, but Bob Goff’s approach is simple: love does, so he does. He has personally fought to save children from the evil grasp of witch doctors, eventually becoming the Honorary Consul to the Republic of Uganda, and like most of his seemingly impossible love capers, it all seemed to start with a simply question. Why not?
To meet Bob in person is to bask in sheer incandescent energy. You get the feeling that even at age 61, he can probably laugh, play, and work harder than most people half his age—all with a twinkle in his eye and a joke on his lips. His wife, Sweet Maria, says, “living with this man is like living with a power plant. From the moment he wakes up each morning, he is ready to go… Whatever it is, he is up for it. He’s just always been that way. It’s amazing.” [1]
I met Bob briefly at a crisis pregnancy center fundraiser where he was the keynote speaker. In a room of close to a thousand people, he walked over to our table, placed his hand on my head and began to pray. Somehow he just knew that I needed some encouragement that night. That’s Bob.
Open to the Spirit’s leading. Ready to dare, to love, to risk everything. The kind of man who meets people on Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland, because why not? Who says lawyers have to meet in boring offices? Bob thinks that Tom Sawyer Island is like most people’s lives: something they’d like to experience, but that they just never get around to crossing over to it.
“Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget. Their dreams become one of those ‘we’ll go there next time’ deferrals. The sad thing is, for many there is no ‘next time’ because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision. They need a change of attitude, not more opportunities.” [2]
Bob’s attitude toward life is that of an adventurer, riding the waves of God’s grace, the salty tang in the air just one reminder among millions that we are living in God’s world, and when we are open to letting His love flow through us, then we attempt great things as we create for change. Even if on a raft in Disneyland, floating toward Tom Sawyer Island.
[1] https://www.typologypodcast.com/podcast/2018/06/28/episode50/bobmariagoff
[2] Bob Goff Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in and Ordinary World Thomas Nelson (April, 2012) p. 1
Nest Steps: Where to go from here...
Did one of the Creative Types immediately resonate with you? While no one is “just one thing”, many people recognize both the healthy and unhealthy characteristics of their Creative Type quickly. Remember though, your personality type, or your Creative Type, is just one part of the amazingly intricate and uniquely created image bearer that you are. Your spiritual giftings, your life circumstances, your habits, your family, and countless other factors all play a part in shaping you into who you are and who you might someday become.
For all you personality test deniers, don’t overlook the patterns woven into you by your Creator. For all you personality test believers—yes, we see you posting your Type on social media—don’t let your type dictate to you who you are or what you are capable of, because God is changing and maturing each of us to be more like Him. So, let Him!
Just be forewarned, change is a process. Sometimes it’s a long and arduous path to understanding your creative calling, and learning your Creative Type is just the first step.
In the Created for Change community, we embark together on the adventure that is The Creator’s Journey.
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