What is the Enneagram 3w4 personality type? What are its key traits, strengths, weaknesses and fears? We’ll answer these questions in this article.
This is one of the 18 Enneagram Wing Types, which don’t exhibit traits of just one profile, but blend two adjacent ones. The 3w4 is a blend of the Enneagram 3 and the Enneagram 4, which are both Heart types.
We’ll start by talking about how this profile is composed of 3 and 4, then talk about its core traits. We’ll round off with a field manual for the Enneagram 3w4: a summary of its core strengths, weaknesses, fears and desires.
What is the Enneagram 3w4 Type?
First, let’s clarify what the Enneagram 3w4 is. It means an Enneagram 3 with a 4 Wing. It helps if you understand the 9 Enneagram Profiles in some depth.
If you have a 3w4 personality, it means you’re predominantly an Enneagram 3, but exhibit some traits from the adjacent profile, number 4. It’s also possible to be a pure 3, or a 3w2.
If you want an approximation of what a 3w4 looks like, take the core 3 and 4 traits and blend them together, with 3 dominating. If you know somebody who is primarily a 3 but has significant traits of 4, they might well be a 3w4.
The folks at personalitydata.org found that only 6.8% of Enneagram 3s exhibit a 4 wing: a minimal amount. 91% are pure 3s, while the other wing type, 3w2, makes up the remaining 2.8%.
Remember, the 3w4 is predominantly a 3 but shows significant 4 traits.
3s (Achievers) are industrious, goal-oriented and driven, while 4s (Individualists) are creative, curious and self-expressive. To me, this seems like a powerful blend.
The 3w4 is predominantly a 3, so are strivers and highly self-motivated, but the 4 wing means they exhibit some of the core Individualist traits. This gives the 3w4 an introverted, self-focused bend. They tend to excel at working alone and are more disconnected from the outside than a typical 3.
In a nutshell, the 3w4 is highly motivated by achieving goals, raising the bar, and reaching the top.
For your information, I refer to personality types as “it” because they’re abstract profiles derived from real-world data, detached from any one person. Though the Enneagram possess huge explanatory power, nobody is a cookie-cutter 3w4.
The Core Traits
The Enneagram 3w4 Type is called the Expert because it is a striver, a seeker of knowledge and competency, an explorer looking to redefine the limits.Its basic desire is to achieve goals while expressing itself and receiving external recognition.
The 3w4 is more introverted and self-focused than a typical 3, thanks to its 4 wing.
Thanks to the 4 influence, it can find communication challenging and struggle to fit in with the group. Its main goal is to rise to the top, to be number 1, and this drive and ambition can hinder its social nous.
This combination of focusing on achievement and being introverted speaks to me a lot. I’ve always wanted to be the best in what I do. Rarely am I content to be mediocre at something. I don’t want to improve to impress others, but to redefine my own limits and experience the growth that brings. At the same time, I recognise that this hyperfocus on outcomes can be stifling.
As with all Enneagram Profiles, there are downsides to the 3w4. For one thing, since its primary drive is to achieve goals while expressing itself, it fears failure and rejection. This can lead to stress, overworking and self-flagellation. When it feels unsure about its competence, it can become needy for external validation and approval.
The 3w4 also doesn’t want to be perceived as unworthy or useless. It needs to be recognised as the competent expert that it constantly strives to be. As a result, it can get obsessive about its trophies on the shelf, constantly chase carrots to fill the hole inside, and forget to connect with others. It’s prone to seek validation to assuage self-doubt and compensate for a lack of self-worth. It can lose touch with its inner life as it is focuses on doing, doing, doing.
Whether we have a 3w4 personality or not, we can learn from its successes and struggles. It’s a universal fact that if our prime directive is to achieve our goals and express ourselves, we can forget about others and subsequently shoot ourselves in the foot. We tend to think that success is all that matters, when in reality it’s just one component of a happy life.
The best professions for an Expert are those that favour high achievers, such as entrepreneurs, businesspeople and stockbrokers.
The Enneagram 3w4 Field Manual
The core fear of the 3w4 is failing in its pursuits, being the loser, and being ridiculed.
Its core drives are to pursue and achieve goals, and express itself as it does.
The strengths of the 3w4 are its industriousness, proactiveness, diligence and independence.
Its weaknesses are its need for achievement and external recognition, and its oft-excessive focus on success.
The 3w4 is at its best when it’s reaching goals, taking on fresh challenges, and pushing the boundaries of possibility.
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The post The Enneagram 3w4 Type first appeared on Deep Psychology.
The post The Enneagram 3w4 Type appeared first on Deep Psychology.
