This blog was inspired by Ruth Landis’ insights about Possibilities. You can read about how each of us, based on our Enneagram styles, can engage life in its real possibilities. Ruth Landis is a Senior Member of the Enneagram in Business Network. To read more about Senior Members of our network, click here:

Possibilities

We make so many assumptions that limit us. What is possible that we are not seeing? Today, allow your thoughts to become dreams, wonderful dreams that have no limit. Dreaming costs nothing at all and takes you into the realm of possibility, a very fertile place. Allow the dream to become vivid and real as if you are living it already. Share this dream with at least one person and ask them to just listen.

Possibilities and Enneagram Styles
I’ve added the following to help us understand how we can unleash our openness to real possibilities through understanding our Enneagram style-based obstacles and the ways in which we can expand our potential.

Enneagram Style One
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Being overly self-controlled, trying to do everything right, and having such strong opinions about so many things

How to allow Possibilities: Relax, enjoy, laugh, be more spontaneous, and open your mind to ideas and options you’ve not allowed yourself to consider.

Enneagram Style Two
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Being overly concerned about others’ reactions so you become self-conscious and, therefore, self-inhibiting

How to allow Possibilities: Ask yourself: What do I want? What do I feel? What is my dream rather than trying to help others manifest their dreams?

Enneagram Style Three
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Conforming to what you perceive your “audience” expects from you, then following this path rather than your own

How to allow Possibilities: Ask yourself always: Is this goal something I really want and enjoy pursuing or am I doing to gain self-respect and the respect of others. If your answer is other-directed, stop and ask yourself: What is my dream? What is my heart’s deepest desire?

Enneagram Style Four
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Thinking you can’t…manifest your dreams, get what you really want, or live a fully balanced life

How to allow Possibilities: Be in the now, in the present, in the moment rather than in the past or the future.

Enneagram Style Five
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Having boundaries ­– mental, physical, emotional, and behavioral – that are so firm and strong that new possibilities cannot penetrate these protective barriers

How to allow Possibilities: Spend time reflecting on what you might be missing from life’s experiences by having such defined boundaries, then open up and dare to do something different every day.

Enneagram Style Six
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: if you are more of a phobic (fearful) Six, the biggest obstacle is not allowing yourself to take risks because you don’t trust yourself enough; if you are more counter-phobic (pushing forward and taking risks to prove you are not afraid), the biggest obstacle to a real dream is your tendency to be so aggressive and assertive and so instantly reactive that you become disconnected from what you really want

How to allow Possibilities: For more phobic Sixes, dream your dreams without instantaneously being concerned about what might get in the way and giving yourself permission to have fun and take risks; for more counter-phobic Sixes, put down your instantaneous offense (which is really a defense), do an honest examination of your internal emotional responses, and relax more.

Enneagram Style Seven
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Being overly focused on so many possibilities that it becomes difficult to manifest any one of them

How to allow Possibilities: Identify your values in terms of what matters to you most, then use these as a way to determine which of your many dreams is most important to you; manifest the important dreams!

Enneagram Style Eight
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Moving to action so quickly that your “dream-time” gets too little real attention

How to allow Possibilities: Slow down, reflect, and remember that small dreams are just as important as bigger dreams.

Enneagram Style Nine
Obstacle to being open to Possibilities: Not believing enough in yourself or that you do have a major contribution to make

How to allow Possibilities: Gain more access to your gut-instincts and Body Center; the information about what you most want and your potential possibilities often resides there.