I may receive commissions from purchases made through links in this article. Full Disclosure
Have you ever wondered if your Enneagram type can change?
Maybe you took an Enneagram test a few years ago and got one result, but now you’re relating to a different type. Or maybe you’ve spent time growing, healing, and becoming a healthier version of yourself, and you wonder, “Am I still the same type?”
Your Enneagram type is generally considered to remain consistent throughout your life.
However, that does not mean you stay the same.
In fact, one of the greatest things about the Enneagram is that it shows us how we can grow.
Your Enneagram Type Doesn’t Change… But You Do
The Enneagram is not about your behaviors or personality traits. It’s about your core motivations.
Your type explains the deeper reason behind why you think, feel, and act the way you do.
For example:
A Type 1 wants to be good and do what is right.
Those core motivations don’t disappear as you grow older.
But the way you respond to those motivations can change.
A healthy Type 1 is still a Type 1—but they may no longer feel controlled by perfectionism.
A healthy Type 2 is still a Type 2—but they may learn that their worth is not dependent on being needed by others.
A healthy Type 3 is still a Type 3—but they may stop measuring their value by their accomplishments.
Your type stays the same, but your relationship with your type can change.
Reasons You May Have Mistyped Yourself
There are a few reasons someone might feel like their Enneagram type has changed.
You Didn’t Know Yourself Well Enough
The Enneagram requires a level of self-awareness that many of us simply don’t have when we’re first introduced to it. It’s easy to answer questions based on who we want to be, who others expect us to be, or even who we’ve always believed ourselves to be.
But as you grow in self-awareness, you may begin to recognize motivations, fears, and patterns that you hadn’t noticed before.
That deeper understanding can lead you to realize you were mistyped all along. Your Enneagram type didn’t change; you simply came to know yourself better.
You Looked at Your Actions Instead of Your Motivation
This is probably the most common reason people think their type has changed.
The Enneagram can be tricky to figure out because many types can look similar on the outside.
For example, a Type 1, Type 3, and Type 6 may all appear responsible and hardworking.
A Type 2 and Type 9 may both appear caring and easygoing.
A Type 4 and Type 5 may both appear introspective and thoughtful.
But the reason behind those behaviors is what determines the type.
Remember:
The Enneagram is not about what you do. It’s about why you do it.
Sometimes, as you learn more about the Enneagram, you realize what you thought was your original type wasn’t actually your type.
That doesn’t mean your type changed. It just means you are learning to understand yourself better and you’ve gotten better at digging past the actions to the motivation!
(I personally thought I was a Type 6 until I dug past actions and started really looking at my motivation for those actions… then I realized I’m a Type 1)
Which brings us to overlays.
You Mistyped Because of an Overlay
Sometimes we mistake the expectations placed on us for our true personality.
Our family, culture, religion, career, or society may encourage certain behaviors that don’t naturally come from our core motivations.
Maybe you grew up in a family that valued achievement, so you learned to act like a Type 3. Perhaps you were taught that keeping the peace was the most important thing, so you began to identify with Type 9. Or maybe your culture emphasized responsibility and doing the “right” thing, making you think you were a Type 1.
Don’t even get me started on how many women mistype as Type 2 because they believe that’s how women are “supposed” to be. Or how many men mistype as Type 8 because strength and assertiveness are often expected of men.
These learned behaviors are often called overlays because they sit on top of our core type. They can make it difficult to recognize what is truly motivating us versus what we’ve been taught is expected of us.
As you become more self-aware and begin peeling back those layers, you may realize that your original type wasn’t actually your type at all. Your Enneagram type didn’t change; you simply uncovered it.
You Typed Yourself During a Difficult Season
Another reason people think their type changed is that they initially typed themselves when they were in a season of stress or unhealth.
If you take a test while in a season of stress or in a level of unhealth, you may get a result that looks more like your “stress number”.
Why? Because unfortunately the tests are not foolproof and are often built on your actions (not motivation)… and if you are acting like your stress number, you may very well test like your stress number.
And it doesn’t even need to be your stress number. You could be making use of actions and traits of any of the types if it’s what you use while in stress.
In my seasons of stress or unhealth, I can easily see unhealthy traits of my “stress number” (4), but I also can see unhealthy traits of my “growth number” (7), my wings (9 & 2), or even my tritype (I’m a 163).
You Didn’t Know About Subtypes
Most people are introduced to the Enneagram by learning the nine types, but that’s only part of the picture. Each type has three instinctual subtypes: self-preservation, social, and sexual/intimate (sometimes called one-to-one); and those subtypes can dramatically change how a type is expressed.
In fact, two people with the same Enneagram type can look surprisingly different because they have different dominant instincts.
If you’ve only read the basic descriptions of your type, you may have dismissed it because it didn’t seem to fit. Usually, only one subtype of each type is “stereotypical”; the other two subtype options can often look pretty different. In fact, there’s even a “countertype” for each type, and the countertype is often a very common reason that people mistype.
But once you learn about the subtypes, you may discover that your original type actually was correct all along; you just hadn’t found the version of it that described you best.
Trauma Can Mask Your Core Type
Trauma can have a profound impact on the way we think, feel, and respond to the world around us. It often creates coping strategies that were necessary for survival but don’t necessarily reflect our core motivations.
For example, someone who experienced betrayal may become hypervigilant, someone who experienced neglect may become fiercely independent, and someone who grew up in an unpredictable environment may become highly controlling.
These responses can look like certain Enneagram types on the surface, making it easy to mistype yourself. As healing takes place, those trauma-based coping mechanisms may begin to fade, allowing your true Enneagram type to become more apparent.
By now you’ve probably noticed a pattern.
In every example above, the person’s Enneagram type didn’t actually change. What changed was their understanding of themselves.
They dug beneath their behaviors.
They healed.
They learned about subtypes.
They peeled back overlays.
They became more self-aware.
All of those things helped reveal the motivations that had been there all along.
So while your Enneagram type can’t change… your awareness of yourself and your type can absolutely change. And that’s one of the greatest gifts of the Enneagram; it gives us language to understand ourselves more honestly so we can continue growing.
