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Find out what your Enneagram Core Fear is to help unlock your Enneagram type and to learn more about yourself!
The enneagram is a personality typing system that shows how a person can view and interpret the world in one of nine ways based on your enneagram core motivations.
It’s an incredibly helpful tool in understanding yourself as well as understanding others.
If you are wanting to find your enneagram type, you can of course take a test but the problem with tests is that they tend to be based on your traits.
Traits often do correlate to your type but… traits aren’t what actually determine your type.
What Determines Your Enneagram Type
If traits do not determine your enneagram type then what does?
Your core motivations! Each person is wired with one of nine core motivations.
The core motivation is the reason behind your traits.
The enneagram doesn’t stop at the surface level traits like many personality test, instead it digs deeper to tell you why you are the way you are.
Enneagram Core Motivations
The core motivations of the enneagram are made up of three main factors: core desires, core fears, and the less talked about wounding messages.
But for this post we are going to focus just on the core fears.
Enneagram Core Fears
You’ll likely resonate with most of the core fears (or all of them). This makes sense as all these fears are things that pretty much nobody would want.
However, even though you resonate with most or all of these fears, you only have one core fear. That one that you fear just a bit more than all the others. The one that is at the root of all the fears.
Check out the nine core fears and try to determine which one is the most terrifying to you.
Enneagram Type 1 Core Fear: Being Bad / Being Wrong
To expand on those two descriptions, 1s fear being bad, wrong, unethical, immoral, incorrect, inappropriate, and evil.
Enneagram Type 2 Core Fear: Being Unwanted / Being Unlovable
To expand on those two descriptions, 2s fear being unloved, unwanted, not needed, not appreciated, and needy.
Enneagram Type 3 Core Fear: Being Not Valued / Being Not Admired
To expand on those two descriptions, 3s fear being worthless, a failure, not valued, not admired, not successful, and inefficient.
Enneagram Type 4 Core Fear: Being Without Significance / Having No Meaning
To expand on those two descriptions, 4s fear being without significance, having no identity, being common, being defective, or flawed.
Enneagram Type 5 Core Fear: Being Invaded / Being Overwhelmed
To expand on those two descriptions, 5s fear being incompetent, incapable, unknowledgeable, helpless, and ignorant, and invaded.
Enneagram Type 6 Core Fear: Being Without Support / Being Without Security
To expand on those two descriptions, 6s fear being without support, without guidance, without security, being alone, and being abandoned.
Enneagram Type 7 Core Fear: Being Deprived / Being Trapped In Emotional Pain
To expand on those two descriptions, 7s fear being deprived, trapped in emotional pain, being bored, and limited.
Enneagram Type 8 Core Fear: Being Controlled / Being Weak
To expand on those two descriptions, 8s fear being controlled, harmed, powerless, weak, vulnerable, and manipulated.
Enneagram Type 9 Core Fear: Being Separated / Being at Loss With Others
To expand on those two descriptions, 9s fear being separated, being at a loss with others, conflict, tension, being shut out, and overlooked.
As I mentioned earlier, Core Fears are just one side of the Core Motivation coin. It’s also important to look at the Core Desires as well as the Wounding Messages.
