Enneagram Type 8 vs. Type 5: Enter the Arena In Health

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Table of Contents

Intro

A few weeks ago, I got great feedback on my article Enneagram Type 5 vs Enneagram Type 4. Everyone enjoyed it, and everyone complained that it was too long. So, this week I am breaking up the normally almost 2500 word blog posts into several 300-500 word posts. If you liked the long version, don’t worry I will release it at the end of the week. Since I am breaking up the posts into bite-size bits, you might want to check this one to get a better introduction into the series. Here was the previous entry for Enneagram Type 8’s. Now here is the healing we can provide one another in the arena.

Type 8: Healed – The Method

The best thing we (Type 5’s) do for Type 8’s is similar to the Type 7. We slow them down. Unlike most Enneagram numbers our slowing down actually puts more weight behind them. With more information and thought, the Enneagram Type 8 who chooses to pair with a Type Five gets stronger and more massive. Think about it this way. A more massive object is harder to move, but once it gets going its harder to stop. Type 5’s add to the Type 8’s mass by giving stronger research, facts, information and thought. This mass finishes the job.

Beyond that Type 8’s tend to act passionately, and that passion gets measured by the Type 5’s dispassionate, objective thinking. Type 5’s build a method to focus the Type 8’s incredible strength and energy. This plays out no better than the Type 8’s pursuit of justice.

The Enneagram Type 8 who chooses to pair with a Type Five gets stronger and more massive. #enneagram Click To Tweet

Justice Arena

Few other Enneagram numbers can actually see the justice Enneagram Type 8’s are going for than an Enneagram Type 5. You would think a Type 1 who strives for rules would help them most, but often times Type 1’s are constricted by the rules unable to break them to be truly just. If we take the Batman comics for instance. Batman would be the Type 8. The police officer Jim Gordon or the inventor Mr. Fox might be Type 5’s. The police commissioner or council members seeking to stop Batman and his brand of justice would be the Type 1’s because Batman wouldn’t be following the rules.

This analogy exposes the problems good and the bad of the Type 8 justice. Often they will take justice into their own hands acting as if they are above the law. Though they deeply believe in the law’s power and strength, they are also just acutely aware of the limitations of the law and constantly seek to challenge it to make it better. Type 5’s are the best friend to a Type 8 challenging the law for justice because we can provide ample means to help reform for justice sometimes that is building a better bat-suit more often it is in researching the stories and injustices created by the rules. This gives a Type 8 the mass to actually generate real change and lasting justice. Through this information gathering, we both create a method for justice that helps everyone.

Type 5: Healed – Entering The Arena

Type 8’s are one of the few Enneagram Numbers (besides the Type 6’s) that will actually really engage a Type 5. Remember Type 6’s can convince to come out from behind our walls through engagement. A Type 8 will break down our wall to engage. Honestly, we need it. The greatest weakness of a Type 5 is the lack of being willing to engage. We like hoarding information and compartmentalizing. Type 8’s wave the BS flag and break down those walls with their wrecking ball personalities. They do this because Type 8’s have an instinct for when people aren’t being wholly truthful with them. While Type 5’s aren’t necessarily purposefully deceptive we are rarely fully honest. We hold a lot back. Type 8’s force us into the arena of life.

The Push

There is the great Teddy Roosevelt quote that every Enneagram Type 5 needs to hear. Roosevelt was the prototypical type 8 by the way.

Roosevelt's quote. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

We have to enter into the arena of life. It is costly, but it is where life is lived to the full. Thank God for Type 8’s who are willing to engage us enough to force into the arena. They bring us unique healing that I appreciate and if you are a fellow Type 5, you need to learn to appreciate it too.

Every piece of research that drifts our way is no longer stored in the filing cabinet of our minds but becomes sharp and focused toward the goal, the mission at hand. Click To Tweet

Enneagram Line Type 5 to Type 8 In Health: Owning the Arena

Most of the time fellow Type 5’s are content to sit in the back hoarding, information, time, energy, or thoughts, but when we are healthy that’s when we are something else entirely. Perhaps not the visionary communicators like Steve Jobs, but more like the visionary thinkers like Bill Gates. When we get healthy we tap into some of the best parts of Type 8’s. We become strong energetic and have access to some of the same unstoppable force Type 8’s live in every day.

We become sure of ourselves and instead of sitting on all our information. It becomes actionable. Every piece of research that drifts our way is no longer stored in the filing cabinet of our minds but becomes sharp and focused toward the goal, the mission at hand. We use our cross-reading and training to come up with unique solutions from fields that stretch far from our current focus. Connections made actionable signifies a healthy Type 5 with access to Type 8 energy. This creates a formidable opponent in the arena of life. Someone willing to get knocked down and get back up to improve what they are doing.

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