Martin Quigley’s comprehensive study of the Enneagram, More than a number, was launched recently. The book  takes readers on a journey towards self-discovery and self-development. Earning plaudits from experts in the field of Enneagram psychology, including Peter Hanrahan of the Narrative Enneagram School and Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Phd, founder of the Enneagram in Business, Martin has been praised for the book’s accessible style and practical applications.

More than a number can be purchased here. We have reproduced Martin’s ‘Preface’ to More than a number below, for you to read and enjoy. Martin is eager to hear your thoughts, impressions and reactions, so feel free to leave a comment in the comments box before. For more on More than a number see the More than a number page, and for more on Martin’s coaching and training sessions and workshops, see the Training and Coaching page.

Preface

I have been grappling with this journey of self-exploration for most of my life. I often reflected on how I appeared to get to a place in life that was often in opposition to where I was trying to go. Then one Sunday evening in 1988, my wife and I were going to bed; she had just returned from a weekend workshop. 

As I turned over to go asleep, she had her bedside light on and was going through her notes from the weekend. All of a sudden, I got a nudge in the ribs and a piece of paper was put in front of my face with an instruction: “read this, this is you”. I duly opened one eye and read the page. “No, it isn’t”, I said and threw it back. There was another rustling of paper followed by another prod, this time with the instruction, “try this one”. I read the page and sat bolt upright in the bed, “where did you get this?” I said. The page described me from the inside out. Nobody should be able to know this, let alone write it down. That was my introduction to the Enneagram.

When I came to understand myself through the Enneagram, I had a framework, language and concepts that explained the world I experienced from within. It brought me to an understanding of my inner world.  Even more importantly, I discovered that the Enneagram gave me a plan for my own growth and development.

Through this book, I invite you to go on the same journey of observation, exploration, self-discovery, self-awareness and self-acceptance that I made, using the Enneagram as a framework. My aim in writing this book is to help you bring yourself to the same depth of self-understanding that I experienced – and am still experiencing. With the Enneagram model, I offer you a map of growth and a reflective practice whereby you can see where you have come from and how far you have travelled in life’s journey. Whatever proficiency I have in this field comes from my nearly 30 years of studying and teaching the Enneagram.

In this book, you will be encouraged to reflect on why you think, feel and behave as you do. You will be challenged to accept that others see reality differently from you, so they are not necessarily wrong, difficult, or obtuse, just different.  You will have to consider why you tell family and friends that you are fine even when you are not. You will have to admit you have challenges or even dreams that you have been putting on the back burner and not addressing.

What is the Enneagram?

The Enneagram is a typology that identifies a certain collection of traits that make up a profound personality classification. The word Enneagram comes from the Greek “ennea”, for nine and “gram”, a figure drawn, a nine-pointed diagram. The model itself describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. It represents nine different ways of viewing the world – nine different type patterns –  each with a different driving energy, compulsion and focus.

Our type patterns are strategies that help us get through daily life by focusing on a part of reality rather than being overwhelmed by all of it. We come to identify with our patterns as who we are and lose sight of the life force we entered the world with. In time, we come to recognise that the outside world does not always serve our needs, and at some point, we realise that it is not giving us what we are looking for. We conclude that we actually need to look inside ourselves in order to find a richer, more satisfying, purposeful way of living.

My own experience is that the Enneagram has greater depth and structure than other models of personality and gives profound insight into our inner world. Understanding yourself through this model gives greater insight into the motivations and drives that determine your responses to life’s events. The Enneagram framework then enables you to explore and understand what you gravitate towards, what you avoid and your defence reactions.

Through this awareness, you can gain more flexibility in the way you respond to people and situations. Using the Enneagram as a framework, you too can recognise and tell your own story; you will put your own words, experience and understanding onto the model – you are the expert in your own type patterns.

The benefits of exploring yourself through the Enneagram are many, including gaining a greater understanding of yourself and others, having better personal and professional relationships, being more effective at work and at home, making more balanced decisions and managing stress and conflict more effectively.

I believe the Enneagram is a wonderful tool to help us understand ourselves, our behaviours, motivations and relationships more clearly. Wherever you are on your life journey, if you are asking yourself questions about who you are and why you do what you do, it has something to offer you.

Don’t Get Hung Up on the Numbers!

The nine Enneagram patterns have many names, but the numbers are used by all writers and teachers on the subject. However, the purpose of this framework is absolutely not to reduce you to a number or put you in a box. Rather, it reveals the boxes you have put yourselves in (for really good reasons!) and how to get yourself out of them in order to give yourself more freedom.

The study of the Enneagram can be interesting but limited if you see it simply as a model that reduces people to a number. In this book, I often use the phrase “people with patterns of Nine” rather than “Nines” to remind us that we are so much more than our type patterns. The study of your inner world through the Enneagram can be life-changing.

There are two main distinctions to recognise when you come to study the Enneagram; there is the Enneagram of Personality and there is the Enneagram of Transformation. The former is the description of the nine type patterns; the latter describes how you can reconnect with the qualities that disappear from awareness when the patterns develop. The journey is firstly about recognising the patterns that drive you and secondly developing practices for allowing the inner qualities to consciously influence your thinking, feeling and behaviour patterns.

To use a motoring analogy, we come into the world with a two-cylinder engine that is not effective in getting our needs met, so we develop another two cylinders that drive us through life, our type patterns. However, the original two cylinders are still there behind the new cylinders. The goal, therefore, of journeying with the Enneagram is to learn to consciously use all four cylinders. I am aware this analogy may be alien to you, especially if you drive an electric vehicle!

What Makes This Book Different?

At one level, this book is a source of information. At another, it is a workbook to guide you through the model. It is also a reference book for students and teachers working with the Enneagram. 

This book has all the basic information you need to understand yourself and the other different views of the world as described by the Enneagram. However, it is not about simply describing the type patterns. It is about understanding what really drives you that was previously unseen and awakening your dormant superpowers. You can create your own story and growth path, which may be similar to others, but the experience is uniquely yours. Let this book inform you and guide you through this inner journey.

Elements of the Enneagram can be found in many of the world’s major faiths. I particularly wanted to describe the Enneagram from a secular perspective. I have attempted to demystify the language and the spiritual content often associated with it in order to produce a pragmatic description of the model that is a practical guide for growth.

In this book, I talk about how I have used the Enneagram as part of my own development. The book contains a number of my reflections about my own journey (written in italics). I hope these will inspire you to work through the book so that you can gain insights about your own life in the same way I have because these have been fundamental to my own personal growth.

This book shows you how understanding your type patterns is only the start of the journey. It is full of activities and exercises that will help you to experience that you are far more than your type patterns. By engaging with the exercises, you will learn how to respond to life more skilfully and how to respond to yourself more compassionately. This book will help you to start rediscovering (the superpowers of) your true self.

How Might You Use This Book?

The book begins by outlining key concepts before describing all nine type patterns in more detail. There then follows a section on discovering your type patterns, followed by a deeper exploration into the main features of each of the nine type patterns. The next stage is about discovering your type-specific inner qualities, such as courage, expectation and self-appreciation. These are aspects of being that each type possesses but which lie dormant within; you will explore how they function and learn to embody them more effectively. The final part of the book looks at some practical applications and resources for lifelong development. In essence, this is a journey from being asleep to your true self, by blindly letting your type patterns run the show, to becoming awake to those patterns. You will learn to operate from a place of awareness, being present to reality as it is and embracing your true purpose and potential.

The book can be used at different levels over different time periods. I would not necessarily recommend reading it from start to finish; it is best to take it in stages, reflecting and journaling in between different sections.

• Part 1 begins with outlining key concepts before going into describing all nine type patterns in more detail.
• Part 2 provides further information to give more clarity to the nine types and help you discern which one best describes your inner world. Chapter 5 is about recognising your type patterns, those which best describe and drive you.
• Chapters 6 and 7 are a deeper exploration of the main features and consequences of each of the nine type patterns and how they show up in life.
• Part 3, Chapters 8 and 9 are about exploring practices for awakening to your automatic patterns.
• Chapter 10 explores practices for embracing your latent inner qualities,discovering how they operate in you and learning to embody them more effectively.
• Parts 4 and 5 describe practical applications for working with the Enneagram.
• Part 6 has resources for lifelong development.

I encourage you to do the work at a pace that best suits you. It is not a competition but a transformation that requires observation and reflection over time. You will need to draw on your resources of courage, humility and compassion to do this journey. If the work was easy, it would not bring the benefit of truly challenging yourself. 

If you are curious and willing to explore how you will be when you embrace your superpowers, then I encourage you to knuckle down, strap in and keep breathing as you embark on exploring your inner world.