Hey world!
So sorry about the absence from blogging lately. I have all the reasons, but mainly- I over committed again.
So, I am an Enneagram 7 and we are known to overcommit. Now, I get not all of you speak Enneagram. So, I’ll take a minute to breeze through some details, but that’s not all this post is about.
First of all, I highly recommend learning it. I love it. They say the typical 7 will learn it and think, “Everyone needs to know about this!” Well, I guess that’s true for me. I feel like the world could just connect, get along, and vibe so much better with it. I guess that’s typical 7!
What is the Enneagram? It’s a personality typing system. Maybe you’ve heard of Myers-Briggs before? This is sort of the same, but also not at all. But, side note; I’m a Campaigner there- ENFP. Who else?
Anyway, the Enneagram types people based on patterns of what they see in the world around them and how they manage their world. There are 9 types and this test can help you find yours. This book is also a great follow up to the test. I work with people all across the country (and world, actually) and this test has really opened my eyes to why I deal the way I do and why they do. It’s amazing.
Anyway, the 7 is seen as the Enthusiast. Basically, life has to be a pleasure-filled adventure and we tend to be always looking to the next step and the future. Then the 3 (my almost equal typing) is the Achiever. Success-driven, able, and image conscious. An 8, which is the wing I swing on from my 7, is the Challenger. Powerful, take charge, strong willed, and don’t like being told what to do. So, basically, I want fun in life, I want to feel successful, and I don’t want to be controlled. So- I do too much, I want to do it well, and I want to do it my way. Oh my gosh, right?!
Ironically my favorite quote my whole adult life is simply, “Adventure Awaits.” Followed closely by, “I collect adventures.” Every day is my next adventure. No matter where life takes me I’m here for it! The sun is shining either where I am or where I’m going. I named my team “Adventure Awaits” because everything we go for is our next adventure. And when I learned this about myself I was like, “Ah- oooohhhhhhh.” Enneagram 7. The Adventurer. Okay.
So I am a tornado of wanting to do it all well but having too much on my plate and pushing myself way too hard to follow through on my overcommitments. This actually has been a pattern in my life that has lead to exhaustion and actually health problems more than once. The self-discovery from learning about the Enneagram and working towards staying mentally healthy has been really great for me. But, that being said; when I catch myself overcommitting again… I try to reevaluate. But you all; I am always overcommitted. I haven’t learned yet.
So how do I know it has reached unhealthy levels? Sleep is effected, stress, anxiety, and eventually I sometimes experience even some more physical symptoms like hair loss and more. Nope… not kidding. That’s how far I let it get before the physical symptoms are like, “Hey, buddy. Slow down, huh?” I like to work. I like working and accomplishing task a lot. But I get too distracted by all the things instead of sharply focusing.
I realize when I decide, “I can do another thing….” I normally know I cannot physically add another thing to my time schedule. But I look at the opportunity and I know what I COULD create if it was the only thing in my life and I think, “Yes! Exciting!” That, my friends, ends up not being the truth. It is exciting for like 1-2 days. Then I realize it’s a stress because of time, but my desire to do all the things and be good at them leads to me fighting to finish all the things and not to my best ability. Which leads to ore stress because *I* want to do better.
A common trait of the Enneagram 7 is FOMO (fear of missing out). As much as I strongly relate to the typing of 7 that one always eluded me. I don’t really feel like I’m missing out if I’m not doing something others are. Like, my thoughts are always that I am happy for them, but I have my own thing going. I have only very recently realized for me that my FOMO is actually very strongly based on the FOMO of living my best life. What if I could have done more and I didn’t? What if by saying no I missed out on what could have been? What if by not creating I missed the chance of a life time? That is where I get FOMO.
That’s really where I am way more a 7 than 3. I want to do all the things and do them well for me. For the experience, for the adventure, for the satisfaction on completing it and adding it to my life journey. I don’t care actually what others think of my final product. If people hate me or anything I do, my first thought is often, “Then why are they paying attention?” Because as a typical 7; if something makes me mad, doesn’t bring me joy, annoys me, etc… I would remove it from my life. I don’t “burn bridges.” I just cross them and move on to the next adventure!
But, I get stressed and bothered if I don’t do my best because what I know I can do or what I want to do “if only I had more time.”
If only I had more time.
That’s the thing that gets me the most. I feel like my life is a series of finished products that are not my best work, but got me far enough with where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do….in the time I had. And that annoys me. And I keep doing it because I don’t want to miss out on the next thing I could do. So every new project I take on I often think THIS one, this one I’m gonna do it all. Then I don’t and I lose the joy and I just want it done so I can move on.
I mean, some of you might be nodding yes right now and I know a lot of you are like, “Just stop saying yes to so many things!” I am working on it for sure. I am.
And that gets me to this blog. I didn’t want to sort of do it. I wanted content you’d want. The most asked thing I get on Instagram is my clothes or beauty routine and I wanted to to make a great post on that. I took pics, I started writing, and I just didn’t get it all put together. I love teaching about my healthy and balanced life but I couldn’t get the post put together the way I wanted so I didn’t at all. I forgot to follow my own advice of one foot in front of the other.
You all. Analysis paralysis got me. And that’s something I spend far too much time coaching against in my fitness business. I am constantly telling women; just go forward right where you are. Fail forward. Learn and grow as you go. Progress over perfection. And I was sitting here not moving because I didn’t feel like I could fully focus here.
I have been working on a book for far too long. To be honest, I could have it published by now— but see above about being an Enneagram 7 an over committing.. followed by a close 3 and wanting things to be really good. I just can’t get over some humps and I have taken too many breaks before starting again. And, by the way……… I’m currently refraining from telling you about the NEXT TWO projects I’m already looking at. That in an Enneagram 7 for you.
Anyway, I have known I just need to write a little every day. That’s a message I heard loud and clear over 2 years ago. And again around this time last year it cam got me strong. But, I wasn’t. Why? Why do we all fail to do the things we know we should be doing? Self-sabotage, of course. I am a master at that one.
So, I am back to 5 minutes a day. I will write 5 minutes every morning and publish a blog when I have created something from that. Otherwise it will go towards my book.
I do have a lot to say. I want to help a lot of people. I feel like there are far too many women out there trying to do it all, be it all, have it all and feeling like they are failing. Or maybe want it all but don’t know where to start. When really any forward motion is success. I have been reminded of this and reminded I must share my heart no matter who accepts it. So, see you next time my 5 minutes add up to another piece to share with you.
And if you haven’t taken the Enneagram, hop there and take it! When you do or if you have before; can you drop in the comments what you are? I’d love to hear!