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Enneagram Type 4 | Drive Your Fitness Journey
How Your Personality Type Can Drive Your Weight-loss Success
There’s a good chance you’re reading this article with some skepticism. I get it. How on earth can a personality test mesh with a fitness journey?
That’s exactly what my hubby asked me as I rambled on and on about this a few weeks ago. I assured him, though, that given the information of someone’s Enneagram personality type, I could help them nail down their individual motivators for weight loss and overall fitness.
The fact of the matter is that the Enneagram has little to do with our actions, and much to do with our motivation for those actions. That’s why it’s hard to nail down someone else’s enneagram type. Because you can’t say for sure why they do what they do. But when you learn your own motivators, you can use those motivators to propel you forward. In any area of your life.
Including fitness.
We all have different motives. Different things that drive us toward where we’re going. And figuring out what that thing is for you, is vital in your fitness journey.Throughout my own massive weight-loss and health journey, I’ve lost a whopping 160 pounds. I know, crazy right?! But here’s the deal.
Most people are tempted to look at my before-and-after snapshot and assume it was a quick fix or the perfect crash diet that led me to that pic on the right.
But that’s so. so wrong.
In actuality, it all had to do with an underlying why.
A motivator. For me, it was because I was 336 pounds and absolutely miserable inside and out. That led me to complete desperation. Desperation became my why, and that led me to my weight-loss pursuit.
If you ask anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight, what made them lose all that weight, you’ll get all sorts of different answers.
But every single person has a motivator.
One of the biggest challenges people have, when I ask my clients, friends, and family? Lack of motivation. Can’t stick to it for the long haul.
But a burst of motivation won’t do it. It’s gotta be rooted more deeply than that. A zap of inspiration, or a really rad motivational quote… not gonna cut it.
BUT… If you can dig a little deeper and find what truly motivates you, at your core, then you’re golden.Not sure what the Enneagram is? It’s an in-depth set of personality types that is ancient years old. If you’ve never determined your Enneagram type, take the test HERE. I do not receive a commission from this. I just love the enneagram. 😉
What Motivates You At Your Core?
When looking at the Enneagram, you can journey toward discovering what motivates you, but it’s not just designed for fitness or weight loss. It’s much MUCH more encompassing than that. You can use it to help you in virtually any area of your life. Your marriage, your career, your parenting… It’s such an incredibly in-depth tool.
But for the sake of not making this blog post fifty-thousand years long, we’re going to zero in on how you can use knowledge of your Enneagram type, to drive your weight-loss and fitness journey. For a glimpse at all the other types, head HERE.
But for this post, let’s focus specifically on Enneagram Type 4.
Enneagram Type 4: The Individualist
As an Enneagram Type 4, you’re your own person. You’re artistic, a bit of a romantic, and filled with creativity and emotion. You’re able to connect with people on a deep level, and your uniqueness guides your life in many ways.
Strengths For An Enneagram Type 4
Enneagram Type 4s are extremely creative. We’re talking creativity central. In their own way, a Type 4 can take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. Type 4s thrive on being unique, and special, and different from others.
Type 4s are inspiring, and emotionally intelligent. You’re great at connecting with people on a deeper level. Your’e sensitive, and emotionally present and aware. You’ll even derive meaning through that emotional connection you’re able to have with others.
Challenges For An Enneagram Type 4
Just as we all do, Enneagram Type 4s have some traits that can make things a little more challenging at times. As a Type 4 you might have a pretty intense demeanor at times. You also focus more on others than yourself, which can cause you to neglect your own needs.
You can be more focused on what you feel is missing from your life, and your emotions can change quickly. It can sometimes feel like a rollercoaster ride of feelings, with extreme highs and lows. You’re constantly searching for what’s missing and this sometimes gives you a “the grass is greener on the other side” type of feeling.
Weight-Loss Journey Roadblocks And How To Overcome Them
Weight loss is not easy. Each of us has specific roadblocks that tend to derail us more frequently than not. So let’s take a solid look at three of the main hindrances for weight-loss for Enneagram Type 4s.
It’s important to keep in mind that in this blog post we’re not talking about roadblocks like how dairy affects you or whether you should go gluten-free. We’re talking more about the internal side of things here. You can visit some of my other blog posts for practical ideas on how to lose the weight.
1. The Grass Is Greener
We talked about this a little earlier, but I wanted to mention how this might affect your weight-loss journey. Because it definitely can. And if you’re more aware of your tendency to do this, you can definitely overcomer his roadblock.
As an Enneagram Type 4, you’re forever searching for what’s missing. This can cause you to search within the lives and doings of others, in hopes that you’ll somehow figure out what that missing thing is.
But by allowing your eyes and heart to wander around for what’s not, you could easily fall into the trap of thinking that you’re missing out on something magical. When in fact, you’re not missing anything at all!
This can cause you to compare your fitness journey with that of someone else, and subsequently become discouraged within your own.
When, in reality, we all have different journeys. In essence, there’s a different road map that each of us takes toward our health and fitness goals. So while you’re looking at Fit Francis and striving to do what she’s doing, you might be missing out on your own amazing progress.
The fact of the matter is that all bodies are different. That’s why there’s no one way to get fit. You have to find what works for you, and you have to develop a why that’s so deep that it won’t be dissolved by looking at someone else who you feel is crushing it.
Be inspired by others. Use your emotional connection capabilities to provoke you to pursue your healthiest you. But remember that you don’t need to do what the next person is doing. Make sure you do what works for YOU so you can stick with it long term.
2. Next, Please…
Unfortunately we live in a culture where diets are forever thrown in our faces. Whether through social media, a friend who jumped on the dieting bandwagon, or whatever else it may be… there’s a constant pull to jump onto the next amazing diet.
As an Enneagram Type 4, you may be tempted to jump from diet to diet in hopes of losing weight. You may get tired of one, and think that if you could just do “that one” instead, you’d enjoy it more and have better success.
This is a major problem with diets in general anyway, but it’s definitely something you want to be cognizant of as a Type 4. If you’re aware of your tendency to search for the missing thing, or the greener grass, then you can set yourself up for success by combatting it.
This means you’ll need to find a plan of action that is truly sustainable, enjoyable, and doable over a long period of time. Then, you’ll need to really commit. This will help you overcome this roadblock.
3. Happiness Doesn’t Come In A Size
As an Enneagram Type 4 you’re likely already fantasizing about what your new life will look like once you lose the weight.
It’s great to have a goal and a true vision for every area of your life, including your health! But you want to be careful not to place all your stock in the “getting skinny” bin.
As someone who has lost a massive amount of weight, I can tell you that I’ve been every size from 6 to 28. Still, after losing half my body weight, I found myself unhappy when I looked in the mirror.
The truth of the matter is that you have to dig a little deeper to truly ensure that you’ll one day be happy with your body. It may be hard to believe just yet, but there will always be something about your body that you wish you could change. You can lose all your weight, but still find cellulite. Or get to that size jeans you want, and then hate the way your butt looks.
We are our own worst critics and it’s very easy to find something we don’t like. So learning to love our body as it currently is, while working on making it better is super important.
This can be a roadblock for an Enneagram Type 4 because it can be discouraging to learn this the hard way. However, if you know this ahead of time, then you can combat it by retraining your mind to think more positively about yourself. Yes, even before you lose the weight.
Start grabbing any negative thoughts about yourself (figuratively of course), and replacing them with positive ones. This may not seem important if all you’re worried about is weight loss. But dig a little deeper to find your why, and you’ll find more drive and more motivation that lasts.
How To Choose A Fitness Plan
There are so. many. options. *insert facepalm here*
Seriously if I get another crash diet flashed across my screen I’m gonna scream.
Here’s the deal. I may be completely bias, but I am so against dieting. There’s a ton of research that shows that restricting your food intake and jus general “dieting” in general does more harm than good, and I can totally relate.
But that doesn’t mean that weight-loss can’t be an option for you. What it means is that you don’t have to torture yourself into losing weight. Instead, you need to find a plan that works for you. One that is doable, and balanced, HEALTHY, and enjoyable. Sound crazy? I’m sure! The diet industry wants to scare you into weight-loss. But not this girl. Nope.
Balance
Choose a plan that prioritizes balance, not strict and rigid dieting. Restricting your eating could melt some pounds off quick at first, but research shows that it won’t keep the pounds off. Instead of jumping onto a plan of action that promises massive and rapid weight loss, choose something that seems more well-rounded and healthy.
Mindfulness & Intuitive Eating
Having an actual plan to follow is important, but make sure you’re choosing a plan of action that encourages you to learn how to eat mindfully. This will help you to avoid the start-stop-and-repeat cycle. Your body is always sending you cues as to what your body needs (sleep, food, water, etc…) so learning how to listen to those cues will set you up for success.
Flexible & Creative
You’ll surely want some guidance for your plan for health, but as an Enneagram Type 4 you thrive on creativity. Choose a plan that teaches you the basic principles of healthy eating and then lets you experiment with your own favorite foods, for example. Or a plan that outlines the important factors for exercise, but gives you freedom to do the kind of workouts (or movement) you absolutely love.
Choose A Plan Of Action Not A Diet
Steer clear of crash diets. Seriously. Run the other direction. If you need some help with weight loss without the rigidity of a hardcore diet, try my six-week weight-loss program. You’ll get all the details and expectations in a simplified way, and then you’ll learn how to balance it all out so you can live your life while making progress toward the healthiest you yet.
Key Motivator For Enneagram Type 4
You are amazing with emotional connection, so use that to your benefit. It can drive you beyond what nearly anything else can, and you can use that to empower your health journey as well. Find ways to link arms with others who have similar goals to yours. Find friends who are a little further along, and a little further behind you, in their own health journeys, and then spur one another unto good habits.
You can do this by joining a great gym or online community. Or you can make your own exercise group, or a moms walking club in your neighborhood. Whatever it takes to establish some great emotional connections. This will propel you unlike anything else.
Another major motivator for an Enneagram Type 4 is uniqueness and creativity. So harness those within your health journey. Create fun way of documenting your journey, and use it to inspire others. Develop some amazing recipes that fall within your healthy eating guidelines. Put together a fun workout plan and share it with friends and family. Be as creative as you can, and allow that to keep things new and fresh within your own health journey.
You have amazing qualities. Use your strengths and challenges to propel you in to the healthiest version of you yet!
