New Year’s Resolutions by Enneagram Type: Which Number Are You?

Setting Goals By Enneagram

New Year’s resolutions are a chance to fire up the willpower that waned in the previous year. They’re a chance to resolve to make ourselves do better, live more fully and stop holding ourselves back. That resolve can go a long way—but only if it’s backed up by action items that are tailored to who we are and what motivates us to change. Using the Enneagram, we can set goals and craft New Year’s resolutions with an understanding of why we act the way we do and what it will take for us to transform our habits.

Sean Palmer is a sought-after keynote speaker, teaching pastor at Ecclesia Houston and author of Speaking by the Numbers: Enneagram Wisdom for Teachers, Pastors, and Communicators. He describes how using Enneagram knowledge can help people set goals and make resolutions that stick. 

“We all know what to do, we just don’t want to,” Palmer says. “It’s an emotive, soul-level push that gets us to change.”

How the Enneagram Impacts Your Goals

That push is different for each personality. Fives, for instance, have trained themselves to live with less. They will have to experience high levels of frustration with themselves or a system before they decide a change is worth the effort. A Seven’s resolutions might come easily since they are much more in tune with what they want. Though, their resolutions will be subject to change throughout the year as they grow bored with the process. 

“The Enneagram reveals to us what our compulsions are, and that the best thing about us is also the worst thing about us,” he says. For Palmer, who is a Three, that means that his drive to achieve is useful in his career. It can also come at the expense of family time. “What makes you great and beautiful and useful and a gift to the world is the same thing that robs the world of who you are.”

No two types approach a situation in the same way. So, understanding how the Enneagram affects our perspective allows us to offer compassion to others. The trick is offering that same compassion to ourselves. Whether you work in a “no margin for error” profession like health care or spend your days leading a large organization, being compassionate and kind to yourself when you fail is actually the most efficient way to succeed.

“You’re free to succeed in more ways and in more areas once you get over your fear of failure,” Palmer says. “Until you fail, you don’t know that the people who love you and care for you will still be there. That’s why you have to fail.”

As we set goals and look toward the new year, Palmer emphasizes that this year comes with a dichotomy of difficulties and opportunities for each Enneagram type. “There are ways we can do business, help people and influence others that we’ve never had before,” Palmer says. But since those opportunities are coming as a package deal with troubling and chaotic challenges, Palmer says comforting ourselves in whatever way our particular Enneagram type responds to best will be essential, even as we’re striving toward change. “It’s a time to be creative, but also to be cautious,” he says. “Whatever it is we do for self-care, we need to double down on that to where it almost looks extreme because we are in such elevated levels of stress.”

Setting the Best Goal for Your Enneagram Type

The driving force behind successful New Year’s resolutions, the Enneagram reminds us, isn’t simply the constant push to the top. It’s also the willingness to be compassionate toward ourselves and accept that mistakes are part of the process. 

“Embrace failure,” Palmer says. “Your dream wasn’t big enough if you haven’t failed.”

Read on to learn how you can set New Year’s resolutions that stick by matching your unique Enneagram personality to goals that will keep you motivated. 

Type One: The Perfectionist

Habit worth changing: Fixing things that aren’t yours to fix.

A One’s life may not be alphabetized and labeled. However, when disruption strikes, they are at the front of the line, ready to set things right again. Ones are deeply motivated by being ethical and correct, so this fixing is less about order and more about a desire to improve their world and rescue those they love from unmet potential. In conversation, this often comes across as criticism. In reality they are simply trying to call others to a higher sense of purpose. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Forgive yourself and others when mistakes happen.

Type Two: The Helper

Habit worth changing: Playing the martyr.

As stress levels and anxieties soar during another incredibly uncertain year, the world needs the nurturing and loving friendship of Twos more than ever. Twos have a penchant for recognizing the needs of others and can soothe family units and workplace cultures. However, this can send them into an obsessive people-pleasing spiral. Because they want to be the helper everyone needs, Twos will sometimes refuse support from others who also want to serve. But then, they’ll become frustrated or resentful when they crash out of fatigue. Twos may think helping makes them the hero, but never asking for or allowing the contributions of others can actually lead Twos to feel and act like the victim. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Ask for help with your most emotionally taxing chore, like the dishes at home or filing at work.

Type Three: The Achiever

Habit worth changing: Cutting corners to get there faster.

Threes are masterful shape shifters. They can adapt and become endearing to the personalities around them in order to fit in or make a sale. Success is what drives a Three. They often chase it at their own peril, sometimes ignoring their own true happiness to do so. Threes can find it difficult to settle into family game night or playful team-building exercises that don’t result in tangible triumphs. But their craving for achievement makes them natural born cheerleaders for others who are striving toward success.

New Year’s resolution to consider: Do at least one fun activity every week that doesn’t result in profit or Instagram likes.  

Type Four: The Individualist

Habit worth changing: Playing hard to get.

Fours remind us through their expressive and sentimental perspective that our feelings are valid, not data points to be dismissed. This emotional approach can send Fours into a darker side than most people can weather during times of crisis. Allowing room for self-care will be essential to avoid relational damage. If Fours feel like others are drawing too close, they will often withdraw simply to see if their loved one will chase after them. This game of cat and mouse is less about attention and more about testing their relationships for authenticity. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Develop a routine so you tend to tasks or relationships even when you don’t “feel” like it. 

Type Five: The Thinker

Habit worth changing: Paralysis by analysis.

Fives are unlikely to make a resolution without researching it first. Intensely cerebral, Fives make sense of the world and current events through reading and study. There is always more investigation that can be done, so Fives often struggle putting their research to work through everyday decisions and problem solving. Fives make families and workplaces better for their wisdom. However, if an Enneagram Five is going to set a goal for the new year, they’ll need a willing accountability partner to make it happen. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Tell someone about your goals and give them permission to check up on you. 

Type Six: The Guardian

Habit worth changing: Assuming the worst.

Sixes are responsible and trustworthy troubleshooters who can spot a loophole or pitfall before anyone else. In spite of this, Sixes struggle to trust themselves and others, and seek reassurance from more dominant personalities or leaders. This tightrope of loyalty and suspicion can breed anxiety. It is important for Sixes to ground themselves in what is real and what is the fiction they’ve constructed out of self-preservation and distrust. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Make a list each week to clarify what you know versus what you imagine to be true.

Type Seven: The Enthusiast

Habit worth changing: Running from commitment.

The fun-loving and playful Seven might have a difficult time narrowing down their resolutions to just one. Their spontaneous nature makes Sevens the life of the party. It can also prevent them from fully committing to relationships or careers out of a fear that they might want to change their mind later. If an Enneagram Seven sets a goal to save for a vacation, for instance, they will need a deadline and someone who is willing to call them out when they order takeout for the fourth time in a week. 

New Year’s resolution to consider: Recognize your coping mechanisms and use them as a signal to tune into your emotions. 

Type Eight: The Boss

Habit worth changing: Talking over others.

Eights are often thought of as powerful and heavy-handed. This is more about their self-confidence and indifference toward criticism than an actual domineering attitude. Eights fear being controlled and will push back aggressively to maintain their personal sense of authority. This autonomy is an incredible resource when they resolve to challenge injustice, but as they run over people on their way to right wrongs, they can sometimes create new ones.

New Year’s resolution to consider: Invite others to share how they feel and listen to their responses.

Type Nine: The Peacemaker

Habit worth changing: Silencing your opinion.

Easygoing Nines have a knack for listening without judgment, but have a difficult time engaging when the tables are turned. They notoriously downplay their worth. So, pairing a Nine with an assertive go-getter at home or at work will allow them to shine as a leader who hears all sides and preserves peace. That conflict avoidance also makes them professional procrastinators, so Enneagram Nines should set bigger goals than they think practical.

New Year’s resolution to consider: Start each day by tackling the task you dread the most. 

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Most resolutions are focused on the finish line—like the desire to lose 10 pounds, reduce anxiety or read 30 books in a year. Palmer encourages people to look at what motivates them, and make achievable goals that focus on action rather than results. 

“You can’t control the results, but what you can control is your habits,” Palmer says. “I can control whether I exercise for 30 minutes a day, five times a week. I can take a day for Sabbath every week or sit down for 30 minutes and read. That’s how I approach goals and that’s how people change—little by little over time.”


Want to learn more about how the Enneagram affects you and your success? Read our full Enneagram series here:

This article was published in January 2021 and has been updated. Photo by GaudiLab/Shutterstock

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Sarah Paulk is a freelance writer known for her interviews with the thought leaders behind multimillion- and multibillion-dollar brands. Her cover stories and feature articles have appeared in Success from Home, Direct Selling News, Empowering Women and more. Sarah is also an author and ghostwriter who helps her clients bring their memories and research to life in book form. Connect with her at her website www.sarahpaulk.com.

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