The Enthusiast

Common Characteristics of Enneagram 7s

Sevens are enthusiastic, fun-loving adventurers full of excitement and energy for the world. They find the simple act of living an adventure and live in a constant state of anticipation for what will come next. They approach everything with all of their energy and will throw themselves into whatever is currently happening in their lives.

Sevens are easily able to access joy, and delight in sharing this joy and happiness with those around them. However, it’s not just their happiness that is important to them – sevens are most content when those around them are also satisfied and happy. They dislike negativity and can become flighty or frustrated when they feel that those around them aren’t being positive enough. They are natural optimists, able to find the silver lining in any given situation.

The seven’s attention often goes towards what they can experience next. Their desire for adventure means that they are rarely satisfied being still for long. They are avid consumers – not just of material goods, but also of relationships, ideas, etc. They tend to have short attention spans, preferring to do many different things rather than spend too long on one project or experience.

Sevens love variety and dislike feeling trapped by limited options or restraints. Similarly, they don’t enjoy doing the same thing too many times, instead preferring to seek out the high of another first experience. When faced with these situations, the seven’s natural instinct is often to jump ship and find a more exciting (and therefore in their heads worthwhile) use of their time.

Deep down, sevens often feel like they haven’t found the one experience or feeling that will make them fully content. Therefore, they consume as much as possible in the hope that they will find the one thing that completes their search. The path of growth for sevens lies in the realisation that they can only find what they are searching for inside of them, rather than through an external experience.

Sevens often over-schedule themselves in order to maintain a perpetual state of busyness. This effort to keep their minds and bodies occupied comes partly from a fear of what will happen when there is no next thing. Sevens often struggle to sit with negative emotions, and instead try to fill their lives in order to distract themselves from these feelings. Although this works temporarily, it’s not unusual for sevens to suffer from burnout when they can’t keep up with their manic pace of life any longer.

Sevens are often charismatic and charming individuals. They tend to have good people skills and be eloquent and extroverted. They’re natural-born storytellers and find it easy to capture (and keep) an audience’s attention. However, their desire for excitement means that their stories often become increasingly exaggerated and less reliable with each retelling!

Sevens often spend a lot of time in their heads. They tend to live in their imaginations, often anticipating the next thing on their agenda and fantasising about future adventures. For the seven, the anticipation of an experience is often as good as the experience itself, if not better. They can become very future-oriented, forgetting the past and even finding it difficult to remember to focus on the present.

Sevens are often very good at picking up new skills. They grasp concepts easily and enjoy trying new things. However, due to a dislike of sticking with any one thing for too long, they can become the epitome of the jack-of-all trades. This doesn’t necessarily lead to them being unsuccessful, however – their quick minds and easy charm mean they are rarely lacking in opportunities and they tend to flourish wherever they choose to base themselves.

Although at their worst sevens can be superficial and scattered, prioritising their own happiness and acting with a disregard for those around them, at their best they are well-rounded, generous individuals with an infectious zest for life and joy.