The Career Within You

Finding the perfect job for your personality

by Elizabeth Wagele

How to Achieve Mellowness

If you want to work on gaining qualities the 9s have, use your favorites from the list of famous 9s below as models. 9-Peace Seekers tend to identify with the average person and the commonality we all share, and are often humanitarians. Read More

How to Achieve Confidence

I wanted to be more assertive: Take a stand! Say what I think! Be who I am! So I tried to emulate the type itself and individuals I knew who were type 8-Asserters. Read More

The Results of Anger Mixed with Delusions

“Last night we had our first physical fight after 50 years of marriage.” I attributed it to her dementia and changed mental condition. Read More

Why Are Cellphones so Annoying?

Talking to someone who is not there hijacks the cognitive function of the bystanders. In other words, we want to fill in the missing part of the conversation when we only hear one side of it. Read More

John Kerry, Enneagram Perfectionist

Kerry was the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress in 1971 against the Vietnam war. Read More

Is Suicide More Likely If a Gun Is In the House?

My buddy Karl jumped off the Golden Gate bridge. People who use guns are 85% successful. People who use pills are 2% successful. Israel reduced the rate of suicide among soldiers by 40% by not allowing guns home on weekend leave. The more seriously we take the danger of guns the better, along with taking other measures to reduce violence. Read More

Concrete Cases of Poverty in America

In this blog I want to bring the problem of poverty down to Earth with some concrete examples of what it’s like for children to go hungry here. Read More

The Achievement Gap Between Privileged and Poor

Children whose prefrontal cortexes are stressed by poverty, highly dysfunctional environments, or major abuse have trouble regulating their thoughts and mediating their behavior. This was shown in a program where poor youth were given special attention and sent to an excellent high school. They got into college but few graduated. Read More

Achieving Compassion by Using Our Heads

We think of compassion as an emotion of the heart. But our intellect can also be a great force for compassion...We can realize there’s nothing to gain by whipping somebody (i.e. revenge), nor does whipping ourselves with negative emotions do any good. Read More

Healing After a Terrible Loss

We wonder how the loved ones of the school tragedy last month deal with their loss. This is the inspiring story of a woman who lost her daughter and granddaughter and her journey toward recovery one year later. Read More

Cell Phones and the Rising Tide of Noise

The U.S. government has a project to minimize human sounds bothering sea animals. But what about ME and others like me? I am assaulted by sounds made by humans every day, too. Read More

The Enneagram as a Standard for the DSM

Elizabeth predicts the Enneagram will be a useful standard for the American Psychiatric Association to use for its broad system of personality theory. It describes both healthy and unhealthy personality traits. Read More

Are Petraeus and Broadwell Twin Achievers?

Petraeus was reportedly around special women more alluring than Paula Broadwell for years, but perhaps when he looked at her it may have been like Narcissus looking in the pond—he may have seen himself and liked what he saw. Read More

What I Learned about Prisons at My School Reunion

Statistics say “Lifers” are the least likely of all released prisoners to commit another crime: .06%. But even though they may be deemed suitable for release, governors often refuse to release them for political reasons. Read More

Is the Achiever My Genes, My Upbringing, or Me?

Scientists are more convinced than ever of the importance of both genes and environment on forming personality. Read More

The Angelic Helper and the Helper from Hell

The two sides of the Enneagram Helper personality. Read More

How to Feel Less Frightened

How awareness of defenses help us go into and through our fears to the other side. Fear of life, fear of death, and the importance of meaning in one's life are also discussed. Read More

Facing the Fear of Death, Part II

Part II of a description of defenses and how one person became aware of her main defense and faced her fear. Read More

Facing the Fear of Death Part I

Conquering the fear of death requires confronting one's authentic feelings. Read More

When Achieving Becomes a Problem

Are the results of the stress of Achieving worth it? Read More

What Personality Type is Angela Merkel?

Angela Merkel (born 1954), was elected chancellor of Germany in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. She is an ENTJ in the MBTITM personality system: extrovert, intuitive, thinking, judging. Another way to describe her type is as “extroverted thinking with intuition.” This type is known for leadership abilities and strength. Read More

What Was Nora Ephron’s Personality Type?

In the few days since she died, author and movie director (You've Got Mail), Nora Ephron (1941-2012) has been described by people who knew her as funny, curious, knowledgeable, observant, clear, kind, smart, sharp, self-deprecating, funny, witty, wry, wise, cynical, loyal, sardonic, insightful, fast-thinking, charming, fascinating, inspiring, warm, honest, direct, revolutionary... Read More

Obama, OWS, and Robert Reich

We have all nine Enneagram personality types within us, though our point of view expresses mainly one of them. In 2008 when Obama was running for president I drew cartoons of him in 9 Enneagram styles. I believe he’s a 9-Peace Seeker who relies heavily on his wings, the Perfectionist and the Asserter. Read More

Polanski’s Movie "Carnage" and Personality Types: Part III (end)

Roman Polanski’s "Carnage" stars Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz, and a cell phone. Read More

Polanski’s Movie “Carnage” and Personality Types Part II

This is Part II of my blog on Roman Polanski’s Carnage, starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz. Read More

Polanski’s Movie “Carnage” and Personality Types: Part I

Roman Polanski’s Carnage is a story of what happens when the parents of two eleven year old boys try to act civilized after one of the boys, Zachary, defends himself with a stick and knocks two of Ethan’s teeth out. Before it was a movie, it was a French Tony Award-winning stage play by Yasmina Reza, God of Carnage.

In a few paragraphs you'll see what kind of man Mitt Romney's web site thinks he is. Read More

How to Get Along With Introverts Part II

If you read my last blog, you introverts probably left it on your desktops for the extroverts in your life to read. This will help them understand you even more.

• Invite introverts to join in, but do not push them: Read More

How to Get Along With Introverts Part I

We all want to feel free to be ourselves, but relationships run more smoothly when we're aware of one another's needs and sensitivities. Read More

Isadora Duncan, Dancing Rebel

When one of my daughters was about six years old, she took a weekly dance class from Sulgwyn Boynton Quitzow, whose family were followers of Isadora Duncan. The family lived in a famous house in the hills of Berkeley. It had once had Greek style columns and no walls. Walls were added later. Heat came from hot water in pipes in the floors. Read More

Elizabeth Wagele is the co-author with Ingrid Stabb of The Career Within You: How to Find the Perfect Job for Your Personality.

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About The Career Within You

"The Career Within You" stems from a book of the same title. It's about the nine Enneagram personalities, sometimes about people's careers, or about what I'm excited about when blogging day comes around. I've written about psycho-ecology, a documentary on parents of gays, and how great it feels to play Beethoven. In some blogs I include an original drawing. My latest book is "The Enneagram of Death."