Welcome to the first lecture, the what, why and how of the inia gram. Thank you for taking the time to go through this course with me, by the way, I really appreciate your interest in the course in the course material. So let's go ahead and get started. The first question that a lot of people have when they start trying to study human nature and increase their influence is try to find a specific system to do so. And so the enneagram is a great system to do that. And like I said, it's much like some other personality type skills like the Myers Briggs personality scale, that includes introvert extrovert, intuitive, and sensing, perception and judging and feeling and thinking.

This one uses a nine point star system. And so we'll talk a little bit about what is the enneagram and how does it work? Why use the enneagram and How does the enneagram increase your knowledge of human nature and your influence? So let's jump right to it. What is the enneagram? And how does it work?

First, the enneagram, as I stated is a nine point personality system that has its roots in psychology and spirituality. It's a widely respected personality scale, like the Myers brigg is studied by scholars, scientists, religious leaders, business leaders, and many other people. And it's based in solid research that has many peer reviewed studies behind it. So it's not just some woowoo weird New Age system, even though there is a lot of spirituality that can be put into or taken out of the enneagram but it's just a system to help you to understand human nature better in terms of different types of people. It includes nine points, each one representing one of each of the personality types and it is tied to religious color. cultural, political and social spheres, and is taught as a system for improving relationships and interactions in all these areas and others, including education.

So why use the inia? Graham straightforward to know yourself better, to understand others better, and to improve your personal and professional relationships? And those are all outcomes in the course. So how can the enneagram increase your influence and your understanding of human nature? Well, first, yes, it will increase your knowledge of human nature simply because it breaks down each personality type based on deeply researched and thoroughly tested techniques, strategies and ideas that have been time honored and used for decades, and these tests have been applied and tested and perfected over the course of many years. Increasing this knowledge will help you increase your influence on others.

Knowing if someone has an eight or a one or a three year or two or whatever that will help you to increase your knowledge of how someone else operates in a general sense. Keep in mind, of course, that even within all threes, for example, there are wide variations, a lot of the motive you'll find will be the same, but many will be different as well. Also, increasing your influence on others will increase your positive impact on the world, both professional and personal, who doesn't want to contribute to the world to make the world a better place to put their mark on the world in a good way. And so being able to understand how to relate to other people in a very specific and effective way, will help you to be able to do that to increase your influence and your impact in the world. So we'll move on to the next lecture and I'll see you there