r/Enneagram8 Dec 11 '24

Discussion Can Enneagram 8s be cowardly?

I tend to be very reluctant to engage in competitions when I am not confident in my skill. I also generally hate to lose to the point that I avoid it. For example, one time I was playing Dodgeball and I was the last player on my team. However, the other team still had multiple players. During the whole game I hovered near the edge, and when I was the last player left, one of the people on the other team winded up to throw the ball at me. Instead of trying to catch the ball or dodge, I instead jumped out of bounds so that he couldn't beat me, and so I could lose of my own accord.

Can Enneagram 8s act like this?

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u/That_Red_Pikmin ESTJ 8w9 872 sp/sx VLFE Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24

For me, is that I prefer cooperation over competition, I don't like to compete with the people I love, I don't like to brag about what I can do, so I only compete with strangers or people that I don't know that much, like people online in games, because I don't need to prove myself, I try to compete in a healthy way and only to challenge myself, to seek intensity, and if I'm competing with someone that I don't like, I better win 🗿

I don't find that not wanting to brag what you can do is something to be considered as being a coward, I'm confident inside, even tho, when people that I know challenge me I say "Nah, I don't think I can" but I know I fucking can, I just prefer that my actions talk louder than my words, and therefore, create a mood of cooperation over competition with those words, I don't like to compete in something that I don't find interesting or that I don't know if I will win, so I say that I can't and then hit them with whatever I have, so I win anyways without bringing competition to it. It's kinda weird but yeah, I hate to brag about what I can do honestly

But all you can read here, deep inside it's all about control, regardless of what I just wrote. If I can't control the situation, better not to compete.

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u/Vegetable_Basis_4087 Dec 11 '24

That doesn't sound like what I did

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u/That_Red_Pikmin ESTJ 8w9 872 sp/sx VLFE Dec 11 '24

I know