Welcome. I'm Kevin Miller. This is a podcast about how we make meaning of our lives and experience the

miracle of living. In this episode, being aware of, but not controlled by our propensities. I grew up

believing we are only who we make ourselves to be.

That's what I wanted to believe.

Nature versus nurture.

And I was all about nurture.

Then I had seven biological children, four boys and three girls.

And they came out of the womb with such obvious, specific propensities, predispositions.

Two of my sons are only 50 months apart.

Their upbringing was very similar, and they could not be more different.

So as a culture, we've gotten pretty enamored with personality profiles and ancestral data

to help us know more about who, quote, we are. Well, a well-known profile is the

Enneagram. My guest in this episode is Ian Morgan Cron. Ian is a Wall Street Journal, best-selling

author, psychotherapist, and an enneagram teacher. He has a very popular podcast called Typology, where he discusses

aspects of the Enneagram. Well, in this episode, we talk about our personality and our propensities

and reference one of Ian's books. It's called The Story of You, an enneagram journey to

becoming your true self.

My interest was in honoring aspects of our natural selves while not being controlled by them

either. And I'll admit that as time goes on, I'm less clear on what about myself is natural and what is learned.

And I actually just don't put a whole lot of stock in either.

Instead, I'm looking at what's giving me peace or not.

What's proving to be constructive to my life and those I care about?

...