Adaptability types

The Adaptability triad includes Threes, Sixes, and Nines, types who are naturally attuned to how others are perceiving and receiving them. They try to discover where they best fit in, then adapt themselves to find their place and avoid feeling lost. They tend to have a pragmatic, hands-on way of interacting with others and the world.

These types’ sense of self is heavily attached to the important people in their lives. Parents or early caretakers tend to occupy this role, at least in early life, providing a safe anchor that Adaptability triad types continually relate back to and check in with. These types have a strong, innate sense of what’s going on in their environments. They are engaged in a cyclical process of reading the room to see what others react well to, then adjusting their behavior to make it easier to bond.

To avoid feeling out of alignment, they still tend to stay in line with their long-standing values, especially those instilled in them by key figures. They tend to be highly resistant to seeing these figures as negative, even in extreme circumstances. Their adaptations may be conscious, unconscious, or somewhere in between.

Although they shift themselves in order to reduce friction and better form attachments with others, their changing natures may make it harder for others to see and connect with their true selves. The Adaptability triad is skilled at blending into and aligning with the people around them, often forming the backbone of society as hard-working, dependable, and consistent people.

Nines

Nines are adaptable in their ability to see multiple perspectives, mediate conflicts, and maintain a status quo that ensures general well-being. They are practical in their pursuit of a balanced and untroubled life, often going to great lengths to avoid conflict and preserve relationships. Nines attach to other people in order to uphold their ideals of peace and harmony, seeking practical ways to avoid upheaval. They end up detaching from themselves–their opinions, desires, and unique personal traits–in order to make themselves more easy for others to connect to.

Putting forth a pleasant, open, and agreeable sense of self lets others see themselves in the Nine, allowing the two to merge. Nines tend not to be aware of this merging, as it happens on an unconscious level in order to minimize potential friction. Before they know it, they’re talking, dressing, and moving like whoever they’ve merged with. They may have difficulty seeing where they end and where the other begins. Part of merging with others means dismissing or refusing to see the negatives of the people they’re attached to, which can lead to idealization: Nines may see a “flawless” version of a person, brushing negatives away.

Nines need to see the key people in their lives as “good,” because they’ve merged such that rejecting them is to remove a part of themselves; therefore they keep it out of their minds that anything could be wrong. Nines also merge with their environments, shaping themselves to fit their surroundings to avoid potential conflict. For example, if they’re extroverts but working in a quiet environment, they’ll take on introverted traits to better assimilate themselves.

When Nines allow themselves to see that people love them for who they are, and that their unique selves and voices matter, they can find their own inner agency and vitality.