Towards Eden, an Enneagram Podcast

#24 - Taking a Break, Be Back After Tax Season

• Elyse Regier

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I'm taking a break from the podcast. Be back after tax season!  🏦

Listen to this episode if you want to hear a personal update from me, including:

  • My job at the tax office
  • The Warriors cats books
  • Why an Enneagram One loves filing and alphabetizing


Links:

The Enneagram & Conflict Styles blog post

Sign up for my email list

Music “El Chapo” by Ivy Bakes from Soundstripe

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For resource recommendations, click here.

The Road Back to You by Ian Cron- start here to find your type

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elyse@towardsedenenneagram.com

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This guide is a great quick-reference to help you remember the types.

Speaker 1:

This episode is called Taking a Break. Be Back After Tax Season. Hello to all who listen. Today is March 13th 2025, and I'm Elyse Regeer. The best part about this week is that it's finally warm. I took my first walk outside a few days ago. It was lovely. I do live in the Midwest, so the warm weather coming during spring is a really big deal here. Here's a personal update from me.

Speaker 1:

I'm working at a tax office during this tax season. For that reason, I do have a lot less free time and I'm taking a break from making this podcast. The exciting news with that, though, is I'm currently working on making a little series on the Enneagram basics. What even is the Enneagram? What are the nine types? How do I find my type? What is a wing? All those kinds of questions. You can send some of these episodes to your friends, who have no idea what you're talking about when you say the word Enneagram. So I'll be back after tax season with some of those episodes.

Speaker 1:

In the podcast world, it's what they call a new season. I guess that's what I'm doing, but I don't really love that term, and the pressure that I feel to be consistent with releasing episodes now that I have a podcast is weird. To be consistent with releasing episodes now that I have a podcast is weird, but anyways, it makes more sense for me to just take a break right now. Focus on making episodes that are high quality and not just recording something lame for the sake of having something consistent to post. By the way, I do send out email newsletters. Usually those are once or twice a month and they have updates for me. They teach you some Enneagram bits and bobs. I like to think they are infused with my vibrant personality. If you want to get those emails, you can sign up at the link in my show notes. It always makes me feel so legit when I can reference my own show notes. Why, yes, I am a podcast host. Why, yes, I do indeed have show notes. Yes, you can certainly find my content on Apple Podcasts. So thanks for being here. Whoever you are listening to this excellent content.

Speaker 1:

I want to tell you guys about this tax job yes, my job working at a tax office. First of all, do I have any experience doing taxes? No, I do not, and On a scale going from confused to very well informed. How was my tax knowledge before accepting this job? It was pretty confused, so this is not my background, but you guys, I love this job. I have learned so much and I love this job in a way that makes me laugh at myself because it's so random.

Speaker 1:

It's such a random thing for me to be doing it's in a tax preparer's office in the town that I live in. For example, did you do any updates to your home last year, like, did you put in a new furnace, air conditioner, water heater, exterior doors or windows? Because if you did any of that, the government is pleased to give you a residential energy credit. Did you know about that? I didn't. It's not even something that TurboTax prompts you on, like you just have to know that that's a thing. Which who knows that that's a thing, unless you know that that's a thing. So my husband and I actually got to use this on our taxes because we had several of those things when we renovated our house and we got almost a $700 credit on our taxes. It was pretty awesome. I considered that my $700 bonus from working at the tax office, that knowledge, directly translated it into a tax credit. And then I'm also doing data entry, so I take the paperwork after the clients leave and I input all their numbers into our tax program.

Speaker 1:

Again, this is so random and goofy, but I love this part of the job so much. Typing the numbers into the boxes is so satisfying to me. I know not many of you will relate to this, but I have, of course, analyzed this with my Enneagram type and here's what I came up with. My type is Enneagram type one. Accuracy is very important to Enneagram ones. Fives are another type that love accuracy and I've never had a job where accuracy was such a key part of the job. I never knew how satisfying it would be to work in a job that revolves around being accurate with the numbers. So I don't know, maybe I should have been an accountant, but yes, I love the accuracy part. I also love how much I've learned about our tax code. I understand taxes, all the things about taxes so much better than ever before and it's empowering. It's empowering to understand how the numbers work and the tax brackets. And as an Enneagram one, I do want to know and understand how the world works, and increasing my knowledge in a new area feels like I'm improving myself. Us Enneagram ones, as you know, are addicted to self-improvement.

Speaker 1:

There's some client interaction in this job, which I'm fine with. I don't mind talking to strangers. I don't love if it goes on for a long time. So I'm happy with the little like 10 minute meetings with clients and then I go back to my solitary data entry. Yesterday a guy on the phone called me hun and he also didn't really know what he was talking about, so I didn't like that interaction. But most people are great to work with and I have great co-workers. I like my boss, the people there in the office are good to be around.

Speaker 1:

And I cannot forget to mention filing and alphabetizing. As a child who was diagnosed with OCD at a young age, I do love when I get to alphabetize and refile the client folders. Again, there is something really satisfying about this, like putting things in order and Enneagram ones. They care about doing things the right way. So in this job there's one right way to alphabetize. It's straightforward. There's one right way to file. There's one right way to enter tax information. It's very objective. It's just following what the IRS says. There's not much decision-making involved with this job. It's just taking the information I'm given and organizing it in the appropriate way.

Speaker 1:

When we have breaks at work, when there's nothing to work on, I get to read my book. It's so awesome it's the dream I'm making progress on my reading goals, and this is the part of the show where I show off a little bit. I have read 32 books this year, but I do have to confess that more than half of those are the Warriors Cat Book series. Do you guys know these books? They're children's books, so it's actually not that impressive of a number, but I used to read these books when I was in elementary and middle school and I rediscovered them in my storage bins in the basement a few months ago. These books, they're about these four clans of cats who live in the forest and the four clans are always battling each other and they have to mark their territory and defend their territory and they find their destinies. It's all very exciting.

Speaker 1:

I loved these books when I was a kid, so it's been really fun deciding to reread them and it's so nostalgic for me. And I found out that my husband's younger brothers are also reading these books. That was one of the things that prompted me in the first place. Like, oh, they're reading these books. I want to be able to like discuss the plots and the characters, but I need to like remember, because I don't remember these plots from 15 years ago. So it's also been really special to connect with my brother's-in-law over these books. That meant so much to me. And so, yes, I'm reading these cat books, warriors, and that is giving me life this winter.

Speaker 1:

One thing I noticed recently about these books, this book series I love them, you know I love them, but they are not great at developing complicated characters. Needless to say, the authors of these books did not use the Enneagram like at all. Every single character in these books is like I have to be strong for my clan. I can't let them think I'm weak. I'd better make sure I catch a squirrel to feed my clan so nobody thinks I can't take care of myself. We need to keep training so that we're ready for any battle. So every single cat in these books is an Enneagram 8. They all just want to be strong. They're all obsessed with not letting the other cats think that they're weak. But nevertheless, I do love this series. If you have like 10 to 14 year old readers, I highly recommend these books. Well, I'm 30, so I guess you might also like them if you're 30.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, so yes, the text job has been great. It's all based on very objective things like numbers and as an Enneagram one, my brain it gets pulled towards the black and white In general, you know, in life this is the thing I'm working on. I'm always working on flexible thinking, trying not to get stuck in the black and white, but when it comes to taxes, the black and white thinking just works Because the IRS says you have to do things this way and this way only, and so I am good at that, following the rules of the IRS. Yes, I can do that. So that is another reason my Enneagram type enjoys this job. It's easy because I don't have to do much creative thinking or problem solving. I just take the data that's in front of me and organize it and enter it into the tax program. Thank you so much for listening to me talking all about my tax office job. I also just learned that if you live in Indiana, you can get a credit for donating to an Indiana college, a credit of up to $200. There's all kinds of tax trivia spewing from my brain these days.

Speaker 1:

Okay, in other news, this week I got to teach a workshop to a group of writers, a group of creative writers. The topic of my workshop was conflict styles in the Enneagram. It was really cool to hang out with this group of writers and hear how they're using the Enneagram to develop their characters, like it's so fun. And I asked a question during this workshop like how are you guys already using the Enneagram, if you know about it? And this one woman who is an Enneagram type five. Her exact response was I use the Enneagram to research my character development. And I was like I just love that you're a five and you literally used the word research in your answer. That is so awesome. I did write a blog post on this topic, so if you want to learn a little more about what the different Enneagram types conflict styles are, you should go check that out. There are three different conflict styles. They're called the optimistic, the logical and the reactive style. They all have to do with how our Enneagram type responds to conflict, disappointments or hurts in life. It's very eye-opening to learn these three styles and see why people respond to the same exact situation in very different ways. Once again, I will refer you to the show notes if you want to read that post.

Speaker 1:

When I first started working my tax job a month ago, I was putting too much pressure on myself to keep producing podcast content, even though my free time was cut down by like 70%. I finally convinced my inner critic to let up on the pressure, because I don't need to do it all. The world is surviving without me. Because I don't need to do it all. The world is surviving without me. My mental health is much better when I'm not pressuring myself to be so highly producing all the time. So that's also why I'm taking this break from releasing podcast episodes. I'm working on writing content for the new series I talked about, but without that pressure of oh no, I need to have something ready and edited to release by next Monday, and I know that nobody in real life even has those expectations of me. It's just expectations I put on myself. So here's to doing a little less this spring and enjoying the warm weather a little more.

Speaker 1:

If you want more Enneagram content from me, I suggest you either check out my blog or you can sign up for my emails. I'm also on Instagram. You could follow me on Instagram. Suggest you either check out my blog or you can sign up for my emails. I'm also on Instagram. You could follow me on Instagram if you want, but I'm truly not great at being consistent on Instagram. Nor do I want my waking hours to be dominated and controlled by social media, so I will be doing more email writing and a little less of the social media posting. More email writing and a little less of the social media posting. I wish you a great beginning of spring. May the Enneagram help you know yourself better and have way better relationships. I'll talk to you in a couple months.