Dear Jeremy,

I have a question about the Color Code Personality Assessment. I just took it prior to attending a workshop last week and I came out Blue. I remember taking it back in High School and coming out Yellow. Is it possible that I’ve changed my color, and how does that happen?

Victoria

Dear Victoria,

I get this question a lot. At almost every workshop we teach, someone brings this up, so let me give you the short answer, and then I’ll explain…

The answer is no—it is not possible that you’ve changed your color.

Pretty simple and straightforward, right?

Okay, let me explain. This usually happens, and I don’t mean to embarrass you, when somebody doesn’t follow the instructions while taking the assessment. In the instructions, we ask you to answer the questions on the earliest version of yourself that you can recall. In other words, we want you to answer the questions as a child.

Obviously, the childhood version of you isn’t going to change from today to twenty years from now. You were who you were, so if you answer the questions accurately, the results should never change.

One of the major underlying theories of the Color Code is that you are born with your driving core motive (or color) intact. That is why we ask you to answer the questions as a child. We want the results to reflect the earliest version of you possible. In other words, we are trying to capture a snapshot of what you were like, before the world started telling you how to behave.

We also state that you can never change your color. The fact that anyone might want to is a topic for a completely different column, as we wouldn’t have time to address it here.

That doesn’t mean you can’t learn skills you didn’t come with. Practically every person on this planet has done that. You can learn limitations too, and most of us do.

The key to all of this, is that you first have to be okay with and accept who you are. That’s step one. Once you embrace your driving core motive, you can start to learn the skill sets of the other colors. If you try to cast your own color to the side in an attempt to adopt another, your insecurities will always hold you back from reaching your full potential as a human being.

Now, some people say that they were not themselves as children. Circumstances such as an overly domineering parent, or various forms of child abuse or trauma were present. For these types of situations, we would give alternative instructions for answering the questions on the Color Code Assessment.

We would tell you to answer the questions on the version of yourself you feel is “the real you.” This is harder, because it becomes much more subjective. The tendency to answer the questions on how you want to be (as opposed to how you actually are) is harder to resist, but all in all, your results will feel more correct to you.

If you still want to know how you have changed over time, that is where the Character Code comes in. The Character Code is a completely different assessment that measures what you are like today. It is a follow up to the Color Code Assessment. The Character Code Assessment can and should change over time as you learn new (and drop old) habits. It is the instrument we use when we are helping individuals and work teams put the Color Code into action by working on various development initiatives.

Thanks, Victoria, for your question. Like I mentioned before, we get it all the time. I hope that this explanation helps. In your case, if you are still not sure what color you are, you may want to go back and retake the assessment again with this new perspective in mind.

Continued success!

Jeremy Daniel

Jeremy Daniel (Core Color: Yellow) has been working with the Color Code since 1998 in various capacities from training in the field personally with Dr. Taylor Hartman to designing customized corporate solutions and new training programs for various industries.  He currently serves as Executive Director for Color Code International.