1) Everybody has one, and ONLY one, Driving Core Motive.

In a case like yours, you also have an extremely close secondary Color, but it is not possible to be two colors equally, or to be a “purple” for instance. Your first step here should be in determining which is the Core Color, and which is the Secondary Color.You said you don’t consider yourself a Red – and that may very well be true. In your case, with the percentages being as close as they are between the primary and secondary Colors, one question answered differently could flip your results the other way around. Keep reading, and I’ll show you how to look at this a little more objectively.

2) Your Driving Core Motive is far more significant than your Secondary Color.

Even if the percentages are close, your Core Color is quite a bit more significant to you than your Secondary Color. Dr. Hartman says that where self-awareness and building relationships is concerned, being in touch with your Core Color is like a human being understanding how to breathe. It’s that essential! Understanding the Secondary Color, he adds, is like a human being learning how to walk. Yes it’s very important and will affect the way that you experience life, but it is not nearly as critical to your success as breathing would be!

3) Tips to determining which is the Core Color and which is the Secondary.

You are the ultimate barometer here, truthfully. There are a couple of tips that I will share with you here, but ultimately you will feel that one of these two Colors (Red or Blue) feels more like “home” to you and is therefore your Core Color. The other will probably feel quite comfortable as well – like a nice hotel room – but not quite as comfortable as truly being at home.

That said, you should consider what your “knee jerk reaction” is to everyday situations. Is your instinct to take the Red approach or the Blue approach? Sometimes your instinct make you want to go one direction, and then you decide to move in the direction of your Secondary Color because you’ve trained yourself to do so to achieve a certain result. If you pay attention to the natural reaction, though, you may start to see your Core Color more clearly.

One of the best ways to determine this is to learn more about the Color Code. If you were to participate in a Color Code Workshop or even listen to our 6-CD Seminar Series, it would probably become very clear to you which the Core Color is versus the Secondary Color.

Another thing to check is the strengths and limitations list available on your Comprehensive Analysis report. It is in Section 2 located right below the pie chart showing how you scored in all four Colors. There, we plot out for you all of the traits that you indicated on the assessment so that you can see what Color category they come from and whether they are strengths or limitations. The trick here is to look at the limitations column, because typically (though this isn’t 100% fool-proof) the column with the greatest number of limitations ends up being your Core Color.

The last suggestion I have for you if those ideas still aren’t working for you would be to take our Character Code Assessment. On that assessment you answer the questions based on what you are mostly like today, and even though it’s objective is not to determine your Core Color, sometimes you will see some patterns emerge (again – usually in the limitations section) that will make this clearer to you.

4) Pros and Cons of the Secondary Color.

Now I would like to turn my attention to the advantages and disadvantages of the Secondary Color. Before I do, however, it would be good to note that to determine whether somebody has a Secondary Color, we look at whether an individual has scored 66.67% or more in any one Color Code category. If they have, we consider them to be a “Purist”, which is somebody who doesn’t really have a significant Secondary Color. If they score lower than the 66.67% mark in their Core Color, they probably have a Secondary Color. Over 75% of the population shows a Secondary Color score.

The up-side to having a Secondary Color is that development within that Color comes a little easier than it would for others. For example, if you are Red Core with a Blue Secondary and you are not naturally detail-oriented (a strength common to Blues), you might find that you have an easier time learning that skill than somebody else would who has very little Blue in their profile. The reason why is that you already “speak the language” of Blues to a degree. You understand where they are coming from and how they might approach things. That makes the development flow a little more naturally for you.

The drawback to having a Secondary Color are the the limitations can be extremely damaging to you and your relationships.

It’s a funny phenomenon, but others are far more inclined to overlook – and be forgiving – of limitations you display from your Core Color than they are from your Secondary. And that’s whether they know the Color Code or not!

People just seem to get a sense of each other. They can accept or even dismiss limiting behavior from your Core Color, because at least it seems congruent – or natural – from someone with your unique personality. However, when you act out of a limitation from outside of your Core Color, others feel offended, put off, or generally suspicious of you. It makes them want to take a step back and not be as willing to connect with you out of the uncertainty of whether they will be dealing with Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.

The difficulty for the person with a strong Secondary Color, of course, is that you may flow into those Secondary Color limitations so naturally that it doesn’t seem like a change of direction in the slightest way to you. Others, however, will notice it, and may not accept the shift at all. That is precisely why you need to be aware of the limitations associated with that Secondary Color so that you can keep those behaviors in particular in check.

5) Relationships and Conclusion.

To better understand each of your relationships (as you asked in the second part of your question), you should first seek to understand which is your Core Color. From there, and understanding of how the Secondary Color impacts those relationships is also important.I would encourage you to make a list of the following insomuch as they impact your relationships:

A) What are your top 3 strengths in your Core Color?

B) What are your worst 3 limitations in your Core Color?

C) What are your top 3 strengths in your Secondary Color? (Those will feel like a great, unexpected “bonus” to others.)

D) What are your worst 3 limitations in your Secondary Color? (Those may be damaging your relationships more than you realize.)

Thank you, George, for taking the time to ask the question. I probably gave you a little more than you bargained for here, but I felt it would be to your benefit and the benefit of our other subscribers as well to understand a little more about Secondary Colors.

Very best of living,

Jeremy Daniel
Training Director
Color Code International

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.  To ask about Jeremy’s training or speaking services, please email and inquiry to jeremy@colorcodetraining.com.