Are You Living Authentically?

One of the arguments I combat with the Color Code is, “Why do you make me take the test as a child? I’m very different now than who I was as a kid.” The reason we take the Color Code from the perspective of us as a child (as best as we can remember) is because we are assuming that, as a child, you were your most innate “you”. That is, the world – be it parents, schooling, friends, work, etc – hadn’t begun to change us. Therefore, if you take the Color Code test from the perspective of you as a child, the responses should then reveal your innate personality – and therefore, your Core Driving Motive.

Now the exception to this, of course, is if you had a traumatic childhood experience, such as a rape, loss of a parent, etc. In those cases, you *may* have acted outside of your primary color in response to the trauma. In those cases, it is sometimes hard to tell who you innately are – we have to dig a little deeper and ask a few more probing questions – to uncover who you truly are.

Getting back to the fact that you are a different person now than you were as a child – of course you are! Life changes us. We may have picked up habits or behaviors from our parents, from our circles of friends, from coaches of our sports teams, in response to things we’ve learned in school, etc. For example, if you had a very controlling Red parent, teacher, or friend, you may not have been allowed to be the carefree Yellow personality that you innately are. As a result, you may be very organized or be able to focus more intensely than is natural for typical Yellows. These are Red strengths, so that has made you a Charactered Yellow. On the other hand, you may have also picked up arrogance or bossy behavior – also not natural for Yellows. But these are Red limitations, and may be sending very mixed messages to those around you, preventing you from having successful relationships of all kinds.

So how are you “showing up” to those around you? Who ARE you today, and are you living authentically according to your Core Driving Motive?

TAKE THE HARTMAN CHARACTER PROFILE to find out!