I love questions like, “What color describes your personality and why?” What do you think when you hear a question like that? Do you quiver with anticipation of sharing your inner being with someone? Or do you cringe with dread, thinking, “How am I going to answer this?”
Luckily, I had the opportunity to be involved in a personal development, life skills, or whatever one wanted to call it, program decades ago. The program helped me with my response to such questions. Dr. Phil, of TV fame, and two other parties originally developed the program, which changed my life in several ways.
As part of the program, I had to take a version of the True Colors Personality Test. If you are unfamiliar with it and want to know more, an online search will bring up dozens, if not hundreds, of possible sources of information.1
As I understand it, the original version broke our personalities into four colors, as indicated in the image to the left. That was the inventory used to evaluate me.
As you see, each color lists the characteristics it represents. The inventory or test analyzed how much each set of elements and the estimated percentage of your personality, communication style, etc., was influenced by those characteristics.
That is why I can say without hesitation I am so GREEN there is little room for anything else. I did have a smidgen of gold, but as you will understand as you read on, that came from the green as well.
Yes, your basic personality traits depend on any number of factors. However, as humans, we can grow intellectually and emotionally. Humans are not limited by instincts or Pavlovian conditioning.
That means as a high green; I could use my analytical skills and instincts to tailor my behavior, communication, and emotions to a degree. That is why one of the other facilitators in the program was surprised to find out I was a “High Green.”
He thought because of my behavior during training sessions, seminars, and other functions, I was a “High Orange.” I had trained myself to go with the moment when necessary and appropriate. I appeared to embrace all the happy-go-lucky, possibly embarrassing behaviors needed to make a point, get someone’s attention or help them break out of their shell.
I learned to become observant and analytical to survive the first decades of my life. That led to me recognizing the need to be adaptable to fit the environment, the moment, or the people involved. That does not mean I was a fake, as one participant laughingly accused me of being as I held his hand and we skipped around the seminar room.
He was the age I am now and is probably long gone. Still, for that moment, we laughed out loud with real camaraderie and acceptance. That was something he had not felt in a long time.
1 If you search this online, keep in mind some of the sites found may be phishing or marketing sites, more interested in selling you something or obtaining information than answering your questions. Search wisely and safely.
© oneoldcop.com 2023
@jacksonseric
