I was in some training the other day where the lecturer asked us to name our favourite colour, give our hobby or passion and say what we would do if we were president of a country. Once everybody had listed their colours, the lecturer mentioned how each colour resembled your personality.
For example, my colour blue, it is claimed, shows a need to find inner peace and truth. Red is action orientated and describes a deep need for physical fulfilment. The colour orange means you need to be with people and like socialising. Yellow is representative of a deep need for logical order. Green shows a need to belong, to love, be loved and feel safe and secure. Purple/violet reflects a need for emotional security and to create order and perfection.
The problem is that people grasp at all sorts of things to tell them about their personality and character. How accurate are predictions like colours?
When people seek superficial ways to determine their character you may just laugh it off as having fun. Who really put any store in these types of things? You begin to wonder about the reliability of many methods and technologies and what really influences your life.
What really determines your success in life?
There are many peddlers of all sorts of technologies and psychometric testing that have done well commercially. Others have led deep academic studies into character traits and personality. If you want to spend a fortune on these techniques, go ahead but you might be disappointed with the results. Who can really tell you about your inner character, your deepest desires, the things that motivate you?
Yet, it would be helpful to have a clear idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Some say you should only concentrate on your strengths and nor your weaknesses. But you need to integrate or synthesise them. Perhaps by knowing your weaknesses you can acknowledge how they are standing in your way and maybe make an effort to turn them around.
One way to clearly identify things that have been contributing to your success and even perhaps holding you back is to look over the important events in your life and see what character traits helped or hindered you. Was it your self confidence, self-belief, self-image or your determination and perseverance that made the difference? Here are some character traits that the success experts say are important indicators of achievement: skills, education, contacts, good working habits, positive mental attitude, positive image, money and creativity.
Creativity is essential for achievement. You need it to imagine future possibilities, to provide you with goals or targets and to solve life, career and business problems. To fast track your understanding of the role that creativity plays in your life and business – find out more about “Breakthrough Ideas”.
