by Gideon Gartner, the founder of Gartner, Inc. the technology research firm, recently asked the question, “As Lives Progress, Do Values Change?” ConsumerShift suggests that indeed they can and usually do, but not always. One may settle into a set of values — traditional, modern, postmodern, or integral in our terms — and stay there quite quite comfortably. Or “something” happens that causes one to rethink their values. We covered “Why Change Our Values” previously — the gist is that some change in our life conditions or circumstances is at odds with our current values; they appear inadequate to this challenge, and we look for new answers. Gartner observed that he was not aware of explicitly changing his values, but perhaps he did without being aware. Indeed, I suspect that is how it is for most of us! We do not necessarily sit down and review our values periodically, or even when the “challenge” comes to us, we may not explicitly invoke a list of our values. For most of us it is an implicit process. Gartner points us to the work of Dr. Wayne Dyer, who is an advocate for being more explicit our values and purpose in life, in fact, he put together a movie around the topic “The Shift.”
So, don’t be surprised if your values have changed without you really noticing. On the other hand, I think if you reflected on your personal history, you can probably identify the events and time periods where shifts did happen. Try it! Being more aware of your values — what a great New Years Resolution! Andy Hines
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