There is a fantastic person that I know who works with helping people to develop personally. Roland is a coach and a teacher and he helps people be all that they can be (Can you imagine how amazing it must be to do that for a living? Of course you can). I love this man because he has the most positive outlook and love in abundance for all the people he meets. Love is his magic trick - as he so genuinely loves his people, they all relax and let him in so that he can help them fulfill their potential.

Only on one topic have I always disagreed with him. He believes that people’s basic values really do not change over time. In his mind we are pretty much the same people throughout life, but we can learn to use our personality in more flexible ways and thus come off as if we are changing. I always found this notion to be very static and pessimistic – can people not change?

And then the other day I found a piece of paper that I scribbled on 15 years ago at a leadership training that I participated in. I was not even 20 years old then. The values I had written down were perhaps not phrased the way I would have written them today, but the contents are equally true and capture many of my core values. Did I not change in these 15 years?Roland would have said that I did not change, but learned how to use my strengths in more flexible ways and thus fulfill more of my potential. I am not sure how I feel about it, but seems he was right, at least in regards to my basic value set not changing.

What about your basic values? Do you find that they change over time?

Are you curious about the values? They are the subject of another post. If you like it please subscribe to the blog via RSS not to miss any coming posts!