How often do we practice our values?

I think that the biggest problem in today's world is that people say one thing and then do something completely different. A year and a half ago, as my honors paper at Augsburg, I explored the topic of being able to practice your values in real life. Why is it people preach one thing, and when they find themselves confronted with it in real life, they do the opposite. Or even worse, people judge others and say how they are not like the others, but eventually, they become so immersed in life's circumstances that they becomes one of "the others." I know I have had a hard time being able to practice all of my values in real life. E.g. I am strongly opposed to child labor and yet, I buy clothes that were made in China or India and I know that there is some chance that those clothes were made using child labor. I guess that the most important thing is not to let the society tell you who you are, or how you should be, or what is the way "the others" do things. You have to be true to yourself and stick to your values, even though they make you different from others. I think that the people who are truly able to make a difference in this world are the people who keep their values and practice them regardless of what the society thinks of them. Anyways, it is just a little disappointing to see people change because of the societal influence, and especially when that change is to the worse, not to the better.