A Strong Way to Know What Matters Most
You have seen it before. Mission, Vision, Values, framed on a wall in reception, next to a pot plant that has given up trying. We are told these things matter. Yet in many workplaces, they become wallpaper. Nice words. Zero traction.
But what if these ideas were not corporate decorations? What if they were practical tools that help you make sense of your work and make better decisions about where you are heading?
To get there, you do not need complicated frameworks. You need three questions. Simple ones. Questions that draw out your story, your energy, and the clues already hiding in your experience. Because what matters most is not something you invent. It is something you uncover.
Clarity does not arrive from a job title or a promotion. It comes from noticing what has always been there.
1. Purpose: When did you feel most proud?
Purpose is the reason you show up. It sits at the intersection of contribution and impact. You can see it when people tell stories about moments that mattered.
Ask someone about a time they felt proud and everything changes. Eyes sparkle. Chests broaden. Stories flow. There is no script. There is only truth. Purpose lives in those moments. It reveals what makes your work meaningful, and why it is worth doing at all.
Answer this for yourself and notice what comes to the surface. The themes that return are not random. They are signals.
2. Values: What makes you angry?
Values are not aspirational statements. They are the invisible guardrails that shape how you operate. The fastest way to find them is not by listing noble words. It is by noticing what irritates or frustrates you.
Anger is not always a problem. It is a clue. It shows you what you care about. When a value is violated, your body reacts before your brain does. Belly rumbles. Heart beats faster. Adrenaline rises. The moment matters because something important has been crossed.
Pay attention to these reactions. They point to the standards you expect of yourself and others.
3. Vision: Tell me about a day at work you most enjoyed
Vision is not a far-off fantasy. It is the future you want more of, visible in your best days.
Ask someone to describe a workday they loved and watch what happens. Smiles broaden. Voices soften. Eyes look to the distance. Without knowing it, they are drawing the outline of where they want to go.
Vision does not start with a mountain. It starts with a moment. One that shows you the kind of environment, challenge, or contribution that fuels you.
Collect enough of these moments and patterns emerge. Those patterns shape direction.
Putting it together
Purpose tells you why you show up.
Values tell you how you show up.
Vision tells you where you are going.
Answering the three questions gives you something most people never get. A compass. Not a borrowed one. Your own.
Clarity does not come from more doing. It comes from noticing. The clues have always been there, sitting inside the stories of when you were at your best, when something felt wrong, and when work felt enjoyable and effortless.
Try it this week
Find a quiet moment and write your answers to:
When did I feel most proud?
What makes me angry?
What was a day at work I genuinely enjoyed, and what was I doing?
Look at what shows up. Patterns will appear faster than you think. Once they do, decisions get easier, priorities get clearer, and the path ahead stops feeling like guesswork.
How to work through this
People process meaning differently. Some think first, then speak. Others talk it out and discover what they think along the way. Use the approach that fits you.
If you lean introverted Find a quiet space. Put pen to paper. Take one question at a time. Let the memories surface. Revisit it tomorrow. Something new will reveal itself.
If you lean extroverted Talk through your answers with someone you trust. Tell the stories. Notice where your voice changes and your energy rises. That is your signal.
A quiet thought to end on
At some point, nearly everyone reaches a chapter where the old markers stop working. The achievements land, yet the feeling does not. The goals get ticked off, yet something feels missing. It is not a crisis. It is a clue.
That moment is not asking for another push. It is asking for a pause. A chance to look back at what has always mattered, and forward to what could matter next.
Strength begins there. Not in doing more, but in knowing why you are doing it at all.