The Needs, Values, and Purpose Trifecta
Learn what happens when there is misalignment or conflict between your needs, values, and Purpose.
I’m going to make an assumption that an overarching goal of yours is to have a long, sustainable career of impact while living a life you enjoy.
One underlying contributor or detractor from this goal is whether the trifecta of your needs, values, and purpose are aligned or not at work. Misalignment in any one area, or imbalance across the three will drain your energy over time. This is energy that you could be using for more performance at work or to cultivate your life well-lived outside of it.
Left unchecked, any long-term drain on your energy is a precursor to burnout.
Needs, Values, and Purpose
Needs, values, and Purpose are each an important part of your inner drive. Let’s do a quick primer on each.
Needs
In this context, we are talking about the six universal psychological human needs that contribute to flourishing (autonomy, belonging, connection, expression, purpose, and security) as opposed to your basic physical needs for food, sleep, etc. We’ll be covering each of these over time, but it is worth mentioning that “purpose” is our need for our specific, daily contributions to matter in some way. If you’ve ever thought “what’s the point of me attending this meeting?” then your need for purpose is not being met in that meeting.
Values
Values are inner touchstones that guide your decisions and behavior. They dictate how you show up in the world. In what manner you act. The way that you comport yourself. Think of them as your personal set of operating principles.
Purpose
In the trifecta, we pull out “big-P” Purpose as its own component of inner drive. Think of Purpose in this sense as an important thing you are meant to do in this lifetime, typically over a longer period of time (even decades). A life’s Purpose is typically linked to an internally assigned feeling of responsibility for something you feel you must work on or toward. Legacy, sense of duty (to family, society, country, etc.), destiny, a higher power, or personal passion are all terms people use when talking about Purpose.
The NVP Trifecta
We can illustrate the trifecta as a Venn diagram. The center is the sweet spot where all three are in alignment with one another.
(Teal Area) If our needs are met and our values are honored, but we aren’t living out our Purpose, we tend to feel a bit adrift, dissatisfied, and that something is missing. That nagging feeling day in and day out is a subtle drain on our energy.
(Purple Area) If our needs are met and we are living out our Purpose, but our values aren’t being honored, then our actions tend to be influenced by external “shoulds” and pressures. Which again is a leak on our energy.
(Red Area) If we are honoring our values and living our Purpose, but our needs aren’t being met, we are usually sacrificing too much of ourselves in our endeavors. Our energy gets drained as a result.
And not pictured, your needs, values, and Purpose could all three be out of alignment. In that case, the energy loss is even stronger.
Any misalignment or conflict across your needs, values, and Purpose is a subtle or notable drain on your energy and therefore is a precursor for burnout if left unchecked.
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Katherine ✨
