Health, Wealth, and Purpose: Rethinking What It Means to Live Well

As we move through the final months of the year, it’s natural to start thinking about what we want the next one to look like. We set goals, make plans, and think about the things we want to improve. For many of us, those goals tend to fall into a few familiar categories: our health, our finances, our relationships, our work, and how we spend our time.

But accomplishing more and living well aren’t necessarily the same thing.

That idea came up recently on the Win Make Give podcast, which was founded by PLACE co-founder Ben Kinney. In the episode, host Chad Hyams sat down with wealth advisor Stefan Whitwell for a conversation about what happens when we stop looking at wealth as simply a financial number.

Whitwell’s perspective is that true wealth lives at the intersection of three things: health, wealth, and purpose.

It’s a simple idea, but the more you think about it, the more interesting it becomes.

What Does It Mean to Be Wealthy?

Most of us have some version of a financial goal. Maybe it’s earning a certain amount, becoming debt-free, buying a home, building investments, retiring comfortably, or simply reaching a point where money creates more choices instead of more stress.

Those goals matter. Financial security can create opportunities, flexibility, and peace of mind.

But what happens when you achieve the number you were chasing and discover that the number itself wasn’t the entire answer?

That was one of the ideas explored in the conversation. Money and free time are valuable, but having more of either doesn’t automatically tell you what to do with them. If you've spent years working toward a goal, reaching it can sometimes leave you with a surprising question: Now what?

It’s one reason the connection between health, wealth, and purpose feels particularly relevant. If we focus so heavily on one that we sacrifice the others, reaching the goal may not feel quite the way we imagined it would.

Being Present While You’re Building the Life You Want

Another part of the conversation focused on presence, which can be surprisingly difficult when you’re ambitious.

When there’s always another goal ahead of you, it’s easy to live a few steps into the future. You’re thinking about the next deadline while eating dinner, checking your phone when you're supposed to be taking a break, or mentally working through tomorrow’s problems when you’re with the people you care about today.

Planning for the future is important. So is actually experiencing the life you're working so hard to build.

That doesn't mean giving up ambition or pretending stress doesn't exist. It means becoming more aware of where your attention is and recognizing when you're physically in one place but mentally somewhere else entirely.

The end of the year is a good time to think about that. We're often focused on what we haven't accomplished yet or what we want to change next year. It's worth giving some thought to what's already happening in our lives that we don't want to miss.

A Simple Response to Stress: Breathe

The episode also touched on something incredibly basic that many of us forget to do well when we're under pressure: breathe.

Stress has a way of speeding everything up. Our thoughts move faster, our bodies tense, and we can feel pressure to immediately react to whatever is happening in front of us.

Taking a moment to focus on your breathing doesn't solve the problem, but it can create a little space between the pressure you're feeling and what you decide to do next.

That idea applies in work, relationships, parenting, finances, and just about every other part of life. We can't eliminate every stressful situation, but we can become more intentional about how we respond to one.

Sometimes a few seconds of space is enough to help us respond differently.

Purpose Changes the Meaning of Success

Of the three words health, wealth, and purpose - purpose may be the hardest to measure.

There isn't a bank balance attached to it. There isn't necessarily a finish line. And what gives one person a strong sense of purpose may look completely different for someone else.

For some people, purpose comes through family. For others, it's building a business, serving a community, creating something, teaching, giving back, solving problems, or helping other people succeed.

It can also change throughout our lives.

What feels meaningful at 25 may not be what feels meaningful at 45 or 65. A goal that once motivated you may eventually make room for something else, and that doesn't make the original goal wrong. It simply means you've changed.

Thinking about purpose gives us a different way to evaluate the goals we're setting. Instead of only asking, “What do I want to accomplish?” we can also ask, “Why does accomplishing this matter to me?”

The answer may change the goal, or make you even more committed to it.

A Different Way to Think About the Year Ahead

As 2027 gets closer, there will be plenty of conversations about resolutions, business plans, financial targets, fitness goals, and everything we want to do differently.

Maybe there's value in starting one step earlier.

Before writing down everything you want to accomplish, think about the three areas from this conversation.

Health: How do you want to feel physically and mentally?

Wealth: What would greater financial security or freedom allow you to do?

Purpose: What makes the time and effort you're putting into everything else feel worthwhile?

The answers don't have to be profound, and they certainly don't have to be perfect. But looking at the three together may give you a better picture of what you're actually working toward.

Because the goal isn't necessarily to have the most money, the most free time, or the fullest calendar. It's to build a life in which the things you've worked for give you the ability to spend your time on what matters to you.

A Conversation Worth Listening To

One of the things we appreciate about being part of PLACE is having access to conversations that make us think beyond our day-to-day work. This recent Win Make Give episode with Chad Hyams and Stefan Whitwell was one of those conversations.

Whether you're focused right now on improving your health, building wealth, finding a stronger sense of purpose, or trying to create a little more balance among all three, it's worth a listen.

You may not come away with an entirely new definition of success. But you might come away asking yourself a better question about what success actually means to you.

Wherever you are in the pursuit of health, wealth, or purpose, this conversation might shift how you think about all three. Take a listen.

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