At a recent President’s Speaker Series event, Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup, shared insights from his book Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It. His message was clear: the world is becoming unhappier, and traditional economic measures—like GDP or unemployment—can’t explain why.
Instead, Gallup has spent the past two decades building what Clifton calls the “official statistics for how people feel,” revealing that human behaviour is driven far more by emotion than by rational calculation. Roughly 70% of decisions are emotional. If you want to understand what people do, you must first understand how they feel.
Gallup’s Five Pillars of Well-Being
Clifton outlined five dimensions that determine whether people thrive or suffer:
- Social Well-Being – meaningful relationships and protection from loneliness.
- Financial Well-Being – security in meeting basic needs, even if money alone doesn’t bring happiness.
- Physical Well-Being – nutrition, activity, and health.
- Community Well-Being – safety, belonging, and prosocial connections.
- Work Well-Being – purpose, engagement, and avoiding the misery that spills into every part of life.
Gallup’s research confirms that when these five pillars are strong, people almost always thrive. When absent, they almost always suffer.
The Global Picture
Clifton highlighted that negative emotions—stress, worry, sadness, and anger—have surged worldwide over the past decade. He also drew attention to “well-being inequality”: the gap between those leading great lives and those with “no chance at a great life.” This inequality maps closely onto rising unrest and global instability.
For policymakers, businesses, and communities, the challenge is clear: reducing well-being inequality is as urgent as reducing income inequality.
What’s Missing: Spiritual Well-Being
From a Holistic Wealth Planner’s perspective, Gallup’s five pillars, while invaluable, leave out something essential: spiritual well-being.
Why does this matter?
- Integration: Spiritual well-being is the dimension that binds the other five together, offering coherence and meaning.
- Resilience: Clients who nurture spiritual well-being often show greater resilience to financial, health, or work challenges.
- Direction: Without a sense of purpose, clients may achieve financial goals yet feel unfulfilled.
Even Gallup’s own data hints at this truth. Clifton acknowledged that within countries, religious or spiritual individuals often report higher well-being—even if national averages paint a more complex picture. Yet Gallup often frames findings in secular terms for the American audience, sometimes conflating religiosity with spirituality to justify exclusion.
As holistic planners, we know the two are not the same. Spirituality is not confined to religious practice. It is about transcendence, meaning, and connection—whether expressed through faith, philosophy, service, or creativity.
Lessons for Holistic Wealth Planners
- Measure more than money: Track your clients’ emotional and spiritual well-being alongside their financial progress.
- Redefine success: Move beyond returns and balance sheets. True wealth is living a thriving, meaningful life.
- Bridge inequality: Help reduce not just financial gaps but well-being gaps in your communities.
- Bring in spirituality: Invite conversations around purpose, values, and legacy—areas often left untouched by traditional financial advice.
A Call to Action
Clifton’s work has given the world tools to see how emotions and well-being shape human flourishing. But as Holistic Wealth Planners, our role is to go further—integrating the missing pillar of spiritual well-being into the way we guide our clients.
Only then can we help people move from surviving to thriving, from fragmented lives to whole-person prosperity.
👉 At the Academy of Life Planning, we believe planning must serve the whole person—socially, financially, physically, in community, in work, and most importantly, spiritually. That is the pathway to true wealth and lasting well-being.
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