By Steve Conley, Academy of Life Planning
In the quest to understand what truly makes life fulfilling, psychology has long focused on the concept of subjective well-being — how people evaluate the quality of their own lives. For decades, this field has measured happiness through domains such as health, relationships, safety, and community connection. But in 2016, researcher Eduardo Wills-Herrera published a pivotal paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies that changed the landscape of well-being science.
His study, “Spirituality and Subjective Well-Being: Empirical Evidences for a New Domain in the Personal Well-Being Index”, tested whether spirituality and religiosity should be recognised as a distinct dimension of life satisfaction. Conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, the research confirmed what philosophers and life planners have intuited for centuries:
Spiritual fulfilment is not a by-product of happiness — it is a pillar of it.
A New Domain of Well-Being
Wills-Herrera extended the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI), traditionally built on seven life domains (standard of living, health, achievement, relationships, safety, community, and future security), by adding an eighth: spirituality and religiosity.
Empirical analysis showed that satisfaction in this domain significantly improved the reliability and predictive power of the overall PWI. In other words, when spirituality was included, the measure of life satisfaction became more complete and meaningful.
This evidence validated the Aristotelian concept of eudaimonia — the idea that flourishing comes from living in alignment with one’s deeper purpose, values, and spirit.
The Lesson for Holistic Wealth Planners
For Holistic Wealth Planners, the implications are transformative:
- Money without meaning is incomplete.
Financial strategies that neglect spiritual and ethical fulfilment can deliver comfort, but not contentment. Planning must therefore integrate both material and metaphysical dimensions. - Spirituality is not religion — it’s connection.
The conversation with clients should explore what gives life purpose, coherence, and direction — whether that’s faith, creativity, service, or nature. This forms the foundation of the life plan. - The planner as guide to eudaimonia.
Our role is not simply to optimise wealth but to harmonise it — to ensure that goals, actions, and means align with what the client’s ‘good spirit’ is calling them to express in the world. - A new index for planning: wholeness.
Just as the Personal Well-Being Index evolved to include spirituality, so too must financial planning evolve to measure success by holistic well-being, not accumulation.
From Accumulation to Actualisation
At the Academy of Life Planning, we integrate this understanding through the GAME Plan™ — a framework that mirrors the natural cycle of creation:
- Goals – arising from inner intention
- Actions – aligning choices with values
- Means – structuring resources to serve purpose
- Execution – manifesting vision into form
This process transforms financial planning from a technical discipline into a path of personal actualisation — from accumulation to actualisation, from having to being.
A Call to the Profession
The inclusion of spirituality within the science of well-being signals a broader shift in human understanding. It invites the financial profession to evolve — from wealth management to life stewardship, from product sales to soul-centred service.
As Holistic Wealth Planners, our highest purpose is to help others find theirs — restoring harmony between money, meaning, and the human spirit.
At the Academy of Life Planning, we turn these insights into practice through the GAME Plan™ — a framework that places Goals, Actions, Means, and Execution within the natural cycle of human development. It helps individuals and planners alike to align financial design with personal growth, restoring balance between wealth and well-being.
If you believe, as we do, that prosperity should be empowering, transparent, and shared, explore how the GAME Plan can help you or your clients grow wealth in every dimension of life — human, social, and financial.
Academy of Life Planning 