Physical Wellness

Most conversations about strength training are framed around performance. Getting faster. Looking better. Lifting more. A new study published in JAMA Network Open reframes the whole conversation.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo followed 5,472 women between the ages of 63 and 99 for more than eight years. They measured two things: grip strength and how quickly each woman could complete five unassisted sit-to-stand chair raises. Then they tracked mortality.

The results were direct. For every 7 kgs (15.4 lbs) of grip strength, there was a 12% lower mortality rate. Women who completed the chair stands fastest had significantly lower death risk compared to those who were slowest. And the findings held up even after accounting for how much they moved, how much they sat, their cardiovascular fitness, and markers of inflammation in their blood.

That last part matters. Most earlier studies on strength and longevity couldn’t cleanly separate strength from the fact that stronger people also tend to be more active. This one did.

The results were plain as day: when they scaled the strength measures to body weight and lean body mass, the mortality relationship held true. Size didn’t explain it. Strength itself was the thing.

My biggest takeaway from this study was not only who it was about, but what it broadly means. Women ages 80 and older are the fastest growing age group in the country. And what the data keeps pointing to is that the ability to get out of a chair, to carry your own body through space, to maintain functional independence—that’s not just about quality of life. It’s about how you experience life and being alive to have one.

You don’t need a gym. You need to move against resistance, consistently, across time. That’s it.

And this applies to all of us. Right now. When did you last do something that actually challenged your muscles? Not a walk. Not stretching. Something that made them work.

Mental Wellness

It’s one of my favorite times of the year. Spring training and opening day is coming soon. The other day I was reading about Brandon Guyer, one of the heroes of Cleveland’s Game 7 in 2016. One of the greatest, most soul-crushing games I have ever seen.

He went 3-for-10 with four walks and four runs scored in the 2016 World Series. But the article wasn’t about what happened on the field—it was about what happened inside his head during Game 7.

Bottom of the eighth. Two outs. Runner on first. Cleveland down by three. Aroldis Chapman, the hardest thrower in baseball, walking in from the bullpen. Biggest at-bat of his life.

And right on cue, what Guyer calls the “scared sheep” showed up. Don’t strike out. Just put the ball in play. Don’t look bad.

Most people would try to fight that voice. Push it down. Guyer did something different. He’d trained for it.

He had a name for the version of himself that shows up under pressure: the Hungry Lion. An alter ego. A flip-the-switch identity he built and found in a zero-gravity chair, visualizing exactly this situation before it arrived. Chapman on the mound. Down in the count. An umpire’s bad call. Everything against him.

“I believe everything happens twice,” he wrote. “First, in our mind, and then in real life.”

He fell behind 1-2. Stepped out. Found a speck on the barrel of his bat. Took a breath. His last thought wasn’t don’t fail. It was bring it on.

RBI double to right-center field.

This isn’t just a baseball skill. It’s one we all need. The ability to build an approach or practice in our minds so that when those moments show up, we’ve already been there. And that requires practice, repetition, and the willingness to accept it in the moment.

In the high-pressure moments of your own life—the hard conversation, the big presentation, the decision that matters—which version of yourself shows up? And have you actually trained for it?

Financial Wellness

McKinsey titled the research bluntly: Help your employees find purpose or watch them leave.

Nearly 70% of employees say their sense of purpose is primarily defined by their work. And yet only 15 percent of frontline workers say that work actually fulfills that purpose. Meanwhile, 85 percent of executives say it does.

Same company. Completely different experience of meaning.

They found that this gap isn’t just a wellness problem. It’s a financial one. People who live their purpose at work are more productive, more resilient, more likely to stay, and more likely to innovate. The inverse is also true. People who feel disconnected from meaning don’t just underperform quietly. They cost the organization: in turnover, in disengagement, in the slow erosion of culture.

The most striking stat: frontline employees were ten times less likely than their managers to say they’d had any opportunity to reflect on their purpose. 10x. That is a pretty massive gap.

Clearly, purpose shouldn’t be a perk. It doesn’t just live in a mission statement on the wall or in that annual employee meeting. The research suggests it’s one of the most powerful performance levers available—and most companies are leaving it almost entirely untouched.

Whether you’re leading a team, building a business, or figuring out your own relationship with the work you do every day, the question underneath the data is the same.

Does your work feel like it means something? And if not—what would it take to change that?

Spiritual Wellness

There is a trend here. These types of classes are showing up all around colleges and universities.

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans built what became one of the most popular courses in Stanford’s history. They called it Designing Your Life. A pretty simple premise: apply the principles of product design to the way you build a life.

In a recent podcast, they shared their approach, philosophies, and wisdom with students. From the idea of the transactional vs. flow world to the pursuit of your best self—all of it pointing to the importance of just showing up, paying attention, staying curious. Curiosity, they said, is the gateway drug to wonder. And wonder might be the closest thing we have to a universal spiritual experience.

I think about this in the context of the loneliness epidemic we keep talking about. Part of what’s been lost isn’t just connection with other people. It’s connection with that flow state and with moments that feel genuinely alive rather than just scheduled. With meaning that doesn’t have to be earned or optimized.

The question they kept coming back to: when was the last time you were so absorbed in something that you completely forgot to check your phone?

And In The End

From all of us at The 9:03 Collective: thanks for reading. Keep showing up. Stay curious. And never forget that the clock is running, so make it count.

If you’ve been enjoying Four Pillar Friday, the best way to support is simple: share it with a friend, forward it to someone who might need it, or subscribe if you haven’t already. The more people we reach, the more conversations we can spark about living with intention.

Until next week—keep building your moments.

The Journey Team & The 9:03