Physical Wellness

I love coffee. It is how I start every single day. Not just for the caffeine…I actually love the taste. Alison and I have built an entire travel tradition around finding great coffee shops wherever we go. Every city, every island, every new place we land, we find the coffee first.

So when the research lines up the way it has been lately, I take it personally. In a good way.

A study published in JAMA found that people who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of tea daily for decades had lower rates of developing dementia than those who drank little or none at all. And the key word is caffeinated. Decaf did not have the same effect. The researchers accounted for a long list of variables: health conditions, medications, diet, education, family history, BMI, smoking, and mental illness. After all of that the data still showed the impact.

But it does not stop there. A study published in the European Heart Journal found that people who drank their coffee in the morning, before noon, were 16% less likely to die from any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to non-coffee drinkers. All-day drinkers did not see the same benefit. The timing matters as much as the habit.

And earlier this year, the FDA officially recognized plain coffee as a “healthy” beverage. Which I am choosing to accept as validation of a lifelong commitment.

Some of the things that are good for us are not the most complicated. Not the stack, not the protocol, not the optimization tool. Just two cups of coffee in the morning. For decades. A ritual that can double as relationship time, creative space, and, apparently, brain and heart protection.

Mental Wellness

The 2026 World Happiness Report dropped last week. Something I pay attention to each year.

A key headline: heavy social media use is contributing to a stark decline in well-being among young people, particularly in English-speaking countries and Western Europe. In the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, life satisfaction among under-25s has dropped by nearly a full point on a ten-point scale over the past decade. Meanwhile, in 85 of 136 other countries around the world, young people are actually happier than they were twenty years ago.

The numbers in flashing red: adolescents are averaging 2.5 hours of social media per day. Those who use it less than one hour report the highest levels of well-being  and, even oddly enough, higher than those who use none at all. And algorithmically driven feeds built around visual content and social comparison are the most damaging. Platforms designed for actual human connection do far less harm.

And this is not just a teenage problem, though that is where the numbers are most potent. It is a generational mental health shift happening in real time, to adults and young people alike. The report’s authors put it plainly: if social media platforms did not exist, many users would be better off.

I think about this in the context of everything we talk about here. We are investing more than ever in mental health: therapy, meditation, breathwork, retreats. And at the same time, we are handing a generation a device that is scientifically designed to make them feel worse. The tools are running in opposite directions.

Financial Wellness

The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll found that two-thirds of Americans worry about affording healthcare. More than food, more than housing, more than utilities. Healthcare costs have become the number one financial anxiety in this country. And a majority of those surveyed expect it to get worse, not better, in the coming year.

And this is probably not surprising to anyone, because it tells us exactly where the pressure is sitting in American households right now. Not in the investment account. In our own bodies.

Leading me to something I don’t believe gets talked about enough: one of the best long-term financial strategies for reducing healthcare anxiety may not be a better insurance plan. It may be a better relationship with how you move and what you eat.

The research on this is consistent. Studies show that every dollar invested in preventive care: exercise, nutrition, lifestyle intervention saves between three and six dollars in future healthcare costs. Approximately 80% of US healthcare spending goes toward treating preventable chronic conditions. Heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity. Conditions that are largely driven by how we live, not just by genetics or circumstance.

The gym membership, the natural foods grocery run, the consistent sleep schedule aren’t just wellness choices. They are financial decisions with a long time horizon. The body you are building or neglecting today is the healthcare bill you will or will not be paying a decade from now.

Most financial planning conversations start with the portfolio. Very few start with the body. But if healthcare is now the dominant source of financial anxiety for American families, maybe the most important investment conversation is about prevention. And it starts not with another retirement calculator, but with a run, a set of pushups, and a better plate of food.

Spiritual Wellness

Hawaii has been part of our family for a long time. I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time there over the years. For work, for vacation, and as a family. It is one of our favorite places in the world. What makes it special is not just that it is beautiful, which it obviously is. It is that each island is completely its own thing. Oahu and Maui and Kauai and the Big Island do not feel like four versions of the same place. They feel like four entirely different worlds that happen to share an ocean.

We were there in November and again recently. And while we were there the North Shore of Oahu was hit by catastrophic flooding. The worst in twenty years. Homes destroyed. Families displaced. Neighborhoods underwater. More than 230 rescues in a single night. People were being pulled off rooftops. One family was paddled out on surfboards.

Hawaii News Now captured what happened next in a simple headline: “We are grateful. Community support powers North Shore flood recovery.”

By Sunday, less than 48 hours after the worst of it, hundreds, possibly thousands, of volunteers showed up. Not organized by a government agency. Not deployed by a disaster relief foundation. Just people showing up for people. Neighbors clearing mud. Strangers handing out food and water and shovels. Someone paddled out on a surfboard to reach a family who was trapped.

One organizer said it plainly: “I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of my community. All I see is people helping people.”

This is what a community does. This is what community is. Not the word on the wellness t-shirt. Not the private membership club. Not the curated online group. The thing that shows up with a shovel at sunrise because someone needs it.

We optimize our sleep scores and track our HRV and invest in our longevity. All of that is worth doing. But none of it replaces this. The willingness to show up without being asked. The instinct to paddle toward the problem instead of away from it.

The North Shore will rebuild. It always does. Because that is what that community is made of.

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…

The Journey Team & The 9:03