Igniting Insights with Barry Binder: May 2026

May’s installment of Igniting Insights features an article from HUB Financial Services expert, Barry Binder, as he shares practical and proven tips from his 26-year tenure.

Living With Meaningful Purpose – Rethinking How We Work

When it comes to work and one’s working life, two familiar phrases tend to dominate the conversation: “I work to live” and “I live to work.”

Those in the “I work to live” camp see work primarily as a means to an end—a way to fund the life they want outside the office. Picture the warehouse employee in San Diego who spends every free moment surfing. His job pays for the life he actually cares about.

Those in the “I live to work” camp, by contrast, find their identity and fulfillment in their work. Think of the academic who teaches five classes a week and spends every remaining hour researching or writing. Her work isn’t just what she does; it’s who she is.

Both approaches have their advantages and their pitfalls. The warehouse surfer has work-life boundaries, time for relationships, and likely low stress—but he may also feel stuck, unchallenged, or disconnected from meaning during the workday. The professor may achieve great things and earn admiration—but she may also burn out, neglect relationships, or become defined by a single dimension of her life.

So, we’re left with a question: does it really have to be one or the other? Must we choose between working to live or living to work? Or is there a third option?

Start With Why

In recent years, many influential thinkers have suggested that there is. Simon Sinek’s well known concept Start With Why urges individuals and organizations to anchor their actions in a clear purpose. Dr. Arthur Brooks argues that purpose isn’t discovered so much as built—constructed through meaningful effort over time.

These ideas feel modern, but their roots run deep. In Okinawa, it’s called Ikigai (“a life worth living”). In Costa Rica, it’s known as Plan de Vida (“life plan”).

Though culturally distinct, both emphasize purpose as a daily practice—the reason you rise each morning, the source of joy, the meaning woven into everyday life.

It’s also important to note that not everyone arrives at this question from the same place. Even asking whether work feels meaningful is a privilege.

For many people, the more immediate concern is simply whether their work pays the bills.

Yet purpose has always been larger than any job. It shows up in the father who sets aside his own preferences so his children have better opportunities, and in the neighbor who quietly steps in when someone needs help.

Work is one place purpose can live, but it is far from the only one.

The deeper question isn’t “How do I find a meaningful job” but “How do I build a meaningful life.”

Considering the Third Path

So perhaps Ikigai or Plan de Vida offers that third path: a way of approaching work that dissolves the binary altogether — a path where meaning becomes the bridge between work and life, where we seek the intersection of what we love, what we’re good at, what the world needs, and what we can be paid for. A path where work and life are not competing forces but parts of a unified whole.

Of course, meaningful purpose looks different for everyone. What energizes one person may leave another cold. And purpose isn’t static; it shifts with the seasons of our lives. Some people identify their purpose early. One of my closest friends told me at twenty that he would “play guitar and write songs or push a broom.”

Thirty‑four years later, he’s still a touring musician—and when he’s not performing or recording punk music, he’s a worship music director. He named his purpose early and never let go.

Why Organizations Need Their Employees to Define "Why"

For me, purpose has emerged more gradually. Across different chapters of my life, I can see different forms of it, but only recently have I been able to articulate the thread that runs through them all: serving others in a way that helps them succeed. That, I’ve come to realize, is my Ikigai—my reason for getting up each morning. It shapes not only my work but my relationships, my partnerships, my teaching, my mentoring. Wherever I can help someone grow, I feel aligned with who I’m meant to be.

This matters for organizations and leaders as well. According to the Harvard Business Review, a survey of 2,000 American workers found that respondents would give up 23% of their lifetime earnings for a job that was “always meaningful.” More than ever, people want more than a paycheck—they want purpose. And they’re willing to leave, even at personal cost, if they don’t find it.

That means leaders must take purpose seriously. They must articulate their organization’s “why,” and help employees articulate their own. 

  • What is the company’s ultimate goal?
  • Why does it exist?
  • How does it contribute to the common good?

If leaders cannot answer these questions, they cannot help employees answer them either.

Alignment + Intention = Purpose

In the end, the tension between working to live and living to work begins to dissolve when we recognize that both are incomplete without meaningful purpose. Purpose is what gives shape to our days and coherence to our efforts. It allows work to enrich life and life to inform work, rather than forcing us into a choice between the two. And because purpose evolves—stretching across the different seasons of our lives—it anchors us in something deeper than productivity or leisure alone.

When we choose that third path, the path of alignment and intention, we discover that the most fulfilling life isn’t divided into separate compartments of work and everything else.

Instead, it becomes a single, integrated story—one guided by a purpose we build, nurture, and live out every day.

Want to Dig Deeper?

Exercise: Explore your Ikigai

  • What You Love (Passion).
    • Reflect on activities, roles, and experiences that bring you joy or energy and write those down.
  • What You’re Good At (Strengths).
    • List your natural talents, learned skills, and the abilities others consistently recognize in you.
  • What the World Needs (Contribution)
    • List how your gifts intersect with the needs of others.
  • What You Can Be Paid For (Value).
    • Write down how your current work, potential roles, and ways your strengths can create value for others.
  • Bring It All Together.
    • What themes appear in all four sections?
    • What feels most true to who you are?
    • What purpose seems to be emerging?
  • Draft Your Ikigai Statement.
  • Practice You Ikigai Statement.
    • What is one habit that aligns with your purpose?
    • What is one relationship you can invest in?
    • What is one way you can serve others today?

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