What Is Health For?

One of the most influential books I’ve ever read is *Flow* by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

At its core, the book is about optimal experience — those moments when we become fully absorbed in a meaningful challenge. Time disappears. Attention narrows. Action and awareness merge.

Most people encounter flow through sports, music, art, or work. But the idea that has stayed with me runs deeper.

Csikszentmihalyi argues that a meaningful life isn’t built from isolated moments of happiness. It emerges when our actions, relationships, and pursuits become integrated into a larger purpose. When our goals align with our values, and our daily activities reinforce those goals, life develops a sense of harmony. In his words, purpose, resolution, and harmony transform life into a seamless flow experience.

I return to this idea constantly — not just as a physician, but as a husband, father, athlete, and person trying to build a meaningful life.

Health Is a Foundation, Not a Destination

Most conversations about health focus on outcomes: weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, body fat. These things matter, and I spend much of my professional life helping patients improve them.

But I’ve come to believe that health is not the destination. Health is what allows us to pursue the things that matter most.

It creates the capacity to work with purpose. To show up for our families. To develop mastery, to explore, to create, to contribute — to pursue the activities that make us feel most alive.

Designing for Flow

One lesson I took from *Flow* is that meaningful experiences rarely happen by accident. They emerge when challenge and skill meet at the right level. Too little challenge produces boredom. Too much produces anxiety. Engagement lives somewhere in between.

Over time, I’ve become interested in designing more of life around these experiences.

Exercise is an obvious example. A well-designed resistance training session demands concentration. Technique matters. Effort matters. Progress is measurable, and attention narrows to the task at hand. The same can happen on a mountain bike, a surfboard, or a hiking trail.

But flow extends far beyond exercise. It’s no accident that Csikszentmihalyi’s research focused on artists, musicians, and chess players — pursuits where deep absorption comes naturally. Flow can emerge in meaningful work, in learning a new skill, in a difficult conversation, in parenting, in a romantic relationship, in creating something that didn’t exist before. The specific activity matters less than the quality of attention we bring to it.

Life as a Project

Philosophers have long described life as a project — a series of actions linked to a larger purpose that gives meaning to each day. I find that idea compelling.

Viewed through this lens, health becomes less about avoiding disease and more about expanding possibility. The question shifts from *“How do I optimize this metric?”* to *“What kind of life am I trying to build?”*

The answer will be different for every person. But once it comes into focus, many health decisions become easier.

Better sleep is no longer just about sleep — it’s about having the energy to pursue meaningful work. Strength training is no longer just about muscle — it’s about remaining capable and independent. Nutrition is no longer just about body weight — it’s about supporting the life you want to live.

The individual habits stop being a checklist and start fitting together into a coherent whole.

Healthspan and Harmony

Much of modern healthcare focuses on extending lifespan. I think healthspan is ultimately the more important goal: not simply living longer, but preserving the ability to engage fully with life. To remain curious and capable. To keep pursuing meaningful challenges. To keep participating in the relationships and experiences that bring purpose.

This is where flow has shaped my thinking most profoundly. The goal is not to accumulate perfect health metrics. The goal is to create the conditions for a rich and meaningful life.

Signal Over Noise

Health advice tends to focus on what to avoid: disease, risk, decline. Those are worthy goals, but they’re incomplete. The equally important question is what health allows us to move *toward* — meaning, purpose, growth, connection, mastery.

The moments we remember most are rarely the ones spent thinking about our health. They’re the moments when we’re fully immersed in something that matters.

Good health doesn’t guarantee those experiences. But it creates the opportunity for more of them.

In the long run, that may be the most meaningful reason to pursue it.