On Facebook a short video from Calm defined sobremesa—the lingering after a meal when the plates are half-cleared, conversation is full, and hearts stay at the table. It’s not just about food. It’s about a way of living that values presence more than pace.

Another post circulating this week named a quieter reality: we need to normalize admitting when we’re overwhelmed … I have seventeen things on my plate and one more might make me cry in a parking lot somewhere.

And a simple black-background quote from Scott Clary:

Fix your sleep. Not your business. Not your relationships. Your sleep. Eight hours will do more for your success than any productivity hack.

Together these messages point toward the same truth: a well-paid life is only sustainable if it is first a well life.

What a Well Life Really Means

Briana and Dr. Peter Borten describe a Well Life as much more than comfort or efficiency. They list qualities that widen the definition of wealth:

• an inclination to expand—to be inspired, create, share, and grow
• healthy, fulfilling relationships
• a sense of spiritual connection or belonging to something larger than oneself
• income that provides for living, saving, and leisure without becoming the whole story
• the experience of knowing and being guided by one’s life purpose
• frequent play and enjoyment
• the ability to set goals, create plans, and achieve them
• opportunities to help, to bring peace and love into our surroundings
• a state of ease—mental and physical relaxation even when working hard
• openness to what life brings instead of constant resistance
• integrity of mind, body, and emotion that isn’t easily disturbed
• regular experiences of challenge—intellectual, creative, or physical—that keep us growing

This is a portfolio of inner and outer assets that money alone can’t buy.

Three Elements that Hold It All Together

From those qualities the Bortens distill Structure, Sweetness, and Space.

• Structure gives rhythm and shape. It’s the calendar that protects what matters and keeps energy from leaking away.
• Sweetness is the flavor of life—laughter around a table, music, art, sobremesa itself.
• Space is breathing room for rest and perspective, the unclaimed hours that let wisdom surface.

1. Structure keeps life steady.
2. Sweetness makes it worth living.
3. Space allows the other two to stay alive.

Practicing the Well in Well-Paid

For those of us building businesses or careers, this isn’t theory.
It means:

• Sleep first. Eight real hours as non-negotiable infrastructure.
• Name the limits. Saying my plate is full is a strategic act, not weakness.
• Protect connection. Give conversation the last word, not the clock.
• Design rhythms. Time-block deep work, leave white space on purpose, keep sweetness in the week.

When these practices sit under financial goals, well-paid stops being a number and becomes a way of living.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

• Which of the Bortens’ qualities—ease, openness, integrity, challenge, play, purpose—needs the most care right now?
• What single change in structure, sweetness, or space will help it flourish this week?

About Giselle

Giselle Hudson is a writer, possibility thinker, speaker, Strategic Alignment Facilitator™, and MCODE Legacy Coach. She helps solo professionals, non and for profit organizations identify where focus and learning need to occur to stay aligned and achieve real results — all beginning with The One Question Every Business Must Answer™.