Uncertainty creates a particular kind of stress. It’s not just workload - it’s the constant background noise of decisions, risks and unknown outcomes.

There have been periods where I’ve been overwhelmed, almost like waves. Sometimes you can feel it building, other times it just hits you full force in the face, out of nowhere.

That got me thinking, there are people with way more responsibilities than me, people that lead countries or multi-billion dollar companies.

How do that cope with the stress? It surely doesn’t just keep building.

Here are thirteen ideas from well-known leaders that I thought were interesting and relevant to help you refind (and maintain) focus in challenging and uncertain times:

1. Positive mindset

2. Create momentum

3. Reduce decision fatigue

4. Schedule time to think

5. Focus ruthlessly on what matters

6. Anchor stress to a bigger mission

7. Get used to operating under pressure

8. Separate signal from noise

9. Turn worries into written problems

10. Build physical resilience

11. Accept a baseline level of uncertainty

12. Build a trusted team

13. End the day with closure

Jump to any that interest you or feel free to comment back with anything else that you find works in your work, or life in general!

1. Practice mindful positivity and gratitude

Martin Seligman

Psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology, spent decades researching what helps people remain resilient in the face of stress.

One of his most consistent findings is that deliberately focusing on positive aspects of life can significantly improve wellbeing and resilience.

This doesn’t mean ignoring problems. It means avoiding the mental trap of focusing exclusively on what is going wrong.

Practical takeaway

Create a small daily habit of noticing what is going well -

• writing down three things you’re grateful for

• acknowledging a recent win or progress

• recognising something a colleague did well

Small shifts in what you focus on can have a large impact on mental resilience.

2. Create momentum through small wins

Teresa Amabile

Harvard researcher Teresa Amabile studied what motivates people at work and discovered something surprisingly simple. The biggest driver of motivation is making progress.

Even small steps forward create momentum and improve mood and confidence, and I’ve noticed it doesn’t even need to be movement in the same area… for instance, if you’re stuck on a problem, just going for a walk is often enough to get unstuck. Any movement, any way, beats nothing.

Practical takeaway

When overwhelmed, focus on the next achievable step, not the entire problem.

Completing small actions or getting moving in other ways creates momentum, and I find that momentum helps reduces anxiety.

3. Reduce decision fatigue

Barack Obama

As President, Barack Obama had to make huge decisions every day. To protect his mental energy, he deliberately removed trivial choices from his routine - famously limiting his wardrobe to a small number of suits so he wouldn’t waste decision-making energy on small matters.

Practical takeaway

Simplify the trival stuff:

• standardise parts of your morning routine

• repeat simple meals during busy periods

• batch small decisions into weekly planning

Reducing minor choices preserves mental bandwidth for the decisions that actually matter. The challenge I’ve found is that I’m good at repeating habits and behaviours when times are challenging, but often they’re not the most healthy habits!

4. Schedule time to think

Bill Gates

Bill Gates became known for taking periodic “Think Weeks”, where he stepped away from day-to-day operations to read and reflect.

Most of us can’t disappear for a week, but the principle still applies.

Practical takeaway - block regular time purely for thinking.

Even an hour per week without meetings or emails can help you step back, reflect on the bigger picture, and gain clarity on the problems that matter most.

Clarity reduces anxiety more than constant activity, and making space for ‘non deliverable time’ becomes more important the more senior you get.

5. Focus ruthlessly on what matters

Steve Jobs

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s, the company had dozens of confusing products. One of his first actions was to simplify everything dramatically.

He replaced complexity with a small number of clear priorities.

Practical takeaway

Each week ask yourself:

• What are the three most important things right now?

• What can safely wait?

Stress often comes from trying to move too many priorities forward at once.

6. Anchor stress to a bigger mission

Elon Musk

Elon Musk often frames challenges in terms of long-term missions rather than short-term problems - having a purpose changes how pressure feels.

Practical takeaway

When something feels overwhelming ask - what bigger goal does this challenge serve?

Connecting day-to-day problems to a meaningful mission can transform stress into motivation.

7. Get used to operating under pressure

Winston Churchill

Leadership rarely becomes easier as responsibility increases.

Over time, many experienced leaders develop what psychologists call stress inoculation - an ability to operate calmly under pressure simply because they’ve experienced it repeatedly.

Churchill led Britain through one of the most uncertain periods in history, yet maintained a steady decision-making rhythm despite constant pressure.

Practical takeaway - don’t expect stress to disappear. Instead aim to become comfortable operating with it.

Pressure becomes easier to handle when it’s familiar.

8. Separate signal from noise

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos has often emphasised the importance of focusing on meaningful signals rather than reacting to every piece of information.

Leaders are constantly exposed to noise - metrics, opinions, news, commentary. Too much input creates the illusion that everything is urgent.

Practical takeaway - create filters:

• limit news consumption

• turn off non-essential notifications

• track a small number of meaningful metrics

Reducing noise dramatically lowers mental clutter.

9. Turn worries into written problems

Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio built Bridgewater on a culture of clear thinking and structured problem-solving.

One key principle is simple: write problems down clearly rather than letting them remain vague worries.

Practical takeaway - when something is causing anxiety, write down:

1. What exactly is the problem?

2. What is the worst realistic outcome?

3. What is the next step?

Turning vague worries into defined problems often makes them far less intimidating.

10. Build physical resilience

Richard Branson

Richard Branson has often credited exercise with giving him the energy to handle the demands of running global businesses.

Physical health directly affects mental resilience.

Practical takeaway - even small amounts of daily movement help.

• walking

• cycling

• strength training

• stretching

My challenge is always waiting for everything to be ‘perfect’ before starting or doing any of this. It’s unrealistic and something I’m working on in 2026!

11. Build a trusted team

Steve Jobs

Great leaders rarely carry the burden alone.

Steve Jobs often emphasised the importance of surrounding himself with talented people he trusted to take ownership of their areas.

Leadership stress increases when every decision flows through one person.

Practical takeaway - invest time in building a small group of people you trust deeply.

Shared responsibility reduces both workload and mental pressure.

13. End the day with closure

Cal Newport

Author Cal Newport advocates a deliberate “shutdown ritual” at the end of the workday.

Without closure, the brain keeps scanning for unfinished tasks, which can maintain background stress.

Practical takeaway - daily winddown time:

1. Review what you accomplished

2. Write tomorrow’s priorities

3. Capture any loose tasks

Then mentally close the day.

This simple habit helps prevent work from following you into the evening.

Final thought

Leadership and responsibility inevitably bring pressure.

But the goal isn’t to eliminate stress completely. It’s to develop habits that help you operate effectively despite it.

Over time, those small systems make uncertainty far easier to handle.

And in a world that’s so uncertain, I think learning to deal with this is probably be the most valuable leadership skill of all.

It’s like an internal shift that helps me to detach from the daily challenges, stresses and anxiety of a Managing Director.

A coping mechanism perhaps, flattening out the lows and trying to keep a healthy perspective.

If we take this in the context of a full-on day in the office…

• Wake up, flood of emails

• Traffic, more traffic, school run, traffic

• Site emergency alert pings, deal with this

• Client has an issue, alert team

• Sales presentation / pitch

• Internal issue

• Decisions, and more decisions

• Someone missed a supplier invoice and they’re chasing

• Sales handover

• etc etc

Days are hectic, varied and challenging. Deep down I thrive on this and it’s a big part of how I’ve grown at the business over the years. Every day is a new challenge… But there is a slightly weird knock on effect…

The lows are flattened out and more ‘contained’ but equally the highs are then less euphoric. Everything feels a bit flat.

Is this a good coping mechanism? I suspect probably in business it is, to a point.

Is this emotional detachment or is it perspective?

The Emotional Firewall

To be clear, this isn’t about trying to control your emotions.

Will you a get waves of anxiety, fear and overwhelm?
Yes, absolutely, anything difficult is likely to lead to this.

But, the concept of an emotional firewall is more about what you ‘let in’ and what you choose to care about. In computing, a firewall is precisely that - what the computer lets in or out, filtering out the noise or unwanted traffic.

One of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People teaches us

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

I think as a leader, you need to develop as much buffer as you can, maintaining a mindful gap to analyse and question your emotions, and how they may or may not be serving you.

Emotionally Numb… or Just Experienced?

Of course, as the business grows, the chances of issues happening, along with bigger challenges and curveballs increases.

Is it possible to maintain your emotions and stay sane?

I suspect the trick is to just be mindful of your emotions, not fighting them.

I’ve found, as the years have gone on, that I’m better at noticing the patterns in my emotions…

• “Oh I’m overwhelmed and on edge today”
  - why might that be?
  - how did I solve it before?

• “Oh I feel like this, I’ve been here before”
  - what happened last time?
  - how long to move forward
  - when might it pass

Plus you tend to develop better coping mechanisms and appreciation of the downtime that’s needed to give your mind and body the space to recover.

Things like -

• Writing down the issues

• Blocking out thinking time to work on the problems

• Developing an appreciation of what you can control and what you can’t

• Heading outside and building movement.

So I think it’s important to maintain a gentle disconnect with your emotions, whilst being mindful of them and using them to inform your direction of travel and the biggest challenges you need to solve…

More attention. More effort. More standards. More involvement.

The problem here though…

Caring too much about the wrong things takes a lot of energy, potentially leading to burnout, anger, resentment, despair or all of the above.

My perspective on this is as the owner of a service-based business. By it’s very nature, we are motivated to want to help clients, and for a long time this was reflected in my personal mission - help others, make people happy, have fun and make the most of the opportunity.

It took most of my early 30’s to realise ‘hang on, I can’t make other people happy. It doesn’t work, and if times are challenging (e.g. Brexit, COVID, cost-of-living crisis) relying on other people’s happiness to fuel my own, is not a path to sanity.

Caring about the wrong things…

I mentioned caring about the wrong things, so what might sit in this category?

For me, this is simple:

• Can I control it?

  • Yes - care / do something about it

  • No - let it go

This took a long time to realise all the things that technically belong in the ‘no’ pile for whether I should care or not:

• the news

• traffic / bad drivers and commuting

• other people’s feelings

• litter

Now, in reality this is far more nuanced… and it’s not a binary yes/no decision for many of these. Do I care what clients or the team are thinking? Of course. Do I care about the feelings of my kids, family, friends? Of course. Do I care about the environment / state of the world? Definitely. Do I wish that verges weren’t full of litter? Absolutely.

Can I control / affect all of these things, right now? Hmmm, well that’s tougher right…

My point is more about not letting that define your attitudes and feelings, particularly if it’s over days, weeks or months. If you let external factors get you down, then you can’t show up and do your best work.

Also, if you are too consumed with trying to make other people happy, then it’s sometimes difficult to make the tough decisions needed to run a business, and you’ll actually end up doing more harm than good in the long run.

Choosing what to care about

Now in an entrepreneurial role, you typically have to care about more things in work than most. I’ve found the most important things are:

• Cashflow

• Budgeting

• Reputation, sales and new business

• Team expectations

• Client communications and clarity

• Overdelivering and delighting clients as much as possible, without burning out

Some things deserve regular, focused attention, but one of the harder lessons I’ve learned from running a business is that you can’t care about everything equally forever. Not without paying for it in energy, clarity, or momentum.

Caring is not free.

Every decision you agonise over, every detail you polish, every responsibility you hold onto carries a cost. Early on, that cost is manageable. Later on, it becomes the constraint.

Progress doesn’t come from caring less overall.

It comes from caring more deliberately.

For me, refinding focus has meant learning that what I don’t care about anymore is just as important as what I do.

Sometimes even when you’re riding high, it doesn’t take much to knock you down.

And this week has been one of those weeks.

A conference, a big project launch, onboarding a new sales manager, and trying to keep up with month end targets and admin. It never stops, until BOOM, I’m taken out with a January cold, knocking down the enthusiasm and motivation in a month that’s already grey, miserable and draining!

That got me thinking…
… for business owners I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if’ you’ll get burnt out, it’s ‘when’.

And if that’s the case, it’s something that we need to be mindful of, recognise the warning signs, and learn what to do to rebuild momentum, focus and motivation.

Recognising Burnout

I think everyone’s different here, but for me:

• Withdrawing / emotionally distant

• Unmotivated to do anything

• Exhausted

According to the World Health Organisation, ‘occupation burnout’ is

“Burn-out is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and

• reduced professional efficacy.

So that checks out. But what’s unique for business owners and entrepreneurs is that there’s no-one to manage this for you - It’s on you!

That means it’s on you to find balance, step back and learn when to put the foot on the gas and when to ease off.

Burning out as a business owner

Sometimes it feels like you’re on your own, so here are some of the tools and tips that I’ve found to help in the moment:

• Dial back the pressure

• Focus on the small wins - keep things simple, take tasks in small chunks, and do enough to just keep your head above water.

• Get outside, get moving Just a small 10 minute walk + shower is enough to partly reset.

• Make space for yourself Clear the calendar, get out of the office, pause and breathe.

• Let it all out, vent to friends, share the challenges or even look to ChatGPT for tips to keep moving forward.

I find stopping altogether doesn’t really work, as the todo list still piles up, and it’s harder to get moving again. So the best thing I’ve found here is just dialling back the pressure. Focus on just doing the next small thing, and build on that.

Plus, there’s a weird satisfaction when you achieve anything whilst feeling burnt out.

Speeding up the recovery

The biggest things I learnt from the pandemic were that it’s easy to get drawn into a negative spiral. Inaction breeds inaction, overwhelm leads to panic leads to more overwhelm and paralysis.

The best thing you can do for yourself as a business owner is recognise:

• when you’re flirting with burnout

• how much you can still do to keep moving forward, whilst dialling down the external pressure

• how quickly you can rebuild momentum to get out of the mental funk

Be mindful when you’re at a low ebb. Note down the reasons in your notes app or a journal. Remind yourself that you’ve been here before (and you’ll be here again).

The real skill isn’t avoiding burnout entirely. It’s shortening the gap between stopping and starting again.

The quicker you can rest, refocus and reset, the quicker you’ll be back at full strength, for you and for your business.

OK, so hear me out. This post is all about the times where I’ve been waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect, before taking action.

It’s a brilliant trap that’s easy to fall into…

What’s your balance of prepping v.s. execution?

Mine historically has been woeful. Obsessing over building the perfect system, setting up the best approach with all the different hardware and software to deliver the best end result.

But here’s the thing - there is NO end result if you’re just spending all your time preparing.

Three of my recent examples:

• Video/podcast creation

• Writing

• Prepping a garage gym to get fit

With the podcast videos, I must have spent days watching youtube videos, getting various bits of kit, setting up a the perfect home studio and having all the lights, cameras, microphones positioned just right.

But then what - the system was created, but there’s no value UNLESS you hit record.

I did it again with writing. I’ve been wanting to write articles for many years, but rather than JFDI-ing the writing, I’ve spent more time trying different writing apps than actually writing.
”Perhaps if I get this app setup, that’ll make me so efficient and streamlined at writing that it’ll be effortless” was often my thought process.

In any case, in both instances ZERO value was created without actually following through and writing or recording.

The lesson with the videos really struck a chord with me, because it was only when sitting down to film a podcast, that I made real progress. When it finally came to USING all this gear I’d agonised setting up for so long, what happened… there were a tonne of issues!

• The camera overheated

• The SD card filled up

• I messed up the microphone / sound

So what are lessons…

1. Prep, yes for sure - do enough prep to get familiar enough with the process then just DO it

2. Action… fast action so that you can adapt and adjust whilst making progress

3. If the result is truly terrible, it’s a simple case of deleting / adjusting / improving on the fly

4. Make the systems SIMPLE > too complex and you won’t bother using it

Above all it’s about remembering what part of the process actually provides the value. Tinkering with systems and processes will only get you so far. At some point you actually need to break out of the preparation phase, into the ACTION phase.

Thinking about going to the gym won’t make you fit after all (if only!).

What are you still prepping for? Are you using preparation as a form of procrastination?

And what is there that you could just start (badly) this week?

And what is there to show for it?

One subscriber.
That’s it, just the one, and he’s a friend!

On the face of it, that’s pretty disappointing, my mind monkey kicks in to questions whether this is worth it? How much longer?

Three thoughts came to mind to help me refind focus:

1. It’s probably worth choosing a different goal

2. It’s not permanent

3. It’s quite similar to running a business

So taking each one in turn…

Choosing a different goal

Focusing on the number of subscribers is easy, but not a good goal in the short term.

When starting something new, it’s good to treat it as a win-win.

Even if you write for 3 months and have zero subscribers. What’s the worst case -

• you’ll learn about yourself

• you’ll probably learn how to focus better

• improving discipline and habit formation

• you might have developed more ideas to use in other ways

Failing would be to not even try; and you’ll always learn something.

It’s not permanent

Reminding myself that the commitment only needs to start by being short term. The first goal was to write ten posts. That’s short, low risk.

In that time it’s probably not even worth thinking about subscriber numbers, let alone looking at them.

De-risk, simplify and focus on the positives.

It’s quite similar to running a business

Finally, there are a lot of parallels with how it can be running a business.

Sacrifice, stress, anxiety and questioning decisions and whether it will work.

Whether building a business or building a community, it takes time to refine the offering, build value and build the reputation.

It was only after 7 years of running my business, during the pandemic, that I finally felt like we were on the right track and building momentum.

Just like in business, it’s all about stacking things in your favour, getting out there and making your own luck to maximise chances of success. The boring part, the slow burn, gently chipping away to build something great.

This much is probably not surprising, but I think the main takeaway from this post is also that you can also choose how you define that success. Is it 1,000 subscribers, or something you can actually control… ?

Plus, the particularly cool thing about writing and Substack is that you can do it anywhere. It’s easy to avoid Netflix and put 30 minutes a day into something you love, that also might create value for others. That’s the hope at least!

Only 3 days into the first full working week of 2026 and that’s where I’m at. Not due to work, mainly from the news.

It seems like the year has already started with a flurry of bad news stories, most of them courtesy of the orange man in charge across the pond.

Is NATO finished, where will he invade next, what does that mean for us in the UK, the world in general, and then what about the impact on the family, the business, our clients, their customers.

I’ve been here before, where the gravity of external influences starts to impact the day-to-day.

So already, this is the very definition of ‘Refinding Focus’, even when it’s just for the next hour, or next day… it’s the perfect time to refocus with a few small resets - 2 minute solutions that I find helpful to get out of the doom loop:

• Set a single time per day to check the news and leave it at that

• Phone-free walk, leave it at home

• 10 second reminder of your goals

• Decide on a quick win to start on that can be done in under 10 minutes

• Turn on comforting music

It’s another one of those times where more inputs and stimulation don’t add any value to you. They’re not worth the cost. Is it fair for your time and focus taken up by issues you can’t control?

Worrying times for sure, but it’s time to be mindful of how much you should worry. Too much and it holds you back, delays your progress and causes unnecessary stress for things that probably won’t happen.

Spend too much energy worrying about situations you can’t control, and it’ll hold back your progress on the things that you can control.

These times will pass, it will get better, but the world still needs business leaders to stay positive, focussed and to keep making progress.

I wonder if maybe the bigger risk for you is the cost personally, to your mindset, energy and health, and the impact to the business. If you head’s not in the game then this can quickly filter through to the bottom line results.

Optimistic, calm and safe in the knowledge that you can adapt to whatever happens.

I made a conscious decision that 2026 is my year to start writing up my thoughts, ideas and develop skills to help me focus, and hopefully help other people in the process, using Refinding Focus as a platform and hook.

Part of that was to avoid obsessing about systems, waiting for things to be perfect, and just crack on. Keep it simple, publish somewhere easy, and let the content be the focus, rather than constantly obsessing over the process at the expense of progress.

Well it’s a week in, and my brain is already (unhelpfully) sewing the seeds of doubt…

Thoughts like:

• What if everyone hates it

• What if no-one reads it

• What if anything happens to Substack… where does all the work go?

• Shouldn’t I just post on my website directly

• Maybe I should rebuild my website first

• Oh, let’s reorganise the posts and ideas

• What if your friends and family read this

It can make it quite difficult to focus.

Plus, with anything that feels ‘big’, it’s often super tough to get started but very easy to succumbing to any negativity and lose your momentum. That goes for whether it’s your own self doubt, or from others.

Now I’ve got a pretty thick skin for letting unhelpful external comments wash over me, but what about the noisy internal monologue. I think there’s a few parts to this, drawn from various reading and lessons over the years, and it starts from within…

Taming The Monkey

Your subconscious inner Monkey brain needs to be controlled. This is the concept about how the human brain evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago. Of course, the living conditions back then were somewhat different to today, with genuine threats of being attacked by wolves or hunting for the next meal.

The Chimp Paradox book by Professor Steve Peters is perhaps the best and simplest way to think about this. In the book, he describes the brain as having three modes; The Chimp (emotions, danger, instinct), The Human (logic, reasoning) and The Computer (habits, beliefs).

The Chimp is the emotion driven part that we need to tame here. It’s the part of your brain that reacts to doing this ‘crazy new thing’. It isn’t malicious or broken. It’s just wired to avoid risk, embarrassment, and uncertainty.

The Chimp is trying to protect you, but unless it’s controlled, it actually hampers your progress and keeps you stuck. Fortunately humans are one of the only species that have the tools and thinking power to outsmart the Chimp!

Reducing the stakes

So essentially we’re dealing with a perceived threat here, rather than any significant real-world threats.

How to deal with this? Typically I’ll start by reducing the perceived threat:

• Writing down the actual worst case scenarios
  In the case of this Substack, the worst case is very low risk - either nothing happens, it fades into obscurity, or someone is so offended that I need to block them. Calmly assessing the risks helps quieten the chimp.

• Shrinking the risk, reducing the stakes
  Remember, this isn’t forever. Nothing’s forever.
  We can just try committing for a few months, see what happens and then decide then whether to continue.

• You’ve been here before
  As life progresses, it’s easier to look back on the tough times, and remind yourself that you’ve conquered much bigger challenges in the past, and can do so again.

• Mitigating the tangible risks
  A good example is if Substack changed their platform or model. What ways could mitigate that… well perhaps if I write all the articles locally on my Mac so I’ve got them all backed up, that would remove that particular risk… identifying the tangible risks and quickly reducing or avoiding them is key.

Sometimes it’s good for the monkey to take control - genuine danger, real physical risk, clear warning signs. But most of the time, in a modern online world, it’s reacting to imagined threats.

Reframing the doubt

To quote the wise Dr. Pepper “What’s the worst that can happen?”

OK so that’s pretty tongue in cheek, but it’s absolutely the right sentiment here. Can you commit to a short trial to see how it goes? Let’s just see what happens. Worst case, nothing… but even then, you’ll be learning, developing and improving so whatever comes next will be that much better.

Nothing’s set in stone forever. If it works, great. If not, change, adapt, go again and learn some more.

I hope this is useful if you’re struggling to refind your focus. I’ll be exploring more of these ideas in future posts.

I’m ever mindful of the phrase ‘what got you here won’t get you there’.

And turning 40 seemed like a perfect chance to reflect, with a number of anxious and uneasy thoughts. Had I squandered my 30’s, was I where I wanted to be, what’s the progress been like, has it been good enough. What about goals, direction of travel and daily habits.

Well there’s two lenses I’ve used here…

One is the ‘beat myself up, you should be better’ lens, and the other one is ‘wow look at everything that you’ve achieved.’

This is straight out of the ‘The Gap and The Gain’ book by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. The idea that often people spend too long comparing against a mythical future utopia and becoming disillusioned, rather than looking backwards and appreciating the progress.

Anyway, that’s the whirlwind of emotion as a small business owner heading into his forties!

I want 2026, my first year in my 40’s to be the year I master self-discipline. That’s in terms of fitness, finance, family and fun.

Here are five areas I’ve struggled with throughout my 30’s that I should (or could) work on to shift the needle in my 40’s:

1. Bad Habits

2. The Voices In Your Head

3. Self Limiting Stories

4. The Illusion of Value

5. Planning and Budgeting

Here’s a quick summary of each area for now, then keep an eye out for future posts for deeper dives…

1. Bad Habits

In your 30’s, you’re forming routines, habits and behaviours. I’ve picked up many over the years and now need to course correct going into my 40’s. As ever, the later you leave the course-correction, the more dramatic it will probably need to be.

Some habits are easy to see the impacts of. Take not having enough sleep, that’s something that quickly catches up with you. What’s harder is the snacking, stress-eating and over-indulging. An extra few pounds every month, and the results quickly compound, in the wrong direction.

Work-wise too, many of the habits that caused me problems in my thirties were not obviously bad at the time. They formed under pressure, during growth or when things felt uncertain. Working longer. Being constantly available. Filling every gap with activity. Early on, those habits helped create momentum and a sense of value… but over time, I’ve realised that it’s often the softer less-tangible work that adds the real value.

I’ve had to learn and adapt to avoid just getting buried in ‘busy work’ but it’s not easy to break away from in our constantly connected world.

2. The Voices In Your Head

You are often your own worst critic.

And if your brain is anything like mine, you’ll jump from ‘everything’s fine’ to ‘worst case scenario’ within minutes.

There are voices that show up when things get hard, often at times when I can’t do anything about them.

As the economy has faltered and the trading environment has got tougher, I’ve often flirted with pangs of anxiety, overwhelm and burnout. Learning to manage this, to care enough and when to let go has been key.

I’ve alway had to develop coping techniques and habits to quieten the voices and deal with the stress > the larger the business gets, the higher the chances of issues cropping up (despite all the safeguards that we put in place!).

3. Self Limiting Stories

You are the stories you tell yourself.

Any time you tell yourself something starting with ‘I always…’ or ‘I never…’ you need to be SUPER careful. Are you reinforcing the type of person you want to be. Equally other people can unwittingly do this to you too of course.

I’ve had various times where I’ve been down, had to put on a brave face, or felt stuck. Sometimes for weeks or months at a time.

But a massive realisation in my 30’s was to make sure you’re telling yourself good stories, and to develop a robust character to avoid listening to other peoples (often incorrect) judgements).

Equally, the sooner you can build back up and create some (even any) momentum, the sooner you can start adding value and making progress again.

4. The Illusion of Value

You don’t need another app / system.

Being busy feels productive. Being needed feels important. Doing more feels like contributing, especially when other people rely on you.

Somewhere along the way, I started confusing effort with value, along with prioritising the WRONG things. Take Refinding Focus for instance… I created the perfect website, obsessed for hours about the logo, got all the systems in place, then got bored and did nothing for months. Of course, setting up a the perfect system isn’t where the value is with it (and now I’ve ditched all that for something simpler).

It’s like procrastinating for perfection!

The things taking the most time and energy were not always the things creating the most impact. It took a while to notice that being busy, and adding value often weren’t the same thing.

5. Planning & Budgeting

For a long time, planning and budgeting felt restrictive to me. In fact, we were always quite good at this until the pandemic hit, and predictably all our plans were blown out of the water.

I told myself it was easier to focus on growth and deal with the focus / numbers later. That’s partly true, but what I eventually learned is that avoiding budgets does not remove constraints. It just hides them by making everything less certain, less clear and harder to plan for.

Clarity, even when uncomfortable, creates better decisions. Uncertainty almost always makes them worse (and probably contributed to my anxiety too).

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What were your big challenges from your 30’s or early career? What might need to change to take you to the next level?

I’ll be diving more deeply into all these topics (and more) in upcoming posts each week, so be sure to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

In 2026, I’ll have been running Semantic for 10 years, and will have been at the company for 18 years. Now if I’d have said to 22 year old me that I’d still be in the same job, all these decades later, I’m not sure he’d have believed me!

Of course, calling it ‘the same job’ is wildly inaccurate now. The job evolves constantly, and looking back I think there are some key phases that helped shape how I approach things today, and going forward.

I suspect other ‘employees to managers’ can relate to this. There’s a whole variety of challenges to unpack in terms of going from colleague to boss, from working in the business to on the business, and from follow-ship to leadership.

Fortunately, with Semantic, clients include theme parks, leisure attractions and other brands that I LOVE. Essentially it was a combination of helping my favourite brands + technology that still keeps the role fresh and challenging to this day…

Years 1 to 5: the ‘learning the ropes’ years

• I had been attempting to study chemistry at uni, it didn’t go well
  (sidenote > quit early and follow your passions!)

• I was a junior ‘Support Ninja’ focused on doing great work for great clients

• We had fun as a lifestyle business

• I’d lean on humour and silliness
  (sidenote > don’t say things for laughs that make you look thick!)

Years (roughly) 5 - 12: the ‘responsible’ years

• Project based

• Focused on delighting clients and over-delivering
  (side note > over-delivering is good, to a point)

• Realisations that growth was constrained by capacity and competition

• Trying to be ‘all things to all people’

• Diluting the service, ‘busy fool’

• Slow realisation that this was not a quick / reliable route to grow

2019 - 2020

This was the start of a major turning point. Merlin Entertainments (our biggest client at the time) had signalled they were shifting all web development in house, and that we wouldn’t be needed any more.

The pressure was on to rebuild the pipeline and retainer revenue to keep the lights on…

… then the pandemic happened. So suddenly it wasn’t just losing our biggest client - it was lockdowns, uncertainty, and an entire sector grinding to a halt. Looking back, it’s hard to separate the two. They blended into one long period of firefighting.

• This was the start of our shift to a productised solution (called LOOP By Semantic, a website platform tailored to the sector)

• Saying yes to anything and everything to keep cashflow in the pandemic
  (side note > don’t do this, it kept things moving but came at a cost)

• The period of trying to do everything myself

2020’s

• We launched our own LOOP By Semantic platform

• We’re shifting the focus of the whole business

• The team is more focused and able to add more value in a more scalable way

• I re-learnt priorities as an MD, after the firefighting of the pandemic

• Laser focus on margins and profit (no compromising quality / service)

• Learning to let go and systemise so that things aren’t reliant on (just) me

• Refocusing my role onto the things I’m best at, with help for the stuff I’m not.

• Refinding that belief in what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and where we’re going.

So all in, the last 5 years especially has been a period of significant transformation throughout the business. This has been challenging to keep everyone on board, to balance customer and business-development needs and to cope with economic uncertainty.

It’s been a wild ride, and has taught me so many lessons. Often things that people ‘say’ but they don’t sink in until reality bites.

Refinding Focus is my chance to document some of the lessons, reflect on the sacrifices, think about new things, and find balance heading in to my 40’s so that perhaps others might not fall into the same traps.

Thinking about my 30’s… that’s a whole decade that’s passed. That’s pretty emotional for me actually, thinking about how much further ahead we could have been if I could have kept the focus, optimism and belief through the challenging times.

Could I have taken more risks? Perhaps.
Could we have backed ourselves more and been more picky with work? Definitely
Are we in a better place now, with a route to scalability and legacy? Probably
Should I have tried to stay more balanced with social / personal life? Probably
Should I have focused more on my strengths and delegated more? Oh yes!

On the flipside, are we a stronger, more focused, more resilient business now?

Hell yeah!

Anyway, that’s the backstory. 18 years condensed down into a few hundred words. From employee, to boss, to owner, covering everything from support, design, coding, analytics, sales, management, accounts, finance, pitching and more.

Busy fool. Sure, at times.

But here we are, together, trying to make sense of the madness. Trying to make sense of AI, business and staying positive in what feels like an increasingly troubled world.

I’d love for you to be along for the journey - subscribe or drop me a message and I’ll see you in the next post.

I’m aiming to share one or two posts a week that help navigate the uncertainty of a chaotic world. It’ll be a mix of mindset, business, tech, AI and more, leaning on real world lessons and experience. I’d love to have you along for the journey as we build the Refinding Focus community.

Read more about what got me here below…

Refinding Focus at 40

I turned 40 in 2025, which naturally made me shift to a more reflective ‘mid life crisis’ type attitude. In fact I was toying with coining the term ‘midlife crisis, to midlife thrive-sis’ but it was too tenuous, even for me.

I’ve had these thoughts for years, but never gave them a proper place to live, always overcomplicating the systems and never delivering.

But at 40 it feels like I need to act, as there was even more to think about:

• What are some of the lessons I’ve learned in the 10 years of running my business here in the UK?

• What are some of the recurring challenges or issues that I have to face?

• Where am I falling short or holding myself back?

• What could I change during my 40’s to avoid the same mistakes as my 30’s?

Of course, it’s been a hectic ride too, particularly when you combine a pandemic, starting a family and trying to transform the business over a period of years.

It’s taught me a lot about resilience, focus, grit and mindset, and with the accelerating tech shifts and AI, I wanted to take a human-first perspective of things in my writing.

Who is Refinding Focus for?

My hope is that, in sharing what I’ve learnt or the challenge’s I’m grappling with, other business owners / CEOs / leaders will find some comfort that ‘it’s not just you’.

Expect posts covering:

• Business lessons

• Mindset, attitude, positivity

• AI, tech and business impact

• Burnout, bruisings and sacrifices

• Systems, productivity and processes

• Hobbies, environment, passions and opportunities

So if you’re a CEO, MD, senior team member, or just someone looking to lead and make a difference in the world, get subscribed and get involved.

It’s part diary, part self-help, and very much a non-polished ‘work in progress’. I’m not promising answers, but hopefully some of the thinking will resonate for you too.

I’m starting small, aiming for 1 - 2 posts a week, with hopes to expand to add videos, podcast and perhaps a small community of like-minded soles that might also be feeling ‘lonely at the top’.

How can you get involved?

I’m starting small, and I’d love to have you along for the journey - subscribe to hear about new updates first, or drop me a message on Substack / LinkedIn.