Having a Type A personality has distinct benefits, including a competitive nature, a confident disposition and the drive to succeed – all of which are necessary for an ambitious entrepreneur and business owner. At that point, downtime wasn’t an option, but my inability to “switch off” began to beget consequences, starting with tiredness and escalating to mood swings, irritability and exhaustion. Years of 14-hour days, working weekends and on holiday caught up with me. I was tired to the bone, miserable and a slave to the business – and I totally resented it.

Something had to change. I cancelled my plans for the following weekend and dedicated it to getting my life back. I went onto Amazon and bought as many books on the subject as I could find, and I started to develop a plan.