How business success can hijack your life (and what to do about it)

If this looks like you feel, your business is hijacking your life. Read on!

Everyone’s talking about burnout these days. And, really, rightly so. From the early days of GrowthCatalyst, we’ve recognised that for SME owners, the challenge isn’t just about managing stress at work. It’s about what happens when work never really stops, even when you’re not there.

Just a few weeks ago, for example, we were chatting with a prospective client and something just felt a little “off”. Their business was successful, with growing revenue and all key metrics pointing in the right direction. But something in their body language was telling a different story.

The first clear signal was this: "I’m really grateful we're doing well," they said, "but I feel like I can’t switch off. Even when I know I should."

Here’s the thing. Many advisers (and SME leaders themselves) spend so much time talking about the business impact of operational issues, leadership blind spots, and symptom-solving that the elephant in the room rarely gets any airtime: everything else that matters in life.

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Key points

• Being "always on" has a massive impact, both personally and professionally. Not in a good way.

• Relationship strain, "missed moments" and general health and well-being can result when your business hijacks your life.

• Ask yourself...when did you last have a conversation with someone you care about and were completely present?

• Feel the need to change? You have to give yourself permission.

  
  

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We're pretty good at not talking about this stuff in Australia. We focus on the numbers, the strategy, the next quarter's targets, employee engagement and a host of other important issues. But the truth is, when your business is living rent-free in your head 24/7, it's not just you who feels the effects—it's your relationships, your health, your ability to be truly present for the people who matter most.

And that's a conversation worth having.

So please read this post right to the last word, and with an open mind. If you’ve never read one of our Insights, this is the one to start with.

The impact of the “always-on” version of you

As an SME owner, it’s easy to become a prisoner of your own success. The business you built to create freedom can become the thing that hijacks it.

You know the feeling, don't you?

And you know it's not okay. 

You see it on your partner's face when you pick up the phone, "just quickly." You feel it like a dagger to the heart when you realise your kids have stopped trying to get your full attention because they've learned you're always half-somewhere else.

The worst part? You start to feel guilty about wanting to switch off. 

You might feel guilty about switching off, but don't let it get to this

You’re full of gratitude for the successful business you’ve created with the help of a great team and support from your family. But deep down, you know that it’s not right that this success has started to feel like what it probably feels like to be in prison. 

This isn't about work-life balance in the traditional sense. It's not about working fewer hours or taking more holidays (though maybe both those things would help). It's about the quality of your “presence” when you're not physically at work.

The cognitive load nobody talks about

Issues in business arise frequently…things like misaligned teams, unclear processes, and recurring problems that never get properly resolved. And you carry that cognitive load everywhere, all the time. It's like having multiple browser tabs open in your mind, constantly running in the background, draining your mental battery.

You can hear it in the way owners talk about their businesses:

• "I’m not sure I can just leave them to handle things when I'm away"

• "There's always something that needs my attention"

• "I find it hard to let go"

• "Every small decision seems to end up with me"

We’re willing to bet you’ve said at least one of these things in the last month. 

The ripple effect when business hijacks your life

Here’s a few scenarios. Which do you identify with?

Sunday evening 

You're having dinner with your family, and your phone buzzes with a "quick question" from one of your managers about something that’s happening in the week ahead. Twenty minutes later, you're still on the phone while your food goes cold and your family carries on without you. And quite well it seems, given they’ve had plenty of practice…

Date night

Ok…we kinda dislike that term too. So let’s just say you and your partner finally manage an evening together, and while you’re out, you pick up an email about a client complaint. Even after putting the phone away, your mind is problem-solving. So to say you’re distracted is an understatement of epic proportions. And yes…your partner does mind.

The school concert 

You're in the audience watching one of your kids perform. And, well, let’s be honest, we all know school concerts aren’t a hotbed of emerging superstars. Just the same, you know you should be 100% present, but you're mentally running through the rest of the week’s calendar, wondering which of your back-to-back meetings can be postponed.

You know these scenarios. Because you've lived them. And you know that nagging feeling that this isn't how it's supposed to be.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. And it's not inevitable.

There’s a cost to thinking you’re indispensable

There's a cost in trying to be super-human

Too many SME owners have made themselves so central to their business that they can't step away, even mentally. They’ve allowed this to happen. Nobody else is responsible.

Of course it feels like dedication.

Of course it feels like good leadership.

But what it creates is a business that can't function without them and a life that revolves entirely around that business.

And the paradox? They've become the bottleneck in their own business.

The personal costs are real:

Relationship strain 

How many dinners have been interrupted? How many conversations cut short? How many times have you been physically present but mentally not so much? You've seen the body language when you pick up that "urgent" call. Your loved ones notice. They adapt. They eventually stop expecting your full attention. The relationship suffers. You see it happening.

Missed moments 

Kids grow up fast. Real fast. Parents age. Friends move on. The times that really matter don't wait for you to sort out business issues. When you're always mentally at work, you miss the life that’s happening right in front of you.

Health impact 

Chronic stress doesn't stay at work. It’s a very determined co-traveller. It affects your sleep. It saps your energy. So the nagging tension never gets properly resolved and compounds the stress.

You know you shouldn’t wake up every morning worrying about work. But it's become your normal.

The connection you're missing

Here's what most business advisers probably won't tell you: fixing the issues in your business isn't just about better performance—it's about getting your life back.

When you address the root causes of business challenges instead of just treating obvious symptoms, something interesting happens.

When you align your team around clear purpose and direction, they stop needing you to make every decision (if you let them). When you build effective systems and processes, problems can be solved without your input (if you let them). When you create genuine leadership capability throughout your business, you become less indispensable (if you let it happen).

And that's when you can start being truly present for the people and moments that matter most.

Change...the longer you leave it, the harder it gets

This is a challenge only you can resolve. It might need a (huge) shift in mindset, but if you’re serious about change, it has to start with you.

We’ve seen this transformation happen. Not because clients specifically set out to improve their work-life balance – that’s rarely the case. It’s because fixing fundamental business issues naturally creates space for everything else. Again…if you let it!

The business benefits are obvious:

• Better decision-making when you're not mentally exhausted from 24/7 mental load

• More strategic thinking when you're not constantly firefighting

• Improved leadership when you model healthy boundaries

• Stronger business culture when you're not perceived as the roadblock

But the personal benefits are profound:

• Actually enjoying family time instead of just being physically present

• Having conversations that aren't interrupted by business crises

• Taking holidays where you don't need to check in constantly

• Rediscovering interests and relationships outside of work

• Sleeping better because problems are genuinely solved, not just managed

Give yourself permission

Part of the challenge in all of this is that many SME owners don't give themselves permission to want it. Success comes with responsibility, right? People depend on you. The business needs you.

But you also know—really know—that something has to give. Because the cost of always being "on" is stretching the elastic of life too far. Pretty soon it’s going to snap.

Here’s a different perspective to consider. The people you care about (and who care about you) need you too. And they need the real you—present, engaged, mentally available—not the distracted version who's always half-thinking about work.

Is this transformation easy? Straightforward? Possible without its own stresses? Of course not, but you can make it happen.

If you don’t, what will be the ultimate cost?

Starting small

None of this is about making huge changes overnight. You literally can’t sack yourself on a Friday and come back Monday as a totally different person. But if you think about that for a minute, you might realise that this is figuratively possible.

Here are some small shifts that create big changes:

Question your indispensability 

What would happen if you weren't available for a week? If that thought terrifies you, you've identified your first step. Start thinking about how you can create systems and capabilities that reduce the 100% dependence on you. Perhaps even more importantly, consider how you might confer more autonomy on those around you.

Sometimes it pays to look in the mirror and be brutally honest about what you see

Notice your mental load 

Start paying attention to how often business thoughts intrude on personal time. Awareness is the first step to change. It doesn’t make change happen..that’s down to you.

Define "present" 

What would it look like to be truly present for the people you care about? Not just physically there, but mentally and emotionally available? If you’re really game, ask those people what their version of you being present is. That in itself could be the only motivation you need.

Address root causes – not symptoms

Those recurring problems that keep pulling you back into the business? Stop managing them and start solving them properly. Our last Insight talks more about this [LINK]

Those are some of the things you can do for yourself to get the ball rolling. From a business perspective there’s more. Realistically, you need to address both.

The bigger picture

The most successful SME owners we know have learned something important.

They've discovered that addressing fundamental business issues—misalignment, unclear and ineffective processes, leadership gaps—doesn't just improve performance. It gives them back their mental space, their relationships, their health, and their ability to be present for the life they're building outside of work.

Your business should enhance your life, not hijack it. It’s an age-old question…do you live to work or work to live? When you fix what's really broken—not just the symptoms, but the underlying causes—you don't just get a better business.

You get a better life.

The question that changes everything

Here it is…

When did you last have a conversation with someone you care about (and who still, despite everything, cares about you) where you were completely present? 

No phone in your hand or on the table. No mental to-do list running. No part of your brain solving business problems.

You know the answer.

It’s probably been a while. And if that makes you uncomfortable, that's exactly the point.

Because the people who matter most to you deserve more than the distracted, mentally preoccupied version of yourself. They deserve 100% of you.

Here’s the thing. The very same work that creates sustainable business growth also creates the space for everything else that matters.

The question is: are you ready to want more than just business success, and are you ready to give yourself permission to create a more “available” version of yourself?

Is your business hijacking your life?

Want to change things up for a better result? 

A conversation with a GrowthCatalyst adviser could be just what you need. We'll walk you through our Business Profiler and discuss the benefits you can expect it to deliver as you work towards your long-term aspirations. 

Contact us to arrange a face-to-face or virtual conversation.

Alternatively, you can book a time for an initial discussion here.

In other news...

GrowthCatalyst has joined forces with several like-minded professionals to form the advisory group Konektis (check us out here). Collectively, the Konektis team provides integrated, multi-disciplinary advice to SMEs to deliver a "one strategy" outcome.