I’m Gemma

So today we pass another milestone. One that, for weeks, filled me with dread and a little self-denial. Forty.

Shouldn’t I have achieved more by now? Shouldn’t I have ticked off the goals, the big dreams, the things people I look up to already have? Cue: comparison, doom spiral, self-loathing. Lovely birthday vibes.

We’ve all been there: you sit down for a “quick scroll” and suddenly it’s 2 hours later, your tea is cold, and your thumb is begging for a union rep. TikTok has taken you from sourdough starters to celebrity divorces to an oddly compelling sheep-shearing account - and you’re wondering how on earth you got here.

Do you ever find yourself picking up your phone without even realising it? One minute you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, the next you’re knee-deep in someone else’s holiday snaps, wondering why your life suddenly looks a bit . . . beige.

We’ve been obsessing over the wrong KPIs.

Quarterly profit, sales targets, productivity dashboards are the usual suspects. And yet, tucked quietly in the shadows, there’s a metric that could transform your bottom line faster than any of them.

It’s called joy. And yes, it’s measurable.