Are You Ready For A Stress Test?

That's where your heart rate is monitored by a physician while you walk on a treadmill.

The Executive's Personal Health Advisor cautions that if three or more of the following 10 characteristics hit close to home, you're probably pushing yourself beyond your acceptable stress threshold:

1. Overplanning. You budget your time so tightly that you can barely finish one task before rushing off to the next. Your schedule is unrealistic since it is impossible to produce quality work in the time allotted. As a result, you become frustrated because you can't meet the high standards you've set for yourself.

2. Multiple Thinking. You've many thoughts racing through your mind because you had bitten off more than what you can chew. While you work on one task, your thoughts dwell on the next decision. You therefore lose your concentration and inhibit sound thought and logic.

3. Insistence on Winning. You need to be in first place since being second is synonymous with failure. So you don't allow yourself to do something simply for the experience or fun of it.

4. Excessive Need for Recognition. You don't take pride in a job well-done or feel a sense of accomplishment unless your efforts are praised. Recognition is what motivates you, and without it, you often end up blatantly bragging.

5. "Guilt Trips" Instead of Relaxation. You have difficulty relaxing and distinguishing the line where your business life ends and leisure begins. Social contacts tend to be clients rather than friends, and business dominates your thoughts at social events. Even when you do "get away from it all," you feel guilty.

6. Uncontrollable Impatience. You can't watch someone do something without advising the individual or actually doing the work yourself. If you can't take charge, you become frustrated and exasperated. Also, you get upset with yourself when things don't go exactly as planned, or when someone else performs a task better than you. You rush yourself and with this accelerated pace, you never enjoy your accomplishments because you're too busy moving toward the next goal.

7. A Need for Deadline. If you don't have a deadline, you'll create one, thinking it will increase your efficiency. Actually, all it does is increase pressure. You try to do too many things at once and try to stagger deadlines to get everything done. In fact, you never have enough time to devote full attention to any one thing.

8. Preoccupation with Time. The clock rules you. While working on one project, you are figuring when it will be done so you can start on the next. You become stressed as you check the time and realize that you're falling behind schedule.

9. Intense Competitiveness. You're constantly in competition with everyone on your business and personal life. If you stop for a moment, you fear you'll be surpassed. You like to recite your latest achievements and will only challenge others when you know you can win.

10. Obsession with Work. Everything but work is excluded from your life. You're the first to arrive and last to leave the office--and even then, you take work home.

If these symptoms sound all too familiar, you are stressed. Better, get off the daily grind so you'll have a more comfortable existence. Or, indulge in a relaxing hobby, like listening to soft music, reading your favorite book, and walking in the open air--enjoying nature.