My friend went to the doctor because he had trouble breathing. He thought he had heart trouble or lung cancer.He felt he was dying.The doctor asked him one question, “Do you work in tech?”He said yes.

The diagnosis was stress.

The doctor recommended he re-evaluate his life decisions. Like quitting his job. From the doctor’s point of view, it made sense. My friend was destroying himself by overworking. He was so stressed out he was feeling physical pain.

I consulted a CEO of two companies, and he had a different take on the situation. He says you need to learn how to conquer your own stress and manage it. If you can’t, then go find something else to do. This advice is subtly different from the doctor’s. His point is that stress will always be there so you need to learn how to deal with it.

With my friend’s situation and the CEO’s advice in mind, here’s what I’ve done to prevent my own stress from catching up to me.

Taking care of myself

Physical activity has helped me. I signed up for Crossfit that runs 13 times a month. I do not have any studies off the top of my head and here’s the effect on me. I end up going 13 times a month. Nothing in the world will stop me because if I do, I’m wasting my cash. I don’t like losing money. That’s a very powerful motivating effect.

I try to eat healthy. I eat a full meal before going to any meetup tech events. I have trouble resisting the smell of pizza, and I will eat an entire bag of Jalapeno Kettle Chips in one sitting. To avoid eating junk food, I join events later. After 7 PM all the pizza and beer have been consumed. This leaves all the healthy stuff likes carrots and celery nobody wants to touch.

What I can do in the future is begin taking surveys of leftover food at the end of Meetups to validate this claim.

Outlets for stress

My friend stayed on his job.

He understood what the doctor wanted and he also talked to many executives in his situation. He’s doing better now by finding outlets for his stress in the form of swimming and watching cartoons. Knowing his problem was stress made his life much more manageable.

Not only has he picked up swimming, he’s training for his first 5k. Staying active was the one lifestyle change he made to keep his career going.