Know When It’s Your Job that’s Giving You a Heart Attack

by Kurt Ontiveros
(Phoenix)

I am supposed to be my own boss. I manage a small operation with five employees, a handful of clients – and I’m a couple of years away from retirement. Little did I know that it would take a heart attack for me to realize just how stressful my job really is.

On a monthly basis, I’m supposed to come up with enough profit so that I can pay the salary of my five employees who have their own families to feed. I’m supposed to work hard enough to save up for my retirement, meet with the handful of clients who thankfully value the services that I am offering to them. And amidst all of these work-related responsibilities, I do have family members and friends to spend quality time with.

There was a time that my schedule was so rigid, I felt like my head would burst from thinking about all the activities that I’m supposed to be doing. However, I do know that there’s only one of me so I tried to delegate the tasks. But it was too late. I already suffered from a bout of mild heart attack at my age. Instinctively, I knew that it was my job which was stressing me out too much, which led to the heart attack that I just recently experienced.

So what was the doctor’s advice? First, to remove the causes of stress in my life. Maybe I was just too stubborn to admit that I’m not a people person, and I don’t have efficient management skills. Instead of letting my employees handle the brunt of the work , I take them on myself. Which is a big mistake on my part, seeing as how juggling all the things that I had to do led me to have a heart attack. As much as I regret letting go of my employees, I had to do it for my health’s sake.

Second, I released myself from the lease of the office which we were renting and setup a home-based office for myself. Not only is this doing wonders for my profit, but I found out that I actually worked better alone.

Finally, my doctor advised me to take up either aerobics exercising, or use an at-home exercise equipment like an elliptical trainer. I don’t spend more than eight hours a day on my job anymore so I do have the free time to strengthen my heart muscles which were damaged during the attack.

I wouldn’t want to not have the chance to enjoy my retirement years – so I am taking better care of my health this time. My advice to all the people out there who are reaching their retirement age is this: no job is worth risking your life over. Determine if the stresses that you are experiencing might be job-related, and eliminate everything which you think puts too much pressure in your life.

Otherwise, you might end up suffering from a heart attack like I did – even before you get to spend your retirement vacation at a tropical Caribbean island.

About the Author

Kurt M. Ontiveros writes for Ellipticalmachines.net a blog focused on his heart attack story to help people understand how and why they should train for prevention. He writes on http://www.ellipticalmachines.net to help people train at home to prevent heart diseases.