Good work relationships will relieve stress and can buffer you from other stresses. Spend five minutes of each hour considering how to get along with your co-workers.

4. Choose right job. During interviews, ask questions that help you make sure job's right for you. Get a realistic picture of company or department's culture, working relationships, problems and hidden agendas.

5. Be flexible. Recognize and accept that things change. If you need to hold on tightly to status quo, you need to loosen up. Think of your organization as a space ship. It's constantly correcting its course "to go where no man has gone before" in marketplace. You have to change with it. Be proactive. You're in a better position to maneuver if you are primed and ready.

6. Manage your anger. When you feel a surge of anger rising, back off and leave scene as soon as you can. Repeat in your mind: "let go" or "relax." Breathe deeply until you feel your tension leave.

Ask what's real reason for my anger? Gain perspective and plan your next step. Practice what you'll say and how you'll say it. Make sure you're calm and in control of your emotions. Approach person with a win-win attitude and desire to resolve problem and have a good working relationship.

7. Have realistic expectations. Don't set yourself up for disappointment or put yourself on an emotional roller coaster. Try to be optimistic and realistic at same time. This outlook doesn't mean you shouldn't have desires or expectations. Just make sure you're not always longing for impossible.

8. Adjust your attitude. Your attitude--how you make others feel about you and how you make them feel about themselves--can make or break your future.

How's your attitude? Do you complain moment something doesn't suit you, or do you take things in stride? Try to see yourself through eyes of others. Do you make others happy or miserable? If you need to, make an attitude adjustment.

9. Tie up loose ends. Not being able to finish a task can be unsettling to those who like to shut doors and end sentences with a period. Most people need some kind of closure on projects, even little ones.

If you're on a treadmill where you're always beginning new tasks before finishing old ones, make a list of what's left hanging. This exercise can make projects seem more manageable. How can you structure your time to tie up those loose ends?

10. Take time to revive. People aren't built like machines. They can't run with their engines revved up continuously. Eventually they wear out. That's why there are coffee and lunch breaks. It's long been recognized that people need to take a little time off every few hours to revive. They return to their tasks with renewed enthusiasm.

If you can, try not to take work home. Every now and then a project may take some extra time, but work shouldn't be devouring your life.

You will never see a bad resume. Buyers always check references and make sure they test for temperament suitability. Sales managers that lack benefit of temperament understanding are inclined to shoot from hip and place too much emphasize on their gut feeling during interview. You would be fooling yourself not to anticipate that your prospective hire has been coached and is well prepared for a standard office interview. I suggest that one of your interviews be conducted in a social environment. When I was a sales manager, I would invite both my potential hire and their spouse out to dinner or to a sporting event. When you go to a ball game and crack peanuts for nine innings or play 18 holes of golf with someone, you gain a deeper insight into their character. When you are interviewing a person for a commission-based position, you need to check for spousal support and address their concerns as well.

The following are some of my favorite questions to ask during interview:

1. Do you have written goals you want to accomplish and if so, tell me about them?

2. How did you earn your first paycheck and how old were you?

3. What are your hobbies?

4. Have you ever played on a sports team?

5. Have you ever failed at something and if so, what did you learn from experience?

6. What would you say are three of your best qualities?

7. What would you say is your worst quality?

8. What is your greatest regret and triumph in life?