If all work and no play is so bad, then why does Donald Trump's combover attract more models than a salad bar?

If Jack really is a dull boy because he works too hard, then why does he keep getting rewarded with promotions and extra work?

If play is all it's cracked up to be, then why do we have workaholics?

So many of us work passionately, sometimes so passionately that work looks like worry, even when it feels like play. Some of us work doggedly, pushing ourselves to limits of exhaustion that would martyr even the Donald (who, lets face it, can hire people to do the work he doesn't like to do!) Work, like it or not, is the American Dream. How else can we afford the house, the Hummer and the hospital bills?

It's no surprise that my clients almost always feel overwhelmed with work. And there's nothing dull (for the worker) about painful anxiety, exhaustion and stress. There must be some kind of adrenaline rush that triggers the trip to the grindstone, and keeps us there -- otherwise Jack, and most other hard working folks, would have followed the wise model of this rickshaw driver and taken a nice little nap before the rush hour begins. Maybe it's all that desk time in school -- the bell rings, we salivate for the rush to the next room, where we sit for awhile, maybe have lunch, then answer the bell again and again...

The question I ask my clients is this: what calls you to work? Where is your energy going? Where does your energy come from? Sometimes, the balance required isn't work and play. Sometimes it's balancing work and rest. Or passionate work and grunt work.

What's your balance, to relieve the stress of your "dull" overwork life? Maybe it's time to sell the Hummer and hang up a hammock!