You read in business magazines or hear from friends about high-powered executives who, at the height of their career, "walk off the playing field." Some do it for a few months' sabbatical, some forever. It sounds great to do, but it's not easy to do.

An executive friend at Sheraton Hotels was so hardworking and busy that she scheduled some relatively minor surgery to give herself a vacation. Without justification for time away from the office, she couldn't bring herself to do it. The hospital was the only place she could rationalize being outside the office.

Sadly, she died. The surgery never healed because she was back on the job within two days. She didn't take the time to live, only work, and then she died. Of course, the company went on without her, which is the fact of every organization. It will go on without you. So you must take care of yourself, even if it means giving yourself a "break" for awhile.

So one day you control million-dollar budgets, manage hundreds of people and have command of a multitude of resources. The next day, you have your kitchen table, PC, and Rosie O'Donnell. How do you walk away from the hubbub, demands and power, without going crazy with the calm in you home?

There are four critical steps you must take:

• Give yourself permission to slow down—without guilt.
When you are used to juggling 22 different things for 46 different people, it's hard to do two things for four people. It is truly easier to do a lot. Take a novel and sit in a quiet place at 9 a.m. on your first Monday morning home and read until noon. Wafts of guilt run over you, despite your enjoyment of the novel. Then your next assignment is to do another two to three hours of pleasure reading the following day, starting a 9 a.m. again. Unless you go cold-turkey from work for a specific amount of time, you'll not learn how to be calm and relaxed and therefore enjoy your time off.

• Do some manual labor.
Here's an opportunity for you to do "something productive" yet keep you out of the mainstream of the working world. If you have horses, muck the manure. Pick up the dog droppings. Wallpaper the den. Wash the inside and outside of the family vehicles. All the tasks you are used to paying someone else to do, you can do. Some of the manual labor is more humbling than others, but all of it creates a feeling of pride and self-sufficiency -- an important feeling when you are no longer getting a paycheck every two weeks to reaffirm your worth.

• Exercise.
Take at least an hour walk every day. That's only 30 minutes out and 30 minutes back. Do not take the cell phone along unless as a personal-protection device, meaning you can call for help if something happens. At most, take a small notepad and pen and jot down your thoughts. While walking, simply observe what's around you. If a thought comes into your head that has to be written down, do it, then go back to observing and "smelling the roses."

• Set barometer points.
It is extremely easy to take on a small assignment to help a friend in business. That work leads to another work favor filled and another because they know you have "free time on your hands." Pretty soon, you are back in business, just with another organization. (And don't feel overly obligated toward community work, either.) You must set a limit such as: "Over the next six months, I will do at most 10 business-related activities." If in one month, you find yourself in the midst of the sixth business activity, you better pace yourself. The barometer points can be what you won't do and will do. Some will do might be weight-loss goals or nutrition-improvement plans as part of your barometer rating to check on yourself and make sure you're on track.

You have no boss, board of directors or committees doing this for you; you have to do it for yourself. When I gave myself a few months' sabbatical some years back, I recall telling an executive female friend that I sat in the yard for an hour and fed the squirrels nuts. She asked incredulously, "All in one place?" She knew my hectic manner and assumed I must have covered several neighbors' yards as well as my own.

It is hard to work to walk off the playing field--even temporarily. Unfortunately, there is no Nicoderm patch to help you with withdrawal. These four steps become your "patch," and six or 12 months later, you might choose to walk back onto the playing field-- but with a newfound balance and perspective to help you and help others on their work.