You're smart, you're successful and you're totally overwhelmed. Sound familiar?

Today, it often seems impossible to achieve both balance and success. The high-profile roles we crave are synonymous with late nights, copious amount of caffeine and a very poor quality of life.

The truth is, though, if you aren't enjoying your life, the money you're making and the resume you're building don't mean much!

The following 10 tips will help you reduce stress, increase your happiness and actually enjoy your days. Practice them and you'll likely not only feel better, but you will perform better too.

1. Exercise. The positive benefits of exercise include a healthier mind and body. Exercise releases endorphins within your body that can help relieve stress. Put your mind in neutral and go for a walk; hit the gym; or try taking a class like spinning or yoga. Exercise will leave you energized and help you feel ready to tackle situations that are causing you stress.

2. Meditation. Sit comfortably in a dark room and focus on breathing. Push away the overwhelming thoughts that cause stress and think only about the air entering and leaving your body. Start by setting aside a few minutes each day to meditate. It may be difficult to start, but build the necessary time into your schedule. You will find that your mind is clearer and better prepared to accomplish tasks.

3. Self-affirmation. Use these 101 Powerful affirmations to help you relieve your tension and feel better about yourself. Check out this video to see how it can be done.

4. Listen to music. Put on your favorite upbeat playlist. Clean and organize your space or dance around. Happy music helps to speed mundane tasks up. Listen to exciting music while you are exercising to combine two great stress relief methods into one.

5. Invest in a hobby. Allow yourself time away from situations that cause stress. If you already have a hobby that you enjoy, give yourself a set time each day or week to engage in the activity that gives you pleasure. If you have no idea where to start, take it slow. Visit your library or search the web for ideas.

6. Be organized. There is nothing that increases stress like living in chaos. If you don’t mind that your house is a mess, leave it and focus on organizing your schedule. Having a predictable pattern can be soothing. If you are overwhelmed, sit down and make a list. Create two columns. Start with the demands that are causing you the most stress and rank them. In the other column, brainstorm ways to address these demands and create reasonable deadlines by which you can accomplish what you've written down.

7. Acknowledge your stressors. Ignoring obligations results in an increased stress level when a deadline approaches. Some obligations like paying student loans or making the rent seem to hang overhead like a dark cloud. Acknowledge the issues that are causing you stress and speak with friends, family and mentors. They may be able to offer solutions or advice from when they were in the same position.

8. Sleep. Sleep is something of a cure-all that allows your body and mind to recover from large amounts of stress. Try drinking a soothing cup of tea or taking a hot shower to help you get to sleep quicker.

9. Learn to say “no.” While you may not be able to tell your boss to stop drowning you in projects, you can say “no” in many other situations. Evaluate what you already have on your plate and don’t feel guilty denying a request to go out, be on an extra committee or take a project on from someone else.

10. Smile often. You may feel silly trying to smile when you feel so stressed out, but try it; you’ll feel a rush of great feelings.

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This article was contributed by Randall Davidson, a successful entrepreneur and small business owner. As a co-founder of ProofreadingServices.Us, a rapidly growing professional proofreading service, Randall understands what it's like to feel overwhelmed and overworked. He has learned to manage his stress by practicing some of the techniques listed above. Randall is committed to providing others with the tools they need to live balanced lives, both through the articles he writes for the ProofreadingServices.Us blog and through the academic and business proofreading services that his company provides.