Where Career Success Meets Personal Wellbeing

In episode I'm celebrating the show’s milestone of over 9,000 downloads and reflecting on the podcast’s mission to help busy professionals prioritize health and well-being as the foundation for everything else. 

A conversation with a friend helped me see the show’s broader ripple effect by also giving speakers, coaches, and brands a stage to amplify their impact. I'm addressing the most common question I get in my DMs and corporate workshops—whether people must choose between career success and health—arguing grind culture often normalizes sacrificing sleep, energy, and preventive care until chronic conditions and stress appear. 

You'll learn how the definitions of success are shifting toward sustainability, and outlines how well-being strengthens focus, decision-making, relationships, and long-term performance through deliberate habits like protecting workouts, sleep, and personal connections.

00:00 Welcome and Milestone

01:41 Why This Podcast Exists

02:54 Ripple Effect Impact

06:05 Today’s Big Question

08:04 The Hidden Cost of Success

10:49 Success Is Redefined

14:17 Wellness Gets Postponed

16:37 Health Fuels Performance

19:12 What Wellbeing Really Means

21:29 Habits That Make It Work

23:40 Closing and Next Steps

🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at:  https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟

My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!

🌟 🌟 🌟 You can learn more about ME- the host at https://www.aeshatahir.com 

 Follow me on IG and LI to learn more

https://www.instagram.com/tone_and_strengthen/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aeshatahir/

Transcript

Where Career Success Meets Personal Wellbeing

Aesha Tahir: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the 9 to 5 Wellness Podcast. Before we jump into today's episode, I wanna pause for a second because we just hit a milestone that I honestly didn't see coming this fast. This is episode number 160. One six zero, and somewhere along the way, you all have downloaded this show over 9,000 times and still counting.

Aesha Tahir: I love that. I don't say that to brag. I say it because every single one of those downloads is a person who chose to spend part of their day with us, and that is not something I take lightly. Your time is the most valuable asset, and if you spend it with me, I should be [00:01:00] bringing you informative content that makes your life better.

Aesha Tahir: I'm always striving to create great content packed with value for you. So first, thank you, genuinely. If you've ever listened to this podcast on your commute, during a workout, folding laundry, whatever it was, thank you so much that you took the time to listen to my podcast and you gave some of it And you gave some of your time to this podcast. I don't take it lightly this milestone got me reflecting on my why. Why did I even start this podcast? And it comes back to one core belief: busy professionals [00:02:00] give their all, their all to their jobs, their teams, their families, and health and wellbeing is often the thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the list, off to the sidelines.

Aesha Tahir: This podcast exists to bridge that gap, to help people like you prioritize yourself, not as an afterthought, but as the foundation that makes everything else possible. That's the mission. That's why I show up week after week, so that I can give you tips on healthy living while pursuing and striving for being your best in your careers

Aesha Tahir: Something else recently happened that gave me, I wanna say, a little bit, like, [00:03:00]different perspective on this podcast that I host. I was having lunch with a friend of mine last week, and I was just telling her about this episode that I'm gonna film here in New York City. And I was like, "You know what? I wanna start it with, like, celebration of the listeners because it is our 160th ep- episode."

Aesha Tahir: And I was just, like, telling her, "I wanna talk about my why, like, why I do this." And she said, "Have you ever thought of the impact you're making?" And I'm like, "What do you mean? Yeah, of course. I mean, the whole reason why I do this is to make an impact in busy professionals' life." And she said, "You know, your podcast isn't just helping listeners prioritize their health.

Aesha Tahir: It's also giving a stage to so many speakers, coaches, and now brands who might [00:04:00] not have had one otherwise." So I was like, "Oh, I never actually thought of it that way." I had to pause, and once she said it, I'm like, "That's so true." And honestly, yeah, I mean, it is true that the impact doesn't just stop at the listeners, which is, are you guys.

Aesha Tahir: It also expands beyond because all the people who are coming on the show and sharing their knowledge with us, they are also getting to make an impact through this stage. I started this show to serve listeners, but it's also become a platform, a place where great voices in the wellness space share their work, grow their reach, and connect with an audience that actually cares [00:05:00] about well-being So the impact isn't just unidirectional.

Aesha Tahir: It's a ripple effect here. Listeners get tools to prioritize their well-being, and in the process, the guests, the coaches, the speakers, the brands, they get a stage to keep doing that work and make a bigger impact at a bigger scale That's a version of Impact I didn't fully see when I started, but I am super grateful for it.

Aesha Tahir: I am super excited to bring you even better guests and more brands that will help you with your wellbeing. So 160 episodes, over 9,000 downloads and counting. None of it happens without you listening, sharing, and showing up for us, so thank [00:06:00] you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here's to the next 160.

Aesha Tahir: Let's get into today's episode, which is related to my why. Can career success and wellbeing go together? So I'm gonna throw a question at you. I wanna ask you A question that I get asked in some version almost every single week, either it's through a DM or sometimes it's in, during my workshops that I'm presenting at corporations: Do I actually have to choose between my career and my health?

Aesha Tahir: And for decades, the answer we have all absorbed from our parents, from our first bosses, from our coworkers, what is that? That, yes, you have to give up. You have to give up your wellbeing, [00:07:00] you have to give up your health, and just focus on your career, especially if you're starting out. And in all honesty, that's the grind culture, like, talking.

Aesha Tahir: I'm not against the grind, but I am against sacrificing yourself, sacrificing your sleep, sacrificing your energy, and if you climb high enough, maybe sacrifice your health, too, and just deal with that later. We'll, we look at it when we get closer to retirement. That's what I hear from my patients all day long.

Aesha Tahir: So today, I'm asking that question directly here to you guys. This is the question to you guys. Is there actually a place where career success and personal wellbeing meet? Here's the spoiler for you guys. I think the answer is [00:08:00] yes, and I wanna walk you through why that is so. Let's get to it Here's the thing about reaching the top that doesn't get talked about enough.

Aesha Tahir: A lot of people get there, and then they realize it doesn't feel the way they thought it would because they thought they're spending 20, 25, maybe sometimes 30 years, and they would get there, and the world would look somehow different once they get there. But what actually happens is that by the time they get there, they have type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol, or they, their stress levels are so high that now they are chronically stressed, right?

Aesha Tahir: And that stress is, like, putting them into this overdrive, [00:09:00] and they have so many chronic health conditions, and it never... Like, you know, like, their brain cannot, their brain and body really cannot sh- shut off, even on vacations And let me tell you something, because as I was writing the script for this podcast, which you can see that I'm reading here, you know, this thought came to my head, and I was like, "I have to share this with my audience," that nobody, nobody writes that on their resume. Nobody is gonna write on their resume that, you know, "In the 25 years that I climbed to a CFO position or role, uh, I also acquired chronic health conditions." Nobody puts "acquired a chronic health condition" on LinkedIn's About section next to the promotion announcement either But it's real, and it's [00:10:00] way more common than what you would think.

Aesha Tahir: And I'd bet a good chunk of you listening right now know exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe it's your personal experience. Maybe it's a coworker who you know had that happen to them. Maybe it's a family member. Either, either way, you are impacted by that story, by that experience. So the real question isn't, "Can I be successful?" It's, "What is success actually costing me? And is that a price I'd choose if I saw the full bill upfront?" scroll? Oh, I thought you didn't. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. Okay. Let me s- uh, start from let's talk. Let's talk about how the definition of success has actually changed, because I don't think we give this shift enough credit If you think about how our parents' generation measured professional achievement, [00:11:00] it was pretty simple: promotions, title, income, status.

Aesha Tahir: I mean, I've lived this with my dad, and my mom too, so I, I know what it is and what it looks like. Climb the ladder, and however far up you can get, that's the goal, and when you get there, that's the win Nobody was really asking deeper questions about it because the ladder itself was the whole point. But talk to professionals today, and you hear something different underneath the surface, which is a good thing.

Aesha Tahir: People are quietly asking themselves whether they're actually healthy enough to enjoy whatever success they're chasing. Because what's the point of the corner office if you're too depleted to do anything with it? They're asking whether they [00:12:00] still have real relationships outside of work, the kind that exist independent of a Slack channel or a team offsite.

Aesha Tahir: They're asking whether they are actually gonna be able to sustain this pace for another five years, maybe another 10, or maybe their lifetime. They're quietly running on borrowed time and just haven't hit the wall yet. Maybe that's what's happening. So this is something that now professionals are continuously asking themselves, which is a good shift.

Aesha Tahir: And maybe the biggest one, which is a shift that a lot of people don't realize, is whether their work is actually building the life they want, or whether it's slowly working against it while looking from the outside like everything is going great. [00:13:00] That's a real shift now. And I wanna be careful not to overstate it over here, because it's not that ambition disappeared, and it's not that people suddenly stopped caring about titles or income or, or striving for something greater.

Aesha Tahir: I would probably be the last person to tell you that because I'm a striver. That's why I host this podcast. But what's changed is that people are starting to recognize something that our parents' generation mostly didn't have the language for, that a successful career sitting on top of a completely depleted person doesn't hold up.

Aesha Tahir: Sometimes that shows up slowly as a kind of low hum of exhaustion that never really goes away. Sometimes it shows up all at once, maybe as a health scare or a [00:14:00] breakdown where you're like, "You know, I am questioning everything that's going on in my life." And then you start asking these questions directly

Aesha Tahir: Here's a pattern I hear constantly in conversations with professionals, and I'd guess a lot of you listening will recognize it immediately. People treat wellness as something fundamentally separate from work, almost like a personal errand, like grocery shopping, right? Or something that needs to be fixed around your apartment that, oh, we'll get to it.

Aesha Tahir: We'll get to it. We don't have time for that. We'll get to it eventually, after I finish this project, after the next promotion, after things finally calm down. But here's the catch [00:15:00] Things almost never calm down on their own. There's always gonna be a next project. There's always gonna be a fire at work.

Aesha Tahir: There's always gonna be a next reason to push the appointment back another month. So your regular exercise routine gets postponed indefinitely, not because anyone decided to stop caring about it, but because it just kept losing to whatever felt more urgent that particular week for your work.

Aesha Tahir: Preventive healthcare, the checkups, the screenings, the stuff that catches problems early, gets skipped for the same reason, because it never feels as urgent as the meeting that's actually on the calendar in the next 30 minutes. I have to get on the call. This is the big one. Sleep quietly becomes negotiable because it's supposed to be [00:16:00] treated like a variable you can shrink whenever the week gets tight or if you're traveling for work. And at some point, without anyone really deciding it should happen Chronic stress stops registering as a warning sign, and it just becomes your body's baseline. It becomes the baseline hum of your daily life.

Aesha Tahir: What gets lost in all of that is something pretty fundamental. Wellness was never actually separate from career performance. My friends, it's the foundation the whole thing is sitting on, whether or not anyone's paying attention to it. When you genuinely invest in your health, [00:17:00] you're not stealing the time away from your career to spend on something unrelated.

Aesha Tahir: You're directly improving the exact things your career depends on. If you focused on your health, guess what? Your focus at work will improve. You will be able to have better decision-making ability under pressure. You will be more productive. You will be able to manage stress instead of just absorbing it all and hoping it doesn't show to everyone in front of you.

Aesha Tahir: You'll lead with more confidence because now you're not running on fumes while trying to project calm. [00:18:00] And guess what? Your professional relationships will be so much stronger because you actually have the bandwidth to be present in them. Your energy holds up across the whole day instead of collapsing by 2 or 3 PM in the afternoon.

Aesha Tahir: And maybe most importantly, you become someone who performs consistently over time instead of someone who's brilliant just in s- short bursts when the project is due and then needs a week to recover to come back to that same grind again. So it's worth flipping the frame here, right? Your health isn't a distraction pulling you away from your career.

Aesha Tahir: It's one of the most valuable assets your career [00:19:00] actually depends on arguably more valuable than most of the things And I wanna be really clear about something because this gets flattened a lot. Personal wellbeing isn't just, did you go to the gym this week or are you eating clean? That's part of it, sure, but it's a much bigger picture than that. It's your mental health and whether you're actually addressing it or just pushing through.

Aesha Tahir: It's emotional resilience, your capacity to take a hard hit, a bad quarter, a difficult conversation with your boss, and not be knocked completely off course by it. It's whether you have relationships in your life that are genuinely meaningful, not just professionally useful. It's real work-life integration, and I mean the actual lived version of that, [00:20:00] not the phrase printed on a slide in an onboarding deck.

Aesha Tahir: It's whether you're actively managing stress rather than just tolerating it until it becomes something bigger. And it's whether you have a sense of purpose and fulfillment in what you're spending most of your waking hours doing. Because without that, everything else starts to feel hollow, no matter how well-managed it looks from outside And this isn't just a personal, individual-level conversation anymore either. Organizations are starting to realize employee well-being directly affects performance, retention, engagement, and the overall health of their culture. And employees themselves are realizing health, happiness, and career growth aren't three separate tracks.

Aesha Tahir: They are interconnected. The most successful [00:21:00] professional of the near future isn't going to be the busiest person in the building. It's going to be the person who figured out how to perform at a high level while protecting their physical, mental, and emotional well-being at the same time. Success measured not just by what someone accomplishes, but by how they actually feel while accomplishing it is the real goal.

Aesha Tahir: So what does this look like in practice? For people who actually pull this long term, who actually pull this off long term, a few patterns show up again and again. They schedule workouts with the same level of commitment they would give an important client meeting, not as an afterthought, as a fixed appointment, though.

Aesha Tahir: They prioritize sleep because they understand that it affects their decision-making and their output the next day, [00:22:00] not as a luxury, but as a performance input. They invest actively in relationships because strong personal connections are what actually carries people through the genuinely hard stretches, the layoffs, the health scares, the late nights that really can't be avoided None of this is about perfection.

Aesha Tahir: It's about treating your well-being as a strategic investment, not an afterthought you'll get to eventually. So back to the question I opened this conversation with: is there a place where career success actually meets personal well-being? Yes, and it's not some rare, lucky exception. It's something you build deliberately through the questions you ask yourself and the habits you actually protect, [00:23:00] even when work gets loud and demanding. Career success, personal well-being, and health were never supposed to compete with each other.

Aesha Tahir: They perform best together because career success means a lot more when you actually have your health, when you actually feel energetic, and the f- fulfillment you get because now you get to enjoy it. Personal well-being isn't something you earn after success. It's part of what creates it in the first place.

Aesha Tahir: That's what we are here to explore in every episode of 9 to 5 Wellness podcast, where career success meets personal well-being. I'm your host, Ayesha Tahir. If this episode resonated with you today, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and [00:24:00] thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.