What if the version of success you’re chasing isn’t wrong — but it isn’t yours?

In this episode of Surviving the Side Hustle, I sit down with Caroline Sangal, a former high-achieving scientist turned career coach, to unpack what happens when traditional success starts quietly draining your health, relationships, and sense of self.

Caroline checked every box: valedictorian, PhD in polymer science, elite performance, industry recognition, and financial wins. On paper, she was doing everything “right.” But behind the scenes, she was burned out, disconnected, and slowly breaking down — physically, emotionally, and relationally.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that achievement without alignment eventually comes at a cost.

From High Achievement to Hidden Burnout

Caroline shares how her identity became deeply tied to performance — grades, titles, accolades, and external validation. Even when she succeeded, it never felt like enough. That pattern followed her from academia into industry, and later into recruiting, where she became a top performer chasing the next milestone… even as her health deteriorated.

High blood pressure. Chronic stress. Emotional reactivity. A heart condition that forced a serious medical intervention.

The wake-up call wasn’t just professional — it was personal. A moment with her husband made it clear: success wasn’t just exhausting her… it was risking everything she cared about most.

The Danger of Borrowed Definitions of Success

One of the core themes of this episode is how many of us unconsciously adopt definitions of success handed to us by parents, schools, industries, or culture — without ever asking if they actually fit who we are.

Caroline explains that career questioning isn’t failure — it’s development. In fact, it’s normal to reassess your direction every 7–10 years. The problem isn’t questioning… it’s ignoring the signals.

Burnout doesn’t usually arrive all at once.
It starts as whispers.

Ignored long enough, it becomes a breakdown.

Designing Success That Fuels Your Life

After leaving corporate recruiting, Caroline built Next Success Careers to help people stop chasing status and start building authentic success — careers that align with how they’re wired, what they value, and the life they actually want to live.

Her work blends data-driven assessments, mindset training, career strategy, and mental fitness — helping people shift from externally successful but internally unfulfilled to energized, aligned, and intentional.

The takeaway is simple but powerful:

You don’t need to burn your life down to build something better —
but you do need the courage to question what you’re building and why.

Final Reflection

If more people stopped chasing success they were handed — and started designing success aligned with who they actually are — we wouldn’t just have better careers.

We’d have healthier people.
Stronger families.
More meaningful work.

And a lot less burnout.

🎧 Listen to the full episode
🌐 Learn more about Caroline’s work at nextsuccesscareers.com
🎙️ Check out her podcast, Your Next Success

And as always — reflect honestly, choose intentionally, and keep surviving the side hustle.