What do you want to be remembered for?
It’s a heavy question, I know. But when it comes to calibrating your work-life balance and deciding how to spend your limited time and energy, it’s one worth asking.
What really matters in the end?
And when I look back on my life, what do I want to see as the outcome of all the time I invested in my work and the other things that matter to me?
These are the kinds of questions that emerged from my podcast interview with Johnson Situ, a political advisor and diplomat, who has dedicated his career to politics and public service.
As the first politician that I’ve hosted on this podcast, I took full advantage of asking him all about what it takes to pursue a work-life balance when you’re an elected public figure, and when your work is driven so strongly by your ideals, beliefs and values. Are you always on the clock?
I’m pleased to say that I got more than just a politician’s answer to these questions, and more!
In fact, Johnson’s openness in talking about how his values are integrated into all of his work-life balance choices, and how they’ve been influenced by pivotal moments in his upbringing, were incredibly powerful and thought-provoking.
During our conversation, Johnson talked about his experience of growing up as the child of immigrants from Nigeria, raised in a council estate in London. We discussed how this shaped his values around work and set the groundings for his political career. He also shared the poignant story of the pivotal moment in his life when his father suddenly passed away, when Johnson was just twenty-one years old. As well as coping with the grief of his personal loss, Johnson describes mourning the future that his father never got to live: the dreams, the impact, the time that was cut short.
All of this afforded Johnson with a profound clarity around how he wanted to use his time, how to make the most of living a life infused with purpose, and how recognising the fragility of life and success can help towards finding an inner sense of balance.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your day-to-day life aligns with the legacy you want to leave behind, this episode is for you. Throughout the episode, we cover:
🏘️ Johnson’s experience of growing up on a council estate and navigating a school system where most peers left without qualifications
⚛️How to discover your core values—and why they should guide both your career and personal life
👥The unique challenges of finding balance in the early years of marriage
🌎The influence of being the child of immigrants, and how that shapes ambition and burnout across generations
❤️🩹How grief reshapes our relationship with time, purpose, and work
This was a moving conversation, which left me thinking deeply about what really matters. I hope that listeners will find it equally uplifting, and a useful reminder to consider their work-life balance in the context of their life overall; to think about what can be done in the present to ensure that you can look back with integrity, satisfaction, contentment, and acceptance, at the work-life balance choices you’ve made.