MANILA, Philippines -- Under personal governance, we recognize that there is more to life than work. While it is absolutely essential that there be coherence between our work and the strategic demands of the organization where we work, we should also strike a proper and healthy balance between all aspects of our life.

Given this consideration, we always go back to our personal governance charter. We put under scrutiny the work we do and our performance with special focus on the professional facet. Is our work in full conformity with our core values? Is everything we do at work in full conformity with our mission in life? Are we putting in enough stretch effort and sacrifice into our work such that we get ever closer to realizing our vision? By being able to answer these questions properly – and hopefully positively – we take out some guarantee that our work is not separate from the life we really want to live, and from what we seek to achieve in the much bigger canvass of our personal life.

In that bigger canvass, which includes aspects other than our work, we aim to strike a balance between our work and the other strategic priorities under the physical, spiritual, and cultural aspects. In the illustrative case we have been looking at, even as due importance is given to work and the priorities under the professional facet, the pursuit of those priorities such as having to “stay fit as long as possible,” “deepening my faith and inner life,” “bringing more people closer to God,” and “observing & promoting a governance culture” – strategic priorities under the physical, spiritual, and cultural facets – is not neglected. It is argued that providing time and spending the required effort in pursuit of these other priorities would actually help achieve a higher level of performance through work under the professional facet.

The same connection can be made between work and the pursuit of such other strategic priorities as “involve more people in governance initiatives at all levels,” “secure adequate life-long self-support,” and lead fund campaigns for good governance initiatives,” the strategic priorities under the social and financial facets. The governance argument in this instance is similar: Success in pursuing these priorities under the social and financial facets is closely related to success in work undertaken under the professional facet.

Under proper personal governance, therefore, the time we spend in pursuit of other strategic priorities under other facets is not fully taken away from the time we need to spend at work. Because of the close inter-connection between the different strategic priorities in our personal road map, the process of allotting time among them is not a zero-sum game. For as long as we observe the principle of moderation and due proportion, we do not take anything away from our over-all effort to succeed at work, if we set aside some time to be able to attend to our other duties under the different facets of life. Indeed, the more balance we have in our life – among all of life’s different facets – the more likely we are to succeed not only in work but also in the more comprehensive process of personal development.

A work-life balance is a basic demand of personal governance. That balance is secured by our safeguarding the basic inner consistency, and therefore the mutual support and reinforcement, between all facets of our personal life.