Developing areas of focus lists

Whitehairs90 said:
If your purpose is to be happy, then just be happy. No matter the circumstance, be happy!
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I don't agree. That's a little like saying, "If your purpose is to be fit and healthy, then just be fit and healthy! No matter the circumstances, be fit and healthy!" Or "If your purpose is to be educated, then just be educated! No matter the circumstances, be educated!"

But being fit and healthy, or being educated, isn't something that you can just decide to do, and suddenly it happens. You do things, project by project, step by step, to make it happen.

The same for being happy. Happiness doesn't come on command.
Whitehairs90 said:
It means "a pursuit which has you feeling happy".
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Like "a pursuit which has you feeling healthy"? Or "a pursuit which has you feeling educated"?

Again, I disagree. Happiness, and health, and education, and countless other personal changes, require work and projects and steps.
 
This is a great point, about being happy as a purpose- I don't know how to quote in this forum, I'm new- sorry!
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@Whitehairs90 welcome, and no need for apology. If you click on "Reply" at the bottom right of a post, the content in the post will automatically be quoted. Or you can start a new comment and click on the Quote icon (looks like this: ” ) in the toolbar above your comment.
 
Details! I add details!

Things that I’ve done for the purpose of happiness:

- going part time, to reduce the impact of a job I hated.
- changing jobs in my company, to eliminate the job I hated while keeping the work connections that did make me happy.
- changing elements of my diet. Turned out that milk raised my mood in the moment, and increased my anxiety over the subsequent days. Other sources of tryptophan make me happy in the moment without the later price to pay.
- narrowing my creative activities for more focus on just two, for more accomplishments.
- making sure I always have a stock of pleasing novels to read, which seems to even out my mood.

And so on, and so on. The specific goal of those things was to be happier.

Now, this is a short term, primarily mood based happiness focus. There are larger, more philosophical versions. But those can also be chased with projects.
 
Gardener said:
Details! I add details!

Things that I’ve done for the purpose of happiness:

- going part time, to reduce the impact of a job I hated.
- changing jobs in my company, to eliminate the job I hated while keeping the work connections that did make me happy.
- changing elements of my diet. Turned out that milk raised my mood in the moment, and increased my anxiety over the subsequent days. Other sources of tryptophan make me happy in the moment without the later price to pay.
- narrowing my creative activities for more focus on just two, for more accomplishments.
- making sure I always have a stock of pleasing novels to read, which seems to even out my mood.

And so on, and so on. The specific goal of those things was to be happier.

Now, this is a short term, primarily mood based happiness focus. There are larger, more philosophical versions. But those can also be chased with projects.
Click to expand...

Gardener said:
I don't agree. That's a little like saying, "If your purpose is to be fit and healthy, then just be fit and healthy! No matter the circumstances, be fit and healthy!" Or "If your purpose is to be educated, then just be educated! No matter the circumstances, be educated!"

But being fit and healthy, or being educated, isn't something that you can just decide to do, and suddenly it happens. You do things, project by project, step by step, to make it happen.

The same for being happy. Happiness doesn't come on command.

Like "a pursuit which has you feeling healthy"? Or "a pursuit which has you feeling educated"?

Again, I disagree. Happiness, and health, and education, and countless other personal changes, require work and projects and steps.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for this.

While theres nothing like a great epistemological inquiry- the definition of happiness.

Here's how I would put it into my GTD process:

You believe that happiness/education/health is of utmost importance. To the point that it's the only reason youre alive.

And you have something obstructing that happiness/education/health.

Then your purpose would be to do the things that bring those values/envision future and to avoid the things that deter it.

Being happy/healthy/educated is the vision or value.

But ito doesn'tit under purpose. Because, as I define it- a purpose is something you DO to change the status quo to bring an alternative reality.
 
Gardener said:
Details! I add details!

Things that I’ve done for the purpose of happiness:

- going part time, to reduce the impact of a job I hated.
- changing jobs in my company, to eliminate the job I hated while keeping the work connections that did make me happy.
- changing elements of my diet. Turned out that milk raised my mood in the moment, and increased my anxiety over the subsequent days. Other sources of tryptophan make me happy in the moment without the later price to pay.
- narrowing my creative activities for more focus on just two, for more accomplishments.
- making sure I always have a stock of pleasing novels to read, which seems to even out my mood.

And so on, and so on. The specific goal of those things was to be happier.

Now, this is a short term, primarily mood based happiness focus. There are larger, more philosophical versions. But those can also be chased with projects.
Click to expand...
Sir/Maam- you're incredible!!

Really and truly.

I'm an intj.. so I get really granular about things that don't make a difference to most people.

It seems that keeping your purpose as "being happy" is working for you and that's what matters. This is huge! I'm going to sit with these actions/results and ask myself if I'm willing to commit to creating these kinds of results for myself.

Thank you!
 
Whitehairs90 said:
Because, as I define it- a purpose is something you DO to change the status quo to bring an alternative reality.
Click to expand...
You can certainly use the definition of your choice, but in this case and for this word, you're disagreeing with the normal definition.

One version of the normal definition:

dictionary.com:

Purpose:

the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.
an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
determination; resoluteness
 
Gardener said:
You can certainly use the definition of your choice, but in this case and for this word, you're disagreeing with the normal definition.

One version of the normal definition:

dictionary.com:

Purpose:

the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.
an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
determination; resoluteness
Click to expand...
Firstly, again, I'm not going into epistimology and defining words in the english language. I'm just defining the word purpose from a GTD context.

From a language perspective, the dictionary decides who is right. From a GTD context, whatever you can make work is right.

For me, purpose,
It's the word which was chosen to represent the initial point of focus from which everything aligns.

When I tried working with results based purposes (to be/to have) I had a hard time distinguishing them from my vision and values.
I needed an areas of focus from a higher altitude.

When I worked with a "process" based purpose (to serve X / to do Y / to try Z) the other stages opened up for me as neccesary to have focus.

I didn't find that I needed an areas of focus until I had projects.

That was my experience.
 
Whitehairs90 said:
For me, purpose,
It's the word which was chosen to represent the initial point of focus from which everything aligns.

When I tried working with results based purposes (to be/to have) I had a hard time distinguishing them from my vision and values.
I needed an areas of focus from a higher altitude.

When I worked with a "process" based purpose (to serve X / to do Y / to try Z) the other stages opened up for me as neccesary to have focus.
Click to expand...
Thanks, this clarifies things for me somewhat.

I am interested in how you defined your purpose in the first place though. Did you look at your vision and values and think of a purpose congruent with those or did you just know what your purpose was/is?
 
treelike said:
Thanks, this clarifies things for me somewhat.

I am interested in how you defined your purpose in the first place though. Did you look at your vision and values and think of a purpose congruent with those or did you just know what your purpose was/is?
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This is a great question..
Im religious/spiritual so I received my purpose from previous generations. Although there are many different ways of putting it.. "be a good person vs do good things etc"

It took a while (25 years) to internalize/personalize .. it used to feel like a bumper sticker that I went along with.. but now it resonates within and feels like me. It was an external purpose, but now it's an internally aligned purpose.

I'm far from perfect, I have a habit of chasing the opportunity to "be right" or to "be in control" "seek validation" and it's constantly work to choose "to do what G-d asks of someone in my situation" instead -

So you could say that it came from my values.

But I didn't use GTD to get there.

Once I chose my purpose,

I needed the values/vision to help me qualify my goals. Because my purpose was too vague to be practical. So as I envisioned what my life could be like when I do what G-d asks from someone in my situation, the goals kinda surfaced on their own as an organic extension of vision.

the thing is that once the goals all surfaced I had way too many projects and responsibilities to commit to. So I went back to the goals and vision..

Until I was able to figure out goals that would motivate me to act and help me realize my vision, but aren't so much work that I'm failing to do my jobs well enough to achieve the goal..
 
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