Throwing life to the winds

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What do you think David Allen is referring to in this passage at the beginning of chapter 9:

That doesn't mean you throw your life to the winds -- unless, of course, it does. I actually went down that route myself with some vengeance at one point in my life, and I can attest that the lessons were valuable, if not necessarily necessary.*
* -- There are various ways to give it all up. You can ignore the physical world and its realities and trust in the universe. I did that, and it was a powerful experience. And one I wouldn't wish on anyone.
 
As I understand it, "throwing your life to the winds" means to ignore everything. Bosses, family, what you think is right, what you think is wrong, needs, wants, etc.
 
David was pointing out in these paragraphs that it isn't totally necessary to make next action choices based on the four criteria of Context, Time Available, Energy Available, and Priority. One can abandon the necessity of making these N/A choices if he/she is willing to forego all responsibility and is also prepared to accept the potential consequences of adopting that sort of lifestyle.

In the FAST cd, he talks about this in more detail and makes the point that some people do actually choose to go sell baskets on the beach. For the most part, they don't need to concern themselves with N/A's in the sense that GTD deals with them.

For the rest of us, throwing life to the winds really isn't an option or even particularly desirable, since we have families and organizations who depend upon us to make some effort to figure out how to carry out our respobsibilities.
 
From that interview in Fast Company a few years ago:

"It's been a long, strange trip from his youth in Shreveport, Louisiana. As a teenager, Allen studied Zen Buddhism and followed the path of Allen Ginsberg and the Beat generation. In college, he focused on philosophy and intellectual history, and became fascinated by thinkers who, he says, "seemed to have something cool going on, some bigger reality. I wanted to have some of the same experiences. So I did." (This was the 1960s: Use your imagination.)"

So maybe LSD is the true key to thinking at 30,000 feet.

ludlow
 
Interesting post - I see it as a inner compulsion to leave matters of "higher levels" to forces that are seemingly not within our control. These levels could be affairs pertaining to fate, goals, innermost desires, etc. The struggle evolves when, as is the nature of all beings, we are all compelled to seek some control over the evolution of these ideals. It is at these levels that we will naturally break down into confusion and irresolution, simply because the daily issues of life clog our ability to deal with the greater issues. The message from David, from my perspective, is that the way forward to these levels is to deal with the issues that bog us on a day-to-day-basis. Clarity in the "now" brings cognition into the "past" and pushes us forward to a desired "future". This post certainly sounds fluffy, but that was David's contribution to my existence - a natural instinct to a spiritual kind of "religosity" is broken down to an earthly daily series of events appropriately managed, such that the mind, free from clutter, is paradoxically able to decipher the greater motivations. Thanks for the evocative ideas in this post!
Jogesh
 
Throwing life to the winds

To follow up on Jogesh's post -

To paraphrase from one of D.T. Suzuki's essays a student asks his master "What is the secret to enlightenment?"

The master responds with "Have you had your breakfast?" The puzzled student answers "Yes." The master replies, "Best wash your dishes."

Happy Friday Eve to all (my favorite holiday).
 
Excellent post, Jurisprude! That reminds me: gotta buy that bag of Lays chips my spouse is craving for tonite, bank in those customer checks (@errands)and then wash the dishes!@home :) I'm not trying to facetious, but life does drill down to that level, before the the greater good appears in the form of (a) your spouse snuggling up to you cause she's SOO happy you remembered (b) some money in the bank account to pay your suppliers on Monday! Good weekend to all!

Jogesh
 
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