{"id":4158,"date":"2010-09-13T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2014-07-25T17:00:18","modified_gmt":"2014-07-26T00:00:18","slug":"defining-your-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining your existence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>Question:<\/strong> During my Mind Sweep, I wrote down a thought that included defining my existence and experiencing personal fulfillment. It is THE thought that occupies my mind and I wonder if you have any comments on how I can work with that in my GTD system.<\/div>\n<p><strong>David Allen&#8217;s answer:<\/strong> Regarding defining existence and personal fulfillment, I&#8217;d put that more in the category of 50,000-ft thinking (in the GTD Horizons of Focus) or standards. It could be phrased something like, &#8220;continually exploring and expanding the fulfillment of my destiny on the planet.&#8221; That&#8217;s not something you ever finish (unless it is). But operationally it&#8217;s a standard to hold re: your internal focus, <!--more-->and then potentially the visions, goals, objectives, projects and actions that emerge as commitments for you in the process of &#8220;exploring and expanding&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re doing and being the best you can be, in the moment, given all you know and sense and the context and limitations within which you find yourself, you&#8217;re probably not being bothered by your issue, but rather enjoying it. If you&#8217;re not, your standard about that will probably be bugging you to do what you need to do, to get back in that saddle. Might be work harder,   work less, finish the phone call, take out the garbage, hold some nice thoughts, or whatever&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GTD&#8217;s Horizons of Focus model defines purpose and fulfillment at the 50,000-foot level.  There is an ongoing reassessment of how that translates into action on the runway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[699,27,32],"tags":[745,46,104],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v22.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defining your existence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defining your existence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"Defining your existence\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\"},\"wordCount\":223,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"David Allen\",\"Implementation\",\"horizons of focus\"],\"articleSection\":[\"All\",\"David Allen\",\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\",\"name\":\"Defining your existence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Defining your existence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\",\"description\":\"David Allen&#039;s GTD\u00ae Methodology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"width\":370,\"height\":338,\"caption\":\"Getting Things Done\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gtdtimes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\",\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GTD Times Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Defining your existence","description":"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Defining your existence","og_description":"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.","og_url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/","og_site_name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","article_published_time":"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00","author":"GTD Times Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gtdtimes","twitter_site":"@gtdtimes","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"GTD Times Staff","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/"},"author":{"name":"GTD Times Staff","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4"},"headline":"Defining your existence","datePublished":"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/"},"wordCount":223,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["David Allen","Implementation","horizons of focus"],"articleSection":["All","David Allen","Productivity Tips"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/","name":"Defining your existence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-09-13T17:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-26T00:00:18+00:00","description":"David Allen answers a question about how a Mind Sweep item about purpose and fulfillment can be addressed using the GTD Horizons of Focus model.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2010\/09\/defining-your-existence\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Defining your existence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","description":"David Allen&#039;s GTD\u00ae Methodology","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization","name":"Getting Things Done","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","width":370,"height":338,"caption":"Getting Things Done"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/gtdtimes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4","name":"GTD Times Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7e6cca53b54e1192e3459333751eb5c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"GTD Times Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}