A top-level competitor (can't recall his name, let's call him Bob) in the upcoming Tour de France was celebrating Christmas Day drinking with his friends at his favorite pub in England. During the festivities he decided to call Lance Armstrong and wish him a Merry Christmas. He dialed Lance's cell number, spoke with him for a minute, then hung up and immediately sank down into a chair, despondent.

When his buddies asked him what was wrong, he replied: “Lance is biking over the Rockies. I just lost the Tour.”

And he did.

Sidenote: One can only wonder what Tiger's game would have been like if he'd actually been focused on golf…

I’ve used the 12 Goals approach I’ve been writing about recently (although I usually don’t limit myself to 12 anymore) to take three broad areas and then break down into specific goals.

I’ve found that the broad areas are most useful when I’m frustrated about where and how to focus on things in the “micro” sense. Meaning: how I’m going to spend a Saturday afternoon vs. the “macro” sense of setting up a goal structure. I always ask myself how important the current activity is in relation to my three main focus areas. It helps me say no to things more often than I otherwise would.

I set broad focuses, similar to your goal of “Self-Development”, and then within that goal I manage to place preposterous numbers of sub-projects, justifying their addition by conceptual fit. Ultimately I find my attention diluted despite efforts to focus.

Lesson learned? Don’t just define 3 focuses. Define 3 narrow focuses and agree with yourself the shape and confines of these focuses beforehand.