For years now, one of my goals has been to focus.

I have all kinds of quotes about the power of focus, and I know that you get a whole lot further with something if you can focus on it and make it a priority.

In fact, one of my favorite focus-related quotes is:

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”
~Swami Vivekananda

So I was excited when I saw the link to the Prioritizer that Consciously Frugal had in her post about prioritizing goals.

“Great!” I thought, “Maybe it’ll confirm what feels like the priority to me, if I have to pick one.”

The Prioritizer turned out to be a fickle little thing, only working when I just entered a single word for each goal, but what it eventually spit out was this:

Yup, three out of my four major money-related goals (get my business very profitable, pay off our house, take some expensive trips, and have enough money for retirement) were tied for my #1 priority.

I saw that and laughed, because it’s so typical. I just can’t decide, and you know what, that’s ok. I’ll probably get to all of the goals a little slower, but I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to focus when in fact I am a hummingbird.

It’s time to just go with who I am, and maximize the advantages that brings me. There ARE some, really. Maybe I should stick to one garden as I buzz from flower to flower, but that’s enough of a focus to still make steady progress.

Focusing IS the best way to really make significant progress. When you put all your energy into one thing, you go a whole lot further (and certainly a lot whole lot faster).

But if you’re like me and you’re just not built for focusing long term on a single thing, maybe you’ll join me in implementing some things I read about in Daniel Pink’s book Drive: FedEx Days and 20-percent time.

FedEx Days are what an Australian company called Atlassian has on occasion. They’re days when their employees can work on whatever they like, but they have to produce the results the next day. (Get it? Overnight.)

20-percent time is similar. Google offers 20-percent time as one of their perks. Their jobs page explains, “We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.” So basically 20% of the time, they’re working on whatever strikes their fancy.

Letting your creativity fly like that probably makes the things you’re already doing a whole lot more interesting as well. There’s something about a little inspiration that livens up your life.

Anyone up for being a hummingbird with me?

Is there something you’ve been neglecting or putting off when it comes to your money? Here are some oft-neglected areas of personal finance:

• Creating a will
• Making a spending plan/budget
• Funding retirement
• Saving for college

Notice anything interesting about that list?

The first two items deal with things we’d rather not think about. If we make a will, we admit in black and white that we’re going to die someday. Who wants to admit that?

If we make a budget or a spending plan, we might have to change, or at the very least shine a spotlight on our current habits. We resist being “told what to do”, even when we’re the ones doing the telling.

The next two items deal with things that feel very far away, so they are easy to put off. Other things feel more urgent, right up until the very last minute. That’s when we realize — too late — that we’d have been a lot better off if we had only started sooner.

Or we may assume we don’t need to plan for those things at all. We intend to work forever and our children will get scholarships. But what if we can’t and they don’t? At that point our choices are limited.

It’s not too late to handle any of the things we’ve been putting off. In fact, it’s time to take action today.

Choose one thing you’ve been avoiding and write it down. (I like to use Google docs for stuff like this, but anything will do.) Now make a list of the things you need to find out about the subject before you can take action. Those are your first steps.

Do one of them today.

When you were a kid, you probably spent some time imagining what your life would be like when you grew up. You probably had a particular occupation in mind, and maybe some idea of what your family life would be like.

Maybe you actually ARE doing exactly what you thought you’d be doing, but a lot of people aren’t. At least, no one I’ve met has ever spent their life doing exactly what they thought they would be doing.

And that’s the thing. Life isn’t linear. It doesn’t proceed in a nice straight line along a pre-planned route.

Instead, there are bumps and hurdles along the way. There are bonuses, too. Sometimes things turn out better than we’d ever imagined. And…sometimes they don’t. Rarely though, do they ever turn out exactly like we had imagined.

That’s what can make planning our financial futures difficult. We may think that we’ll go to college, get a great job, and pay off those loans. Instead we get that MD and decide to stay home with the kids. Or we buy a house with the expectation that housing prices will continue upward, and instead end up unable to sell the house if we want to move.

Things just don’t always happen as planned. So when you’re planning out how you hope you’ll use your money in the future, or making a decision about what to do with your money right now, take alternate scenarios into account too.

How will you feel if things turn out exactly the opposite of what you had hoped or planned? What type of financial situation will you be in then? Is that something you can accept? If not, what could you do differently that might help to avoid that situation entirely or mitigate it if it does occur?

Planning for the best while preparing for the worst is an idea that often leaves you in very good shape. Sometimes preparing for the worst ends up making the best even better when it happens.