In Praise of the BHAG

Or, has 2024 got us all running scared?

Photo by Katrina Wright on Unsplash

I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed a slightly different tone around the traditional January “new year, new me” posts this year. While I have long loved a new year resolution, I’m used to people poo-poohing them. It sometimes feels like the world divides into two different types of people, those excited about a new year and a new start, and those who see it as their role to be deliberately obstreperous about it. (Sorry new year refuseniks but you are!). This year however, those of us who get excited for a resolution or ten seem to have been much quieter. Almost as though we don’t want to tempt fate by with any lofty ideas of change out there in case something happens to derail it, an alien invasion perhaps. Or a global downpour of toads. Things which would have been thought of as ludicrous a few years ago but now seem entirely likely.

When I sat down at the end of last year to review what I wanted in 2024, I definitely found myself hesitating. 2023 was A LOT, perhaps it would be more sensible to keep any hopes and expectations for 2024 small. To just try and maintain the status quo rather than ripping it all up and starting again. And I stuck to that idea for a week or so… then I got bored.

Back in the ‘90s, two guys called Jerry and Jim wrote a bestselling business book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. I’m too young to be able to tell you why it was a bestselling book back in 1994 but the reason it’s still considered one of the best business books ever written (an accolade given to a lot of books written by white guys in the ‘90s) is because it coined the term BHAG. Or Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. Visionary companies, Jim and Jerry argued, didn’t just set targets, they created goals which were intriguing and compelling enough that they would inspire employees to take action to meet them. Of particular interest to those of us with a 2023 hangover, Jim and Jerry claimed that if a company got these goals right they could pull employees out of a slump and re-energise them for the journey ahead.

But we’re not in 1994 today, we’re in 2024 and in 2024 we don’t take our advice from old white guys now. No. We take it from Gen Z on TikTok. Which is why when in a late night scrolling session I came across a teenager extolling the virtues of the vision board she’d used the year before to “transform her life”, I instantly paid £5.99 to buy the PDF setting out the “exact strategy” she’d used. Far be it from me to rob a child of her income, so you can also download it here but my main takeaway from it was this:

Think big. No, bigger than that. Even bigger.

There is a lot to be said for a simple life. For finding the joy in small things and creating a world which you can sustain without too much stress. I’ve done this in various ways for a few years now and I am a big fan of it. But when I watched this babe in arms talking about how she’d achieved goals she wouldn’t have even dared to dream of, I found myself missing my young, big dreaming self. So for 2024 I have decided to set some BHAGs of my own. I’m only a week in and it’s already been far more fun than keeping my expectations realistic.

For a start, I decided I would fall hopelessly, madly in love by April. I realise this is quite a short deadline and will almost certainly encourage the love-bombers but what if it’s actually possible? Wouldn’t it be lovely to skip into spring fully loved-up? Just by setting this goal, I’ve found myself keeping an eye open for potential recipients of my ardent admiration. I’ve approached dating apps as though they are the pit-stop in a formula one race - the necessary tune-up on route to the podium - which has been a lot more fun seeing them as a slow trudge through mediocrity. Most importantly, I’ve allowed myself to believe that there is a good man out there for me. I’ve allowed myself to have hope and it turns out that a lot of our current happiness can be based on our future hopes.

I also decided I’d have a goal to earn £1million in August. Every freelancer out there knows this is madness. For a start, I have never come close to earning £1million in my business across a whole year let alone in a specific month and August is the month the work dries up. Freelancers simply don’t make money in August, so we all use it veer between enjoying the sunshine and panicking that we’ll never work again. But this year, if I want to achieve my BHAG, I’m going to have to do things differently. Thinking about what that might look like has got my creative juices flowing. I’ve started working with friends to dream up new opportunities, I’ve been investigating every weird and wonderful “get rich on the internet” scheme that comes across my path, I’m reading up on investing. The result is that I’m learning all sorts of new skills and learning is the thing that makes me happiest. If it also makes me rich, all the better.

Finally, I decided that December 2024 was the month I became a UK and US best-selling author. At first this felt like the most difficult of all. After all, it relied on me having a book published and that relied on a publishing house wanting my book and then getting it out quickly enough to hit the December sales cycle. Most of which is outside my sphere of influence. But then I got talking to someone who actually is a UK and US bestselling author and she talked me through her strategy. In doing so she reminded me that I might not be able to influence the entire process but I can certainly team up with people who can help me along the way.

Will I hit any of these BHAGs? Who knows. For me, that’s almost less fun than simply trying to hit them and seeing what happens along the way. I’m most excited about seeing what I’ll learn from the process and who I’ll meet as I go. It turns out those two old white dudes were right, a BHAG does indeed inspire you into action.

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