30 minute bhag & action plan - i grasp wellness · the term bhag was popularised by james...

30 Minute BHAG & Action Plan

Without a map, it’s hard to know where you’re going. If you don’t have a long-term goal, it’s time to develop your own BHAG and action plan in just 30 minutes.

2 30 Minute BHAG & Action Plan

The term BHAG was popularised by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.” The now well-known acronym stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. For an organisation it is a giant statement. It can be a promise to customers that they have a big vision and deserve your trust. It can also be a way of mentally preparing and stretching staff for where the organisation is going. A great leader inspires the big vision and proceeds to enrol everyone around them in the process of achieving it, making them believe that not only is it possible but it’s likely to come to fruition. On a personal level you can develop your own individual BHAG whether that be for one area of your life or an overarching goal that encompasses all facets of your life. Your BHAG is not your regular New Year’s resolution nor is it your bucket list. Your BHAG is a long term stretch goal that incites a vision of what you want your life to be like. Having a BHAG makes all the preparation enjoyable; the learning, the discipline, the small steps and it excites in you what you can’t wait to achieve. Your BHAG can become a statement or can be kept as a visionary story, whichever better enables you to see yourself having achieved it at a future point in time.

There is immense power in creating a BHAG, it can give your life a sense of direction seeing that you are making progress towards something worthwhile. When shared with others it also provides the ultimate accountability tool. When you go public, you’re on the hook to deliver!


The Exercise Over the next 30 minutes you are going to use the exercises that follow to develop your own 10-year BHAG and in doing so will undergo a series of questions starting with some rapid-fire questioning to stimulate your thinking and creativity. We start this way to help you avoid using your rational brain and coming up with predictable (and possibly boring) measured responses that fit with your current lifestyle and skill set. We’ll save the well thought out part for later when we come to refining your BHAG and pulling together the end result. Your BHAG can be specific regarding a health & wellbeing goal, a lifestyle goal or a career or business goal. It could also contain all of the above. Where you set the limit and what you choose to hone in on with your BHAG is totally up to you. However, I will say that often your BHAG will impact many or most aspects of who you are. • Another 28 minutes uninterrupted, • A place where you can write and think, • A stop watch or timer, and • A pen and paper (you can type it up later). Either print the PDF to use as workbook or

write your answers in your own notebook.

STOP! If you’ve come this far, I assume you are ready to COMPLETE the exercise. If now isn’t a good time, how about you stop here and pencil 30 minutes into your diary to undertake this powerful mental exercise another time. To get the most out the exercise, don’t skip ahead through the document. Scroll to where you are up and proceed through the exercises one by one. Let’s get into it!

What you will need


First, go to your place where you will not be interrupted. You are going to answer three questions by writing as much as you can about the question in 90 seconds. Write down whatever comes to your mind without judging whether it is the “right” response or thinking how you can better articulate your answer. The more raw your answer is, the better. We will refine them later. Let the words flow through your pen. Grab your stop watch, read the question out loud twice then start the 90 second timer and commence writing. Go. Question 1: If money was no object, how would I spend my time?


For the next question you are going to think about all things growth, learning, personal skills, personal characteristics, your areas of passion, strength and weakness. Go. Question 2: How do I want to grow?


For the next question you are going to think about your productivity, your contribution, your work, your passion, future achievements and recognitions. Go. Question 3: How do I want to make a meaningful contribution in society?


For the next question you are going to think about the experiences that you value most. Go. Question 4: 10 years from now, when I look back to this point in time, what do I want to have experienced? That’s the end of the rapid-fire answering!


Identifying Your Core Values Well done, that’s a great start. When we let our mind off the leash and get in touch with our purpose and what we really desire, we connect with our heart. Rather than a well thought out logical response that fits within current parameters and beliefs systems we can identify our what’s important to us. Now spend 2 minutes reading back over each of your responses to the 4 questions you just answered. Circle any key themes or words which showed up a number of times that stand out as being important to you. In the table below, write down what you have circled in the left-hand column and then in the right column condense that theme into a single word of your choosing. If it is a single word that you have written down on the left either re-write it or choose another similar word to write in the right-hand column.

Key Theme or Words Single Chosen Word

Now, number the words on the right-hand column in importance from 1 – 5 with 1 being the most important. If you have less than five that’s ok but you aren’t allowed to have more than five. Three to five is ideal. These words are going to be your core values and will inform your BHAG. Can you form an acronym out of the first letters of your core values? An acronym is a great way to help you remember them. _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

Next Step


Conceptualise it If you were living you values to the fullest what would your life look like in 10 years’ time? Your next exercise is to answer the question above as though you are already living it. Keep in mind your responses from your rapid-fire questions. Think about what is important to you, how you ideally want to be spending your time, how you will have grown and what experiences you will be having. Think about where live and with who, what your body is like, how you feel, and the hobbies you enjoy. Insert the date – 10 years from today – in the first line of your response (I’ve started the sentence for you). It is the / / ,

My BHAG


Breaking it Down 10 years is a long time, and a lot can happen between now and then. As you grow and continue to have new life experiences you might change your course entirely and that’s ok. But for now, you have a vision of where you want to go and what life will be like. The next part is to break that down, firstly into a Three-Year Vision (TYV). Imagine you are 1/3 of the way towards living you BHAG. What would that look like? Build that image over a couple of paragraphs. Like you did with the BHAG write it as though you are already living it. It is the / / ,

My TYV


Create Process Goals In this section you are going to create a series of 90-day process goals which are essentially the starting point for you to live out your Three-Year Vision and BHAG! The power of process goals is that they are actions rather than outcomes. You don’t set a 90-day process goal of losing 3 kg’s as that would be an outcome. You would set process goals relating to wat you need to do in order to create that outcome of losing 3 kg’s. You have established your longer-term outcomes already, so are not going to focus on any short-term outcomes but rather the processes that you need to implement. List all the things that you could possibly complete in the next 90 days that would move you closer to living your TYV. You’re not going to have to do them all, but list as many as you can below. Consider things like, what skills are you going to need to learn? Who might you need to speak to? What habits should you create? What current habits do you need to break? What distractions can you subtract from your life? The list could be endless really, but you just need to think of ten.

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Once you have filled up your list above, re-read them all and circle the top three which would have the biggest impact on you, that you believe you could realistically complete in the next 90 days. These three process goals are going to be your focus for the next 90 days. Re-write them down here.

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Schedule your review

Over the Next 90 Days I Will:

Lastly, this part is important to ensure setting and achieving process goals becomes an on-going commitment rather than just a once off. Schedule a calendar appointment for 90 days’ time for a Goal Review. By scheduling your appointment now there is a layer of accountability. Always start by reading through your BHAG, TYV and then create three new process goals. This evaluation and reflection stage is beyond the scope of this exercise but essentially repeat the 90-day process goal list and the narrow it down to three.


The ultimate accountability tool is to share this with other people. Do you have a spouse, family member, friend or mentor who you could spend 5 minutes sharing this with? Once you go public you are on the hook. I’d highly recommend sharing your BHAG, TYV or at the very least your three 90-day process goals. If you have struggled in the past with creating or changing a habit, why not consider a coach? A coach will support you in moving forward with your process goals without judgement. As an added measure, investing financially in a coach means you have skin in the game and are more likely to follow through on those actions.

Thanks! Congratulations on making a commitment to create positive change in your life! Don’t underestimate the power you have to live the life that you choose.

Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy goal or ideal

– Earl Nightingale

Ultimate Accountability

30 minute bhag & action plan - i grasp wellness · the term bhag was popularised by james...

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