No, a BHAG is not the sound someone makes after a sneeze. It is not something that inflates out of the steering wheel of a BMW after an impact. It is an acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. These are goals that are visionary, long-term in nature and are emotionally compelling. Yes, a BHAG is a good thing and everyone should have at least one; they drive passions, releasing energy and creativity in ways that few other things can.

I was first made aware of these as a strategic planning tool while at Notre Dame studying Strategic Management. I thought of so many ways that I could apply them into my personal goals that I created a folder on my computer to save my BHAGs for when I had time to…you get the point. It will be twelve years this year since I graduated and I have done little more that move these files from one computer to the next after each hardware upgrade. Recently, I opened the folder on my computer that housed my BHAGs and found that most of them were either related to something that I no longer found to be relevant or were too abstract to be actionable. For example, 12 years ago one of my goals was to create a platform by which medical records could be digitized and shared between health care providers and patients. At the time, a colleague of mine and I saw it as a pressing need in the medical community, now its common place. You could say that I fell asleep on that one and that business plan can safely be deleted.

Why now? Why should I care about my BHAGs now? Because one or two have the potential, even the prospect, of inciting passions and releasing creativity that I have allowed to go dormant for too long. Yes, a bottle of Scotch aged for 12-years can still be enjoyed, but not a 12-year old loaf of bread; like the business plan to digitize medical records, whose time has long passed. After my diagnosis, I lost interest in too many things for a lot of reasons, some valid, others not. For example, I lost some interest in projects that required the use of power tools. After all it may, just may, be unwise for someone with a tremor to use a really cool saw that has a carbide tipped blade rotating at 10,000 rpms, capable of cutting through concrete. Another, was related to a writing project. I was approached by one of my professors from ND to collaborate with him to get one of my assignments published. Due to life-changing events in his personal life, he suspended all his writing projects for the foreseeable future. But not all of my reasons were valid. In fact, most didn’t even rise to the level of reasons, most were just excuses.  After all, eight years had passed from the time I was in graduate school to the time I was diagnosed. Rarely did I revisit the computer files safely stored on my hard drive to see if any of my BHAGs were worthy of my energy. But now, it is time to breathe life into one or two of them to see if passion, energy and creativity can be released.

At the risk of boring you to sleep, I would like to share a few statistics to add context to the pervasiveness of PD and provide some data regarding how many people it inflicts. According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, as many as one million Americans live with PD, it affects men and women almost equally, approximately 60,000 Americans, with an average age of 60-years old, are diagnosed with PD every year. Approximately 4% of those are diagnosed before the age of 50; this is referred to as Early-Onset PD. I was diagnosed a few months after I turned 50.  Another Foundation, the National Parkinson’s Foundation provides some additional nuances of those diagnosed with Early Onset. They maybe parents of young children; I have a 13-year old son. They may be at a different stage in their careers; I am actively employed and many years away from retirement. If someone develops PD under the age of 50, their peers are more likely to be healthy and may struggle to deal with a contemporary’s illness more than an older group; I too have experienced some distancing from a few of my peers. In many ways, I am grateful that what I have is not as daunting or debilitating as the health challenges so many others face. My condition is degenerative but not terminal, physical and not cognitive; I have been told that this is something I will have with me for “at least a generation” by one of my doctors. That means that I have at least a generation to invest in a BHAG that is emotionally compelling. I cannot allow this condition to detract me.

I heard a quote a while back that brought the subject of setting Big Hairy Audacious Goals back to the forefront for me. I wish that I could remember the speaker and give credit where credit is due, but unfortunately, the context escapes me right now. I can assure you that it’s not mine. To paraphrase, the speaker asserted that everyone has unique gifts that were given to them, to be used by them and shared with others, for this time in history, and to not share their gifts is an act of selfishness that deprives others of something that was meant to be shared.  I had to personalize this so that I could get my arms around it: I have been given a gift that I am to use, now, and share with others. I have been given a gift? It was meant to be shared for the betterment of others? Conceptually, I believe that everyone has gifts even multiple gifts, but in practice, I always thought that my gifts would be directed towards business matters. It’s the way that I have always shared my gifts and talents in the past; business needs are tangible and intuitive. I still love business and always will. It is my vocation by which I provide for the needs of my family but it no longer stirs passion in the way that it once had. I needed a new outlet.

The focus of this blog has been “Striving for Normalcy While Living with Parkinson’s”. I have chosen to engage this subject matter to encourage others who live with PD because it is something that I understand. I can identify with the raw emotions that someone will experience, someone who has a family that depends on them, who has been told their future will look different from they had envisioned. They will be scared, they will be angry, they will feel robbed. Its goes with the territory. This “project” has driven passions, released energy and creativity in ways that I did not expect. I already know that this year will be my best year ever, but the speaker’s comments cannot be ignored. He planted a thought in my head that wouldn’t go away. Maybe starting this blog was never supposed to be about me, maybe it was supposed to be about sharing a word of encouragement to others.

I have been given a gift that I am to use, now, and share with others. If you like what you have read, please share it with your friends on Facebook so it can be an encouragement to others.

Welcome to my BHAG! Thanks for reading.