BHAGS in Your Personal Life: Why An Acadia National Park Trip is a Good Lesson for Leadership
- Samantha Riel
- Jul 4, 2025
- 3 min read
In 2018, I set a goal that felt exciting and inspiring: to visit as many of the United States National Parks as possible.
It felt like the perfect bucket list item. National parks are some of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring places in the country, and I’ve always believed that if you live in the U.S., you owe it to yourself to see them. To really see them. Mountains. Oceans. Deserts. Forests. Nature in its most raw, breathtaking form.
That was the dream.
Fast forward to 2025. How many parks had I seen?
Zero.
Not a single one.
It hit me hard when I realized it. This was something I had talked about and dreamed about for seven years. But I hadn’t taken one step forward. I was still sitting on the sidelines.
Why We Wait to Start
I had always assumed I would start with something iconic. Yellowstone. Grand Teton. The Grand Canyon. Something worthy of kicking off a massive goal like this one.
Oddly enough, I had decided that I would save Acadia National Park for last, even though it’s the closest one to my home. I can’t explain why. I just had it in my head that I needed to work my way up to it.
That logic was holding me back.
Starting Anyway
Last weekend, I said enough is enough.
It was my birthday. I hadn’t made any progress on this goal. And I finally decided to just go. To stop overcomplicating it and start somewhere.
So I told my husband we were going. I booked a campsite instead of a hotel (which is not our norm; we are air conditioning people). And off we went, with our son and both dogs in tow.
We camped. We hiked. We made fires. We took photos. We unplugged. It was one of the best family weekends we’ve had in years.
Sunrise on the Summer Solstice
We woke up early and drove to the top of Mount Cadillac in Acadia National Park.
Mount Cadillac is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. And we were there for it, on the summer solstice.
My son and I stood there in the quiet, watching the sky turn orange over the Atlantic Ocean. It was pure magic.
I hadn’t planned that part. But it’s the moment I’ll remember most.
Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) and Why We Delay Them
That national park goal? It’s a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. The concept was coined by Jim Collins in his business book Built to Last, and it’s stuck with me ever since.
We set BHAGs in business all the time.
Launch a new product. Break into a new market. Hit a major revenue milestone. Write a book. Build a category.
They’re bold and exciting. But they can also feel too big. So we wait. We delay. We convince ourselves we need a better time, a perfect plan, a more iconic starting point.
And just like that, years go by with no progress.
The Real Lesson: Start Small, Start Close, Start Now
The biggest shift for me last weekend was this:
I let go of the belief that I had to start big.
I stopped waiting for a perfect moment or perfect destination. I picked the park that was easiest to get to. I booked the trip I could afford. And I made it happen in a weekend instead of a week.
I didn’t start with Yellowstone. I started with Acadia.
And that made all the difference.
So here’s the message I want to leave you with today:
If you have a BHAG on your list, whether it’s professional or personal, ask yourself if you’re the one holding yourself back. Are you waiting for the perfect start? Are you adding complexity where none is needed?
Most of the time, the delay is self-imposed.
Find the simplest entry point. Choose the version of the goal that’s cheap, close, and easy. Start there.
Because the truth is, it’s not about starting perfectly.
It’s about starting at all.
So what’s the BHAG you’ve been sitting on? What would your Acadia moment look like?
Start now. You won’t regret it.
Listen to Episode 3: BHAGS in Your Personal Life
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