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I have a question for you: What's your camp when it comes to goals and New Year's resolutions? I've noticed that opinions tend to split into two fiercely opposed camps.

The Anti-Resolution Camp

One group stands firmly against New Year's resolutions altogether.

"I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but a good deal about their acts," wrote Og Mandino.

"If you asked me for my New Year's resolution, it would be to find out who I am," said actor Cyril Cusack.

Yet I always find it curious that those who claim they don't set goals or live with specific intention often achieve remarkable feats, like writing influential books or building successful careers.

Did Mandino stumble into becoming a bestselling author? Did Cusack accidentally build a successful acting career and land role after role? I doubt it.

The Pro-Goal Camp

The other group advocates fiercely for goal-setting.

"If you're bored with life—you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things—you don't have enough goals," said coach Lou Holtz.

"People with goals succeed because they know where they're going," Earl Nightingale observed.

What I've found is that we need to change our frame entirely. Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson put it this way in The Science of Scaling:

Why? Because when we do this, we fundamentally change our approach and our process.

I want to challenge you to think of one such impossible goal you've already experienced in your life. I believe you have one. We all do. We just don't pay attention to it.

Did you want to win the heart of the person who is now your beloved?

Did you pursue a degree that seemed insurmountable at the time?

Did you build something from nothing that, looking back, seemed unlikely you could accomplish?

Did you achieve something you desperately wanted, against all odds?

Chances are, you set a vision in your mind, a deep focus that kept you on track, that forced you to overcome obstacles when you encountered them.

You pivoted along the way. You found ways around the roadblocks. You proved wrong those who underestimated you.

Setting a goal so big it seems unattainable is like setting the GPS for where you want to be by the end of the year. One big goal is all you need:

One BHAG.

BHAG, pronounced "Bee Hag" and short for "Big Hairy Audacious Goal," is a concept developed by Jim Collins in Built to Last.

It's described as "a powerful way to stimulate progress. A BHAG is clear and compelling, needing little explanation; people get it right away."

Think of the NASA moon mission of the 1960s. President Kennedy didn't say, "Let's improve our space program."

He said, "We're going to put a man on the moon and bring him home safely before the decade is out." Clear. Compelling. Seemingly impossible.

The best BHAGs require both building for the long term and exuding a relentless sense of urgency: What do we need to do today, with monomaniacal focus, and tomorrow, and the next day, to defy the probabilities and ultimately achieve our BHAG?

So let me ask you: What's your moon mission for this year?

I’m not talking the vague aspirations that sound good but lack teeth. I'm talking about the one goal that, if you achieved it, would make everything else easier or unnecessary.

The moon mission question forces clarity.

It demands that you identify the one thing that matters most. The goal that, once accomplished, creates a ripple effect across every other area of your life.

Maybe your moon mission is launching that business you've been planning for years, and when you do, a deep sense of purpose and financial freedom will follow.

Maybe it's writing the book that's been rattling around in your head, and once you prove to yourself you can finish what you start, everything else shifts.

Maybe it's repairing a fractured relationship or building a world class marriage, and in the process your health improves, your work flourishes, and your joy overflows.

I've found that when we approach the year with one impossible goal—our BHAG—we activate a different part of ourselves and our brain.

We stop dabbling and start deciding. We stop juggling and start building. We trade scattered energy for focused momentum.

Your moon mission becomes your clarity GPS.

It's the coordinates you set at the beginning of the journey. And just like those NASA engineers in the 1960s, you won't know every step of how you'll get there when you start.

You'll figure it out as you go. You'll adapt. You'll innovate. You'll overcome.

But you have to know where you're going.

So this year, I'm not asking you to make resolutions.

I'm inviting you to identify your moon mission. Get clear on the one big, hairy, audacious goal that will define your year.

Write it down. Say it out loud. Let it scare you a little. That's how you know it's big enough.

And then do one thing today that moves you toward it. And tomorrow, do the next thing. And the day after that, the next.

Because that's how we get to the moon.

What's yours? I’ve love to cheer you on!

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