You and I Are Too Old Not To Take On A BHAG (Big Hairy Ass Goal)

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

Photo by Andrew Ly on Unsplash

So what are you and I training for next?

You and I are always and forever in training for our next decade. That’s just one reason why I write about fitness and nutrition, tell stories about people who are living well very late in life, and push putting the remote down and going remote.

Diana Coogle hiked 868 miles for her 80th birthday. Not in one day, obviously. She took her time to be able to complete this by her June deadline.

I listened to the Here and Now segment on NPR last Wednesday, and was motivated to learn about all the other amazing, incredible, remarkable things this woman has done.

This article will provide additional links so that you can enjoy the broader profile.

Diana is one hell of a woman. She didn’t suddenly decide to do this; the 800-mile BHAG is part of a journey that she’s been on her entire life. That’s the part that interests me, a life well-lived. No prisoners taken along the way.

This WBUR segment tells part of the story . A key quote:

In her 60s, she got a PhD in English. In her 70s, she got married for the first time. So to Coogle, it just made sense to undertake a new adventure to celebrate the start of her ninth decade.

When I first heard about Coogle I thought about

Amy Brown

, who recently announced her decision to walk the Camino de Santiago. Amy has recently been through a divorce and the death of her mother from dementia after a long journey.

She has bravely decided to launch a long journey of her own, a remarkable and wonderful BHAG.

This is how it’s done. It doesn’t matter when or how or why, it only matters that you decide how to live on your terms. Then it’s up to us to do the work to be able to do it. Maybe it takes going back to school or getting in shape. Maybe it takes moving to a new country. Doesn’t matter.

Quite often it’s a major life event which launches us into a new life. I can’t emphasize the importance of riding that wave rather than hiding from it. It’s how we realize so much more of who we can be especially as we enter our later years.

Let’s get back to Diana. This detailed story does a much better job of revealing the rich history of this fascinating woman and her achievements. Coogle is the kind of example many of us can use as we consider how we wish to live out our lives.

Like many of us here on Substack, Coogle is a blogger, writer and author of a number of books. Her fascinating history of living off the grid, learning how to be fully in nature and allowing that experience to shape who she is and how she evolves are what interest me the most.

Let’s have friends, but let’s also have a diversity of friends

The older we get, the fewer mentors we have. My mentor, Meg, passed on at 92 when I turned 63, which is how old she was when I first met her. The torch gets shoved into our shaking and utterly unprepared hands. We still need people older, wiser, people with different experiences who can hold the torch for us as we figure out how to hold it aloft for those coming behind.

The more diverse our community, the richer our lives. We are inspired to experiment as we age when we meet and learn from people whose lives are vastly different.

Such people may well inspire us to do something simply remarkable to celebrate a milestone, like starting a new decade.

Social media- IF we use it wisely, that is- allows us to find, read about and perhaps even connect with extraordinary people. If we’re fortunate, they become examples we can learn from, admire and possibly, even emulate in our own ways.

I’ve reached out to Diana. No idea if there will be a response, but this:

You and I get absolutely ZERO percent of everything we don’t ask for.

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

I’m not telling you to hike 868 miles for your 80th birthday.

I am, however, suggesting that we expand our communities and connections. Let’s have people in our circles who motivate us. People who move us to go do something that we always dreamed of doing, but instead let the decades slip by. To that:

One woman down in Florida got her Rescue Scuba certification at 67 by pulling a 300-lb man out of the Gulf of Mexico. She also completed her Instrument Flight Rating at 68. That was a long-held dream. She did it.

What am I doing to fill these years? What’s MY next BHAG?

Yesterday I published a poignant story about a dream that I finally realized at 63:

That was eight years ago.

What have I done for myself lately, right?

Granted, starting in 2018 I’ve undergone twelve major surgeries: three shoulder, two foot and four hand reconstructions, one oophrectomy, emergency kidney stone removal and last year, a busted hip. I’ve had a near-fatal car crash. I’ve been on scooters and walkers and in boots and unable to use one hand, one shoulder, this foot, that foot, this hip now for one hell of a long time.

Not an easy few years. Bet you can relate. Some of you are dealing with this kind of thing right now, and I see you.

In some cases, I went adventuring anyway, such as paragliding in Thailand and horse riding in Colombia not long after hand surgery. But when your feet are down, so are you.

When your hip is busted, so are you. As I’ve written elsewhere, too many Americans over fifty die within a year of a broken hip. That number skyrockets over age 70, and the time frame for dying drops to three months.

I announced a BHAG to climb Kilimanjaro again on the tenth anniversary of my summitting the first time. Then I broke my hip in July ‘23, right when I needed to be training hard for that adventure.

Imagine you have a BHAG, and one fall in the garden ends you. While a busted hip didn’t end me, it sure ended that BHAG.

I push exercise and nutrition- starting right now- so that the next BHAG we have isn’t out of reach.

For some of you, much is out of reach, often for reasons not of your making. I get that, and mourn with you. I also know you’re making a difference in your own way, which is both brave and admirable. We work with what we have.

Since 2018 I’ve had plenty of time to think, write, wonder about what’s next, and work my ever-loving aging butt off to be able to walk again, much less hike, bike, ride, fly and all the rest.

Having had my fitness compromised, my mobility taken away, a good portion of my strength reduced and my feet changed forever, I’ve come to deeply appreciate what I once had. Enough so that regaining much of it is part of the BHAG, now that my life isn’t driven by how to move from chair to scooter and scooter to chair.

You really come to value mobility, fitness and options. Coogle was down two months for her foot surgery. I’ve been down two years for mine. Nerves have refused to regrow, and some options, like that second summit of Kilimanjaro, are not likely. But other options are available, just as many are to all of us.

Listening to the story about Coogle and reading about her life was a great push.

Now that I’m at least somewhat more mobile, what now?

What’s my next BHAG?

What’s yours?

Even if you’ve never had one, is now the time? Amy has one. Many of you are working on your own. What moves you is unique to you.

It simply needs to be something that stirs your soul, invites you to dream big for you, and inspires you to get after it. I hope you do, because time waits for none of us.

Let’s play.

The author in Madagascar, 2019, sunset after a horse ride

As always, thanks for taking this ride with me. I am eager to know if you’re inspired and if so, to do what for yourself? Please consider

If someone you know is need of a boost, please also consider

Above all, please play, and let’s do a lot of it, right now.