By Amy Schroeder 

All y’all creative entrepreneurs have absolutely no problem announcing Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.

From what I saw on January 5—during the second episode of #diychat—you excel at thinking big. (If you missed the January 5 #diychat, read highlights here.)

You showed up to the one-hour Twitter chat for entrepreneurs everywhere, armed with a #BHAG2012. Here are some examples:

“My #BHAG2012 is to build my own tribe and become a leader for creative entrepreneurs. Big enough?” —@lightboxsf (aka Lightbox SF: Empowering Creatives to Take Over the World)

“My Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal of 2012 is to do less—to be more focused on the most important things.” —@GrammarGirl (aka Mignon Fogarty, Founder of Grammar Girl)

“My #BHAG2012 is to develop a craft incubator in my community.” —@wunderaround (aka Beth of Wunder Around)

“My #BHAG for 2012 is to make sure everyone in Cincinnati knows about @CraftySupermkt.” — @GraceDobushToGo (aka Grace Dobush, a writer and editor at @HOWinteractive) 

Setting a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal is a great first step to making your dreams a reality. But people very rarely jump from Big Idea to Big Success in one go. You’ve got to do the work—which can be overwhelming if you don’t break your goal into chewable, bite-size bits.

Designing a six-month or year plan is a great way to map our your goals, but for now, we’re going to think about Next Attainable Action Steps for the month ahead. Here’s how this works:

Step 1: Flesh out your BHAG

“Baby steps! Imagine your BHAG; write down all the things that it will take to get there. Start doing them. It won’t go perfectly.” —@BusyBeaverCC (aka Christen Carter, Founder/CEO of Busy Beaver Buttons)

I’ll use my #BHAG2012 as an example. My #BHAG2012 is to become a leading philosopher and inventor of collaborative entrepreneurship.

I realize that my BHAG isn’t going to happen overnight. To me, the fun part of #BHAG2012 is creating a dream and chiseling away at it a little bit every week.

Here’s how I flesh out my #BHAG2012 of “leading philosopher of collaborative entrepreneurship”:

• Consistently studying entrepreneurs and documenting best practices in collaboration
• Publishing a major article about collaboration
• Speaking publicly about entrepreneurship

Step 2: Make a to-do list for the next 30 days 

“I believe in breaking things down to the most doable pieces. Want to travel the world? First, you need a passport.” —@GraceDobushToGo

To set Next Attainable Action Steps, think about what will help you take the first bite out of your #BHAG2012 that you can actually accomplish within a month. Be ambitious and reasonable about the amount of time that you have to work on your NAAS.

As an example, here’s what I plan to do in the next 30 days:

• Write a new bio and post it online. (DONE! Posted on diybusinessassociation.com/about)

• Research publications that I should pitch an article about collaboration to. Make a list, with notes.

• Research leading philosophers and philosophies about collaboration. Take detailed notes.

• Think about the angle of my collaboration article and how it will stand out from published articles about collaboration.

Step 3: Take your NAAS out of the closet.

“If you announce your next steps, you’re about 100% more likely to actually accomplish them.” —@diybusiness

Whether you tell a friend about your NAAS, write about it on your blog, Twitter or Facebook, or share your NAAS with a community of entrepreneurs, we highly recommend that you tell someone about how you plan to achieve your BHAG.

We invite you to post your NAAS in Comments (below).

On the DIY Business Association Facebook page wall.

Or on Twitter using the #BHAG2012 hashtag. 

Step 4: Do the work. When you’re done, pat yourself on the back.

“My #BHAG2012: to procrastinate later.” —@k_tighe (aka K. Tighe, Founder of Poor Taste, Former Venus Zine Editor, Former Splaslife Editorial Director)

“The satisfaction of crossing things off the list is a high that drugs only wish they could create.” —Creativist Jessica Delfino, in a DIY Business Association how-to called “How to take Your Own Best Advice.”

Join us for the February 2 #diychat about Your Next Attainable Action Steps. If you know what your NAAS are, rad. If not, let’s chat about them during #diychat.