I set myself such goals a few years back, at the behest of my employer. As soon as I had quit that job and found something to do that I actually enjoyed, I sto

I set myself such goals a few years back, at the behest of my employer. As soon as I had quit that job and found something to do that I actually enjoyed, I stopped bothering... :-P Mostly kidding. Turns out, the thing I decided to do (start my own company with a heavy open-source emphasis, building something I hope will prove to be useful) was actually perfectly in line with the professional goals I had set myself, so I'm not sure it was exactly a wasted exercise. Short-term plans can be somewhat detailed, but long-term plans should be vague enough to leave you plenty of room to adapt - for me the point of such plans is to provide some "rules of thumb" or rough guidelines when making big decisions. Stuff (life) will happen no matter what plans you make, but there are lots of little choices to be made and if you've spent some time thinking about what you want to achieve long-term, that can make hard decisions just a tiny bit easier. Whether it "works" or not is impossible to say, ask again in 30 years. :-)