Good thread start!
I was on-and-off with goals in MA. I started just wanting to learn, gain some skills, and do something that felt cool (though I wouldn't have worded it that way at the time). I'm personally driven by the desire to be good at what I spend time on, so my pursuit was always trying to get good at specific skills. What I was driven toward varied over time. Sometimes I wanted to develop power (especially in strikes). I went through a time when smoothness was my objective. For a while it was precision (in strikes and other techniques). Later it was fluidity (being able to move from one technique to the next as soon as I felt the technique wasn't optimal).
Later, my focus went to really understanding what I was doing. That overlapped with the start of my teaching, when I also gained the objective of being able to teach better.
Rarely did I have my eye on a given rank. Brown was a goal for me as I got close to it, because that meant student teaching. Shodan - instructor rank in the NGAA - became a goal, because I wanted to be in the inner circle (I already was, but not formally).
Later, I wanted to improve the efficacy of the system and efficiency of my teaching, so I focused on curriculum and organization for a while. During that time, I also focused on better understanding what real application should be (so my curriculum could deliver that).
I never had what I'd refer to as a long-term goal (though I did have some long-term desires - they were just subjugated to other life concerns). I just focused on what interested me and what motivated me (I'm well motivated by being one of the best within a group - that's true of me at work, as well). Most of the time, I just enjoyed the flow of just going through the curriculum and ranks, focusing on whatever most interested me at the time.
I've never been big on competition in the sense of tournaments. My "competition" was trying to be the best (or at least among the best) of those around me. Even when I played sports, I liked the play enough that I wanted to play. I wanted to personally play well, but the gathering and play was more important to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed winning more than losing, but I mostly wanted to play. If the other team showed up without enough people and had to forfeit, I'd offer to play on their side so we could still play, though the game wouldn't count. I don't think I'd have done especially well at MA competition, because I doubt I'd be willing to go all-out. I always was willing to lose rather than cause injury, even in hard sparring. My training (which is how I view competition) was never worth someone getting hurt, if I had a choice. Me getting hurt (when I was younger) was of no importance to me, so I could train hard, but I always put the "hard" on myself. I wish I had competed in MA - I'd likely have gotten a lot out of playing with a wider group - but I never did.
