I told my coach last year, around my 28th birthday, that I wanted to land an axel by the time I was 30. At the time I had just begun consistently landing flips. She gently suggested that maybe I might want to amend the goal to just be working on an axel by 30.
Eight months later, I'm working on lutz, and I think she was probably right, because jumps definitely don't come easily to me. She actually asked me a couple of months ago if I wanted to try an axel, and I hesitated so we did bell jumps instead. I do work on waltz-loop-backspins, so I think I will definitely be solidly working on an axel well before 30, and I'm OK with that.
When I started skating, my goals were vague...jump and spin. If you'd have told me then I'd ever have a decent scratch spin or that I'd even able to change feet on a scratch spin, sort of do a sit spin, eek out a few rotations on a camel...I'd have been amazed. Goal setting is good, but I think doing tests and competitions has kept me focused better than goals that I may not make and then will beat myself up for.