After a lifetime of drifting aimlessly, with predictable results, at the start of this calendar year I sat down and wrote myself a personal development plan for my life for the next twelve months, complete with SMART objectives and key performance indicators - just like I was supposed to have done at work but did not get round to (there is still time, the reporting year ends in April.) (One of the objectives on my life PDE is to avoid getting sacked under discipline and inefficiency procedures - KPI: stop wasting time online and actually do some work.)
On the whole I think this approach has been beneficial. It is not necessarily helping me to all my goals, but it is providing a focus for my displacement activities: in order to justify to myself not spending the time that I should on making progress towards one objective, I work instead at meeting the KPIs for another.
Of course life can take unexpected turns, so, just as you would at work, you have to be prepared to revisit your life plan and make changes as necessary. If I win the lottery I shall probably tear the plan up and use it as toilet paper.
The point about objectives, as others have said, is that they should be within your own control.* There is no point in setting 'win a BAFTA' as a goal, but 'complete the bloody script' works quite well; similarly I may or may not meet the love of my life, but by setting a target for the number of women I ask out, I increase my chances of getting a leg over.
I may revisit this thread in December and let you know how well, or otherwise, this rather sad approach has worked out for me.
* Scott Adams in The Dilbert Future recommends visualising ambitious goals that are outside of your control, on the basis that this worked for him, so it must be the right approach. This is of course a logical fallacy. The secrets of successful men can equally be the secrets of abject failures, it is just that the latter are less likely to brag about them.
and thank you 