No, I don't set any goals. I look for opportunities. They are either there or they are not. It's like anything else in life. I can't make opportunities suddenly appear just because I want them to be there. You can't impose your will on the market like you can on a trumpet or your GPA. The market is unique in that most of the variables you are working with are out of your control. If I wanted to learn how to play the trumpet, I can control how hard I want to practice. The market unfortunately does not work that way.
With regards to only making 7.5% a year, most professionals are not trying to beat the market on an absolute basis but rather on a risk adjusted basis. To accept the 7.5% return in equities you have to put up with 15% annual standard deviations. So most fund managers are trying to minimize their sigma while targeting index like returns. It's actually really hard to do and 99% fail at it. There is nothing wrong with having big goals, but if the goals cause you to stretch your risk out, that is where the issue is. Pretend your 11 year old said dad, I want to move to Hollywood and become a star. Nice lofty goal and you never know right? But would you let them move out there with no money, no where to live, no friends, and no plan? Of course not.
Most traders on ET only think in absolute terms, not in risk adjusted terms. And what most of them think of as alpha, is really just piling on leverage. You should have seen the outrage when US regulators limited FX margins to 50 to 1 from 300 to 1. They were burning cars and flags. LOL. The key here is not in making the most amount of money, but rather in making the most amount of money with the least amount of risk taking into account all your opportunity costs.