When I was in school, I was working at a pizza place making $4.50 an hour. I made $40K at my first job after graduation. I made a promise to myself that i'd double my salary every five years and complete whatever academic/professional training needed to accomplish that. I've been in the professional arena for about 8 years now, changed three jobs and am making close to $150K now. Offcourse there have been a bunch of other achievements along the way that I am very proud of, but that's not the point.
The idea is to create a benchmark of whatever floats your boat. Continue to work towards the goals you've set for yourself and re-evauate your goals atleast every couple of years to see if they are still achievable with the present level of effort.