Our goals have for sure changed over time. Here's how:
Initially, my goal was simply for my daughter to learn how to do a back handspring. That's it! She wanted to be like all the cheer girls on the playground at school so I just googled for a place to teach her that. So, we signed her up for rec at age 8 with only simple tumbling in mind.
Then, very soon after that she was asked to team. I had no clue kids even competed gymnastics in our area. I had never known anyone's kids to do that so really didn't know it was even a thing. We asked my daughter if she wanted to compete and shockingly she agreed. I say shockingly because she was very, very, very shy and reserved at that point (like she barely talked at school during kindergarten and first grade at all- and had never agreed to participating in any sport or activity prior to agreeing to gymnastics). So our new goal with supporting her joining the team was simply to farther promote her socialization and self-confidence and give her something to be proud of and something to relate to other kids with.
After seeing how much confidence she gained we of course wanted to continue to nurture this activity which was bringing about so much positive change in her. Into year two of gymnastics, I still had no idea there were even college gymnastics teams. And I especially had no clue there scholarships and what kind of work it took to get there. We were still just focused on the immediate goal of keeping her engaged in this new found love of hers because we were so excited to see her opening up to others through gymnastics.
Then, year 3 she was invited to join JO and whole new world opened up. Hours vamped up, intensity increased and all this talk about being on a college track and stuff started. Now, we are exactly 4 years to the month from when she first walked in a gym and training Level 9 and while we (her Dad and I) still try to stay realistic and focused on the short term benefits of gymnastics for her, SHE now has her own gymnastics goals which do include reaching Level 10, then competing at Nationals and then continuing gymnastics into college.
Sometimes I still can't believe that learning that darn back handspring has led to all of this!
My new goal for her is to be happy, active and have fun. It doesn't necessarily have to be in gymnastics, as I've signed her up for a couple of other activities (diving & trapeze) that I would be more than happy if she decided to prioritize instead of gymnastics, which I think is too time-intensive and expensive especially as she moves up in the JO track. Right now she enjoys diving and trapeze when she gets some extra time, but gymnastics is her passion. This may change as she moves up the levels because she's also a kid who values her social life outside of school and the gym. Her dive coach told me that she wants DD to switch over to being a competitive diver who does gymnastics for fun rather than the other way around. I gave her my blessing to try and convince DD to re-arrange her priorities. 
