From a recent Carmelite Retreat:
"People with a mature relationship with God are contemplatives. Mystics are people with an intimate relationship with God."
From this I derive that the goal is to be a mystic. To be a contemplative is fine, but what I want and what God may grant if I want it enough ("For from the beginning heaven has experienced violence, and the violent take it by storm.") Nevertheless, it is His to grant or not to grant and blessed be the Lord in either case.
