5 year plan

One key item is whether you want to go wide or deep.
Wide = understanding how IT helps the organization stay in business and then helping select/deploy IT
Deep= knowing everything about a particular application/technology and improving its performance/use in the organization.

Risks/rewards:
Wide=requires political savvy, has high visibility; firing likely if you lead new initiative that fails...but you are quite employable elsewhere.
Deep=easy to just do your job tasks, can see personal results; if your application/technology is replaced by new shiny thing selected by Wide specialist then you're at high risk of layoff.

("3rdCareer"=many scars from choosing both routes above at various times. )

Really, this is not so different from any career path involving personal growth -- such medsurg nurse to either float nurse (wide) or clinical specialist (deep).