Aspirations - the forward-looking goals individuals set for their lives - have been increasingly considered as a concept for understanding poverty persistence and livelihood decisions in developing countries. This presentation asks what we have learned from employing this concept and what further potential it has for better understanding poverty mechanisms and for designing relevant interventions. Drawing on the literature and my group’s research, I review the conceptual foundations of the aspirations framework, discuss how aspirations are formed (and possibly eroded), and examine their role in productive efforts and livelihood choices. Evidence shows that moderately ambitious aspirations motivate effort to improve livelihoods, while aspirations far removed from current reality can lead to frustration and inaction. Consequences for designing helpful interventions, however, are not immediately clear or seem to differ little from what has been suggested based on other types of analysis.