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I find a few mental milestones to be a big help, like benching 1.25x body weight, squatting 200 lb and so forth.

For a long-term goal I kind of like the "5 plate deadlift." Bar + 5 plates on each side. I figure that would be cool. 1 rep, possibly around a birthday

Besides thinking that goal would be satisfyingg, I feel like I've learned enough and lifted enough to realize that such a goal is very doable. It's just a matter of patience, work, eating, and sleeping. Just simply knowing that it is doable is also cool.

I agree ... I've only had one main goal which was getting my bench strength up, and subsequently ignored other important lifts such as squats & deads. I could go into the details of why but that would just be a list of excuses.

SO, with that said I was looking for basic overall strength standards for compound lifts and found them here at EXRX based on body weight. For my weight I came up with the following ratios, and I now have some solid goals to follow for the major lifts (which in the short run is a focus on Squats & Deads).

Mid Term (Long Term)

Squat = body weight x 1.6 (2.1)
Dead Lift = body weight x 1.9 (2.6)
Bench Press = body weight x 1.2 (1.6)
Press = body weight x 0.8 (1.0)

you've got to set goals, keeps you motivated. Ken your goal of 5 plates a side is pretty badass!

now I think about it, there was a thread at the start of the year for goals in 2011, I'm gonna go bump it.