I was talking to Joe the other day about back recovery PT (everybody's doing it these days!), and I remembered that I used to have exercise goals like deadlifting 280 lbs.
I got as far as 230 or 240 before injuring my back, but the injury just kind of got better on its own, back in the heady days of my 30s.
But why was I trying to hit that number at all? The best I can guess is that I read that someone of my size should be able to lift that. Maybe picking some number and working toward it is a natural human tendency, which is why games and businesses have such an easy time manipulating people.