subject: How To Set Goals For Your Car Restoration Project [print this page] How To Set Goals For Your Car Restoration Project
Set You Restoration Goal
What is the real outcome or goal that you are looking for with your car restoration project? Do you want to restore the vehicle 100% or only partially? Is this going to be pretty much a lifetime project for you or are you looking at a specific time frame in which to complete the restoration? Are you intending on spending a big chunk of your life savings to complete this task or are you constrained by a hard budget? Setting your goals at the beginning will help you to answer all these questions and more and put you on the path to a successful restoration.
Create Your General Restoration Strategy Document
If you want your restoration project to be a success, you need a strategy for reaching the end of the project. And, to increase the chances of it being successful even further, put your strategy in writing. A huge aspect of your strategy has to include an implementation plan. It will describe, in detail, the major tasks that have to be performed as part of the project. As precisely as possible, it gives a ball park estimate of the costs that will involve. It also gives an honest estimate of the funds that are available to the project. The strategy document should also have a paragraph or two which justifies the project. The justification doesn't have to be monetary, it could solely be self satisfaction. Knowing exactly why you're doing something is always helpful for reaching your goals.
You should end each major task should end with the deliverable that you expect to have at the completion of that task. This deliverable ought to include the expected completion date along with who will perform the task - you personally or someone you outsource it to. The deliverables that you list here will also act as your progress report when you actually begin your implementation.
Create Your Detailed Restoration Strategy Document
The single intention of this document is to separate the primary projects listed in the general restoration strategy document into sub-projects. The advantage of this to you is that breaking down your big goals into smaller goals makes the project easier to accomplish. As you complete each sub-goal you automatically are taking small steps towards completing the main goal as well.
If you have a computer, a spreadsheet can be easily used to document and track your progress from start to finish. Simply create a grid, with headings for all of the task details that you want to track. These will include details like task name, task description, expected start date, actual start date, completion date, person assigned to and anything else that you want to track. Don't make it too complicated. The easier it is to fill in, the more likely you are to use it.
Once you start to actually implement the details on your spreadsheet, you will inevitably find yourself falling behind and will likely miss some of the target dates and deadlines. Family emergencies, unexpected money problems, and so on happen to the best of us. You also may find that you need to add additional tasks to the documents that were unexpected when you begin. As long as you are making progress and not missing too many of your target dates, you are doing fine. Simply adjust the dates and tasks as necessary and continue your forward progress.
The plan given here is only one example. Your plan, in now way has to be exactly like the one described here. If you have a plan that you're more comfortable with or have a successful one that you have used in the past, by all means use it. If you want to have a successful restoration project, the important thing is that you have a plan and use it.
