We all have high expectations for the events that we plan; after all, isn’t success everyone’s ultimate dream? It’s not enough to simply wish upon a star and hope for the best, though. Even prayer, the most powerful tool in the world, cannot save your event if you don’t take the necessary steps to ensure its success in the first place.
A failed event can look a lot of different ways; maybe only a handful of people showed up to it. Maybe the people who went ended up hating it. Maybe you put more into it than you got out of it. Whatever the case may be, make sure you recognize the recipe for disaster before it happens.
Here are 3 behaviors that absolutely guarantee event failure:
Too much planning (or lack thereof)
There are two ways in which planning an event can cause the event itself to crash and burn and finding the right balance is essential.
- If you are a perfectionist planner, you could focus so much on the little details that the event as a whole fails to deliver.
- If you simply “wing” your event, the most important details that make it run may end up neglected.
Be sure you put a healthy amount of effort into your event so that it is able to run both smoothly and effectively. One of the best things you can do is put together a support team to help plan the retreat.
The “everything revolves around me” mentality
It can be so easy to make everything about us, especially when it comes to things that depend on us. But the truth is that the main goal of the event is not to benefit us, but to benefit others and ultimately to bring glory to God.
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” The only reason that we are able to plan and enjoy events is that God allows us to. All things belong to Him; if you keep holding onto something that isn’t yours, you may just wind up empty-handed. This will only hurt you and the people who you are influencing through your event.
Setting unrealistic goals
It’s good to have a vision. Furthermore, it’s good to have a vision with high standards, standards that challenge you and your team to do the absolute best that you can to make your event a success.
But there is such a thing as over-optimism; you can’t expect that your event will be everything you dream it will be. In fact, you should probably expect that not everything will go according to plan. For example, if you’re hosting your very first men’s retreat, don’t aim for a crew of 100 guys to sign up. Instead, pray for 10 lives to be impacted by the event.
Event success is not an assumption; it is a goal to be worked toward. It is something that matters, not because you’re involved, but because God is. And when God is involved, something special is bound to happen.
Did you know 6 ministries recently shared their favorite retreat planning tips? Read all about them here! You may also enjoy these amazing retreat planning books.