We hate dry-spells don’t we? Not winning prizes is the worst feeling for compers. Watching people celebrate their wins while we haven’t won anything. Questioning what we are doing wrong. Maybe certain people, that are not us, only win the comps. Questioning why did we start this hobby in the first place….STOP!
There are LOADS of reasons why you should start LOVING your dry-spell.
By stripping away the feeling of experiencing the dry-spell; we can to take a closer look at the advantages it has to offer – those same advantages that can magically change our comping melancholia into a buzz of optimism! Here are just a few advantages of going through a lean streak – maybe you can think of even more?
1) Appreciating past wins. There are always a few wins that, during a lucky streak, we forget about and don’t pay much attention to. If you keep a log of your wins – by any method, it could be a standard notebook, a pretty diarised scrapbook or even a cold hard database – you can look back on those forgotten prizes and try to conjure up how GOOD you actually are at winning!
2) Work harder, faster – A dry spell inevitably leads you into various questions on your performance. Taking a step back to look at the broader picture might provide you with some valuable insights into how to streamline your comping and make space for more entries.
3) Opportunity meets desperation – this is a great quote used by several entrepreneurs. When you are desperate, you tend to see things with more clarity than ever before. Sometimes this can lead you into envisioning a new way of doing things. For example, it could herald a new system that you use to track your entries, or a new scrapbook purchase so that you can log the wins that you do get with more oomph. None of these insights will happen when everything is going right because we usually comp under the maxim of ‘if it ‘aint broke – don’t fix it’.
4) Appreciating smaller wins – Whilst on a lucky streak, smaller wins are taken very lightly – if not forgotten completely. Whereas in leaner periods, these small wins feel great! They seem to symbolise something optimistic and maybe act as a sign that you on the up!
5) Expanding your usual bubble – If you are not winning on prize draws, a leaner period might tempt you into considering other types of competitions – be they question entries, e-mail entries and newsletter sign-ups. By expanding your usual types competitions you are broadening the range of opportunities to win.
6) Support from other compers – the best thing about entering competitions is our community. Everyone has gone through it. We all know how it feels and we know that it only takes a couple of wins to turn it around.
7) That next big win! Imagine going through a dry-spell and thinking even the smallest win will cheer you up…now…. what if the next one was big. Really big! You are going to be ecstatic!
Can you think of any other advantages of dry-spells? Are you going through one now? How do you perk yourself up during a dry-spell? Let us know in the comments below!