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The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 3 AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPING
As company after company seek to make their mark on the buying public, competitions have become a significant way for these businesses to position themselves in their market place.
Wave after wave of competitions sweep across the nation, engulfing millions in the constant struggle to win otherwise unattainable, prizes with a single stroke of the pen or computer key.
By television, radio, newspaper and internet, come the startling announcements of ever- growing prizes by the competition sponsors. Cars, trips around the world, cash and an innumerable host of lesser prizes, are the targets at which the millions of Compers aim.
And with the flood of announcements, comes a universal plea from the vast majority of participants: "Where can we get help to assist us in winning?"
Comping may be on the verge of growing into a national pastime and, with its growth, comes the suspicion that the so-called competition experts have the inside knowledge to winning and that the amateur or beginner, is hopelessly outclassed and, to a certain extent, this is true.
The records of comping are full of stories about people who have accumulated a huge number of prizes, not through one big win, but from successive contests. There are people who have furnished their homes, built up their bank accounts through competition winnings and who now devote all their spare time to comping. In nearly every competition of considerable size, it is a certainty that the entries from these "professional compers" will be included.
Their skill, accumulated by years of comping, adds to the odds that the average person encounters when entering a competition. But the task is by no means hopeless. Anyone, at any time, is likely to get an idea that could translate into a prize-winning entry.
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 4 Comping is really just marketing and marketing is just the art of finding out what someone will respond to, getting your message read and making sure it is compelling enough to strike a powerful emotional chord. Make no mistake, the people judging competition entries are waiting to be impressed, even blown away.
The prize-winning idea may come at a most unexpected moment; again, it may be the result of painstaking effort and research. In either case, the person who has the idea is just as apt to be the beginner as the veteran. The first entry seldom brings a prize. Beginners should not be disappointed with early failure.
Comping is much like sales. The sales person approaches a number of prospects and, whilst they dont all buy, the small number that do make it all worthwhile. In the same way, a professional comper will enter a lot of competitions knowing that just one or two big wins a year make it all much more than worthwhile.
So rather than disappoint, those entries we fail to win should serve as a stimulus to greater effort. Each entry is an opportunity to practice and with every extra bit of practice, expertise, and therefore potential for success, grows.
The law of averages stays the same, but where the skill set improves and where competitions are selected to make use of that skill set, then the chances of winning become much greater.
Without skill, the opportunity to succeed is limited. Entering competitions, without any special preparation or serious thought, is usually a waste of time and postage.
At some point in time, the experienced and successful competition winner begins to expect to win!
This one point may be the defining factor that separates the competition winners from those that lose. A regular competition winner expects to win and, as a result, they see real value in putting appropriate effort, thought and planning into each and every entry. The expectation
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 5 of winning provides the motivation to apply lessons of the past, and skills attained over time, to the entry at hand.
Imagine receiving the following letter (our personal details have been deleted):
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 6
... or seeing the following advertisement in a magazine:
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 7 These are real prizes that we have won from competitions that we entered in supermarkets and magazines. Competitions that you could have entered and won as well!
The difference is that these regular competition winners think differently to most people when it comes to entering competitions and winning. In short, they think like winners! In the following pages, we will explore together the Psychology of the Competition Prize Winners.
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 8 DESIRE AND POSSIBILITY
Before we get into the Psyche Of A Winne,r I want to explore two fundamental issues that are central to all success. These are desire and possibility.
For anyone to have any success, they first need a sense of desire towards the goal. If there is no level of desire, then behaviours towards the goal just wont be displayed.
For winners, desire is not just moderate. It is compelling and self-evident. You can almost see it in the way they walk and talk about what they are going to do. Some might call it passion but whatever the label, a compelling and self-evident level of desire precedes all success.
Once the desire is strong enough, all success requires a sense of possibility. Without a sense of possibility, once again, there will be a lack of the appropriate behaviours. For anyone to be successful at anything, there must be a belief that the result is possible, for them, in their circumstances.
Possibility comes from evidence. When we get small bits of evidence that success is achievable, we get a new energy towards the next goal. This is why taking small and achievable steps are so important. Dont just wait for the big win - chase the small ones too! It is these small wins that convince your subconscious that the big wins are not only possible, but also, in fact, probable.
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 9 THE PSYCHE OF A WINNER
What makes the winners tick?
For the regular winners, the process of entering competitions is not just a matter of chance. It is like submitting a job application, making a sale or entering a sporting competition. The law of averages certainly says that they wont win every time but, by applying their skill, learning from their mistakes and using their ingenuity, the regular competition winner genuinely seeks to improve their chances by being the best entry submitted.
I have already compared comping to sales and marketing. Like sales and marketing, there are practical things we can do to be more successful. In the same way, it is equally similar to applying for a job.
Just like a job application, we dont win them all, but if we submit enough of them, we must be successful with some of them. And it is this game of numbers that matters most to the repeat winners. The game of numbers is the main thing that matters because the repeat winners dont just think (or hope) that they might win they know, through past experience, that they can and will win, if they enter enough competitions. Add to this the increased experience of what entries win and which ones dont, and the professional comper has a distinct advantage over the casual comper.
But does the psyche of a winner look any different to the psyche of those that dont win? Can anyone take on the psyche of a winner?
Research has provided some real insight into how winners think and act. There are really about ten areas of noticeable difference between winners and those that dont win. Across these areas, the fundamental difference is between having a positive perspective versus a negative perspective.
Even though this report is focused on winning competitions, it is worth understanding how winners in all walks of life, think and behave. Understanding this general view of winners is
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 10 key to being able to understand the psyche of a winner. Once we understand this psyche, we can start to act on it and try and display the winning psyche ourselves. If we think and act like a winner, we will likely become a winner!
The following secrets of the psyche of winners will certainly help you to win competitions and, to make sure of this, the sections after this one will focus these areas of psyche on competitions. But, if you apply these ten areas to all aspects of your life, you will likely find success in pursuits other than just comping. These ten areas of psyche are key to all avenues of success and are key to all repeat winners.
What then are these ten areas of the winning psyche? The areas of the winning psyche are really about how the winners view themselves. These are areas of self, dimensions of the individual and their perceptions about themselves and the world they live in. These areas of psyche are:
In each of these areas, an individual has a very basic, but very high impact, choice to make. In each area of self, or in each area of our psyche, we can choose a positive view or we can
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 11 choose a negative view. The choice we make has a significant impact on how we see ourselves and also how we view the world around us.
Life is really about choices, the choice between positive and negative!
The consequence of this choice is obvious. If we view ourselves negatively, we will also tend to view the world negatively and, subsequently, we tend to experience a lot of negatives in other words, we lose! Even when we do win, if we have a negative choice pattern, we still often see it as a loss. For example, a person with a negative choice pattern will run a race and after coming second they will say, I lost, I didnt come first. On the other hand, a person with a positive choice pattern would likely say That was good, I ran faster than everyone in the race except one person and if I can improve my start, I could beat them as well!
Winners repeatedly display a positive choice pattern even in adversity, and it is this positive choice pattern in each of the ten areas of the winning psyche, that make the winners seem like every thing falls in their laps. In reality, they attract success to them because of their positive choices. Ask yourself a simple question - at a party, do you gravitate towards the positive person or the negative person? Has the positive person just had all the conversation, attention and interest of other people at the party dropped in their lap, or did they attract it through their positive choice pattern?
Just so I am clear, when I talk about choice patterns I am talking about behaviour and emotion. Under all circumstances, do you adopt an emotion that will help you to win (curiosity, joy, enthusiasm, inquisitiveness, happiness, and so on) or do you choose emotional states that will limit your options and stop you in your tracks (sadness, disappointment, anger, frustration and so on)?
Making the right emotional and behavioural choice is central to the winning psyche!
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 12 So, lets look at these ten areas of psyche from a positive choice pattern point of view.
1. Positive Self-Expectancy The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is an overall attitude of personal optimism and enthusiasm. Winners understand the relationship between the body, mind and emotion. What our body does, our mind believes and we feel the corresponding emotion. If you dont believe me, just start pretending to yawn. Fairly soon, you will yawn for real, then you feel tired and your mind starts to tell you that sleep is required.
In the reverse way, what you think (tell yourself in your head) and the emotions you allow yourself to feel, will impact directly your experience of the physical world.
Winners know that life is a self-fulfilling prophecy; that a person usually gets what he or she actively expects. Your fears and worries turn into anxiety, which have real and measurable impact on your physical body; resistance levels are lowered and you become more vulnerable to disease and accident. Conversely, since your mind and body are trying to comply with your instructions and achieve balance, if your mental expectancy is healthy and creative, your body will seek to display this general feeling with better health, energy and condition of well being! This is why many common health concerns are often identified with emotional rather than, physiological causes. The entire process of the placebo effect in medicine is testament to this.
Obviously, your family genes and the gifts you have been naturally given, make a big difference. However, by expecting the best, as a way of life, you are preparing yourself physically as well as mentally for the demands of winning. As serious compers we expect to win every time. When we enter a competition for a trip, we check our diaries to make sure we will be available!
A Winners self-talk: I was good today but with more practice and a couple of improvements Ill be even better.
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Losers say: With my luck, I was bound to lose.
2. Positive Self-Motivation The positive self-motivation of winners comes from two sources: Their self-expectancy that we just discussed in the previous section, and Their awareness that, while fear and desire are among the greatest motivators, fear is destructive, while desire leads to achievement, success and happiness.
With this in mind, winners focus their thinking on the rewards of success and actively tune-out fears of failure. We are all self-motivated to some degree. Motivation comes from within, not from without. Individuals are motivated by their fears, inhibitions, compulsions, and attractions. They are pushed away from, or pulled toward, concepts and people who act as negative or positive magnets. We call this away from (motivation to get away from that which we dont like) or towards (motivation to get to that which we want) motivation.
However, it is impossible to move away from those things we dont want when we keep focusing on them. How can you not focus on that which you keep thinking about? When you do keep focusing on it, that is usually what you get!
We always move in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts. Most people spend a lot of their dominant thought time focused on their fears. Winners place most of their dominant thoughts on what they want.
People will change dramatically when its a matter of life or death, and people will change happily and effectively when they want to, or when something or someone they desire requires them to.
Dont wait for things to become life threatening, focus instead on getting what you want and desire.
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A Winners self-talk: I want to! I can do it!
Losers say: I have to. I cant.
3. Positive Self-Image Winners are especially aware of the tremendous importance of their self-image and of the role their imaginations can play in the creation of their self-image and their success.
The subconscious mind does not differentiate from imagined and real. It believes whatever our conscious mind has allowed to creep into the subconscious space. Within the subconscious, our self-image acts as a subconscious life-governing device. If, in your self-image, you cant possibly see yourself doing something, achieving something or winning something, you literally cannot do it!
The good news is that self-image can be changed since the subconscious is incapable of differentiating between a real success and a success imagined again and again, vividly and in full detail. Your behavior and performance are usually consistent with your self-image. You self-image is an intricately woven concept made up of all your feelings, fears, and emotional responses to each and every personal experience up to the present. As with any learned activity or skill, the self-image is housed at the subconscious or automatic level of thinking. What you imagine as being real, will frequently, become your own version of reality. Winners imagine and fantasize that successful person they would most like to become.
A Winners self-talk: I see myself improving, I see myself have small wins and eventually getting the big goal.
A Losers self-talk: I cant change things and Im stuck with things as they are.
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4. Self-Direction Winners in life have clearly defined, constantly referred to, game plans and purposes. They know where theyre going every day, every month, every year. Their objectives range all the way from lifetime goals, to yearly goals, to ninety day goals and down to monthly, weekly and daily priorities.
When winners are not actively pursing their goals, theyre thinking about them hard!
They know the difference between goal-achieving acts and those things that we just do for pleasure. Purpose is the engine that powers their lives. Everyone has purpose.
Winners are more motivated by a positive result, whilst everyone else is motivated by a pleasing method. In other words, winners do what it takes - everyone else does what feels good at the time!
For winners, personal growth, contribution, creative expression, and sharing, loving relationships seem to be common goals that make them successful people. Clearly defined, written down goals are the tools that make purpose achievable, yet less than 8% of the population have written down goals.
The mind is a processing machine and it needs specific instructions and directions. The reason most people never reach their goals is that they dont define them, learn about them or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable (remember the sense of possibility). In other words, they never set them. They fail by default.
Winners can tell you where they are going, approximately how long it will take, why they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. To win, get a plan and then stick to the plan!
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 16 A Winners self-talk: I have a plan to make it happen. Ill do whats necessary to get what I want.
Losers say: Ill try to hang in there muddle through the day somehow or do whatever is easiest first.
5. Self-Control The positive self-control of a winner is acceptance of 100% responsibility for causing the effects in his or her life. Winners are, what are referred to as, at cause. They see themselves as at cause of everything that happens to them and so, as a consequence, they can take action to change what happens to them.
Winners realize they personally have the power to take control of many more aspects of their lives, both mental and physical, than most others believe possible.
Many people are what is referred to as at effect. They are at the effect of the environment around them. They believe that what happens to them cannot be controlled and as a consequence they must just put up with whatever happens.
Make no mistake - youre the driver in the drivers seat in your own life. You can learn how to respond and adapt more successfully to the stresses in life by accepting responsibility today for causing your own effects. Be at cause the majority of the time. You alone hold the key to your reactions to situations. Know that there is no such thing as a victim of circumstances, we are all actually victims of our response to the circumstance.
Remember, its not so much what happens that counts in life; its how you take it that counts. The real essence of Positive Self-Control is that nearly everything in life is volitional and that each of us has many more choices and alternatives than we are willing to consider.
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 17 We even have control over certain body functions that we thought were purely voluntary. Winners really do make it happen for themselves.
A Winners self-talk: I take total responsibility for my performance and what happens to me.
Losers say: Why do all the bad things happen to me.
6. Self-Discipline Positive self-discipline is the ability to maintain self-control from within.
Winners are masters of the art of managing their own stimulations.
Like astronauts, championship athletes, great stage performers, skilled surgeons, and truly professional executives and salesmen, they practice flawless techniques in their minds over and over, again and again. They know that mental rehearsal leads to great success.
Winners understand the simple routine for learning a skill or habit and they focus on it. We learned how to walk, talk, ride a bike and drive a car, so why is it so difficult for us to apply learning to our most important life goals? Everything we do is habit- forming if it is repeated! Self-discipline alone can make or break a habit.
Self-discipline is the winning edge that achieves goals. Self-discipline is mental practice the commitment to memory of those thoughts and emotions that see us through in all situations.
A Winners self-talk: Of course I can do it! Ive practiced it mentally a thousand times and I will keep on practicing it!
Losers say: How can you expect me to do it? I dont know how!
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7. Self-Esteem Winners have a deep-down feeling of their own worth.
Whilst all of us have our weaknesses and deep down flaws, winners know that these do not define us. They do not rely on genetics or upbringing to give them their success. History is full of examples of people who have come from real hardship and then went on to achieve great things.
Accept yourself as you are right now an imperfect, changing, growing, worthwhile person. Realize that liking yourself, and feeling that youre a super individual in your own special way, is not necessarily egotistical. In addition to taking pride in what you are accomplishing, more importantly, enjoy the unique person that you are just in being alive right now.
Understand the truth that although we as individuals are not born with equal physical and mental attributes, were born with the equal right to feel the excitement and joy in believing that we deserve the very best in life. Most successful people imagine and believe in their own worth, even when they have nothing but a dream to hold on to. Perhaps more than any other quality, self-esteem is the door to healthy, high achievement and happiness.
A Winners self-talk: I do things well because Im that type of person.
Losers say: Id rather be somebody else.
8. Self-Dimension Winners see themselves in such a fully formed perspective, that they literally become part of the big picture of life and it of them. They are at one with the world.
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 19 They have learned to know themselves intimately. They have learned to see themselves through the eyes of others. They have learned to feel as one with nature and the universe. And they have learned to be aware of time their opportunity to learn from the past, plan for the future, and live as fully as possible in the present.
Winners have a well tuned sense of perception. They are not blind to those things they need to improve or those things that they do well and need to capitalise on.
Winners believe in an abundance mentality. Winners practice the double-win attitude: If I help you win, then I win.
Winners really get the concept of karma!
A Winners self-talk: I live every moment, enjoying as much, relating as much, doing as much, giving as much as I possibly can.
Losers say: Im only concerned with me today.
9. Self-awareness Winners know who they are, what they believe, the role in life they are presently filling, their great, personal potential and the future roles and goals, which will mark fulfillment of that potential.
They have learned these things and are constantly adding to their knowledge through experience, insight, feedback, and judgment. As a result, they continuously build on their strengths and correct weaknesses. Their judgments are characterized by extreme self-honesty. They dont kid others and they dont kid themselves.
They live in the moment and they make every moment a moment of truth about themselves.
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 20 You have been selling yourself short all of your life. Open your eyes to the possibilities and alternatives available in your life. Change your attitude and your lifestyle, and your many environments will change automatically. Understand your own uniqueness. Appreciate the difference in others. Relax and learn to respond positively to stress. Change for the better that which can be changed. Remove from your presence those negative influences that cannot be changed. Adapt and adjust to those negative influences that cannot be changed or removed.
A Winners self-talk: I know who I am, where I am coming from, and where I am going and what I need to have around me.
Losers say: Who knows what I could do if I only had the chance.
10. Self-projection Winners practice positive self-projection. They understand that projection is perception, meaning that how they project themselves to others is the main thing that determines the perceptions others form about them.
They project their best selves every day in the way they look, walk, talk, listen, and react. They specialize in truly effective communication, taking 100% of the responsibility not only for sending information or telling, but also for receiving information or listening for the real meaning from every person they contact.
Winners are aware that first impressions are powerful, and that interpersonal relationships can be won or lost in about the first four minutes of conversation, and that relationships determine, more than anything else, their success.
A Winners self-talk: Tell me what you want, maybe we can work on it together. Can I take some time to understand your perspective first?
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 21 Losers say: Theres no point in discussing it, were not even on the same wave length.
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 22 TEN RULES FOR SUCCESS
Ten rules winners will follow above all else!
These ten rules are written with you in mind as the winner. Read these as they apply to you and make some assessments on how well you do in each of these rules.
Rule Number 1 Create a positive expectation of desired results by acting as though what you want has already happened.
Rule Number 2 Create powerful, personal motivation by making sure that you have something highly desirable to move towards rather than being driven by what you are trying to get away from.
Rule Number 3 Reinforce your expectation by creating a strong image of personal success in which you see yourself learning what you need to learn, and doing what you need to do, so you can achieve what you want to achieve.
Rule Number 4 Establish a crystal clear set of goals and actions (your game plan) that drives what you do each day, each month, each year. Create such a strong sense of purpose that it can act as your personal success engine.
Rule Number 5 Take 100% responsibility for all aspects of your life and constantly pursue full control over your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual life. There is no such thing as failure. There are only results, and these results are the outcomes of our actions. Winners take full responsibility for their own actions and the results they deliver.
Rule Number 6 Create a habit of self-discipline. Precede all practical success with mental success create a mental picture of success and the requirements of success, including the actions needed at an individual level, and then execute these actions with discipline.
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Rule Number 7 Maintain a robust sense of self worth. Recognise the unique qualities that you have to contribute to your own success,s and focus on these strengths rather than worry about the weaknesses.
Rule Number 8 Make the effort to be a player in the bigger picture of life rather than a spectator. See the big picture and learn to observe yourself through the eyes of others in order to improve. Become a part of the environment and be more aware of time and the present moment.
Rule Number 9 Work out who you are, what you believe and what you think your real role in life is. Explore your own personal potential and discover those roles and goals that will fulfil this potential.
Rule Number 10 Project yourself positively every day. Learn to communicate effectively and to take full responsibility for information both given and received. Stay aware of the importance of first impressions and look, walk, talk, listen and react from your most positive self.
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 24 SELF-ASSESSMENT HOW DO YOU RATE WITH THE RULES FOR SUCCESS?
Rate yourself against the rules for success (previous pages) on the table below. For each rule, rate yourself from 1 to 6 based on how you think you do with that rule right now. Then list just one or two key behaviours, that you currently display, that support that rule, that you would like to keep and two behaviours (or absence of behaviours) that you would like to change.
No Rating Habits/behaviour I want to keep Habits/behaviour I want to change
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
2
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
3
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
4
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
5
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
6
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
7
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
8
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
9
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 Poor Excellent
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THE RULES OF SUCCESS FOR COMPING!
Choosing to win!
The rules for success come directly from the ten areas of the psyche of a winner.
These rules for success provide a guidance system for the winner to follow notably, these rules are all about how the winner conducts themselves and not how they hope others will behave.
Just as the winners in life make their own conscious choice to think and behave like a winner, winning competitions is also a conscious choice. People who win a lot of competitions tend to exhibit many of the same rules that the winner in life demonstrates.
The rules to follow for comping success: 1. Expect to win, someone is going to and it is likely to be you. Enter competitions expecting to get the prize instead of thinking you wont win. 2. Dont ever take any prize for granted. Each prize should be celebrated and enjoyed so that the thrill of winning remains as a constant source of motivation. Tell people about your wins and share your success so you enjoy it more. Give away some prizes to friends and family so the enjoyment (and the sense of motivation) is spread further than just your own level of awareness. 3. When you are going for a prize you really want, visualise yourself winning the prize and enjoying it. Make sure you are prepared to cover any additional costs (e.g. the cost of an extra ticket for the fifth member of the family in a trip for four) and if you are, really see yourself with the prize. Let that picture of success guide the amount of effort you are prepared to put in. 4. Get an action plan in mind for each competition and for your overall competition commitment. In individual competitions, get a plan for the entry and then go for it. Considered thought is required for a winning entry and it is this process of thought
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 26 (and the elimination of ideas that dont gel), that lets you know when you may have a winning idea. 5. Know that there are only results. If you dont win, dont fall into the trap of thinking the judging is flawed or biased. Assume that your entry wasnt good enough, try to find out what you could have done better and then let it go. Your entry is your own responsibility and the results you get are a function of the strategies you adopt. Comping is like marketing; you have to take full responsibility for the message in order to hang in long enough to find out what will work. 6. Stay focused and disciplined. Comping is, in part, a game of numbers. Keep sending in the entries and the wins will start to pile up. When you stop sending in entries it can take two or three months for the winning habit to kick in again. Make your comping a habit; attend to regular and one-off competitions with commitment and self-discipline. Dont put off until tomorrow what is likely to close today. 7. You have just as much chance of winning as anyone else because you have your own unique perspective and ideas. Maintain a sense of self worth and know that you are just as capable as anyone else of creating a winning entry. 8. Look at the bigger picture. Dont just look at competitions from your own perspective. Learn new skills, new ways of presenting an idea and a new way of looking at a problem. By doing this, you might just happen upon a different entry that others havent thought of. Find out what the promoter is looking for and what other people find interesting so you can include these views in your entry. Live in the moment and see the detail! Be as specific as you can to the particular competition you are entering. 9. Most successful compers tend to find those types of competitions that they are particularly successful at winning. Whether it be 25 words or less, rhymes, creative entries, telephone entries, radio and television comps or any of the myriad other types of competitions around, you will likely be especially good at certain types. Find out what your comping specialty is and what you most enjoy entering. You will likely be
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HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 27 much more successful at those competitions you just love to enter and are quite good at entering. 10. This final rule for comping really is exactly the same as the 10 th rule of success. Project yourself positively everyday. Remember the importance of first impressions. Make your entry immediately stand out. Let yourself standout as a successful comper. People will want to help you from the shop assistant who gives you extra entry forms to the family members who keep all their newspapers for you to cut out the entry forms. When you project yourself positively others almost immediately want to help. After all, if you dont think you can win, why should anyone else? And if they dont think you can win, why would they want to help you?
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 28 ACTION! THE DECIDING FACTOR Do it rather than talk about it! With comping, as with life, the key to success is ultimately ACTION! Remember: A goal without action is just a dream; action without a goal is a waste of time; a goal with ACTION, can change the world! For comping success, you must set a clear goal to enter as many competitions as possible and also, ideally set a goal for what you would like to win. Joanne Bowen, author of Revealed Everything You Need To Know About Winning Competitions, set herself three broad goals: the car, the cash and the trip. Interestingly these have all come true. She has far exceeded these goals and has to date amassed approximately $600,000 worth of prizes (which isnt a cash value to be sneezed at!). Remember, when you set a goal and take action against that goal, amazing things can happen. Many people say I never win but in truth, they never enter! Or at minimum they dont enter enough. It may seem like the regular competition winners win everything but, in fact, they probably only have about a 5% conversion rate, winning just over one in twenty competitions (either the main prize or a consolation prize) but for me, over the years, the prizes we did won, have more than made up for the cost and time of the 95% we didnt win. Nobody else sees all the ones we dont win! To put this into context, direct response marketing (you know all the brochures and things that get sent to you personally, and the emails you get in your inbox) only convert at about 1% so our comping success rate is ahead of that, and is much more fun! For massive results you need to take massive action, and this means entering everything you can. If the overall rewards can match those that others are earning, isnt it worth it. If you knew a prize of some sort would turn up every week, wouldnt you enter every competition
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 29 you saw. Well, the regular winners do expect a prize to turn up every week and, as a consequence, they dont see the competitions that they dont win as a failure. These competitions are simply a necessary part of the statistics the successful comper needs to amass in order for a win. Where the average person doesnt win and then says, See, I never win, the successful comper will have an awareness of their strike rate and, when unsuccessful with an entry, will say, Im about due for another win. Taking ACTION requires an understanding of three basic principles that apply to winning competitions: 1. You have to be in it to win it! Thinking about entering, talking about entering and meaning to enter, simply dont cut it! You can only win when you actually enter. Being in it to win it means applying the rules for comping success every day. Being in it to win it means treating every competition like a job application getting it in on time, exactly the way they want it entered and with the effort necessary to get them to choose you. Comping is a numbers game and the more you enter, the more you can win! 2. The harder the competition is to enter, the easier it is to win! Competitions that are difficult for most people to enter (hard to find the forms, difficult to come up with an idea, need to collect multiple bar codes, etc), are the ones in which you will have the greatest success. There is a direct correlation between the degree of difficulty and the number of entries. You definitely want to be in the difficult comps and this means laser targeted action in order to get an entry in where others would give up. Additionally, the more you enter, the better your skills become. 3. You cannot win by yourself. In almost all competitions, someone else will help you out in some way. To be successful you will need a side network of helpers and these people will willingly assist you to win. When you do win be generous. The world works on the basis of giving and receiving. We breathe in, we breathe out it is a
The Psychology Of Winning The Success Mindset Of Competition Winners
HowToTakeWinCompetitions.com 30 natural cycle. We cant breath in and then just keep it all! If you manage to build a great success network, dont forget to reward it. It is a fact that ordinary people win competitions. They are not marketing gurus or a secret club of super powered beings that fix all the results! They are mums and dads, men and women, children and teenagers, who simply give it a go and stick at it. They almost intuitively apply the ten rules of winning competitions (which are based on the ten rules of success) and they take action. So dont just read this study guide, do something about it. Take ACTION! Dont be a dreamer be a winner! Dont be one of the many that say they never win anything be one of the few that know they can, and do, win wonderful prizes. The secret is out you really do have to be in it to win it! So why not take ACTION today!