Just like any new venture there often comes a time when giving up seems like a good option. For the last few weeks, after a continuous stream of prizes, one after the other, there has been a bit of a drought in the winning department. However, I did commit to a year-long attempt at this so I won’t give up. Not yet! I have noticed a few things happening in these last weeks though. A little WOL fatigue has set in. I can’t seem to get as inspired in writing my answers as I was at the beginning.
Even recycling some of my old answers with a few changes have me a bit bored at times. It is partly because not as many competitions are exciting me at the moment. So I wait. It can also be a tad discouraging when, after putting in a lot of effort and thought into an entry, nothing happens. No emails of congratulations. No surprises at the door. No phone calls or texts. Nothing, even though I thought some of my answers were awesome.
Obviously they were not. The excitement when a prize arrives in the mail or by a courier at the door has worn off a little too. Despite an email just now arriving into my inbox announcing a win – a signed book pack from a local paper, I hesitate to jump for joy. Where are the big prizes? The overseas holidays? The new car? The sparkling kitchen appliances or technologically advanced vacuum cleaner? Those things I really wanted to win from the very first day.
I know I need some motivation so I turn to the Forum for inspiration. Yes, others are definitely winning even though their prizes are not big wins either. It’s great checking out the Forum every day to see what others are winning and what they are up to and read some of the comments, but that still hasn’t motivated me yet. I guess the lesson I need to learn and constantly remember is to never give up. I know deep down everything takes time and I still haven’t fully mastered the art of comping yet.
Perhaps a little break is in order as well as the contemplation of one of my favourite poems – TTT: When you feel how depressingly slowly you climb It’s well to remember – Things Take Time Then, just as quickly as the gloom on not winning for a while set in I suddenly feel the need to get back in the saddle. I scan the latest competitions on the website for those that are suitable, reasonably local and worthy of my entry. I fill out this weeks guess in the guessing competition and take a look at the surveys on offer. A quick check on the news feed on Facebook for any new leads is my next step.
A few phone calls to a couple of comping friends never goes astray. Finally I decide to wander around the aisles of my local supermarket and shopping centre with an eye out for that enticing word – WIN – and I am back at work. Then I quickly duck into my newsagent and pick up a puzzle book (with $95,000 worth of prizes on offer) and a $5 lucky lottery ticket.
This latest magazine also has 6 free Lotto entries. Well, you just gotta be in it! Finally I am home again to reflect on what I have won so far this year to prove just how far I have actually come. Not to mention all the wonderful friends and contacts I have made. And as I decided early on in this post – I won’t give up. So, don’t you give up too!