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Dealing with Disappointment...

dwinhold

Hello community,

 

I haven't seen this ever brought up before, so I figured I would talk about it.

 

Scenario:

 

So I competed in a challenge and created what I proposed. My design worked great, went that extra mile with my creation. Posted many blogs and followed the rules of the competition. I was very proud of my accomplishment figuring, "I have got this, how can I not win!!".

 

Result day, I have to see what I won (Since I had to win). WHAT? How could I not win? This isn't fair.. image

 

I'm sure I am not the only one who has felt this way (If I am, I'd be surprised).

 

Stages of not winning:

First comes disappointment (about 10 minutes of this stage)

Then the "So unfair" stage. How did I not win, I had this. What were the judges thinking?

Stage 3, I don't want to compete anymore. Why should I compete, create the perfect project and still lose.

Stage 4, after felling sorry for myself for a few days I start thinking, "What did I do wrong?".

Final stage, read in detail every competitors blogs (especially the winners) and see what they did differently.

 

After spending days reading the blogs I realized, "My project was great, I learned a lot, but it wasn't winning material". Reading the winning blogs made me realize how far off the mark I was. Sure my project was the best in my mind, but my blogs, videos and photos were sub-par. Lacking the fine details that could have made it a winning project. The winners of the challenge more then deserved it, great blogs, impressive videos and photos.

 

Boy do I feel like an ass, the way I felt about loosing. I suffered from the sore loser syndrome.

 

What did I learn?

So what did I learn? Well, I learned so much from my project and my abilities greatly improved. After reading the other competitors blogs, I learned a bit more about how to create better blogs of my own. It was my own fault, not the judges for not winning. For me to think that the reason I didn't win was everyone else's fault and not my own now makes me feel real bad. The winners deserved to win (Great job to all the competitors).

 

In closing, there are reasons for how well I did in any challenge and to learn how to improve for the next one.

 

I hope I am not alone on this,

 

Dale W

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  • Dale,

     

    I can relate to the emotional roller coaster that you have described.  I have felt that I too had it in the bag, only to discover that my entry was not good enough in the eyes of the judges (I can only image the disappointments that I have assisted in, having judged several of these contests).  I feel that you have described the cycle well and hopefully learn from the process.  Good luck in you future projects and by all means keep trying!

     

    Gene

  • in reply to genebren

    I have definitely had some major flops from a winning expectation point of view, especially before I came to grips with accepting the judging process.

    The project where I actually invested the most effort of any of my projects (and generated the most blogs and met all objectives) - didn't even rate an honorable mention.

    Thankfully it didn't stop me from further participation.

    I am not keen to be a judge, but the one time I was a judge, I published the criteria I would use to score the projects.

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  • in reply to genebren

    I have definitely had some major flops from a winning expectation point of view, especially before I came to grips with accepting the judging process.

    The project where I actually invested the most effort of any of my projects (and generated the most blogs and met all objectives) - didn't even rate an honorable mention.

    Thankfully it didn't stop me from further participation.

    I am not keen to be a judge, but the one time I was a judge, I published the criteria I would use to score the projects.

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