From The Contest Queen

“There is no failure. Just a delay in results.”
Helene Hadsell

As I cleaned out my inbox today I came across an article that my friend Lori sent me called: The Secret is out - and it works! After viewing the movie The Secret the author, Sharon set, what some would think would be an impossible goal.  She decided that the next time she ate pizza it would be in Venice, Italy on a specific date at a specific time.  Sharon didn’t worry about the how; as the how is is domain of the Universe.  Instead she took action.  She told all her family, friends (and probably anyone else that would listen) about her goal.  You can guess how her story turned out.

It reminded me about how I won my trip to London England.  I picked a specific goal - going to London, I focused on it everyday - written out on a 3×5, I took action - entered every contest to London I could find, and told all my friends - because you never know who can help you (eg. send you a new contest link, take you with them on their win, etc.) and believed I would win.  I just didn’t know when.

Get a jump on your New Year’s goals.  What do you want to win by December 31st 2009? 

Here is one of my goals: I am so glad the first car I am winning will be parked in my driveway soon.

Notice I said first, implying I will win more than one car in my lifetime!  Also, I first typed “I look forward to winning my first car.” but that only puts the goal into the future and since I don’t live in the future, I live here NOW, I needed to make the goal present, now.  So watch your wording when you write out your goals too.

Back to Helene’s quote at the top of this post.  She says just because we want it now doesn’t mean we will get it immediately or that we should have it now.  The Universe has perfect timing.  Helene’s goal is to be a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.  She has focused on that goal for 2 1/2 years now.  You would think she would have given up after so much time, but she hasn’t.  She still focuses on it everyday knowing when the time is right, she will be on the show.  So if I only focused on my goal of a romantic trip to London for a few weeks and won it within three months, I wonder what else I can win, do, be, or have?!!

What can you win, do be or have?

One of my favourite authors, Michael Losier, has his own show on XM Radio airing on the Oprah and Friends channel several times per week. (Full channel schedule here.)

You may recall I quoted Michael’s book The Law of Attraction (LOA) in the Attracting Luck section of my book. Michael’s book is a real law of attraction HOW TO. He divided his book into three easy steps:

1. Identify Your Desire
2. Raise Your Vibration
3. Allow It

It wasn’t until I read his book did I realize that I had been missing step three. He also includes many other tips and tricks which are really easy to follow.

XM Radio is offering a 30-day free trial offer to listen online, so sign-up and tune in. (You can even email your LOA questions to Michael to be answered on air.)

I have been entering and winning consistently for the past seven years, yet for the past two we have only won one big grand prize and it came in my husband’s name. I wanted to know why I wasn’t winning “the big ones”. Then I discovered something interesting about the Law of Attraction and duality.

You have to be here to win, especially big. Let me explain. We live in a world of duality: on/off, up/down, happy/sad, win/lose, etc. I have a tendency to live in the future. What do I mean by that? Well, I am a planner. I like to plan my day, my week, my life because it gives me the illusion of control. (If you like to control your life and circumstances, I have bad news for you, you are not really in control. None of us are.) While I am busy planning, I am in the future at the meetings, events and trips. (This is different than visualization where you feel as if you are driving the new car now.) I found out if you are anywhere other than here, you are no where.

If you are no where, instead of now here (the duality), the Law of Attraction will not work. The three steps are: Ask, Believe and Receive. If you are no where, then it’s like placing and order, moving and not telling anyone. The order arrives, finds no one home and returns it undeliverable. The items gets put back in the warehouse and is delivered to the next person that places the order.

So, for the next little while I am not focusing on prizes or wins. I am focusing on being here. I am here, now. I am present, now. (It will be interesting to see if any of the orders I placed with the Universe in the past show up since I am now “at home”.)

I highly recommend listening the the four part webcast about Jill Bolte Taylor’s life changing experience and how she learned to live in the now.

I am now here and you can be too.

Knowing how much I like the Law of Attraction, or anything else to do with abundance and fun, my friend Lisa send me a link to a very cool website: The Cosmic Ordering Website.

The site looks like any basic online store. What makes this site unique and fun is you get to place your order, for health, wealth, love, grand prizes, or anything else you desire, with The Universe, for FREE!

Place your order, know it has been received and expect your order to be filled promptly. What are you going to order today?

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One of my favourite Law of Attraction books is Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks. In it they talk about the flow of life and equate it to a river. What most of us do is put our boat into the river, face upstream and paddle very hard. They suggest letting go of the oars and “going with the flow”. I did that yesterday.

I had an appointment downtown Toronto at 7:30am. Since it take just over an hour without a lot of traffic to get downtown from my house I left at 6:15am. I turned on the radio. The music station I was listening to did not air the news before I got on the highway. I got to the edge of the next town and came to a grinding halt. I thought, “Oh no.” I switched to the all news radio station. There had been an truck roll-over. The road was down to one lane. I slowly made my way to the next exit. I called ahead and let them know I was going to be late.

I had now been on the road an hour. I made my way slowly through town. Seems everyone else had the same idea. I felt like turning back but ignored the thought. I forged ahead. I kept trying to find a better route, to no avail. At one point I even had the thought, “Every decision I am making this morning is a bad one.” I felt as if I was paddling upstream. Pushing against the world and it was pushing back, hard.

I finally made it past the accident scene, got gas and a cup of tea. I felt better and got back on the highway. I was now three towns from my home and almost to the Toronto border. The traffic came to another grinding halt. It was now 8:15am.  “That’s it!” I got off at the next exit, cancelled my appointment, and got back on the highway going the other way. I was going home. I had had enough.

Immediately I began to feel better. I had literally turned around, going with the flow (of traffic), instead of fighting against it.

I believe in the past my day would have just gotten worse, but because I turned around, my day got better.

Have you ever felt as if the world is against you? Have you ever felt as if you have to push hard against the world to get where you want to go? Next time stop, think about what you are doing, let go of the oars and go with the flow.

If you have been been a regular reader of my newsletter or blog, you know I am a big proponent of the Law of Attraction. Since I so strongly believe that “half the hobby is in your head”, Sandra Grauschopf of About.com decided to read The Secret to better understand what I have been talking about.

Like many people new to this type of thinking, Sandra did not like some of the points put forth in the book. (Read her review here.) I do agree with Sandra, that on the surface, some of the points do not seem right, fair and do not fit with the common perception of what our reality is as human beings.

I feel there is more to this planet than we (as human beings) will ever know. The Law of Attraction is just one piece of a very large cosmic puzzle. The reason many people can’t see the “big picture” or accept all the points, both good and bad, put forth in The Secret is, it is hard to imagine what the whole puzzle looks like with only one piece. (Read my response to Sandra here, comment #5.)

I list my favourite “puzzle pieces” in the Attracting Luck section of my website. Life is an adventure. Have fun finding all your pieces!

Are you a Grand Prize Magnet? If you are having a bit of trouble with the law of attraction, I just downloaded a great free e-book called Getting What You Want To Want You by Dõv Baron. In it Dõv talks about the law of resonance, which states “You attract to you what you are at a vibrational match with, not just at a thought level. That’s why positive thinking doesn’t work for very long.” Therefore, if you feel in your heart that you are a winner, you will be.

I am frequently asked, “What can I do to win more?” Besides entering, entering and more entering, I believe half of this hobby is in your head, and heart. What I mean by that is; you need to think you are lucky and a winner before you are lucky and a winner. You also need to feel lucky and like a winner before you are.

To give you a real life example, I attracted in two wins on St. Patrick’s Day. How did I do it? I had entered a postcard with five trivia answers to a local TV station as they were giving away a holiday in Ireland. I happen to be near the TV that morning so I tuned in to see who had won. They had yet to do the draw. I started to get excited (feeling lucky in the pit of my stomach) as I could still be a grand prize winner. When it came time to do the draw, they pulled out a big box covered in green paper and shamrocks. There were only about 500 postcards in there. My odds were good. I began to get butterflies in my stomach. The host drew out a card, and so not to give it away while the sponsor described the prize, he folded it and put it under the desk. My butterflies were getting much bigger. When the host pulled the card back up he tipped it up, ever so slightly, it looked like the one I had mailed in. I felt as if my name had just been called. In my mind, were already on the plane. It seemed like an eternity while the host checked the answers, and called out someone else’s name. I was so excited, and had been “vibrating at the same frequency” as a grand prize, that I knew I was winning something that day. At 11:30am I got a call on my cellphone. I won four tickets to see the Toronto Rocks from Molsons. I was so happy because I knew I had attracted in the win. Then to my surprise, at 5:30pm I got a call at home letting me know I won two tickets to see a play, Rose, from The National Post.

It was because I held the feeling of being a Grand Prize winner for so long that I attracted in two prizes that day. “If you can hold a particular vibration—feeling—for a minimum of 17 seconds you can manifest it into creation.” (Read full blog post—Abraham-Hicks—or watch the video below.)

Try this at home today! If you have ever won a grand prize, remember the feeling you had, bring it into your body, and hold on to that feeling as long as you can. If you are new to the hobby, remember a very exciting time in your life, bring that excitment into your body, and hold on to that feeling as long as you can. Better yet, hold on to that feeling while you are entering sweepstakes. Now, let me know what you win.

Do you ever get frustrated? Wondering where the new job is? The new romance? The big win?!

I have been frustrated the past couple of weeks because the American Edition of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter has taken 2x longer to write than I originally thought. I am in the final stretch of edit after edit and I was feeling as if the book would never be finished. I knew for the book to be a success I needed to surround it with positive energy. The same energy I began my journey with.

I enjoy listening to uplifting motivational and inspirational speakers. So, I went online and found some new recordings I had never heard before. My favourite was a 3-part recording of Esther Hicks channeling Abraham with Oprah’s on XM Radio. (Listen here.) I realized I was focusing on was, what wasn’t done (the negative), and not how much I had written, how far I had come, what I had learned, who I had met, etc. (the positive), on my writing journey. Like a veil, the frustration lifted and I envisioned myself mailing out thousands of books to fellow sweepstakers who loved reading what I had written. They were learning new methods of entering, tips, tricks, ideas and concepts that were helping them feel like winners and be winners. You can’t lose helping others win!

To find your inspirational favourites, type your favourite author’s or speaker’s name into Google and see what your search brings you. It just may be the message you need.

I just finished reading And The Lucky Winner Is… (subtitled The Complete Guide To Winning Sweepstakes and Contests) by Carolyn and Roger Tyndall with Tad Tuleja published in 1982.

It seems some things never change. After interviewing dozens of very successful contestors and sweepstakers, some of which had been entering since the 1930s, they came up with three principles they believed to be the core actions the big winners always took:

Principle One: Enter often

Principle Two: Follow the rules

Principle Three: Think “win”

I find it fascinating that their three principles are the same tips I give new contestors. Good advice remains consistant.

I especially find the third principle interesting because these people were promoting the law of attraction, aka The Secret, and didn’t even know it. I say, “Half the hobby is in your head and if you do not think you will win, you won’t.” Carolyn, Roger and Tad confirm my statement and that positive thinking has been prevalent in the hobby for decades. My advice is not “New Age” thinking, but a thought process all contestors must embrace to be truly successful.

The book focuses on contests versus sweepstakes, features interviews with contestors and judging agencies (including some I interviewed for the American Edition of my book) along with having many tips and tricks, still applicable today, sprinkled throughout.

The final line of their book is almost identical to mine: REMEMBER: FOLLOW THE RULES-and have fun!

So true!