After several tough years, on January 1st, 2011, I began the annual practice of blogging a personal review, so my fellow sweepers would understand that the hobby of contesting, like life, isn’t static.

January 1st is the perfect day to reflect on the previous year, review your year-ahead goals, and determine how to improve your approach to entering and winning. Remember, your sweepstakes hobby needs to fit your life and lifestyle. Not the other way around.

What were my 2025 goals?

BOOKS: I had this grandious idea of publishing a book a month. I only published one—the audible edition of Confessions of an 83-Year-Old Sage.

WEBSITE: I had planned to revamp Contest Queen since 2023. I finally remapped the site at the end of 2025 to make it easier to navigate. You may have noted that I used quite a few placeholder graphics until my webmaster creates a new design. Let me know if you find any 404 pages, in case I missed a redirect! I would also appreciate any ideas for more intuitive navigation of the resources if you think of any.

CONTENT CREATION: The YouTube course I am taking stalled along with the number of long-form videos I wanted to create. This one goes back on the 2026 list.

THE SILVA METHOD: I didn’t really do anything with it this year, but I plan to do more as I purchased an annual membership to Mindvalley for 2026.

2026 goals!!

BOOKS & MORE: As the 20th Anniversary of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter is happening this year, I am writing and editing as quickly as I can to complete Prizes, Prizes, Everywhere! Sign up to get notified when the book is published.

Once again, I have ambitious publishing goals. After Prizes, Prizes, Everywhere! is complete, I will be recording the audiobook. After that, it will be translated into Spanish.

The French, German, Italian, and Turkish editions of Helene Hadsell’s famous book Contesting: The Name It & Claim It Game will be published. (All my books are listed on Words For Winning.)

I want to record the audiobook for Money & You by Tag Powell, but we have to finish creating the script and find a male narrator, so this goal is trickier to achieve, but I am sure it can be done.

There are also four more audio courses that Tag and Judith Powell recorded, which I can offer once the workbooks are created, plus heaps of old inventory from Helene, Tag, and Judith to sell.

As I hired a part-time assistant last year, these goals feel more achievable.

WEBSITE: You may have noticed my headshots have changed, and after years of a purple and fuchsia theme, things are looking lucky green. Not only is Contest Queen getting a new navigation system, but it is also getting a new color scheme and logo!! I am so excited to see what my webmaster creates.

CONTENT CREATION: As I stated above, I plan to complete the YouTube course I purchased. I did create a lot of shorts, but it’s the long-form content that’s lacking. I have some ideas for videos to upload this month, and we will go from there.

What about my hobby?!?!

I finally did something I hadn’t done in years, and that was to track all of my wins. I ended up winning 100 prizes valued at $8,660.40!!

I don’t know why I stopped doing that practice for so long. It makes it easy to see how big a winner you really are, which methods are working for you and which aren’t, and whether you received it. I plan to do it again this year, too.

If you would like a copy, you can use (in either an Excel or Google format), you can get yours here: Wins Tracking Spreadsheet. (Scroll down to download your FREE copy.)

The other thing I am changing is my email address. After 25 years, it seems Yahoo is blocking some emails at its servers. I wasn’t able to communicate with three contest sponsors about a prize win and had to switch to my Gmail account to organize it. (It was a date night that included a dinner, tickets to a show, dessert, and a hotel stay.) I have created a new Gmail account just for entering. It will be interesting to see if my form-based wins go up.

What about you?

Now is your chance to reflect on your life and your hobby. Look at what worked, what didn’t, and what you won in 2025. It’s only then that you know whether to stay the course or pivot for 2026. As you can see by my review and goals, I have had to do just that.

What steps are you taking to ensure you have a winning 2026?