digby's fruitcake was Re: SC - Cheesecake judgingLaurels/Competitions

[Sunraven]

hey all from Anne-Marie...
Adamantius sez:
I would advise any one of the no people who have asked for my advice on
>this subject, to concentrate on meeting and exceeding your own best
>standards, and not worry about what others do, least of all the judges.
>Especially non-fruitcake-tasters. All in all, competitions aren't my
>favorite venue for achievement or, for that matter, recognition, but as
>with anything else, they are what they are and can be dealt with
>provided you go into them with no preconceived expectations, and
>therefore, no disappointments.            


this hits close to home....I'm gearing up to enter a major kingdom Arts
competition so have been thinking of this.

I've decided that you need to decide what your goal is. If your goal is to
win, that's certainly fine, but that kind of goal has too many vaiables for
me. ie I'm not comfortable having my measure of success rest of the
shoulders of others (judges, autocrates, etc)

I'm much happier having the measure of my success come from within me.
Specifically, if the measure of my success is to 
1. finish some cool projects I've had on the back burner for some time.
That's an easy bar to aim for, and totally the result of my own efforts. No
judges can affect this.
2. to learn something new. again, totally me-based :)

note that neither of these actually have anything to do with the
competition itself....

now, if my goal was to WIN, my success would be in the hands of other
people. I'm too much of a control freak for that :). I guess the
competition itself is only an excuse and an extrinsically imposed deadline.

just some musings....
- --AM