What External Reasons Are Blocking Your Pageant Success?

February 10, 2010 By

  • I haven’t found the perfect dress yet.
  • My hair and makeup choices were wrong.
  • The judges didn’t like me.
  • I’m just not cut out for pageants.

Have you made any of these statements at the end of a pageant when you didn’t get the results you were anticipating? I have. It’s normal to feel some disappointment when you’ve looked forward to an event for so long. It may be especially frustrating if you feel your expectations weren’t met. This brings me to an important question that few people take the time to ask themselves before the pageant.

What are you expecting to receive from participating in the pageant? In any endeavor you choose to follow, it’s important to know what your expectations are; and how will you know when those desires are met? In other words, how do you define success? Take a moment to write down your thoughts. It doesn’t have to be a novel, but list in very clear statements what you want to walk away with at the end of the pageant.

What needs to happen for you to feel successful? Making the top 15 may be a goal of yours. Maybe you want a feeling of confidence while you walk and model in 4″ heels. Perhaps your aspiration is to just enjoy the pageant without feeling like a nervous wreck the whole time. Or, finishing the pageant, knowing you’d done your best and there’s nothing you would have changed about the experience. Whatever your list is, write it down.

Now ask yourself, what would get in the way of having those results? Typically, the blocks will be external, internal or both. External blocks tend to be the quickest to identify so let’s start there. Financial issues, sickness, a lack of proper training and time are a few examples of things outside of you that can quickly appear to get in your way. Write out your list of external blocks.

What affects are your external blocks having on you in your pageant life? Are you viewing them as excuses for not getting what you want, or are they forcing you to look at the results of the choices you’ve been making? The blocks are neutral. How they make you feel and react will determine if you remain stuck or move forward. So, take a look at your list of external blocks and ask yourself, how are these reasons, or excuses, affecting my pageant success?

Blocks can show up in any area of your life at any time. Recognizing that the block is neutral can have a liberating affect on a person. I know it did for me. My first reaction to a block use to be a fear-based, “Oh no, what now?” The moment I really understood that all events are just that, EVENTS- neither negative nor positive, I felt immediately lighter. Instead, it was my reactions and feelings surrounding the events that I needed to go head to head with. What do you think about the idea that events are neither negative nor positive?

By Rhonda Shappert
February 10, 2010 02:19

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