Hello again! In this post we're going to be talking about how that you can (and should!) win trophies... at practice! I don't mean that you should have physical awards at all of your team get-togethers (because that would probably get old :P), but rather, I'm sharing the concept of... Winning your trophies at practice, and just picking them up at tournaments. So without further ado, here are the four ways that quizzers can apply, and end up benefitting, from having this mindset!
Now, this doesn't mean that you should go full throttle with your challenges/rebuttals/appeals, because your coach may get frustrated :P (unless you are specifically practicing those). Instead, I'm talking about jumping at your top speed, and trying to not wait around for more syllables just because you can. I don't do this all the time, as some of you will know, because there's just something about the tournament atmosphere that helps me push myself harder. If you want to apply this mindset, then while you're on the seats at practice, pretend to yourself that you're at a tournament - an important one, or better yet, the regional quiz off. This will probably cause you to jump faster, causing more errors (because that's just what happens), but if you've studied, there's a good chance you'll blow your teammates away! And that leads me to the next one, which (disclaimer), I am still working on!
Some weeks it can get hard to study, especially when you may not have a tournament coming up soon. However, the idea of quizzing as hard at practice as you would at a quiz event will push you to prepare harder, and therefore enable you to perform better at practices, AND future tournaments. In addition, the knowledge we get from more consistent studying stays with us for longer, and more accurately, than the knowledge we get from cramming. I've crammed for pretty much all of my quizzing career, so I've experienced this a good amount (unfortunately). Because of that, I can tell you that whenever I have a good streak of consistency, the stuff that I put in my head during that period of time stays with me for far beyond that season. That's when things we call "flashbacks" happen... they're kind of annoying in a quiz, but so rewarding otherwise :P.
There's two ways that you can have confidence here: in knowing how great you really are, and in knowing that you deserve to do well, because of how hard you've worked. Not to be confused with cockiness, which is thinking you're someone you're not and/or pushing your accomplishments onto other people, just growing this confidence can literally improve your performance. Why? Because any kind of sport is at least partially affected by your mental attitude (usually a lot). The same thing with tests, interviews, speeches, productivity, etc.. A lot of quizzers, newer ones mainly, don't do as well at quiz events and even practices, for the simple reason that they don't have any confidence. Like I mentioned in my post about "What to Know About Nationals", taking chances is one of the top necessities in quizzing, because without it, you can glue yourself to the seat. When this happens, you have to watch other people take your rightful place on the scoreboard. So to avoid this, simply work on growing your confidence, so that you can take these kinds of chances in your stride, and without thinking twice.
I feel like this quote kinda wraps up the last three points. People will see your accomplishments, being your placings, trophy shelves, or teams that you've made, but that's only the top tip of the iceberg! It's a little cliché, I suppose, but that analogy really fits here, so I'm gonna use it :P. The whole concept of "earning your trophies at practice", is all about putting your focus on the bottom 90% of the iceberg, so that you can grow it - and therefore grow your successes (the 10% that other people see). And that 10% that they do see, ROCK IT! Totally blow people away, because you've earned it. Don't be afraid of showing your hard work, and reaping some of it's benefits! We've spent a fair amount of this post talking about trophies, and at the end of the day, they're just tangible, dust-collecting things, right?
But there's another, more important, side to quizzing awards... Every quiz award that you get, represents not only the fun time you got to spend with your friends (and maybe family), or the hard work that you put in. It represents all of the knowledge that you gained of God's Word! I don't know about you, but that's pretty cool to me! But anyways, it's time to wrap this post up for today. I sincerely hope that you all have PHENOMENAL weeks, and that you know that you are blessed, that you are specifically anointed, and that the Father has an incredible love just for you. Love you guys - keep quizzing and living victoriously! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory
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Hey guys! Today we're going to be talking about something a little different from what we tend to lean towards. Part of why, is because this is the 100th POST on The Bible Quizzing Journey blog! Everything I do on this website, whether a blog post or a printable/resource, or a newsletter (psst you can register for that right over here ;)), is based on one thing... Quizzing & living victoriously. ...and I think this is what is going to become our overall, TBQJ "Title of Liberty" (slogan/message) - go ahead and leave a comment, or DM our Instagram account (@TheBibleQuizzingJourney) and let me know what you think about it! So this post, even though this blog has always and will continue to be quizzing-oriented, it can be applied to other areas in life as well - lets do it! About two years ago now, when I was in my third year of Bible Quizzing (wow I feel old... haha), I went through an experience that was definitely NOT fun, but that I learned a lot from, and that I can now appreciate. The whole season was a struggle, really, and I (pretty much) put in as little effort as I possibly could, while still placing well, and getting onto a district team so I could go to the SNU regional tournament. That tournament is probably the worst quiz event I've ever been to. Seriously. I placed second in the round robin. Not too shabby, right? But then I had to compete in the quiz off, in which an individual's skills and preparation are put completely on the spot, because you can't wait around for an easy jump (which is where I had been scoring most of my points). It was a total disaster, and very emotional (unfortunately), because I don't enjoy literally not being able to do as well as I know I am capable of. I don't like failing. Especially when I know that I can succeed, or when I already succeeded in the past. That season didn't really improve at all after that quiz (but to be fair to myself, I was dealing with moving to CO and packing and everything at that time as well :P). Fast forward to the beginning of this season, and I began to realize that my failure in my third year was motivating me to bounce back higher than ever, this year. Instead of saying, "I want to make a regional team this year" I found myself saying, "I HAVE to make a regional team this year." Not to "fix my reputation" did I have this deeply-rooted determination, but to prove it to myself that I still could, and that I could do even better than I had in the past. Moreover, it taught me one (very hard) lesson: you get what you work for, and if through chance you get more than that, it's not real and it doesn't count. The first part of that is more real, though, because the latter end is just an opinion of mine. That being said, it is a good philosophy to remember if you want to learn how to be consistent in your performance, because it causes you to want to work harder for your dream in everyday life. People can succeed right off the bat, yes, but that success rarely ever consistently continues very far into the future. That's why improved consistency is an important result of my failures, because I have more confidence in my performance, no matter what time of the year it is. Also, consistency has it's own benefits in itself, because it stabilizes you at your current level, so that you can focus more on getting to that next level. Here is where I'm going to tell you the "#1 Steppingstone To Success". It's failing. But real quick, let's review what I just told you - I said that through failing in my third year in quizzing, I..
But that's not all that failure does for us. If I had never had a season like that, I would have never been able to appreciate my successes, and understand them, to the extent that I can/do now. I heard someone say once, that "failure is the seasoning that gives success it's flavor" and that's so true! Think about it like this... Once you fail, you immediately reap all of these benefits that I have already mentioned (if not more, of your own!) - so why not fail? If you haven't failed, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. I can say that because I fail... a lot :P and that has taught me to accept, and even enjoy, the process of bouncing back from my setbacks. No, I don't do it perfectly, or anywhere near there, but I do believe that I've learned the lesson of failure, and that I'm beginning to understand it. So here's my appeal to you guys today... Failure is literally the #1 steppingstone to achieving what you want from this quiz season (and this school year), so go out and start failing, in order to reach success. If you give it all you've got, and start running faster than you ever have before, you're most likely to trip every once in a while - but you still get farther, at the end of the day, than those who are safely strolling along. So that's the post for today! I hope that you enjoyed it, and that you pulled out a few pieces that will help spur you on in your Quizzing Journey this season!
Until next time, continue to quiz and live victoriously! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! I'm super excited to share this with y'all today! I think it'll help you, if you're thinking about trying to make a regional team this season - which you totally should :P. So to follow up the last post I did, about What To Know About Nationals, I decided to compile a list of what I took away from making the SNU and NNU regional teams, and from failing to make a team the year in between :P. So lets get right into it! But first, if you're not yet convinced about why to aim to make a regional team this year, let me tell you how having it as an annual quizzing (and life, in a way) goal has benefited me so much... My second year of quizzing, I really wanted to make a team in order to quiz with one of my quizzing role-models, who was graduating that year. That caused me to work super hard (especially the last half of the season) in order to achieve my goal. This work made me involuntarily discover some important facts about myself and about quizzing; for example, how I study quizzing the best, how to do generals in the best way I know, etc., and it really gave me a boost in quizzing, especially in the area of realizing what I'm capable of, and that I can do anything that I set my mind to. All of us can! But until you get that lens of "I don't know if I can do that" removed, it forces mental limitations on your abilities, and you will be held back solely by yourself. Removing this lens in entirety is, in my mind, one of the most important steppingstones in continually becoming a better quizzer - even after you make a regional team. Also, getting to be on a team with my biggest quizzing role-model (a lot of you will probably know who I'm talking about :P) was a huge motivator, not only to keep quizzing well after that season, but to try and be that kind of role-model for other quizzers - so, if you're reading this (and you know who you are) thank you so much for that! And with no further ado, here are my regional-qualifying takeaways...
This is one of the reasons that I made a team that first time. I had virtually no idea what it took to be on a team, and I didn't know how (or that I even should) measure myself up against the available competition to see how I was doing, and to get an idea for how hard I needed to continue working to prepare. Even days before the qualifying tournament, I was still studying like a crazy person because I was stressed out, and that's because I was severely under-estimating myself. I honestly didn't think that I would make a team, and I ended up getting second in the preliminary rounds, and first in the quiz off (surpassing the number of points I needed to get on the team with that role-model I mentioned previously). But long story short, do above and beyond what you think you need to do, in order to achieve your goals. This gives you some wiggle room in the event that some of your competition has really stepped up their game, and it also gives you more confidence in an intense round (therefore also causing you to perform better). So in conclusion of this point, don't set your goal for the B team this year - make your goal to get FIRST PLACE in the preliminary rounds, and in the quiz off! And work towards those goals, not towards what you believe the minimum to be, to get on a team.
Just to clarify real quick, this comparing (for lack of a better word) does not in any sense imply that we should be looking at other people in order to know whether we should feel good or bad about our own performances. It does mean, however, that we should observe where the rest of the quizzing community is (competition-wise, and in knowledge of the material), in order to know how hard we will have to work to be the best and/or achieve our goals for this season and quizzing in general. If, after making these observations, you realize that you're lagging behind where you would like to be, then adjust your schedule/goals as you are able, and put in the work that your dreams require. If you're doing well, almost at or already achieving what you set out to do, then you have two options: 1) keep up the pace you're at, or 2) create new, higher goals that will keep you straining for that next level, and working your darn hardest. Here's a quick differentiating tool, to make sure that this "comparing" stays on the right side of the line we just discussed: Performance comparing must be conducted within an intellectual and professional state of mind, rather than in an emotional or personal one.
To be fair, this may slightly differ from person to person, but I've found that whenever I really PLAN on reaching my goal, it happens a lot faster than it would if I wasn't completely sure of what I wanted, and committed to getting it. Especially at this level, of getting on a regional team, it's important to know exactly what you need to do in order to get to where you'd like to be - overall and throughout the entire season, each month, each week, and each day. There are three steps to all kinds of success: 1) creating your vision, 2) planning how you are going to tangibly make your way towards that vision, and 3) putting in the hard work that you planned. Creating and writing out your vision for this season, and then planning how you're going to get there (setting tangible goals that you can check off along the way), inspire an incredible amount of motivation and commitment for your end goal (if your vision is something that you actually want). And that newly-created motivation and commitment are what propel you to put in the hard work (step #3 of success) that your vision will require. But if you never sit down and figure out what your vision is, what you really want from this season, and if you don't plan out how you are going to go about achieving that goal, you'll just be running blind - and that never ends well ;P.
But of course, we will all inevitably have those days when we literally don't want to do anything but lay in bed and watch Netflix or read a novel. And those days are hard. Those are the times when even thinking about your vision, and remembering the next steps that you've outlined, don't seem to stir up any energy to get done what needs to get done. What happens then? In order to become (more so) consistent, I've learned that I need to have several places that I can go to, to become motivated to give quizzing (or anything else) my very best efforts - fill up your motivational tool belt and get it done! (For more on motivation, check out my post on "3 Keys to Unlocking Motivation") Now, I honestly can't say very much about the discipline part of this point, because I (admittedly) have not been the most consistent person regarding studying for quizzing (obviously... *cough* GEPCP season *cough*... :P). But I'm working on it, and that's the best any of us can do, right? Nevertheless, here's my one nugget regarding discipline: Recognize the incredible potential, and power that comes with being a disciplined person - being someone who works towards their goals not only on the days that they jump out of bed with excitement for it, but on the bad days, when they literally have sit down (or stand up) with clenched teeth to get to the work, until they remember why they love doing it so much. And there we are!
I hope that these tips help you guys if you're going to try and make a regional team this year - and even if you're not, or if you've already achieved this goal in a previous season, I hope that you were able to take away something that inspires you this week! Whether or not you've already started studying for this season, I hope that the rest of your summer is an absolute BLAST! I love you guys, have an awesome week, and I'll see you next Monday! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! How are y'all? I hope you're having a FANTASTIC week! This week marks the date last year, when we officially moved out of our house back in Texas! I can't believe it's already been a year! And, to tell you the truth, it's been one of the best years of my life. Yes, there was some of hard stuff I had to work through, what with leaving old friends, having to make new ones, and everything else that comes with being a Christian Sophomore. But it's just been an awesome time of discovery in the Lord, growing into who I think I'm supposed to be - and all I can say is thank you Jesus! But enough of that now :P Lets get into this awesome topic today! Throughout my three years of quizzing with SNU and one year with NNU, I've found that there's some misconceptions about making a Regional team, and what it's like to compete on one. And I know that a lot of you guys have already made a regional team (because y'all are just that awesome), and I know a good amount of people who are aiming for the very top in this next season - but I am also aware of the newer quizzers among us. So I'm going to take the time today to go through and tell you a little bit about what I've learned from being on two regional teams, and from competing at two national tournaments. First things first...
Kind of like your first year quizzing, your first time at nationals is most likely going to be a time of figuring out how it actually works, rather than focusing on making first place. Nationals, competing only against the top eighty quizzers in the country, is an entirely new level of the sport - and I'll talk a little more about that later on, in another post. But in general, pushing yourself even harder, when you're already at that high level of competition, becomes much easier once you have a vague idea of what's going on, and what it's like :P 2. Taking chances is the only way to succeed. At nationals, almost every question you jump on will be a toss-up because the pre-jumps are so crazy (given, that the harder you study, the luckier you get on these because your instincts are being honed to perfection ;)), and that means that you have to take a lot of chances. Think of it like this... If you never let the basketball leave your hands, and shoot for the hoop, taking the chance that you may totally miss, you have absolutely zero chance of scoring any points. The people who place the highest at nationals, are those who have almost as many, or even more errors than they do correct jumps! Erroring out with one right jump still leaves you with positive points - and that's a heck of a lot better than leaving with an even zero. If you don't take these necessary risks, people who are less skilled and talented, less prepared, and less experienced will pass you up and place higher for the simple reason that they're taking more chances than you - in addition, the more chances you take, the better your odds will be. But when you do have that unfortunate error out, every once in a while, it's important to know how to shake it off and just go into the next room with a fresh, positive mindset - that persistence, paired with hard work, is what is going to help you place. 3. Be overly compassionate, considerate, sportsmanlike, and Christlike. As you might expect, there are inevitably going to be people who are really stressed out, and who get torn up at larger, more important tournaments. And when that happens, when people have hard days, it's important for us to try and make it a little better. That means watching out for nice things we can do, being respectful and considerate in our sportsmanship during quizzes, and being an encouraging and compassionate face and voice - it will always come back to you. Even if they snap at you during the tournament, just do your best to smile and be kind and understanding, and they'll get over it eventually. I've had to do this a few times, when people didn't like how quizzes turned out, and I can tell you that after they cooled down, they really appreciated that I didn't argue back and make it a big deal - quizzers are generally really cool people :P And last but not least... 4. Those who deal with the stress the best, will place the best. Nationals is usually full of people who are stressing too much about it - and I'm guilty of that, but I'm working through it and this past year was a lot better than my first time :P I did a Part 1 and Part 2 about dealing with "High-Stress Competition" so I won't repeat all of that here, but this is the bottom line: if you have nerves, get rid of them! Enter a state of laser-like focus, where all you're thinking about are the words coming out of the quiz master's mouth, the condition of competition, and getting that one phenomenal jump - get to the place where you can literally anticipate a good pre-jump. If you're overly stressed out about quizzing, to the point where you feel physically sick, you've got the wrong motivations and/or values. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong :P Quizzing is an awesome thing! We've only got so many years to do it, so let's do it the best we can and not waste any time stressing over it! So there you are! Four basics of what to know about nationals for when you make a regional team this season! :P (Confidence is vital!)
I have some FIRE posts planned to drop later this month and in August, that will really get you pumped up for this year, so you can be looking forward to that, too! 1-2 Corinthians is going to be super amazing as well, even above what I believe the advances will be in the competition in 2017-2018 - the Lord is going to do some incredible things is our lives this year through the material, so lets throw the door wide open for Him and enter in with EXPECTATION! I'll be coming back will some exciting new developments in this blog soon, in time for the season kick-off, and I know they are just going to rock the quizzing world ;P Anyways, I love you guys SO much, and I hope that this week is the absolute best! I'll see y'all next Monday! But until then, as always... Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! Here we go, "High-Stress Competition" part two! If you've read the first bit of this post (which you probably should ;P) you'll know that today we're going over the various bases of why we get stressed out about quizzing, and also, the freaking-awesome benefits of kicking it out of your life! So lets get right into it! Figuring out what the base of your performance-related stress is:
To make sure that anything (everything) we do in life is God-honoring, and is providing lasting rewards for ourselves, we have to be aware of what our motivations are. Is the motivation selfish/self-centered, or is it God-centered? If it's focused on us, then that's a red flag, and we can pretty much expect it to become stressful at some point in the future. Why? because if it's all about us, we'll only be looking into ourselves in order to complete it. And eventually, we're gonna run out of steam because we're human, and we can do nothing significant without God.
This is much like the previous point, but there are some important differences. For example, motivation is why we each get up in the morning - whether that's to not be late for school/work, or to make the most of the day and get a lot of stuff done, or simply just to get that first cup of joe :P. The end-goal is more vague, long-term and general, rather than specific reasoning between our desire to hit snooze and our need to get our feet to the floor. Our end-goals must be, like our motivations, rooted in our Father because He's what gives us a future and a hope. Romans 8 says that to be worldly-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life and peace. No matter what we achieve in life, it will be completely empty without God - you can die surrounded by billions of dollars and just be wishing to know what will happen to you, or longing to be loved, when all this time the Author of love was trying to get you to hear His love song. That's heartbreaking. End-goal is a lot like purpose, because it becomes the theme of your life - it's the thing you're striving for throughout your whole life. The only possible way for your life to be fulfilled, is to hand it over to the One who gave it to you in the first place. And I know that's almost cheesy, but for real, once we give it over to God, everything in our lives comes under the lens of eternity (true importance); and when that happens, we find it hard to get stressed about things that are less-than-important.
This is something the world has gotten seriously backwards (like a lot of other things). They always talk about having good self-esteem, and making sure that we're building up others' self-esteem, and to not do things that tear peoples' self-esteem down, and blah blah blah. Honestly, that's part of the reason that God gave us the Law back in the Old Testament. Paul explains throughout the whole (awesome) book of Romans that the Law was given to show people that they needed a Savior. It showed you that no matter how hard you tried, you could never keep all of the rules - and just to make it better, if you broke one commandment, you were guilty of breaking all of the commandments! It tore down peoples' beliefs in that they were God, that they were perfect, and that they weren't doing anything wrong. Now, of course we don't have to worry about breaking any rules, because the Law was fulfilled by Christ; but we have to know that He is the only one who causes us to live and not die. And that is what makes us have Christ-esteem instead of self-esteem. Looking to ourselves will create frustration, a sense of failure, and emptiness - but looking to our God creates real and lasting joy, peace, and fulfillment. Now that we have all that under our belts, we can dive into the incredible benefits of overcoming stress with the help of our Daddy!
Having a healthy mind (and therefore healthy emotions and body) through our wonderful Lord Jesus sparks a light of inspiration for anything that God has put in your heart! That's pretty cool, huh?
How many of you know that there are a lot of people in this world who are neither truly dead nor alive? (And no, I'm not referring to zombies :P). We come alive through Christ, because He is the only one who gives our lives real purpose (just like we talked about with being mindful of what our end-goals are, earlier). In addition, He becomes our motivation too! The Lord will show you the direction you should go with your life, but even when we're in high school and maybe not working specifically on or towards our careers, everyday is a good day with Jesus! People become really worn out by life, and for good reason - the world is a scary place without Jesus, because we were never meant to live in it without Him.
Like I've mentioned before, partly because I'm reminding myself, but everything else you need in life comes as easily and as effortlessly as fruit going on a tree. We're the branches, He is the vine - plug into the source that gives you life-sustaining nourishment, and just watch yourself begin to produce fruit. It's one of, if not the, most simple concept known to man, but it's also one of the hardest things to apply to your life. So there you go! I hope that this blessed you today, and that you have a fantastic week with an awesome lack of stress (about quizzing nationals or otherwise)!
Love y'all, thanks for reading! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory |
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