I've applied for something today which probably won't come off. I've now got a new policy on this kind of thing. From now on I'm trying to make sure that at any one time I have at least three things "out there" which would be really nice if they came off but might not happen. They are not worrisome things, just entering photographs in competitions, applying for grants, submitting papers for conferences etc etc. As one of them misses I try to create another so that at any point I could have three nice things happen.

I didn't used to be so proactive, probably down to a fear of failure. However, I've decided that this is silly and that for some things you have to be persistent.

I'd advise you to try it. Nothing's paid off for me yet. But you never know....