2011 Scholarships

(While Reading the post you might have to correlate yourself with Movie - Matrix. I am in love with this movie and some I find connection of incidents in the movie in the real life).

If I was Neo and if I was trained by the legendary Morpheus, then he would have had hard time in training my mind. Because Fears, doubts and Disbelief, that's where I started this BTG Application. I just want to write about how this thing has significantly changed the mindset.

Fears, Doubts and Disbelief -Only seven winners among thousands of applicants, are I worth it? Why would they select me? Do I have that so called 'WOW' Factor? My profile looks similar to thousand others, is their anything that will get reviewers off their seats? May be time is too less. Only questions, questions enhancing doubts and disbelief, that's where I started almost 15 days back.

But then I started looking things from different perspective.
Whether I will get the scholarship or not?
I thought, I have already planned the money for the GMAT, so if I apply and even if I do not get it then what am I losing? Probably nothing! Ok I will lose time in preparing the application but that can't be considered as waste because this preparation will lay down the foundation of the upcoming application season.

I thought, it's not about money but it's about starting the application season in the best way possible, it's about believing in my own story and presenting it in the best way possible, it's about getting the confidence that 'YES I CAN' do it.

Only seven winners among thousands of applicants, are I worth it?
I thought, why I should decide that - That's the job of the BTG team and not mine. My responsibility it to put the best application and then leave the rest. I basically clarified the roles in my mind.

Do I have that so called 'WOW' Factor? My profile looks similar to thousand others, is their anything that will get reviewers off their seats?
I believed, if I put my heart, brain and my soul into something that thing cannot be less than unique. This was my past experience. Just align these three things in the direction of your goal and all the things will start falling in place. So I decided to dig deeper and understand the logic/ motives/ beliefs behind each of my actions/ hobbies/ interests /extracurricular and this soul searching exercise proved to be the differentiators in my writing. Reflecting upon WHY I did certain things was much fulfilling and that instilled lot of passion in my writing.

May be time is too less.
I thought nobody died of working hard and even if I die I will be honored to be the FIRST ONE and I am so crazy for coming first that I can even die for it. So its time to work really HARD. Let me repeat it - Really HARD which basically means writing the application till 2/3 is and then getting ready for office at 7 am for 4 consecutive days...I mean it!!

After all this thinking and basically clearing my mind with all the fears, doubts and disbelief, I was ready for putting a brilliant application. Preparing my mind for this was more important than actually writing the application essays and submitting application.

So, when I hit that submit button, I felt extremely confident and passionate as mentioned in my last post. I thought, I can control my actions but I have very little or perhaps not control on the results. Actions are internally driven but results are externally driven and hence are controlled by many factors. Whatever needs to be done to put the best possible application was done and hence I was happy.

Lessons Learned -

1.Taking actions / Starting off with the things is the best way to root out your disbelief and self-doubts.

2.Complete actions make your mind more stable and seldom enhance your Ego. I mean if something was incomplete or if I had not put 100% efforts in any of the essays then that incomplete action would have lingered in the mind. This feeling of guilt is more troublesome and as Robin Sharma puts it "The pain of regret is more painful than the price of Discipline." So the completeness in the action ensured that I freed my mind from that thing and hence was able to concentrate on the next thing immediately i.e. "Relience Dhirubhai Fellowship" for the Stanford GSB.

There are some other lessons learned in the process but still I am reflecting upon them so that I can put them in better words so that other can learn from the same.

If you like these reflective posts then I am sure you wont be diss-pointed with my blog -

https://knowingthepathandwalkingthepath.blocked/

@BTG Admins - Sorry.I have mistakenly started new thread, Actully I wanted to continue with my earlier thred on BTG Scholarship Reflection process.

Now I will continue sharing the reflections here. Sorry once again.