How to achieve any scholarship

How to achieve Erasmus Scholarship?

Not only Erasmus but any scholarship…………..

Not only scholarship but any goal in life...........

I would like to share with you some key rules: based on a fundamental “80/20 rule”:

“80% of success is due to psychology – mindset, beliefs, and emotions – and only 20% is due to strategy – the specific steps needed to accomplish a result”, Anthony Robbins.

But at first, let’s travel back to hear my story:

• I wanted to go abroad to study by getting a full scholarship since I was a kid.

• I lived up to it as I grew up.

• The first time I applied for Erasmus scholarship was in 2010.

  • I didn’t get it because I didn’t really research about it, I used the same application from other scholarships so my application was really poor written, my motivation letter was really weak.

• The second time was in 2012:

  • I got the scholarship but at the last minute, they took back because I didn’t have a Masters degree yet.

  • I was not stubborn to do really carefully research and changed my application to be more appealing and relevant.  

  • I was stubborn to apply to the scholarship even I knew they required Masters Degree.

• The third time was in 2013:

  •  I got the scholarship because I applied for the correct framework and I had a clear vision what and how to do before/during/after studying.

    The most important thing is I made up my mind, I created a clear action plan and made an effort to get it - not only COPY/PASTE.

So I would like to share the key steps to achieve any scholarship. You not only achieve any scholarship, but any goals in any areas of life if you follow it strictly. 

1. Step 1: think big

“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right. Which one are you?” _Henry Ford_

Thinking big is the first and most important step in your journey. If you cannot do this first step, there is no hope.

How you position your thoughts and your beliefs at the beginning will direct all the following actions. The bigger thinking led me to the bigger results. When you think you can, all your following actions align with what you think you are capable of.

No matters where do you start, you can achieve what you think. Therefore, if you decided that you want to get a scholarship, the first step is to think big “You can achieve the scholarship”.

2. Step 2: have a burning desire

"When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe then you will be successful”, _ERIC THOMAS_

To have a burning desire, you need to identify the WHY. Hence, you need to identify your motivation.Motivation is what drives you to take action. It's your inspiration for doing something. Without motivation, you would accomplish very little.

Motivations can be categorized into 2 types: intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.

Examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of getting a scholarship:

• Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform behaviour or engage in an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.

• Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward.

So, no matterwhat is the first reason for you to apply for a scholarship, the ultimate motivation should be intrinsic: you want to do it for yourself. Getting a scholarship is just opening a door for you to a better self-development step.

3. Step 3: have an empowering belief

“Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” ~ Cynthia Kersey "One of the best feelings in the world knows that someone is happy because of you."

“Be realistic. It is impossible. You are just a little girl coming from the countryside; there is no way you can enter the top technology university, there is no way you can go aboard”. It was what a friend of my dad told me after he asked me what my studying plan was.

I was stubborn enough to not let that idea stop me from working on my plan. I entered the university, went aboard for business trips and went abroad to study with a full scholarship. I made the man BELIEVE with me because I believed in myself that made the IMPOSSIBLE to become POSSIBLE.

Beliefs can be categorized into 2 types: limiting belief and empowering belief. You must have empowering belief to achieve your goal.

So, you must believe in your best self.

You can use the formula from napoleon hill as below:

• I know that I have the ability to achieve my definite purpose in life

• the dominating thoughts of my mind > outward, physical action > physical reality

• Develop my Self-confidence towards my definite purpose

• never stop trying to achieve my definite purpose

• I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself

Then your next job is “I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person”

4. Step 4: Set a clear/appealing/measurable goal

Lets your objectives work for you, not you working for the objective. You will nearly always achieve better results with an objective, than without. Since aquarium = objective therefore larger objective = larger success",_Mark Fisher_

• The goal should be clear: I must get “what” scholarship

• The goal should be measurable: in “which month” which year

• The goal should be appealing: the scholarship should be above your current level which means you need to push your limits to get it. Moreover, the ultimate purpose is you can help more people or add more values to people life when you get scholarship and have opportunity to go abroad.

After setting up your clear/appealing/measurable goal, you need to:

• You then need to write the goal down

• Make it become your desktop wallpaper and phone wallpaper

• Set it on your phone with the alarm so it can live with it every day

• Master mind: tell somebody about your plan

• Create a plan of actions and Take actions starting today

• Keep track of every day, week and month achievement

  5. Step 5: Create an action plan

The path to success is to take massive, determined action, _Tony Robbins_

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you, -Thomas Jefferson-

1. 1. Identify the criteria of a scholarship:

      Normally a scholarship requires at least 4 conditions:

      1. GPA is more than 7/10

      2. 2 recommendation letters

      3. IELTS/TOEFL/English certificate

      4. Motivation letter

   2. Identify actions you need to do to meet the requirements:

      So, you need to identify current level/how long do you have to achieve the targets, for example with GPA:

      1. Your current GPA

      2. You have 6 months till the deadline so how much score do you need to get for each subject to achieve 7/10 if you don’t have yet

Setting a goal is important but to achieve it, you need to take it seriously and take real action, regularly, steadily, moment by moment, day by day, then you can achieve it. I have another video to talk about how to sustain your motivation to achieve your goals.

6. Step 6: PERSISTENT and FOCUS

Ambition is the path to success, persistence is the vehicle you arrive in. - William Eardley IV

 The reason is: the success journey of our life is not a line; it is up and down but always on the way to grow up. Therefore, we need to be persistent to overcome the downing points where we feel that we don’t grow, where we feel that things don’t work out. But the fact is that, it is just on the process of preparing for a new spur. You we don’t have enough persistence; we give up before that spurring points.

If you fail to get a scholarship, you can just try it again.

If you want it badly, you have the big Why to do get the scholarship so there is no way you should give up. You already start so there is no way to stop. Each time you can more experience that is your advantage. But the same time, it can be your disadvantage if you don’t work on adjustment and changing because there is nothing such as doing the same things and expecting better results.