The Ultimate OCS Mental Preparation and Leadership Knowledge Guide

A candidate asked me the following question. Since it’s an important question, I’m making a post out of it to have higher visibility for everyone to see where I”m coming from

Candidate Jessica’s Question:

Hi! I am shipping out on May 20th! I am very excited but super nervous! I am not worried about the academics or physical training, as I am in very good shape, but I am concerned about the mental aspect of it. Do you have any tips of how, mentally, to survive OCS, like examples of how they will try and intimidate/stress out/get me to quit? I am a very chill person in general, but someone that I know who went through in 08 laughed and told me that he can see me “getting there and being like wt***.” I know him well, and he knows me well, so for him to say this concerns me. I was fine about it, but now I am afraid that I am going to get there and get all frazzled and have a mental freak out session in my head and wonder why I did this. I feel like if I know exactly what to expect when I get there then I will be okay. My friend told me the first 48 hours is the worst (at least it was for him), so can you tell me what to expect in that time frame so I’m not totally thrown off my rocker, and get frazzled and accidentally fail to follow simple instructions and get sent home (that’s my biggest concern)? Sorry this is long, I just really need to know what’s going to go down in three weeks!

My Response:

Jessica, as you may have noticed, I have published no tips on the leadership testing and very little on the mental aspects. That’s because I don’t want an undeserving candidate to pass OCS just because of some tips or “tricks” they prepared ahead of time.

Prepare yourself for stress, lack of sleep, pain, and plenty of fear and frustration. Within a few days you’ll be able to see what it’s all going to be like. You do NOT need to know any more than is on my blog to succeed at OCS. I didn’t even know the most basic aspects of it ahead of time, and am an officer now.

All I will say is, fear will happen and don’t sweat it–you might think you’re going to die, but you won’t. If you really want to get through it badly enough, you will make it. Good luck. I’m not being a smart aleck but I hope you understand my points.