Self-Confidence: The ‘Gist’ of an Officer Like Personality in SSB Screening

No Sir, I will not abandon my tank.

My gun is still working and I will get these bastards.

What is the characteristic of 2nd lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, PVC, 1971 that made him to say the above lines during a spine chilling war? It was nothing but, self-confidence that gave rise to love for nation.

As you all know there are 15 OLQ’s (Officer like qualities) assessed by officers in the candidates. If you will give a serious thought to those OLQs, you will find that these are not independent of each other. Many of them are inter-connected. This article is about an OLQ around which many OLQs revolve. And the OLQ which is doing the work of ‘SUN’ in a solar system here is ‘SELF-CONFIDENCE’.

Question is what is self-confidence?

Literally, self-confidence means the ‘BELIEF’ in you. If you think something, if you have an opinion about something, if you dream something then – Are you able to implement all these things in front of the world (here, world can be a group of people, a friend, a town, district and what not)? It is the SELF-CONFIDENCE that makes you covey yourself no matter if you are right or wrong, logical or illogical, but you have some thought inside which needs to come out. Now, you will be curious that how is this related to SSB Screening?

Let’s discuss the relevance of SELF-CONFIDENCE in SSB Screening (in chronological manner):

PPDT – Self-confidence will let you imagine boundlessly. The candidate who is confident won’t be tensed, he won’t limit his imagination after seeing the picture, rather will bravely cross all the boundaries of thoughts and produce the same on paper.
Narration – The candidate who is confident won’t become anxious. Moreover, he will be lively with the brightness on his face. He will sit straight facing all his group members with confidence. His voice and body won’t tremble. His mind will be open. He will speak clear and loudly whatever he wrote or will frame sentences there only if he was not able to complete his story in the given time because he knows that he has to give the speech of his lifetime within a minute or less. He won’t look towards assessors whereas will face all the group members while narration since, he wants to convey his thoughts to the group. After his narration ends, he will leave a mark on the assessors and the group members. All this was possible not because he wrote a brilliant story or he spoke brilliantly, but because he had self-confidence that became the back bone of his narration. Due to self-confidence, he became determined and kept the presence of mind intact while conveying his message to the group.
Group Discussion – The candidate filled with confidence will think of bringing the discussion to a consensus thereby forming a common story. He won’t speak if the fish market is created, whereas will patiently wait for the ‘void space’ of fraction of seconds and will grab that opportunity like a lion catching its prey. He will speak about the good points in his story clearly and loudly, he will support some group member’s story which he liked during the narration. He won’t speak a lot in the discussion, but whenever he will speak, it’s logical and more importantly crisp. He will ask the silent members in the group to deliver their opinions. Due to his self-confidence, he will behave like a leader and an active member in the group, both at the same time.

Ladies and gentlemen, we all are trying to become an officer of INDIAN ARMED FORCES. Self-confidence is the major and the most notable characteristic of an officer which makes him/her stand aside. If we will try to push ourselves out of our comfort zone in our everyday life and just express us without being shy, we will see the increase in the self-confidence in no time.

Low self-confidence is not a life sentence

Self-confidence can be learned, mastered and practiced- Just like any other skill

Once you master it, everything in your life will change for better!!

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About Siddharth Pareek: I am Siddharth Pareek (age- 23 years). I am from Pink city, Jaipur. I am currently working as a Decision Scientist at Mu Sigma, Bangalore. I am a defence aspirant. I want to join INDIAN ARMY.