The transcript of the video is below:
This is Jeff Rose. Welcome to SoldierOfFinance.com. Today I am wearing a blue shirt. The reason I am wearing a blue shirt is because today I am talking about a blue falcon. You are probably wondering what the heck a blue falcon is and why am I wearing a blue shirt. Well, for one, I like blue, but that is beside the point.
Blue falcon was just one of those friendly Army terms that was introduced to me in Basic Training. Blue falcon was otherwise known as a “buddy fudger”. I am trying to go PG with this video, so I will let you connect the dots of what “buddy fudger” stood for. The other way of referring to it was a blue falcon. A blue falcon was a soldier who screwed the rest of his platoon or his fellow troops. You are probably wondering how they would exactly do that. Let me explain.
Classic Head Games
One example would be when we were in Basic Training our drill sergeants liked to play a lot of mental games with us. One of these mental games was making us stand in formation for an extended period of time. Standing in formation typically was standing at either parade rest or standing at attention. Attention would be standing with your hands next to your sides, heels together, and eyes straight ahead. They would put us at attention for what felt like forever and probably was more like 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes, where we had to stand there and not move. Standing in formation example:
How someone would be a blue falcon was if they moved, talked, or scratched that nagging little itch that they had, whatever it was. The drill sergeants were always looking. If someone got caught, not only did they get in trouble, but the platoon had to pay as well. How we paid was through our sweat, through getting smoked which consisted of doing a lot of pushups or the front-leaning rest position (Just love that term! I have actually kind of dismissed that term from my vocabulary!).
We would get smoked for someone talking in formation, for maybe not having the proper gear with them that they were supposed to have that day, not having their soldier’s handbook in their cargo pocket, not having their canteens filled with enough water. All these things would get us in trouble, and typically if one got in trouble, we all would get in trouble. That was where the term blue falcon came from.
So, why am I talking about a blue falcon?
When you are trying to take control of your life, most likely you are surrounded by blue falcons. These are the people who are influencing your behaviors, influencing your habits against the way that you need to be. Let me give you some examples. Let us say that you have made a commitment to yourself that you need to budget, that you need to save, that you need to take care of this debt that has just been hanging over you. How are you going to do it?
How are you going to make those necessary steps to take control of your life again?
That is controlling your spending, watching how many times you eat out per week, what you do for weekend activities, the amount of clothes that you buy.
Who are your Blue Falcons?
Your blue falcons could be your co-workers. It could be your friends. It could be your family. If these people are not committed to your goal, if they are not on board to what you are trying to do, then they are a blue falcon. Now, they are only a blue falcon if you convey to them what you are trying to accomplish. If they do not know that you are trying to get out of debt, then they think nothing has changed, so why would they not recommend that you go eat at the Mexican restaurant that you eat at every single Thursday.
When we were in Basic Training, we were all on the same page. We all had the same goals, objectives. That was to get through Basic Training, get our diplomas, and move on to the next step. We all had that same purpose, and we knew that. That is why we were there. You have to let your battle buddies, you have to let your family, you have to let your friends, you have to let your co-workers know what you are trying to accomplish. If they know what you are trying to do, and they still try to influence you to do those things, they are a blue falcon. If your friends know that you have bad spending habits, that if you step foot into some department store, you are going to charge whatever (a new pair of jeans, a new shirt, or whatever), then they need to prevent you, they need to step up, be a battle buddy, and prevent you from putting yourself in that situation. If not, then they are not your battle buddy, and they are a blue falcon, and for now, you need to either cut ties or at least reduce the amount of time that you are with these people.
Don’t be influenced
I cannot stress enough how important that is. If you know that you are easily influenced, you just have to take a step back. You have to take charge of yourself, stop being influenced by these blue falcons. It is tough, I know, but the difference between the blue falcon in your life versus a blue falcon in my life is I got smoked, but it was just sweat. Yeah, it hurt while we were getting smoked, but when we were done we brushed off the dirt, we got up, and we were good to go.
In the case of the blue falcons in your life, if these are your influencers that are contributing to you going further deep down in debt, I guarantee you it is not as easy to get up and brush off when you have got $10,000 of debt, $20,000 of debt, $30,000 of debt. You just cannot brush that off. That is years and years and years to make up. Do not let your close loved ones be a blue falcon to you. Take charge. Prevent it. This is Jeff Rose, SoldierOfFinance.com.
My name is Jeff Rose and in my life I've trained with the U.S. Army to be an Infantry soldier. In my professional career I've trained to be a financial planner. The recent financial catastrophe brings to light how so many people have become victims of their poor
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This is a good thing to think about as I am doing my yearly reflecting time around Christmas. It reminds me a lot of the old saying that a team is only as strong as it’s weakest link.
Sometimes, it is easy to stick with the norm because it is what a person knows. However, if there are people in one’s life that are non-supportive, the best thing is just to move on.