SOG EP 1635 BONUS: Secret Service Agent: "THROW PEOPLE OUT of Your Life if They Have THESE RED FLAGS!" Evy Poumpouras | Evy Poumpouras EP 669

0:03Hey everyone, this is Lewis Howes and I am so excited to invite you to the Summit of Greatness 2024 for happening at the iconic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. This is more than just an event. It's a powerful experience designed to ignite your passion, boost your growth, and connect you with a community of other inspiring achievers. Join us Friday, September 13th, and Saturday, September 14th for two days packed with inspiration and transformation from some of the most incredible speakers on the planet. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your life, unlock your potential, and be part of something truly special.

0:38Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com slash tickets and get your tickets today and I will see you there. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

1:01What was the second thing that the service taught you that you wish everyone understood? So they taught me to be something that's called instrumental. Let's look at it this way. There's two motivational mindsets, actually. It's called sense-making. And the research shows one mindset is identity, one mindset is instrumental. An identity person is very self-focused. Now, we move through these, by the way. But when I'm identity, I'm using the word I a lot. I this. I feel this way. I'm in an emotional space. I'm very egocentric. So I'm looking at the world as how it affects me. I'm not looking really for solutions or moving forward.

1:40I'm really just looking to talk about me. Maybe sometimes to talk about my problems, to have somebody comfort me. It's a very emotional state of being. When you're there, you're not being very productive. We all visit identity land from time to time. I'm not saying we don't, but you're stuck. Instrumental is I'm mission focused. I'm goal focused. I have a goal. This is what my goal is. And I'm looking how to get to that place. So if I get feedback on something, I'm not going to take it personally. So if I'm working on a project and the project manager says to me, Evie, this proposal you put together, I didn't like it.

2:19Fix it. Right. If I'm instrumental, I will hear, he didn't like what I put together. I'm going to fix it because he wants me to make it better. If I am identity, I'm going to hear he doesn't like me. You'll take it personally. Those are two different things. So in this service, we were very instrumental. Nobody wants to hear your problems. Nobody cares. Get it done. Nobody cares why this went wrong, how it went wrong. It's fix it. Just get to the solution. So you're in a state of moving forward. you're in state of making progress, which was very important because if you don't think like that, lives are on the line.

2:53Well, I mean, if someone's thinking, well, what if I'm working really hard and someone just keeps giving me feedback that they don't see what I'm up to or they don't appreciate the value I'm creating or they're just constantly, it feels like they're nitpicking at me as opposed to just seeing the value I bring. How does someone overcome that identity-based sense-making and not make it personal and just focus on being instrumental and service-based. If the feedback you are getting is accurate and correct and true, then you understand they're giving it to me because I have work to do. If it's like you're hurting my feelings, then your identity.

3:32And that's fine. It just depends where you want to live. So if you want to know where the best performers live, they're instrumental. My first day on the president's detail, my supervisor, when I walked in, now I'm seven, eight years on already. I'm senior. I walk in, I sit down. It's my first day at the White House, getting ready to start on the president's detail. He sits down and he says, there's the door. He's like, anybody here not want to be here? Anybody confused as to why they don't want to be here? There's the door. You can walk through it anytime. Anybody? No one's forced to be here.

4:02No one's forced to be here. No, no. Okay, good. Let's get started. But that's why it was a machine that worked. And that way we were able to problem solve. Also, you're not putting you ahead of the mission, the goal, my feelings, how I feel. I'm not saying feelings are a bad thing, but you also have to know when you're being driven by pure emotion or mostly emotion and when you're being goal driven. If you have a mission or a focus or a project or whatever you're doing, then you're getting feedback and you have to have an honest conversation with yourself. Is there truth to what I'm being told?

4:38If there is, then this person is helping me trying to make, trying to make it better. Or they're focusing on the goal and the mission, not on you. Yes. And they want you to shift what you're doing to accomplish the goal of the mission. Yes. And do you believe in what you're doing? I did. I used to do the hiring process. And when I would interview somebody, one of the questions I would ask when I say hiring process, I was a polygraph examiner. Let me caveat that. So to be an agent, you have to take a polygraph and pass it. So I would have to polygraph people. And I did the northeastern region area.

5:13And so when candidates would come in, I would ask them, why do you want to be a special agent? And I typically got two types of answers. One answer was, I want to see what I'm made of. I want to challenge myself. You know, this is like the next level in my life. I want to see if I can do this. Okay. The other answer I would typically get was, I want to serve my country. I want to be part of a team. I want to help. I want to do good in the world. Who do you think passed the process? The second one. Yes. Because the first guy was in it for himself. So the moment things got hard, I'm out. He would give up.

5:52It was all about him or her. The second guy was there because they believed in something greater than themselves. They were out for a bigger purpose. So when we stay instrumental in being mission-focused, what is your end goal in life? If it's just you, it can be. It's going to be a bit of a struggle.

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