The Greatness Flywheel: Why Excellence is a Cycle, Not a Destination
By Derek Neighbors on July 21, 2025
The Greatness Flywheel
Derek Neighbors' breakthrough methodology that transforms excellence from destination to self-reinforcing cycle using ancient Greek wisdom and modern flow science
Last week, something clicked during a trail run that changed everything I thought I knew about excellence.
I was about four miles into a familiar route, my body hitting that sweet spot where movement becomes effortless. My legs found their rhythm, my breathing settled into a natural pattern, and suddenly my mind shifted into this processing state where thoughts just started cooking.
That’s when I saw it.
The pattern that’s been hiding in plain sight across every domain where I’ve witnessed true greatness emerge. Not the fake greatness of external validation or temporary achievement, but the real thing. The sustainable, accelerating kind that creates more excellence with each revolution.
Excellence isn’t a destination you arrive at once and then maintain through discipline and willpower.
Excellence is a flywheel.
The Universal Pattern
I’ve been studying this pattern for years without realizing it. I’ve seen it in bodybuilders who transform their physiques, engineers who create breakthrough solutions, and trail runners who find flow states that seem almost supernatural.
The moment they stop caring about external validation and become obsessed with the process itself, that’s when greatness emerges.
Take the bodybuilders I’ve known who achieved real transformation. They all hit a point where they stopped focusing on what others thought about their physique and became fascinated with the craft. They started obsessing over movement quality, questioning everything about their approach, consuming information like their life depended on it, and experimenting with bold abandon.
They found their flywheel.
The engineers who create breakthrough solutions follow the same pattern. They become insanely curious about the problem space, consume high-quality technical information, hit flow states where their subconscious processes complex integrations, practice their craft without needing an audience, output solutions with complete indifference to criticism, and reflect honestly on what worked and what didn’t.
I’ve seen the same pattern in a teacher who transformed her classroom. She became obsessed with understanding how her students actually learned, consumed research on cognitive development, found flow states during lesson planning, practiced new teaching methods without worrying about administrator approval, created learning experiences focused on student growth rather than test scores, and reflected honestly on what engaged her students versus what she thought should work.
Same flywheel. Different domain.
And in trail running, I’ve experienced it myself. The runs where everything clicks aren’t the ones where I’m trying to impress anyone or hit specific times. They’re the ones where I’m curious about what my body can do, informed by good training principles, processing in a flow state, practicing the craft of movement, outputting my best effort regardless of who’s watching, and reflecting on what I learned.
The pattern is universal because it’s based on something the ancient Greeks understood 2,500 years ago.
The Greatness Flywheel Framework
The Greeks had concepts for each stage of this cycle, and modern flow state research validates what they intuited through careful observation of human excellence.
The six stages of the Greatness Flywheel:
Stage 1: Curiosity (Sophia)
This isn’t casual interest. This is obsessive questioning and observation. The kind of curiosity that makes you notice things others miss and ask questions that others avoid because they’re uncomfortable or inconvenient.
Sophia, the Greek concept of wisdom through wonder, emerges when you become genuinely fascinated with understanding how something works, not just getting results from it.
Stage 2: Information (Logos)
This is curated consumption of high-quality input. Not random information gathering, but strategic learning that feeds your curiosity with substance.
Logos represents the rational order behind things, the principles and patterns that govern excellence in your domain. This stage is about building a knowledge foundation worthy of your curiosity.
Stage 3: Processing (Physis)
This is where the magic happens. Flow states where your subconscious integrates everything you’ve consumed and surfaces insights you couldn’t force through conscious effort.
Physis is natural flow, the state where your mind and body operate according to their inherent design, processing complexity into clarity without strain.
Stage 4: Craft (Techne)
Deliberate practice without an audience. This is where you develop skill through focused repetition, experimentation, and refinement, caring only about the quality of the work itself.
Techne is skill mastery, the systematic development of capability through disciplined practice, independent of external recognition.
Stage 5: Output (Arete)
Bold creation uncorrupted by the need for audience approval. This is the stage most people never reach because they’re terrified of being seen as they actually are.
I remember publishing my first piece about the brutal reality of transformation work. I didn’t soften the language, didn’t hedge the conclusions, didn’t add disclaimers for people who might be offended. The fear was real, what if people thought I was too harsh, too direct, too uncompromising? But the work demanded honesty, and I chose the work over my comfort.
Arete is excellence as a way of being, creating from your authentic capability without compromise for approval or safety.
Stage 6: Reflection (Prosoche)
Honest course correction toward eudaimonia. This is where most people sabotage their own momentum because reflection forces you to confront uncomfortable truths about your performance, your excuses, and your patterns of avoidance.
The pain of honest reflection is why people skip this stage entirely. It’s easier to jump into the next project than to face what you actually learned, what you actually avoided, and where you actually fell short.
I watched a brilliant engineer cycle through three startups in five years, each time blaming market conditions, co-founder issues, or timing. He had incredible craft skills and could build anything, but he never stopped to examine why his companies kept hitting the same communication and leadership walls. Without this integration, you’re condemned to repeat the same mistakes at higher levels of sophistication.
Prosoche is disciplined attention, the Stoic practice of examining your actions and their alignment with your deepest values and purpose. When done properly, this reflection naturally generates new questions, deeper curiosities, and more refined challenges, feeding directly back into Stage 1.
Each stage feeds the next. Each revolution builds momentum for greater excellence.
The Science Behind the Flywheel
Recent meta-analytic research on flow states provides scientific validation for what the Greeks understood intuitively.
A 2025 meta-analysis by Buseyne et al., summarized by W. Keith Campbell, confirms that conscientiousness is the strongest predictor of flow states with a correlation over 0.3. This isn’t about being naturally talented or getting “stoked” about something. Flow emerges as an internal reward system for intense effort and focus on single activities.
This validates the flywheel’s emphasis on Craft (Techne) as central to the entire cycle. You can’t skip the deliberate practice stage and expect sustainable excellence. The flow states that emerge from disciplined craft create intrinsic satisfaction that fuels the next revolution.
Campbell’s analysis reveals the key insight: flow states correlate with intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation. As he explains, “the reward is generated internally from doing the behavior” rather than from external validation. The flywheel works because each stage generates internal rewards that accelerate the next stage, creating a self-reinforcing system independent of external validation.
The Greeks called this energeia, pure activity that contains its own reward.
Finding Your Flywheel
Most people get stuck in one or two stages instead of completing the full cycle.
Some people are naturally curious but never move to curated information gathering. They ask great questions but don’t do the work to find quality answers.
Others consume massive amounts of information but never create space for processing. They know a lot but can’t integrate it into insight.
Many people practice their craft but never output anything because they’re waiting for permission or perfection. They develop skill but never create value.
And the majority skip the reflection stage, missing the course corrections that would accelerate their next revolution.
To find your flywheel, ask yourself:
- Curiosity: What makes you genuinely obsessive about understanding how it works?
- Information: What high-quality sources feed your understanding of this domain?
- Processing: When do you hit flow states where insights emerge naturally?
- Craft: What skills are you developing through deliberate practice, regardless of audience?
- Output: What are you creating with complete indifference to external validation?
- Reflection: How are you honestly assessing and adjusting your approach toward flourishing?
The flywheel reveals itself through authentic engagement with each stage.
From Achievement to Acceleration
This changes everything about how we think about excellence.
Instead of setting achievement goals and trying to maintain them through willpower, we design systems that accelerate our flywheel. Instead of measuring ourselves against external standards, we track the velocity and integration of our six-stage cycle.
Excellence sustains because it rewards itself. Each revolution creates more capacity for the next revolution. The curiosity stage generates better questions. The information stage provides higher-quality input. The processing stage yields deeper insights. The craft stage develops greater capability. The output stage produces more authentic work. The reflection stage enables more precise course corrections.
Over time, the flywheel accelerates exponentially.
This is how masters are made. Not through talent or luck or grinding harder than everyone else, but through finding their flywheel and learning to accelerate it.
The Business of Excellence
The implications extend far beyond personal development.
Organizations that build institutional flywheels outperform those that chase quarterly results. Teams that master all six stages become unstoppable. Leaders who understand cyclical excellence create cultures of sustainable high performance.
The methodology scales because the principles are universal. Whether you’re developing individual capability, building team excellence, or transforming organizational culture, the flywheel framework provides a systematic approach to sustainable greatness.
This isn’t just philosophy. It’s methodology with practical applications for assessment, development, and acceleration.
Final Thoughts
The ancient Greeks understood something we’ve forgotten in our achievement-obsessed culture: excellence is not a trophy to win but a way of being to embody.
The Greatness Flywheel makes this wisdom actionable.
Over the next several parts of this series, we’ll explore each stage in depth - how to cultivate obsessive curiosity, architect high-quality information systems, design for flow state processing, develop craft without audience, create output without validation, and reflect toward flourishing.
But right now, I want you to do something specific: Map your current flywheel.
Your 7-Day Flywheel Diagnostic:
For the next week, track yourself through these questions each evening:
- Curiosity: What made me genuinely obsessive about understanding today?
- Information: What high-quality input did I consume to feed that curiosity?
- Processing: When did I hit a flow state where insights emerged naturally?
- Craft: What did I practice deliberately, without needing an audience?
- Output: What did I create with complete indifference to external validation?
- Reflection: How am I honestly assessing and adjusting my approach?
Most people discover they’re stuck in 1-2 stages, avoiding the others entirely. The diagnostic reveals your weak links and acceleration points.
The flywheel is spinning. Time to find your rhythm and accelerate.
Ready to systematize your path to excellence? MasteryLab integrates the Flywheel methodology into a comprehensive development program that builds character, competence, courage, and community.
