Nick Ellis, Creative Junkie for the Hunch Free team at the NOWhouse, gives us his take on the iMatter Workshop.

"I'd like to thank iMatter for setting up the workshop for all of the dwellers.  I went through the course yesterday and I found it to not only be a good tool to help prioritize my home & work life but also found it a great way to learn more about - and connect with the other NOWhouse dwellers.  I would highly encourage anyone who hasn't attended the class yet to try and find the time to attend the next session.  The more we know each other, the better we can understand how we can help each other, and each other's business'."

I used to feel at war.  I felt I was in a war, potentially with the insurmountable task of winning the war, rarely with a chance to get out without getting killed.  To name it; to call it a war, to call it a battle, gives the other side credence and validity.  To realize that we are all one is we win.  There are people in our lives who allow us the opportunity to choose who we are, to know who we aren't, and that helps us to know who we are.  Again, these are lessons in life.  So to shift the verbiage to the need to win is the need to one.  When we are one, we win. In the wisdom age it is all one and to use the lessons in life and learn from the past to then be aware of the future, be present in the now.  It is all one.

It is all too easy in life to forget that every anger, fear and frustration is a learning opportunity, the struggle many times is to identify what really is the anger, fear or frustration. Often times in my life I have found myself to be my own bottleneck in life and/or business, which is often a frustration for me. In accordance with our Rules of Engagement I am then able to take the next steps of asking for help, asking for what I want and giving permission to be reminded when I stray off track. This helps me to eliminate the bottleneck, free the flow of energy, information and communication, that helps me achieve success… whatever that means individually for me and as a part of my teams.

A cool tool is “What is My Burning Question?” If I could ask the universe one question to eliminate a bottleneck, what would that question entail? I take time to think and ask questions, I do a 5 Minute Check In to determine where I am right now. Then I ask the universe, “What is the most efficient way for me to get through the perceived gap in money over the next 60 days?” “What is the most efficient and effective way to find an assistant for me to help sell the iMatter opportunity?” “What is the prototypical iMatter client’s business look like and what does it need from me?”

To state that question and define it and make it a true question allows us to ask our tribe, ask people we know, put it on the social media network or even just own the thought and the question. It is truly amazing how often a solution we may have never thought of comes… and it generally comes pretty quickly. Learning from and moving through the Burning Question to eliminate the bottleneck is a tremendous asset for all individuals.

Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great” and “Built to Last,” is a master at perfecting and teaching the theory of the flywheel. A flywheel is a regulator consisting of a heavy wheel that stores kinetic energy and smooths the operation of a reciprocating engine. Once the flywheel gets going, it keeps everything else running at a nice and smooth pace.

Jim speaks of pushing the flywheel theory within your life and figuring out within one’s business what their flywheel is. Once this is accomplished, you can put the majority of your energy into getting that flywheel over the top once and then getting it over the top again, and so on and so forth. The more often we spin the flywheel, the easier it is to keep going and the easier it is to keep the engine running in the right direction. It’s instrumental to one’s business to get into that groove and be focused on that process or that energy that can keep that engine moving. 

In today’s age of uncertainty, many people, are asking more than ever “what is my flywheel? Am I spending my time determining that? Do I have multiple flywheels and if I have too many, how do I push the key ones over?”

With so much shiny stuff and distractions in the universe today, it becomes necessary to keep an awareness of what the key flywheels priorities are and one becomes ever more efficient when they can say no to the ones that don’t make sense.

What is your flywheel? Take time to identify that, what that process is, what energy needs to be put in that is can be leveraged and scaled within those flywheels.

This is not just in business, either. This is in life.

Some examples of flywheels for me are the number of presentations that I give, the number of people I put through the iMatter Workshops and the number of people with whom I share my dreams. It may be the number of steps that I take in a given day, the amount of time I spend truly reflecting and taking care of me personally, the amount of true quality time with my kids or my wife, Cheryl. Imagine the flywheel as a spinning plate, I can focus on balancing one plate, maybe I can do that with two plates, okay that's doable. Getting to three and four, okay now it's on my feet. Five and six, how can I manage all those? Not only do I have to worry about the key ones spinning, but then some of them will fall and then I lose attention to the key ones that matter most.

So, what matters most? What is your flywheel? Define that process, and say no to the ones that don't matter most to you today.