Are You Going Around in Circles in Your Life?

Do you are ever feel like you are just going around in circles in your life?  What patterns are you repeating to give you the illusion you are traveling around in a circle?

Let me share with you another true story.

As you may know by reading my blog posts and listening to my podcasts, that I have worked as a janitor in a bar. I also worked as a janitor at a grade school which included the grades of kindergarten through six grade. 

During the summer months, one of the big tasks at the grade school was to re-paint all the lines on the playground.  The playground included numerous hop-scotch outlines, circle outlines for dodge ball, tag, duck, duck, goose and other games, and outlines for several basketball courts.

For those of you who do not remember your grade school games, “Hopscotch,” is a popular playground game in which players toss a small object into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object.

“Dodgeball,” is also a popular grade school playground game in one version played around a circle in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. 

“Duck, Duck, Goose,” is a game played on a playground around a circle. The object of this game is to walk in a circle, tapping on each player’s head until one is finally chosen; the chosen player must then chase the picker to avoid becoming the next picker.

Meanwhile back on the playground, there were about 30 circles of various sizes on the playground for the games that were played by the grade school students.  The circles varied in diameter from about 10 feet to about 25 feet in diameter.

As a reminder of the math you learned in grade school and have likely have long since forgotten, a “circle” is a type of line segment that is bent around a center point until its ends join.  If you follow a path around a circle from a start point, you end up back at your starting point. A circle is often thought of as a shape that has no beginning and no ending.

Meanwhile back on the playground, each day for a couple of weeks I would carefully paint the lines on the circles with yellow paint.  Each day, several times a day, I would pick a starting point with my paint roller on a circle and follow a circular path around the circle, ending up where I started.  I was using gallons and gallons of paint and traveling miles the painting lines going nowhere. I always ending up back where I started on the circle.

What if the energetic circles in your life are not circles at all, but are unique revolutions on a circular path on a spiral?

The “spiral” is one of the universal symbols found in virtually all cultures and religions.

A “spiral” is defined as “a continuous and gradually widening upward curve that relates to advancement to higher levels through a series of cyclical movements.”

Many people believe that your journey through life is actually on an upward spiral shaped, circular path. Similar to a path followed by walking up on a spiral staircase.

As you follow your spiral path upwards, you often re-visit a same or similar situation in your life.  In many instances this feels like you are just going around in circles in your life.  For example, attracting a same type of relationship, experiencing problems with money, falling back into old, familiar, but negative attitudes, behaviors, etc.

Thus, each time you face the same challenge, situation or event in your life, you are actually viewing it from higher vantage point from which you can observe it with a greater clarity and make new free will decisions to avoid old patterns and situations that no longer serve you.

The famous physicist Albert Einstein was quoted as saying:

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.“

Albert Einstein

PODCAST: Are You Going Around in Circles in Your Life?

How can you change the repetitive patterns in your life?

1. Recognize and identify repetitive patterns as they occur in your life.  Look for, be aware of and acknowledge the existence of any pattern that repeats in your life, whenever one should appear. Such repeating patterns are typically associated with one or more life lessons you came here to learn and life challenges you desire to overcome.  Honestly and ask yourself then honestly answer questions such as “what is the lesson I need to learn?” and “what is the challenge I need to overcome with this person, event or situation?”
2. Change your vantage point from being in the repetitive pattern to that of a neutral observer.  Look at repetitive pattern that is occurring your life from a new higher vantage point.  This new higher vantage point is a new higher perspective that is above the ground level at which you are experiencing the repetitive pattern.  Look at all aspects of the repetitive pattern with discernment (i.e., seeking the truth without judgment) first from a 100 foot level.  Does the repetitive pattern look any different if you view it as a neutral observer without judgment it from a 100 foot level?  A 1,000 foot level?  A 10,000 foot level?  How is your vantage point different as a neutral observer?  How is your point of view different as a neutral observer?  If your vantage point or point of view is different, how is it different?  What additional clarity does it provide for you?
3. Make new positive decisions based on your observations as a neutral observer.  After recognizing and identifying your repetitive patterns and observing them as a neutral observer from a new vantage point at a higher perspective, you now can make new free will decisions based on positive actions and positive emotions.  Ask yourself, “do I need this pattern in my life?”  If not, start by releasing the need for it.  Say out loud, “I release the need for having this pattern in my life.”  Then make new positive free will decisions moving forward to avoid repeating this pattern in your life.  Making new free will decisions allows you to avoid or alter, in a positive way, the old repetitive energetic patterns that no longer serve you into new behavior patterns.  You will transition from viewing your life on a path of going around in circles to one of following a circular path on an upward spiral to new levels of personal growth and expansion of your own consciousness.

Changing your point of view and your actions to remove or alter repetitive patterns allows you to make a positive impact in your own life and not travel around in circles.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2020, 2023 by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

Certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.