Running in circles is an expression that is often used to express when no matter what we do, nothing changes. We run in a circle, always ending up where we started.
Imagine the circle lines as boundaries, not physical boundaries but mental barriers. In our life, we often run within our circle of possibilities. Anything outside our circle seem impossible. Outside the circle is anything that seems unattainable.
For some, healing a chronic disease may seem unattainable, for others it is a nice house, finding one’s soulmate, or merely financial abundance.
Over our lifetime, through our upbringing, we have defined our circle of possibilities. We have defined what is within our possibility and what is outside our possibility.
But this is just a line we drew. It is a mental barrier that does not exist outside our mind. In order to attain what seems unattainable we have to expand our circle of possibilities. We have to pull what is outside our circle inside.
Imagine it like this: anything that is within our circle is easy and comes effortless. For example making a coffee, driving a car are within our circle of effortless possibilities.
Other things seem out of reach. They are outside our circle of possibilities. They look extremely hard and impossible to reach.
What we need to do is reframe our understanding of what is within and what is without our circle. We pull seemingly impossible things inside our circle and thereby we are expanding the size of our circle exponentially. We do this by following our excitement.
Not everything can be pulled inside our circle. But anything we are absolutely excited and passionate about can be pulled inside and made attainable.
You might think that you want to be the founder and CEO of a large successful company. But if this is merely a desire that comes from mimesis – in other words a desire that we have because we see other people have or desire it – not from our true inner being.
We will try forever to pull this inauthentic desire inside our circle, but we will fail because it is against our nature. Listening to our true excitement is key. We have to follow what is truly authentic to us – what we are truly excited about from our whole heart – and pull it inside our circle.
You may find true excitement and joy playing the piano or researching a certain subject. But true mastery of the piano or earning a livelihood with it may seem like an impossibility. Don’t let this hold you back. If this is what excites you the most, make the decision to pull it into your circle, define it is easily attainable, possible.
Inside our circle, doing and attaining our desires is as natural and easy as making a cup of coffee.
Our inner circle represents our current reality. It is both endless and limiting. Endless in terms of repetition and confinement of boundaries.
Think again of walking in a cricle, you always end up in the same spot, never really advancing. We try to improve the conditions within our circles, but improvements within our circles is like improving a prison cell.
True freedom comes from expanding that circle. Or stepping out of that circle into an entirely new one.
That is difficult because we are like fish in an aquarium unaware of the world behind. We only see what is familiar, what is within our circle, and everything beyond that feels alien or unattainable even though we desire it.
The real truth is that it takes the same energy to live and operate within our current circle as it takes to live within a much larger circle or to step. It takes the same effort to be in our current circle as it takes to be in a completely different, much larger circle.
First, you need to identify that you are inside of a circle. What are your current habits and goals? What is your current reality?
Once you are aware, the next step is to identify what is outside your circle. What is it that you desire but looks unattainable, impossible?
Now we define a new circle. In this new circle, our goals, our habits are aligned with our authentic aspirations, our true excitement. We create a new reality.
Stepping out of this circle requires risk. It means breaking free from the familiar, and pursing something that may seem uncomfortable or unattainable.
We leave our circle – we leave our comfortzone.
We can do this in small, consistent steps or we can make a sharp turn–an instant shift in our approach to living, like flipping from being chased to becoming the one who chases.
The real key to escaping our limiting circle is focus.
Where we focus our mental energy on determines the reality we will experience. By only focusing on improving our current reality, we remain locked in. But by expanding our vision to something outside our current circle, outside our current reality, we open up the possibilities of stepping into a new, much larger circle of possibilities.
What seems impossible now, becomes as effortless as making a cup of coffee.
The decision to break free starts with the realization that we are contained in a circle and the decision that we are ready to stop running in circles.
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