The Weekly Circle #20
Welcome to the twentieth episode of The Weekly Circle! A free Circles in Time newsletter released every Sunday.
Hey everybody,
We made it to 20 episodes of The Weekly Circle!
I’m celebrating with a little dance to this Praise You remix by Purple Disco Machine.
There is a method to my madness here.
As those who were around for episode 5 or completed one of my Circles in Time programmes this year, will know— actively celebrating a success creates a positive emotional state, helping to wire in practice neurologically.
It may feel a bit silly and awkward at first. But so did sitting cross-legged on a mat with your eyes closed a few years ago.
Celebrate your successes, my friends! You will build habits faster, and feel good while doing it.
THE WEEKLY CIRCLE FEEDBACK
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Please share your views below. My bet is that there are ways to improve your reading experience by at least 3x. But I need your help in showing me where the value is and what my blindspots might look like.
THE ANNUAL CIRCLE
I’m busy putting together a comprehensive review of all the Circles in Time initiatives that emerged in 2020.
It has been an exhilarating journey so far.
If you told me at the beginning of the year that I’d be closing out 2020 with four online programmes completed, two active weekly newsletters up and running, a weekly podcast and a growing online community of practitioners from around the world, I would have looked at you sceptically.
Circles in Time was a massive pivot from the b2b-style behavioural science consulting that I’ve become so comfortable with over the past six years.
I’ve failed a lot. Learnt a lot. And the best is that it all feels like I’m just getting started. There is so much potential growth at the intersection of applied behavioural science, systems thinking and self-experimentation.
What to expect in The Annual Circle #1 Newsletter?
I will share my reflections on the first year, the lessons I learnt, what works and what didn’t, and my vision for the future of Circles in Time.
To be released on the 20th of December.
WISE WORDS
The quotes I’ve been circling around this week
“Just have one good day. Then repeat.” ~ James Clear
“All serious success in work depends upon some genuine interest in the material with which the work is concerned.” ~ Bertrand Russell
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne
“Integrity is when what you think and what you say and what you do are one.” ~ Naval Ravikant
“First we shape our tools, then our tools shape us.” ~ Winston Churchill
“Propaganda seeks to destroy art in order to sanitize culture.” ~ Mary Karr
SOMETHING TO PART WITH
Here are my earliest recorded thoughts on the philosophy underpinning Circles in Time.
I feel slightly uncomfortable sharing this. The note is messy, raw, and a bit all over the place. But it’s also real, honest and I see the seeds of the personal systems lens clearly in my thinking here.
Journal Entry 11/01/20
"Something I am contemplating more deeply recently is this Circles in Time idea.
The idea has been been floating around my mind for a while, gathering cognitive real estate, even though I haven’t really understood what I meant by it. It felt interesting, but upon contemplation it just seemed illogical and paradoxical—
Logically, time is linear. It moves along an arrow-like trajectory. Circles are the opposite. You end up where you left off.
But then today something clicked.
A visual metaphor surfaced. A familiar image that really locked the two concepts (circles, time) together.
The metaphor was that of the galaxy, tracking on a linear/accelerating path away from its origin point (big bang/bounce). The trajectory is a straight outward expansion, like a billion arrows shot in every possible direction. Yet, as the galaxies move outward following a linear trajectory, the star systems circle the black holes that occupy the galaxies’ cores, and within those star systems, planets and asteroids orbit a star. Everything is simultaneously travelling like an arrow through space, while moving in circles.
Applying this to time.
Life moves along an arrow of time from a birth point outwards. Yet life also moves in perennial circles of varying durations. These circular rhythems are what enable life. Zoom in or zoom out, and life look a lot more circular than linear.
This brings together a lot of the ideas that I have been exploring and I think enables an interesting and unique new way to think about ourselves."
Take care,
David