{"id":6802,"date":"2025-06-02T02:51:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=6802"},"modified":"2025-06-02T02:51:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:51:22","slug":"circulo-o-espiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/06\/02\/circulo-o-espiral\/","title":{"rendered":"Circle, or spiral?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, when I was having a chat about life with a friend of mine, he complained about \"being back at the same spot\" where he was over a year ago, just as if, instead of moving forward, he had gone round a circle just to end up in the same place. Does this ring a bell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For, as the old saying goes, man is the only animal that trips over the same stone twice<\/strong><\/em>. And when we say twice, we could say three, or ten, or twenty... Sometimes there are stones we keep on tripping over for our whole lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, what if we took the opportunity to learn from each of those trip-ups?<\/strong> What if, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves or cursing the stone, we observed what happens around us (and more importantly, inside of us) every time it reappears? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day we get to master this skill, we will discover that, in reality the path is not a circle, but a spiral:<\/strong> with each lap we get to go deeper and become a little bit wiser, and even though the same old challenges will reappear once in a while, they will not be exactly the same anymore, because we will have acquired new resources and tools to tackle them differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo of a decorative paper spiral, which looks very much like a circle when it\u00b4s folded, but once you stretch it, you can clearly see that it\u00b4s not)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you get the idea? I think this poem by Portia Nelson also illustrates it really well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u00a0Autobiography in five chapters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter One<\/strong>
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter Two<\/strong>
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter Three<\/strong>
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter Four<\/strong>
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter Five<\/strong>
I walk down another street.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Circle, or spiral? Your choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

El otro d\u00eda, hablando con un amigo sobre cosas de la vida, \u00e9l se lamentaba de \u00abvolver a encontrarse en el mismo sitio\u00bb en el que estaba hace m\u00e1s de un a\u00f1o, como si, en lugar de avanzar, le hubiera dado la vuelta a un c\u00edrculo para volver a acabar en el mismo punto. \u00bfTe … Continue reading Circle, or spiral?<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":6801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"BinaryWords - \u00bfC\u00edrculo, o espiral? \/ Circle, or spiral?","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Vueltas y vueltas... \/ Round and round...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4990,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiracion-inspiration","category-general","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-1LI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8793,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/03\/09\/conciencia-en-accion-estrategias-eneagramicas\/","url_meta":{"origin":6802,"position":0},"title":"Awareness to Action: Enneagram Strategies","author":"binarybea","date":"09\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Hoy seguimos con los conceptos b\u00e1sicos del modelo Conciencia en Acci\u00f3n (en ingl\u00e9s, Awareness to Action, o ATA) de Mario Sikora, una metodolog\u00eda que se apoya en el eneagrama de la personalidad para ofrecer herramientas de desarrollo personal y profesional tan potentes como pr\u00e1cticas. 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