Wayback Wednesday: Circle concept

This post originally appeared on December 10, 2004. The main idea of the post revolves around how hard it is to take care of things if certain base needs aren't met.


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The circle concept

Imagine a series of concentric circles, each one pertaining to an aspect of your life. There is no limit to how many circles can exist in the example, as the possibilities for what can technically be tied to “you” are limitless. In theory, we could create one that had levels spanning out until you had a circle that stood for the universe. Unfortunately, for our purpose, doing this would be useless, as you cannot see your effect on the entire universe, nor does the universe technically need you.

The innermost circle represents you and everything that you have direct control of. This includes things like what clothing you wear, what you have for lunch, what color sheets you have for your bed, and so forth. The next circle out contains things that you do not have absolute control over, but have some direct effect on. This would include things like your workplace, your girlfriend’s or wife’s life, etc. The circles continue outward from there, and can be as specific or as general as you deem fit. Non-related items can share the same circle if need be, due to their similar level of control or importance. Another method of thinking would be to classify each circle by its effect on you. The inner circle holds what has the most effect on you, such as eating, and the outermost circle could be what has the least effect on you, such as the fact that Pluto’s orbit makes it the eight planet from the sun for part of its cycle.

For every individual, that inner circle is the most important, because what exists in that circle is what you control, and what affects you directly. Imagine that the inner circle can be directly related to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. You directly control if and when you eat (most of the time), and not satisfying that need directly affects you in the form of hunger. Effects in this circle will eventually reverberate outward, affecting the other circles. Hunger may cause you to be more easily irritated, causing you to become impatient with your girlfriend. Hunger will lower your productivity and ability to think, or the argument with your girlfriend will lead to you sleeping on the couch, which will move into the next outer circle, causing you to be tired at work, and so forth.

Every individual works to satisfy as much of their inner circle as they can. It would be impossible to satisfy everything in this circle, especially while there are other circles that need attendance. You have a job to do, and that circle steals time away from your innermost circle. However, this does not mean that it has no effect on that circle. If you don't do your job, you will not get paid, and you won't eat. See how easily things come back to that inner circle. So, when you're at your desk pumping out the end of the fiscal year financial reports, you can't deal with what you need to with your inner circle, such cleaning your house.

Every individual will spend a lot of time unknowingly moving between circles, never truly separating the tasks, and grouping them under the catch-all category of “Life.” The job and their personal life are not separate in their mind. It’s just one large series of tasks. Other will begin the categorization of tasks, and separate them depending on importance, and what circle it reside in. When they are at work, their effort is exerted in the “Work” circle, but as soon as work is done, their mind drifts to some circle that is closer to their center. Still, it may not be the most inner circle. Maybe it’s the girlfriend circle, or the house circle. This becomes more complicated depending on the individual, and how they decide to separate their circles, and what they place the most importance on. In the diagram on the right, we have a rather general example. A diagram that would be more specialized may break “Things in your life” into such categories as the house, the girlfriend, the car, and place those depending of what that person feels is more important. Does he love his car or his girlfriend more? If he fails to take care of the car, will that eventually hurt his ability to deal with his girlfriend (placing the car in closer than the girlfriend)? If the car blows up, would that have absolutely no effect on his relationship (allowing the girlfriend to reside on a circle closer to his center than the circle in which his car resides).