We’ve all heard the saying “walking in circles.” It turns out there’s science behind it. When humans are walking without landmarks or vision, they tend to veer slightly off course with each step. These tiny errors accumulate, leading us to unknowingly walk in circles. This phenomenon is not just a physical manifestation; there is also a metaphorical context, and we’re going to explore the reasons behind the tendency, and we’ll look at some of the implications as well.
The Science Behind Walking in Circles
A study conducted by scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany tracked subjects using GPS trackers over various distances in a large forest area and in the Sahara desert. The forest subjects wandered significantly off a straight-line course when the sun was obscured by clouds. One subject’s track began in overcast conditions, but the sun came out and remained constant for the rest of the session. Under the cloudy conditions, the tracks wandered, but under a sunny sky, the track was nearly straight. The study had originally hypothesized that body asymmetry played a role in the circular wandering, but the tracks showed that the directional drift occurred both leftward and rightward in all subjects, indicating that asymmetry was not a factor in a particular direction. The difference had to be some sort of sensory limitation or environmental factor. While a body-side dominance can play a factor, stronger elements are the presence or absence of visual landmarks, random errors and missteps (a foot placed at a slightly different angle due to a path variance like a stone or root), and even auditory signals.
Metaphorical Circles in Life
Now that we understand the science behind the physical phenomenon of walking in circles, it’s easier to see why sometimes we walk in metaphorical circles. If you’ve ever repeated a mistake or found yourself stuck in unproductive routines or habits, you know what I mean. It’s because of one of the following:
- We have put our “foot” in the wrong direction and didn’t realize it. Even a degree off-course, which doesn’t seem like much at the start of the error, can take us miles from our intended destination, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
- We don’t have a guide by which to direct our steps. In an orienteering course, one method is to choose a landmark at the compass point in the instructions, keep it in sight, and move toward it. As long as we keep the landmark in sight, we can walk in a straight line, course-correcting in single degrees rather than getting hundreds of feet off-course. A single mis-step is not likely to throw us into a different direction.
- We don’t know where we want to go. The Cheshire Cat in Alices’ Adventures in Wonderland remarked to Alice that if she didn’t know where she wanted to go, it didn’t matter which path she took.
- We take the path of least resistance or greatest comfort, regardless of where it leads. If we aren’t comfortable venturing someplace unfamiliar, we may wander in familiar paths that don’t get us anywhere we say we want to go.
- Cognitive biases such as confirmation bias (favoring information that confirms what we already believe) and anchoring bias (relying too heavily on the first piece of information we receive) can also prevent us from venturing into a path that is more direct in getting us to a chosen destination.
The Impact of Guidance
Our family travels by road quite a bit, and we find it extremely satisfying. Before the days of carrying a GPS device in my pocket, I was very good at reading a map. I’m not nearly as good at using a compass to find my way in unfamiliar territory, but knowing absolute directions and the relationship of objects to each other directionally is better than knowing nothing. In other words, if I know that a road runs north and south and lies west of where I am, I can travel west and find that road eventually, as long as I can find west. In large cities, my husband and I manage very well with him driving and me reading instructions from my phone’s map application. (I sometimes miss a turn if the map hasn’t caught up with where we are, but that’s part of the fun.)
Asking for directions from locals or people who have been where I want to go is another method of getting guidance in travel. Of course, there are some people who should not give directions. While they may be extremely familiar with the location and area, their explanation of how to get there is difficult to follow. You know what I mean, someone who says “just over the next hill” could be ten miles, or someone who uses landmarks that have been gone for ages – “where that barn burnt down in ’79.”
We took a trail ride on horses on a recent vacation. The horses knew the trail, and one followed another, never veering from the path. My horse was an old one, with one speed, no matter what I did to try to keep him from falling behind. I wasn’t worried we’d get lost, he knew the way and he was going to follow the path and get us back to the barn in his own time. He had walked that trail countless times a week for many years, and he knew what to do. Having access to someone who has done what you want to do can be a great benefit. Letting the guide choose the pace is a wise move, even if you want to go faster than the guide will go.
Sometimes a book, website, magazine, or podcast can give you the information you need to stay on course. I have a backlog of podcasts I’m listening to on a variety of subjects, but when I want to learn something that I don’t know, I take a course with feedback. I need to know if the things I think I’m learning are actually the things I need to learn to do what I want to do.
When you don’t know where you went wrong and you don’t know how to get back on course, it may be helpful to seek the input of a trained therapist. There may be obstacles in your path that were placed there long ago, or by forces over which you have no control and no way around. You can decide that you don’t need to navigate the world on your own. Use it as a tool if you need it.
Seeking the guidance of a guide, a map, GPS, a mentor, a book, a course, or a therapist can help us break the cycle of walking in metaphorical circles. We can gain new strategies and a fresh perspective on our lives. It can be like climbing a tree to get our bearings, or someone turning our map so that “north” is “up.” It can help us get a mile-high view of the things in the path so that we can choose to walk around them or climb over them or go a different direction entirely. The objective is to go in a direction that we choose, rather than selecting the default option because it’s easiest or because our foot turned that way.
Your Turn
It’s not a shameful thing to get off-course. Sometimes we need that in order to realize that we really want something. Sometimes that’s what it takes for us to realize we were pursuing something we don’t want – climbing a ladder only to find that it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It’s also a natural thing. It may even be inevitable from time to time, if you move at all. Are you stuck? Take a step, one step. It may be a step in a “wrong” direction, but you’ll figure it out pretty quickly. Some people resist guidance from others, but don’t be that guy. Use the resources available to you to help you go where you want to go.
When did you find yourself walking in circles, and what did you do? What did you learn that we can benefit from? Drop a comment down below and let’s continue the conversation!