The New Year is upon us. That familiar sense of returning to the same place: same resolutions, same hopes, maybe the same weight, job dissatisfaction, or relationship patterns you swore you'd address.

For most people, this feels like failure. "I'm back here again" carries the weight of shame, as if returning to familiar struggles proves you've learned nothing.

But the ancient Greeks understood something about returning that we've forgotten: Not all returns are the same.

The Greeks had different words for different kinds of circular movement, and the difference matters.

Kyklos (κύκλος) means circle or wheel: mindless repetition without progress. Think of a hamster in its wheel, or Sisyphus rolling his boulder. Repetition as imprisonment, going nowhere.

Epistrophe (ἐπιστροφή) means "a turning toward" or "return with purpose." Conscious, intentional return enriched by experience. You come back to where you started, but you're not the same person who left.

Heraclitus captured this: "You cannot step into the same river twice." The river is always flowing, always changing. But here's what gets missed: You're changing too. When you return to the riverbank, both the river and you are different.

This difference determines whether recurring patterns trap you or develop you.

In the Protagoras (343b), Plato has Socrates describe how the Seven Sages dedicated two famous maxims at Delphi: "Know Thyself" (Gnōthi Seauton) for........

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