In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of finding the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Imagine standing in a field and wanting to know your exact location. You can measure the distance to two tall landmarks that you can see in the distance. You can calculate your position by forming a triangle with yourself and the two landmarks (whose locations are known).
I've been fidgeting with the word "triangulation" for a few days. It came out while talking with a friend about being lost and not knowing where to go. We agreed that it's hard to decide where to go if we don't even know where we are. So, that is probably the starting point: figuring out where we are. Then, some old memories from my school time popped up, and I thought about triangulation.
If we can find at least two fixed landmarks in our lives, we can perform a triangulation and gain more clarity about our position. Those points can be anything: people, places, things, values. As long as we know where they are and can calculate how far we are from them, we should be able to estimate our position.
If you're lost, you may try to triangulate.
Can you see at least two landmarks from where you are in your life right now?
P.S. I quickly checked online this morning to refresh my memory about triangulation. I discovered that in psychology, triangulation is a harmful form of psychological manipulation (source). That’s not what I was referring to in my post, but I've learned something new!