So I asked the i-ching today...

"Will I ever reach my true confident self?".... I was feeling frustrated yesterday. Feeling held back in life by being a people pleaser - which I actually can't stand anymore. But it's like auto pilot when I do it. I do make an effort to change, but sometimes I wonder if I'm stuck like this forever.

So this what the Yi answered?

54.6 > 38...

I know it was a silly yes / no question. But very spur of the moment.

Could this possibly be mean separation (38) from compromise (54) and line 6 being the tipping point? If so that's a positive answer?

It's possible that Yi was indeed telling you this is an "empty" question: not only is it yes/no - "ever" is surely too long a timeframe to be useful. Even "true confident self" is kind of vague, although you did explain a bit what you meant.

Of course, Yi could have just gone right ahead and given you advice anyway. It's not a robot which will do (answer) only the exact thing you ask of it . (That's perilous, though, because then you may not be sure what exactly it is answering.) In this case, Yi may have taken the opportunity to work with you, to encourage you to learn more about divining.

Questions can be difficult for everyone. It might help if you take a look at some things Hilary has written on the subject:

Choosing a question for the I Ching

Suggested I Ching questions

More sample questions

Take your time with this. It's a big, important life problem/question, which won't be solved in the next three hours no matter what. So give it the patience it deserves, take the opportunity to learn more about the Yijing, and write your insights down to preserve them. You'll probably want to keep coming back to this one.

(And if it really was just a question born out of temporary frustration or depression, and you find you don't want to spend a lot of time on it - I've done that, too. You can always come back to it later.)