Hello,

Amazed to find this forum!

I'm 46, happy, lucky in life for the most part, but severe procrastination, professional inaction and "not living up to potential." This drives me nuts on a regular basis, but feel so stuck and no real insight as to where it comes from and how to get unstuck.

In the meantime I fritter away time, money and friendship. Any thoughts on how to apply this hexagram? This is an unusual one for me, I don't think I've ever thrown it in 38 years, it came in answer to the thought "NOW, how to move."

Thanks,
S

Line 16.3 even says hesitation brings remorse, so thats you summed up by the IC.

Line 16.5 this says that all your efforts to change your behaviour always seem to hit a barrier which just lingers on and on.

Line 16.6 says that you are capable of changing your ways now that you indeed realize that you have a problem.

Hex 33 is about retreat away from whatever is in a superior position, in this case your "stuckness", so you need to carefully work out a plan of action on how to become unstuck. You know exactly what ails you, so now you have to undo all those years of enforced programming, so you need to deprogram your way of thinking. Perhaps by putting a little order and regulation into your life, if your thoughts are scattered then you need to organize them. You need to learn strong self control.

Thank you, Willowfox. Your interpretation is more hopeful than mine was. : )

Your question was "NOW, how to move?" The answer you got may have to do with reframing your approach. From what you say, you've been looking at it in terms of "not living up to your potential", which has a rather judgmental sound to it.

The I Ching deals with the creative (life) process, from potential to fruition to decay, and then over again. But the Yi tells how to do it "organically", in ways that honor who and what you are and what's needed at any given time. And then there are other ways to do it, usually taught us by our culture and/or family, that set forth rules and expectations and artificial timelines and definitions of success. That creates a lot of pressure, and tends to engender internal conflicts and resistance, which can manifest as procrastination.

Is it possible that this is what you're stuck in? To use an analogy, is it possible that you're an apple, with the potential of "appleness", but you're trying to force the potential of a tomato to express in your life, and then judging yourself because it's not working? Meanwhile, the apple in you that's waiting to be developed is being neglected. Could your resistance or procrastination actually be that appleness making its presence known?

16.3 gives a good description of this predicament: Enthusiasm that looks upward creates remorse. Hesitation brings remorse. Lise' describes the first part of 16.3 as "big eyed weaving of images", which I think really gets the point across. I remember my mother telling me "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" when I'd fill my dinner plate with food and then not be able to eat it all.

In the context of your question, "big eyes" or looking upward could involve expectations about professional or financial achievement. For example, "By your age, you should have X dollars accrued in your retirement account, own a large house that's almost paid off, and be in an upper-management level position at work, have acquired various honors" and so forth.

Maybe back off and come around to look at it from a different vantage point. If you're not living up to your potential, what is your potential? Not just in terms of external markers, but inside yourself. What things are you enthusiastic about? What are the things that energize you? By "things" I mean ideas, environments, activities, kinds of people, etc. (And conversely, what are the things that drain energy from you?)

16.5 talks about needing to challenge yourself, which could be the challenge of that energy, to act on it and use it.

Enthusiasm Without Discipline

s beck said:

Hello,
I'm 46, happy, lucky in life for the most part, but severe procrastination, professional inaction and "not living up to potential." This drives me nuts on a regular basis, but feel so stuck and no real insight as to where it comes from and how to get unstuck.

In the meantime I fritter away time, money and friendship. Any thoughts on how to apply this hexagram? This is an unusual one for me, I don't think I've ever thrown it in 38 years, it came in answer to the thought "NOW, how to move."

Click to expand...

Hexagram 16 is a kind of enthusiasm, like that of an elephant that is untrained. It is big and powerful, but not disciplined. You need to train yourself away from enthusiasm, (line 3) towards perseverence (Line 5) and beyond enthusiasm entirely to lifetime discipline (Line 6) to make the achievements you desire.

Tiger