It is quite easy to allow shortcomings to eclipse wins. However, this is a very foolish way to go through life.

It is often fatigue that is at the root of a feeling of defeat — a lack of energy to see all the options available. The weariness is either because too much energy was expended too soon or one began already tired and simply missed the signs of danger.

Awareness and energy are what it’s all about — knowing when to be realistically reserved and when to be energetically brave, is paramount.

So yes, since life is too long to go super hard all the time, but still too short not to give it a real go. You must learn to MANAGE YOUR ENERGY!!!



This week we pulled the Five of Cups. Here we have a situation where one is overdetermining a loss — meaning, all is not lost. Perhaps you’ve taken a single defeat too hard, and are casting an unproductive shadow across your wins.

Our first hexagram this week is #10, Treading (Conduct). As much as the threshold of your attention allows, take nothing for granted. Not in the sense of appreciating everything (like being thankful) but meaning, try to be cognizant of as much as you can. Know that there are simultaneous factors affecting you at all times and from all sides — above your head, below your feat and in your tummy. Know that you are swarmed by biases and expectations and performed by various hungers/desires/revulsions, and confronted by all manner of novelty. The more you can understand that which affects you (and you affect) the more success you will have. There was one change this week, of which the specific note is: the awareness of danger is a key factor in any decision making process.

Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #38, Opposition. Opposition is a difficult but perpetual scenario in life, therefore it should not be ignored, but studied and taken seriously. When serious opposition is met in an absolutely important matter do not reply with a violent return (that would only bolster resistance) rather, consider committing to producing “gradual effects.” To do this it is wise to remember that “a reasonable, cultured person is never led into baseness or vulgarity… with persons of another sort; regardless of all commingling, they will always preserve their individuality.”