Man, life used to feel like pushing a rock uphill most days. You know that feeling when you’ve got a million things buzzing in your head, big plans, grand ideas, but actually getting them off the ground? It was a nightmare. I’d start something with all this energy, feel super pumped, then hit a tiny snag, and boom – all that momentum just vanished. I’d end up feeling crappy, like I couldn’t get anything done, just stuck in this loop of starting and stopping. My big projects always felt like they were just out of reach, always waiting for some perfect moment that never came.
I remember one time, I was trying to kick off this side project, nothing huge, just something I was passionate about. I’d spend hours researching, sketching out ideas, writing pages of notes. I felt like I was doing a lot of work. But then it came to actually sitting down and doing the actual work – coding, writing, making calls – suddenly, it felt like my brain just shut down. I’d find myself cleaning the house, scrolling through social media, doing anything but the one thing I needed to do. It was frustrating as hell, watching my own procrastination just eat away at my dreams.
I was desperate for a way to just keep things moving, even when the big picture felt overwhelming. I wasn’t looking for some magic bullet, just a trick to keep the small stuff ticking over. That’s when I stumbled onto this hexagram 9 thing, you know, “Small Taming.” I’d messed around with the I Ching a bit before, mostly for bigger questions, but I saw someone talking about applying it to daily, tiny hurdles. And it just clicked for me. The idea wasn’t to force massive changes, but to gently guide the little things, like a mild breeze nudging a cloud. It resonated with my problem perfectly: I wasn’t failing at the big vision, I was failing at the micro-steps.
Starting with the Tiny Stuff
So, I thought, alright, let’s give this a real shot. My first move was to just acknowledge those tiny bits of resistance. Not beat myself up, but just notice them. Like, I’d sit down to write, and my hand would just naturally drift to my phone. Instead of yelling at myself, I’d just observe, “Aha, small taming needed here.”
- I started picking one super small thing each day. Not a big task, just something I knew I needed to do but always put off. For example, for my side project, instead of “work on project,” I’d make it “open the project file and read through the last few lines of code.” It sounds ridiculous, but that tiny commitment was doable.
- Then, I’d visualize that little “taming.” It wasn’t about wrestling my will, but like gently redirecting a small animal. I’d literally imagine my hand reaching for the phone, and then a tiny, almost invisible force, just ever so slightly pulling it back to the keyboard. Silly, maybe, but it worked to shift my focus.
- I moved things around physically. If my phone was a distraction, I’d put it in another room. If a messy desk was holding me back, I’d spend literally two minutes tidying just the part I needed to work on. It wasn’t a full clean-up, just enough to clear the immediate path.
The whole point was to not overwhelm myself. The “small taming” aspect meant I wasn’t trying to conquer my bad habits in one go. I was just nudging them, chipping away at the edges. I noticed my energy was getting drained by fighting myself, so this was about reducing the fight altogether.
Daily Nudges, Real Progress
Over time, I found myself doing this stuff without even thinking. When I felt that familiar slump or urge to procrastinate, I’d automatically look for the “small tame.”
For instance, I had this thing where I’d always leave dishes in the sink until they piled up. Super annoying, right? Applying Hexagram 9 meant I’d just commit to washing one cup after I used it. Not all the dishes. Just one. And usually, once I started with that one cup, the momentum would kick in, and I’d wash a few more. Sometimes all of them! But even if I just washed that one cup, it was a win. Small taming, see?
Another big one was exercise. I always wanted to work out, but getting started was the hardest part. My “small tame” became: “Put on your workout clothes.” That’s it. No commitment to actually doing the workout, just getting dressed. And wouldn’t you know it, once I was in my gear, like 80% of the time, I’d just go ahead and do at least a quick session. It felt so much less daunting than forcing myself to do a full hour.
I even applied it to my sleep schedule. I’d stay up way too late scrolling sometimes. My small tame wasn’t “go to bed at 10 PM sharp” right away. It was “put your phone down 30 minutes before bed and pick up a physical book.” Just that small shift often broke the endless scroll and helped my brain wind down naturally.
What I learned through all this was that those big goals often get blocked not by their size, but by the accumulation of tiny resistances. By applying “small taming” daily, I wasn’t fighting the resistance; I was just gently redirecting it, making it easier to flow toward what I actually wanted to do. It made a huge difference in my daily life, turning those frustrating uphill pushes into more manageable, steady climbs. It’s still not perfect, but now I’ve got this tool, and I reach for it every single day.
