Biting Through Hexagram Nine in Fourth Place: What to Do When Facing Tough Issues? "Jian Zhen Ji" — Bite the Bullet and Push Through, You’ll Win Once You Survive the Hardship

Have you ever had that feeling—

Why is this so hard? Am I not cut out to keep going? Maybe I should just call it quits and give up.

You hit a bottleneck at work, and no amount of effort gets you past it. You run into problems in a relationship, and no amount of communication helps. You face hurdles in starting a business, and no matter how hard you hang on, you can’t see a way forward.

It’s hard. So, so hard.

This exact kind of hardship is what the Nine in the Fourth Place of the Biting Through hexagram speaks to. The line text reads: "噬乾胏，得金矢，利艰贞，吉。" (Biting dried meat on the bone, one finds a metal arrow. It furthers to persevere through hardship. Good fortune.)

What is "dried meat on the bone"? It’s tough, sinewy dried meat with bone in it—extremely hard to chew through. And a "metal arrow"? It’s an arrowhead made of metal, unyieldingly hard.

Across the Biting Through hexagram, you work your way from tender meat down to the hard bone; the Nine in the Fourth Place is the toughest, hardest-to-chew part of all. Yet the line text says "利艰贞，吉" (It furthers to persevere through hardship. Good fortune.)—hold to the right path when times are tough, and the outcome will be good.

What does that mean? It means hardship is normal. Push through it, and you win.

Why do so many people fold in the face of hardship?

It’s not that the challenge is truly impossible to overcome—it’s that most people’s first reaction when things get hard is to give up.

Why do they give up? Three reasons.

First reason: they can’t see any hope.

What people fear most isn’t hardship itself—it’s not knowing when the hardship will end.

You put in the work every day, you stick with it every day, but you see zero progress. It’s like walking in the dark: you keep going and going, but you never see the dawn.

After a while, you start to doubt—am I heading the right way? How much longer do I have to walk? What if I never get out of here?

Doubts pile up, and you stop.

Second reason: you’re exhausted.

Your body is tired, but your mind is even more drained. The second you open your eyes every morning, there’s a new problem, one after another, nonstop.

You tell yourself you’ll take a break, but you can’t even rest properly. Your head is full of worries; even lying down doesn’t feel peaceful.

After a long time of this, you’re worn out physically and mentally. When you can’t hold on anymore, you want to quit.

Third reason: you start to doubt yourself.

When things aren’t going well, it’s easy to put yourself down.

"Am I just not good enough?" "Am I too stupid for this?" "Should I never have started this in the first place?"

The more you doubt yourself, the less confidence you have. The less confidence you have, the worse you perform. The worse you perform, the more you doubt yourself. It’s a vicious cycle.

By the end, you truly believe you’re not capable.

When times are hard, how do you get through it?

Getting through it isn’t just white-knuckling it—there’s a method to it. Here are three tricks.

First trick: break your goal down into tiny, doable pieces.

Big goals look terrifying just to think about. "I’m gonna nail this project," "I’m gonna change myself," "I’m gonna turn things around"—just the thought of it feels impossible.

But if you break it down into what you need to do today, it’s not so hard anymore.

Today, I just need to finish this one page of the PPT.

Today, I just need to run two kilometers.

Today, I just need to check in with one client.

Take it one step at a time, one day at a time. Before you know it, you’ll look up and realize you’ve come really far.

Second trick: lower your expectations, and accept that hardship is normal.

A lot of people’s misery doesn’t come from the hardship itself—it comes from thinking things shouldn’t be this hard.

"Why is everyone else’s life so smooth, and only I have this bad luck?"

The truth is, other people’s lives aren’t that smooth—you just see their end results, not the hardships they went through to get there.

When has anything worth doing ever been easy? Hardship is normal. If it’s not hard, that’s what’s weird.

Once you accept that hardship is part of the deal, it doesn’t feel so bitter. It’s like knowing it’s going to rain today: you bring an umbrella, so even if you get a little wet, you don’t get upset.

Third trick: find something to hold on to.

When you’re at your lowest, you need something to keep you going.

That anchor can be a person—your family, your friends, your mentor. Just thinking of them gives you strength.

It can be a belief—"I can do this," "This is going to work out." It might sound vague, but sometimes belief is exactly what keeps you afloat.

It can also be a small daily joy—a good cup of tea, a half-hour run, a little time reading a book you love. A little sweetness in life makes the hard parts easier to bear.

Whatever it is, you need something. Otherwise, you really won’t make it.

Hardship is a filter

One last thing: hardship is a good thing.

Why? Because it separates the people who stick around from the ones who don’t.

Anyone can do easy things. It’s the hard things that show what you’re made of.

If you push through the hardship other people can’t handle, you’re stronger than them. If you endure what other people can’t, no one can take your place.

What doesn’t break you makes you stronger. That’s not just a motivational quote—it’s the truth.

The line "perseverance through hardship brings good fortune" from the Nine in the Fourth Place of Biting Through is for everyone who’s grinding through a tough time right now.

If you’re feeling like it’s too hard, like you can’t hold on much longer— that’s normal. Because you’re walking uphill.

Hang in there a little longer.

The dawn will come.