What to Do When Facing Choices? Understand Whether a New Job Is Worth Taking Through One Divination Hexagram

A while back, a friend came to me clutching three numbers, saying he’d just gotten a new job offer but was all jittery about it, and wanted me to sort things out using our ancestors’ methods. I asked him to rattle off three random numbers, and he said 3, 15, and 9. Following the rules of generating hexagrams from numbers, the upper trigram is Li (Fire) and the lower is Gen (Mountain), forming the *Lv* (Traveling) hexagram. With the third line changing, the resulting hexagram is *Jin* (Advance).

Don’t jump to call this mystical nonsense. At its core, this is just a decision-making sandbox. Think about it: when you’re facing a choice, the scariest thing isn’t that the options are bad—it’s that you can’t see your own true capabilities, nor can you gauge the depth of the situation. A hexagram splits you and the matter into two roles, acts them out together, and helps you break down your vague feelings to examine them clearly.

The original hexagram is *Lv* (Traveling), with Li above and Gen below. Li represents you: like fire, you’re bright, enthusiastic, and eager to charge forward. Gen is the new job: like a mountain, it’s stable, but it also blocks the way and feels heavy. Fire burning on a mountain sounds spectacular, but think about it carefully—there isn’t much firewood on a mountain. No matter how fierce the fire is, it will burn itself out before long. This is what the old saying calls “the self generating the other”: you’re the one expending energy to support the situation, which means you’re chasing the work. You’ll definitely be tired, and the rewards may not keep pace.

The middle mutual hexagram is *Da Guo* (Great Exceeding), which basically means hiccups are likely during the transition period. A new environment—interpersonal relationships, work rhythm—what part of it doesn’t require readjustment? If you go in with the idea that “everything will be smooth sailing once I get there,” you’ll most likely be disappointed. How do you improve your judgment at this point? It depends on whether you can factor these “discomforts” into your costs in advance, instead of only grinning at the numbers on the offer letter.

Fortunately, the resulting hexagram is *Jin* (Advance): fire above the earth, the sun rising over the horizon, gradually growing brighter. That is to say, it’s not that the job is bad—it’s just that the beginning is hard. You have to get through that initial period of self-doubt where you ask “Who am I? Where am I? Why did I quit?” Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the ropes, the situation will gradually open up.

A lot of people ask how to see the situation clearly. The answer is actually just one sentence: don’t only look at “whether it can work out”; first ask yourself “whether I can afford the cost.” The signal from this hexagram is clear—if you have no other options right now and quit your current job to jump into this new one, you’ll most likely get a harsh reality check. If you “ride a donkey to find a horse”—stay steady in your current job first, build up experience while observing the situation, wait two or three months or even eight weeks until the situation becomes clearer before making a move—that’s what you call playing it safe.

The biggest taboo in the workplace is making impulsive, knee-jerk decisions. When our ancestors talked about “traveling” (*Lv*), they meant living as a guest in a foreign place. When you go to a new place, you’re a “guest”—you need to keep a low profile, build up your strength, and don’t try to be the main character the moment you arrive. Don’t be too rigid about interpersonal relationships either: take detours when you can, play dumb when it’s useful, and focus on putting down roots first.

To put it bluntly, the *I Ching* isn’t some magical gimmick. It just helps you arrange the jumbled thoughts in your head into two clear sides: one is your own state, the other is the trend of events. As you look at them, you’ll know which way to go. In the end, you’re still the one making the decision. The hexagram is just a mirror, reflecting the unspoken hesitation and greed in your heart.