Climbing 10 Flights of Stairs and Learning About Life

To help alleviate my lack of exercise even a little,
I make it a point to take the stairs wherever I go, avoiding elevators and escalators as much as possible.

My office is on the 10th floor of the building.
Even so, I don't use the elevator.

Great exercise every morning!!
An incredible sense of accomplishment!!

I think about various things while climbing the stairs.

If I start off too fast,
I run out of steam early on.
Trying to make it to the 10th floor from there
feels endlessly long and painful.

No matter how good or energetic I feel on a given day,
I start by climbing at a restrained pace.
I start to get out of breath around the 6th floor.
But even from there, I maintain my pace
and continue to climb steadily, one step at a time.
I arrive at the 10th floor at the same pace.
I feel like I could keep going at that same pace.

Next time,
maybe I should try the Tokyo Tower?
That's how I feel.

It's the same with everything.
I have a tendency to be too enthusiastic at the beginning.
Even though I know it,
because that's my personality,
I get depressed
that I can't keep it up in the same way.

I recently started practicing the piano again.

The old me would have said,
if I'm going to do it, I'll play for at least 30 minutes every day,
somehow managing my already busy days
to play the piano,
the strain would pile up,
something in my life would be neglected,
and I would wonder why I have so little time
when I have things I want to do,
and complaints would build up
about something fun I had finally started.

But,
having started climbing the stairs every morning,
I am learning.

To keep going, don't overdo it.
It's okay if I can't play for 30 minutes.
It's okay if I can't play every day.
If I play happily when I can,
I can keep going because it's fun.
Even if it's just 10 minutes, the piano
will definitely improve.
When I unexpectedly
have some time to myself,
I can just play to my heart's content.

If I start by lowering the hurdle like that,
without worrying about not having time to play,
perhaps because I'm not feeling pressured,
somehow or other, I'm playing the piano five times a week.

It feels good.

I was curious about how many steps
I actually climb,
so one morning,
I counted them while climbing.

At first, there are four sets of 7 steps
to reach the 2nd floor.
That makes 28 steps so far.

Next, there are two sets of 11 steps
to reach the 3rd floor.
From here on, it's 22 steps per floor.

That means
the first floor is 28 steps + 22 steps from the next one x 9 floors = 198 steps
= 226 steps
(Did you notice... I made a mistake.)

On another day,
I climbed while intently counting the steps.

Huh?
I'm only at 200 steps and I'm already about to reach the 10th floor?
I must have miscounted somewhere.

Then I wanted to count again the next day.

Huh?
It's still not 226 steps?

Without even dreaming that my initial calculation was wrong,
I tried counting again the next day.

Hmm,
this time it was 204 steps.
It never once reached 226 steps.

Here, I finally
have to admit that the 204 steps I counted several times are correct.
So, was my initial calculation wrong?
That is exactly it.

Because the stairs to the second floor were different from the rest,
I assumed there were 28 steps for the first floor
and 9 floors remaining,
and calculated based on that.
The correct answer is

1st floor to 2nd floor = 28 steps
2nd floor to 10th floor = 22 steps x 8 floors = 176 steps
28 steps + 176 steps = 204 steps
I finally realized it

after writing it down properly and calculating it.

I learned that assumptions are dangerous in everything,
and if you think, 'Wait, is this right?', go back to the beginning.
Be cautious in everything.

It is the same at work.

Especially as I get older,
I don't trust myself and try to be skeptical.
Since I don't have as much confidence in my memory as I used to,
if I'm unsure, I go back to the manual.
It takes a little extra effort rather than making a mistake,
but in the end, it finishes faster.

I once told someone at work that I use the stairs to the 10th floor.
Something unexpected happened.

Beyond my imagination,

the topic was received with great interest.
What? Every day?

Do you take a break in the middle?
...and so on.
A few days later,

various people at work started talking to me.
Because I told one person,
the story kept spreading.
Kay, are you taking the stairs today too?

I always use the escalator at the station, but

I remembered you, Kay,
and when I climbed the stairs,
I was stunned by my own lack of physical strength!

When I talked about Kay at home,
my husband said he would try climbing the stairs too, but
it didn't even last three days.

...and so on.

It seems I have remained in the memories of various people,
which makes me feel a bit embarrassed.

I'm sure everyone,
just like me,
must be thinking that they need to do something about their lack of exercise.

Anything is fine,
just start.
If you can keep it up,
praise yourself for it.

Just by doing that, you can feel
a little more positive.

Haste makes waste,
Haste makes waste,

Practice makes perfect,
Practice makes perfect,

There is no time like the present,
Let’s do it from today,

that's it!!