Do what you can do now

When various difficult things pile up,
you know,
a feeling of 'whatever happens, happens'
starts to well up inside,

but telling myself to do what I can do now, even if it's just a little bit,
I am moving forward.

Have you all ever had an experience like that?

'Do what you can do now.'
The person who said these words to me
was my very first boss
when I had just started working as a company employee.

When people are faced with difficulties,
they tend to focus only on that reality,
becoming unable to move,
blaming others,
pretending it has nothing to do with them,
or saying things like 'it can't be helped.'

They want to run away from the event.

The worst event in my personal history.
June and July were so busy
that I was completely overwhelmed by what was right in front of me,
and I was only looking at things as isolated points.

And then, the moment I took a breath,
I could see the whole picture,
and the jobs I had been contracted for all ended at once.

Thinking, 'I'll be unemployed next month, I'm out of a job,'
I was so scared
that I didn't know what to do from next month,
and I became unable to move.

At that exact moment,
I caught heatstroke,
developed a high fever of over 40 degrees,
and was forced to take a break.

At that time,
the words said to me by my first boss (the store manager)
came to mind.

'Do what you can do now.'

During my time as a company employee,
after I became a manager myself,
I also said these words
to many of my subordinates.

In the case of a store,
within a limited amount of time,
you need to achieve the budget set for that day,
but...

One hour left until closing,
and yet,
the register still hasn't been cleared.

At the time, it was a new brand,
and a store that had just opened,
and I had encountered a situation like this.

Even if the sales for that day were zero,
it doesn't mean you'll die.

You could look away,
or if you wanted, blame the weather, the location,
the products...
If you blame someone else,
you could feel better, but...

'Maybe there is still something I can do.'

A night in December,
it's cold outside,
around the time when Christmas is almost here.

I changed the main display
from a chic styling
to one featuring a red coat as the centerpiece,
with a completely fun image.

While changing the display,
asking the staff about their Christmas plans,
and hearing about
past Christmas memories,
I somehow started to feel happy,
and ideas for the display
kept coming to me one after another.

"Welcome."

A parent and child came into the store.

The mother and daughter
have very similar tastes,
and since they are the same size,
they often share clothes.

The red coat on display
caught their eye, and they came in.

While asking about
knits and dresses to match the red coat,
and their plans for Christmas,
the pile of clothes just kept growing.

Before I knew it,
they even bought the boots at the end,
with a total purchase of over 300,000 yen.

During the customer service,
I was having so much fun.
During that time, things like sales or budgets
weren't even on my mind,
as we got excited
talking about Christmas and fashion with the customers,
and since there were no other customers,
I even got the staff involved,
and it was a truly fun time.

"Do what you can do."

Things you can do but aren't doing,
things you know but aren't doing.

When you are overwhelmed
by what is right in front of you,

there are things you should be able to do
but aren't doing.

As a side note,
I have nephews and nieces
who are 2, 5, and 8 years old,

and the only boy in the middle
often stacks up blocks
to make something unidentifiable (lol).

Just when I think he's finished making it,
he immediately crashes the work.

And then, he starts making something again.

When you become an adult,
doesn't it take a huge amount of courage
to crush or let go of
the things you've built up?

Things you've spent time building,
your experience and pride get in the way,
and it takes quite a bit of energy
to try doing it from scratch once more.

Looking uncool,
What will someone think of me?
Things like that get in the way.

But you know,
I feel like I've realized something.

For the sake of such small pride,
giving up on what you want to do
is such a waste.

It's not like your life is being taken.

Like building blocks,
why not just stack them up again?

"Do what you can do."

The words I've said to my subordinates many times,
I'm now saying to myself.

There's still so much,
things I can do but haven't done yet,
isn't there? Haha.

Things that only look like dots right now,
if those dots increase,
they might become a line,
and some kind of shape might emerge.

Moving something from the right to the left,
or thoroughly cleaning things up,

as you do these things, it starts to become fun,
and the heavy atmosphere begins to shift.

While doing that,
what was it I was worrying about earlier?

Reality might not
change immediately,

but if you do nothing,
it won't change at all.

If that's the case,
if you move even by one millimeter,
something might change.

At times like that,
"Do what you can do now."

I would be happy if you could
remember these magic words.

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