Ganbatte (luck is within you): what the Japanese miracle of resilience reveals to us

The so-called “Japanese miracle,” which turned a war-torn country into a global technological powerhouse in barely two decades can be applied to anyone’s life. And it is summed up in one word: ganbattewhich we can translate as «do the best you can never give up, keep on going».

Is your power outside or within you?

Since childhood, when we take an exam or participate in a sports event, we are used to being wished: “Good luck!». The same thing happens in adulthood before a job interview, an important meeting or even a first romantic date. In Japan, in these same situations, the mood expression I would beganbatte!

Both options contain very significant differences in our attitude in life. Appealing to luck places the power outside of us. Whether we do well or not will depend on external factors. The stars have to align so that whoever evaluates us is in a good mood, or so that the rivals in the race do not have their best day. A benefactor or a stroke of fortune has to put us in the way what we long for.

Ganbatte: luck depends on you

The ganbatte places the power within us, since it summons our own forces and resources. Yeah what happens to us depends on our effort, luck is no longer a factor. We went from being passive to proactive. We take the initiative and we stop depending on circumstances.

For a Japanese, if he has given everything he has, even if he comes last in a race, he has already triumphed. The background message of ganbatte is: do as much as you can to the best of your ability, and if things do not go as you expect, nothing happens. Don’t feel bad, because you did everything in your power.

Although luck depends on oneself, the Japanese know that inner power is not enough to work miracles. This attitude must be accompanied by perseverance. There are many people who, possessed by enthusiasm, put a lot of effort into a project at the beginning and then they deflate like balloons. The world is full of books abandoned in the first chapter or gyms that continue to be paid without us stepping on them again. Just like rock stars more difficult than arriving is staying.

Malcolm Gladwell spoke of the need for 10,000 hours of practice in anything to achieve mastery. Even if we don’t want to make that investment of time, the plans only take effect if the effort is daily.

The importance of perseverance

In the first months of the pandemic, an editor contacted Héctor García and the person writing this article to ask us to do the first book on ganbatte. Since we already had another project underway, we decided to sign it under the pseudonym Nobuo Suzuki.

In one of the first chapters, Hector suggested that we delve into a saying that the Japanese have known since childhood: «Ishi no ue ni mo san nen», which literally translates as: «on top of a rock, three years».

The underlying idea is that if you sit on a rock long enough, you’ll melt it down. Anything you proposeAlthough it may be difficult at first, if you persevere, you will end up achieving it.

This saying is related to the life of Bodhidharma. According to legend, this monk who introduced Zen to China sat on the same rock for several years without moving. We don’t know if he ended up melting it down, but he had the will not to give up. The deed of this monk is fundamental in Buddhism and inspired the famous daruma figurine (Bodhidharma in Japanese), today very popular all over the world.

The daruma watches that you fulfill your purposes

The daruma is a talisman shaped like an egg, it shows a monk in a red habit without arms or legs and with eyes rolled. More than a decorative object is a instrument to fulfill purposes. I encourage you to get one to carry out this game:

Once you have your daruma -just one at a time-, decide what the essential purpose is What do you need to achieve at this point in your life? Choose only one thing that you can start right now, putting ganbatte spirit.As a ritual to set the purpose, paint one of his eyes with a black permanent marker. It’s usually the right one. Now the daruma is watching you with that eye so that you fulfill your purpose day by day. Put it in a visible place in the house to serve as a daily reminder.Only when the goal is realized you can paint the second. Now the daruma looks at you with both eyes, congratulating you on having fulfilled yourself.

For the Japanese, this votive figure represents determination and perseverance that leads us to achieve what we long for.

Resilience rhymes with patience

However, what happens when we hit a big bump in the road? According to Japanese tradition, when a wish or purpose is not achieved at a reasonable time, the daruma is burned in a ceremony at the end of the year. This does not mean giving up the project, but rather that we are going to pick it up – or even start it over– By other means.

An example of this is what happened to Hermann Hesse with his famous book siddhartha. In February 1920, she finally began writing his “Indian novel,” as he called it. He had spent years wanting to capture the magical and mysterious India of his parents and grandparents, who had been missionaries. The first part of the work flowed without problems, but in the second, during the month of August of that same year, it was blocked.

Unable to go on, he plunged into meditation and visited several times with CG Jung, already famous as a psychoanalyst. The manuscript was a year and a half stopped until, in March 1922, he managed to get out of the quagmire and face the end of the book.

Even if we don’t work on a masterpiece like siddhartha, when we try to force or precipitate something we can end up spoiling it, throwing in the towel or falling into frustration. Sometimes a project needs to be paused and then redirected. The Chinese have the expression wu wei to express these moments in which the most convenient is non-action.

Resilience rhymes with patience, since it is not just about counting on your own strength –ganbatte– and sitting down, day after day, to warm up the rock. There is a third component in the equation: time.

Just as we cannot force the arrival of spring, everything has its maturation processincluding personal relationships. On this path we often feel that everything stops or even that we are going backwards. But that should not discourage us.

In the words of Randy Pausch, author of the last lesson: «The walls are there for a reason. They are not there to leave us out, but to give us the opportunity to show how much we want something. The walls are there to stop people who don’t want something enough. They are there to stop the others!».

Resilience and perseverance: keys to overcoming

Perseverance is the tool that paves the way towards our goals. Take note of these keys to achieve your purposes.

Great Wave off Kanagawa condenses the spirit of the ganbatte. In this famous Japanese print by Hokusai, sailors row endlessly, not waiting for it to subside. To get out of any vital storm, you have to keep rowing.Those who today win running medals, there was a time when they did not know how to walk. And the same thing happens to adults before taking the first step in any activity or facing a goal. No one knows how far it can go.He potential we see and recognize in others shapes our future. This is how Bernard Shaw shows it in his work Pygmalionin which a phonetics teacher turns a flower girl into someone capable of rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy. If we understand failures and setbacks as a opportunity to do better, we will always be winning. «In life, sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.said leadership guru JC Maxwell.Perseverance and time end up breaking down the walls That we meet. There is a motto of the United States Corps of Engineers that reads: “The difficult we do today, for the impossible we take a little longer».«Moss does not grow on the stone that rolls», says another well-known Japanese proverb. When we are in constant motion, things get more and more “rolled” because we are polishing based on trial and error.