shouganai nai week
It’s very late and I need to go to bed. Today was not the day I expected, and I don’t feel able to share the details about it just yet.
However, I’ve gleaned a nugget of wisdom which I want to ever so briefly mention.
Starting today, this week will be my Shouganai Nai Week. “Shouganai” in Japanese translates to “it can’t be helped; it is inevitable; nothing can be done” and “Nai” means negation or non-existent.
Aki Sano, CEO of Cookpad, said he has a Shouganai Nai Week where he doesn’t pass up opportunities to do things he’s thought of or happened to stumble across. He very briefly mentioned it, so I didn’t get an opportunity to pry too deep into his interpretation of that, however it’s timeliness struck a chord with me and I’m going to make it part of my yearly schedule starting today.
In my case, during my Shouganai Nai Week, I’m going to do at least 1 or 2 things per day for other people that I’ve been thinking about but haven’t moved to engage with. I’ll also include doing things for those people that happen to cross my radar in whatever serendipitous manner. During this week, I’ll let no boundary, big or small, simple or complicated stop me from doing the things I’ve thought would be nice but didn’t do because of all the “important things” that get in the way.
Shouganai Nai week: 8/21/2011 - 8/27/2011
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Sounds like a neat week. I think I will try to participate.
August 22nd, 2011 at 11:07 pm
Yea, join in!
I like this idea, and I think it’ll help drive home an important reminder to me that the people I meet in life are more important than the things I do on a routine basis.
Routines should be there to assist in reaching goals, not block us from doing the things that we know are important.