In 2019, I Reflected on How Anything Worth Doing Takes Time
（日本語版あり）
Below is the letter that I enclosed in this year’s Christmas cards.
With the holiday season fast approaching, I hope you are in good spirits.
This year, I’d like to talk a bit about shogi, the Japanese variation of chess. You may be thinking “but you do that every year,” but this year I hope to give some context to my annual report on how I continuously fail to raise my shogi skill level.
In a quiet part of Tokyo called Sendagaya, there’s a building named the Shogi Kaikan. It’s the headquarters of the Japan Shogi Association. On the second floor of that building is an intimidating place full of shogi players called the dojo, where you can get your skill level ranked and play against others with comparable strength.
My current skill level is 6 kyu. Above this are 5 kyu, 4 kyu… and so until 1 kyu, after which 1 dan, 2 dan…follow. Players with dan ranking are pretty good. So good, in fact, that if you’re ranked with dan, you automatically receive my unconditional respect.
After many years of playing, it’s become quite obvious that I don’t have much talent in shogi, butthat hasn’t stopped me from setting the achievement of 1 dan as my lifelong goal.
To achieve higher ranking, I only need to do one thing: keep winning. But that’s easier said than done. I recently came to the conclusion that, with 6 levels between where I’m at now and where I need to get to before death, 1 dan will be awfully hard to achieve if I don’t reach 5 kyu really soon, even assuming I live to the ripe age of 200.
Armed with that insight, this year I doubled down on the time and energy dedicated to shogi… although you can probably guess what my return on that investment was. There is, though, hope; for the first time, 5 kyu feels really close.
As I thought about how far I’ve come, the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” came to mind.
I recalled the same words when reflecting on my biggest accomplishment of the year.
From January through April of this year, for one semester, I taught U.S. Constitutional Law at the Tokyo campus of Temple University’s School of Law. I can describe this foray into teaching in one word— “exhausting,” with time I spent on creating the syllabus, preparing the lectures and grading the exam surpassing the time I dedicated to shogi. But from all that effort, students who previously knew little about the U.S. Constitution came to show an appreciation for it. There’s something indescribably satisfying about making an impact like that.
If there’s one lesson I take from 2019, it’s that anything worth doing in life—whether it be shogi, teaching or anything else—takes tremendous time and effort.
Next year, I’m hoping that my accomplishments extend beyond reaching 5 kyu, even if not to the level of establishment of Rome.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, and may your 2020 be the year in which you reap the fruits of all of your efforts.
