Do What You Can

One of my favorite things to do to escape the world is to watch One Piece. It’s a goofy anime about pirates that follow their dreams. Although it’s a cartoon, it does hit a lot of heavy topics: racism, corruption, defiled morals, so and so forth.

In the Alabasta arc where the pirates are trying to take back a kingdom for their friend, the pirate who’s been on the crew the longest and the newest recruit have a conversation about their crazy crew. The new recruit is trying to understand how the crew works because everyone on it has their own agenda. One wants to be king of the pirates, one wants to be the world’s greatest swordsman, another wants to draw a map of the world. Each member of the crew has their own dream. The veteran crew member ends up giving his definition of teamwork and ends up saying this line:

“You do what you can, the best that you can and then you turn to the others and expect the same from them.”

~Roronoa Zoro

Even though everyone on the crew has their own agenda, they do what they can to make their crew work and help each other follow their dreams. Each person on the crew has their own skill set: a navigator, doctor, swordsman, sniper, cook, etc. and by excelling in their own individual skills, they’re able to help their crew as a whole.

I’ll admit, I paused the show when I heard this quote said. It felt like relief. Sometimes life can get heavy, you know? It can feel like there’s too much going on and you don’t know if you can keep up or complete your tasks. You start feeling like a failure, like you’re not good enough. However, all you can do is the best that you can. I’ve been trying my best at a lot of work things. It gets exhausting and there are days when I wonder if my best is enough. In the end, it doesn’t matter. My best is all I can give. As long as I keep doing that, I can walk away with no regret.

Featured Image taken from actual episode of One Piece where quote is said.