Go For It

頑張って (ganbatte): go for it, do your best, hang in there, the word Japanese says to anyone about to try. It is the て-form of the verb 頑張る (ganbaru), the form that asks and urges rather than commands; the flat imperative 頑張れ (ganbare) is what a crowd shouts at a runner, and 頑張って is what a friend says at the door. The characters are borrowed for their sound, and the dictionaries trace the verb to fixing the eyes on something or to standing one's ground, so its senses run from watching to planting oneself to insisting to enduring, and the modern sense, to persevere and give it everything, is the one the whole country uses; the cat in Sōseki's novel watches a man 頑張って in his opinion. English has no one word for it, and go for it and do your best between them carry what it says. On a dojo wall it is the word the dojo says. 頑張って is the te-form of the verb 頑張る (read ganbaru) meaning "to persevere, to do one's best", the form used to encourage someone.

This beautiful calligraphy art of 頑張って would be a great addition to any dojo, or any place where maximum effort is expected, as a reminder to always do one's best.