How Do You Know You're Ready

Anyone who knows me, knows I ask a lot of questions. Thankfully, my clients have said they appreciate it because I seek to understand and pose questions that help generate ideas.

I guess I’ve been curious all of my life. When I was little, I remember spotting a mound of ants. I noticed one small ant carrying a piece of what looked like a potato chip. I bent over to observe a little closer. I wondered what would happen if I took away that piece of chip. Would he find another piece? Would he get upset and call his friends over? After taking it away, I gave it back. It took a while, but the ant finally picked it back up and walked away. If ants have feelings, I’m sure he was a little ticked off. I was ready for the colony to band together and come after me, but none of that happened. I was ready for something to happen and it didn’t.

Recently, when I overhead someone say, “I’m not ready to retire” it got me wondering “how do you know?” At different points in your life, I’m sure you asked yourself, am I:

• Ready for college
• Ready to lose weight
• Ready to retire
• Ready to go pro
• Ready to start a business
• Ready to get married
• Ready to remarry
• Ready to let go
• Ready to have children
• Ready to make a career change
• Ready to grow my business
• Ready to buy a dog

The list of things to get ready for can be endless. Recently, I typed in a search engine “define readiness.” There was a wide variety of sources defining readiness but they all said similar things: the condition, state or quality of being ready. So, what were those conditions, states, factors, or qualities that helped you know that you were ready?

Further, have you ever thought that you weren’t ready for something and did it anyway; and upon reflection, there was a positive outcome?

I’m interested in hearing your story about a change you made. What were the conditions, factors, or qualities involved where you knew you were ready to make that change? Was it more of a feeling or were there tangible factors?