How do you know when you’re ready?

Ready to move on from your job, ready to start that new business, ready to move on into a new relationship?

The truth is, are you ever ready? Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that there has to be an indication of readiness. Not the 2019 version of ‘ready’ which indicates perfection, but the readiness that is willing. Willing to take on new challenges, and willing to handle a new stage and all that it will come with.

How many times do we tell ourselves mentally that we are not ready?

We make excuses and rationalise our decisions even though the opportunity has been prepared by God and is right in front of us.

The truth is until you’re in it, you’ll never know what it can bring. You’ll never know how you’ll handle potential wins or set backs. And it is in that not knowing that you should never forget to hold on to the one who knows everything. God. 

Someone asked me how did I know I was ready to move on after a break up.  Truthfully when I thought I was ready, I was not.  And thankfully the opportunity did not arise and I certainly am not one to ‘shoot my shot’ respect to all you ladies who do. Just not for me. Anyway I digress. What made me believe I was ready was simple. I had gone through counselling, I was intentional, I was praying and fasting the whole lot but there was still little cracks that God needed to mend which He did.

It was only when I was fully healed and the opportunity came that I realised I was ready to open up my heart in that way again.

The situation was a weird one. He was someone I grew to like very quickly but soon after, I found out that he was not the one for me. There was a lot of feeling between us but with discernment I knew something was off and as time passed it came to my awareness by him that there had been dishonesty.

I knew I was ready because even though it didn’t work out and I was hurt, there was no bitterness.

My response to this not working did not equate to ‘God why me’ or questioning if a man could ever be 100% faithful to me.

Some people believe that should a set back occur, that they were not ready to begin with and then further delay them stepping out. But what we don’t often realise is what we call ‘set backs’ are really learning opportunities. From that situation I learnt a lot about myself and the unfailing mercy of God. I was able to take those learnings with me in prayer and my day to day living.

So many of us hide behind the guise of ‘not being ready’ and although I believe for some this may be true, for many, it’s our way of delaying our next move out of fear.

As individuals we evolve and to think that you’re unable to handle a blessing that God has given to you is a declaration that you don’t know the power of the one who blessed you. In my example the blessing for me was the heart God had given me to move on and the ability to walk away and not settle even when my ‘feelings’ tried to convince me otherwise.

Recently I spoke at the LV31 multi-faceted woman event and a lady came up to me and told me she was afraid to start her business. She asked me what made me start. And if you have heard my story you would know that it is quite a long one. But when it comes down to it I was able to start because I never gave myself the opportunity to tell myself why it couldn’t work. I never waited long enough to delay it. I received the idea, and I ran with it.

I have used these examples because one of them pertains to readiness after disappointment and the other is readiness after an idea. The two took a different level of knowing. Both required trust and faith in God. But the former example required me to know that I had been healed.

So I go back to my original question. How do you know when you’re ready?

The easy answer is ‘you will just know’ but for me it was being able to discern that what was stopping me was not that God did not permit, or that I had not been healed but that I was afraid.

If fear is the only thing stopping you and the root to you 101 excuses and internal rationalisations, then the truth is, you are most likely ready.