A woman I met at a psychic fair talked about the things she wanted to do in the future to help the spiritual growth of those around her. She happened to be half Caucasian and half Native American, raised in her tribal culture. We talked about how difficult it could be to maintain culture when, historically, any contact with Caucasians, whether they be missionaries or marauders, usually led to the suppression of the culture or outright genocide. There were exceptions, but by the memories of Native populations in North America, there weren’t many. I won’t get into all that as I am not an activist, but being that I am also a native, I recognize the generational trauma that natives carry from those who thought to “save us” from ourselves as if they had the right to do so. That is a discussion for another time and not the point of this article.

The point is more universal, and it’s about deciding whether or not we are ready to take on what we hope to do for our tribe. She mentioned in the conversation that she was good at helping people with the logistics of their plans. Helping people to look at all the details required to get them where they wanted to go. She wanted to be able to use those skills to bridge the gap between current American cultural norms and traditional tribal values. I told her that she was the perfect person to help close that gap as she was a living example of it working.

As she talked about what she wanted to do, her eyes would light up, but her body would tense up. The energy of fear would roll off her, and her breathing became shallow. The wall of fear she kept in front of her was what prevented her from moving forward with her plans. She did have plans. She had been working on them for some time and already had an outline in her head of how things could work. In talking about it, she even said that she was ready to take the first steps. When she said that, I could tell from her body language that it wasn’t true.

“Are you really ready to start?”

She hesitated, “Yes?”

“Try again,” I said. She laughed.

We like to say that we are ready for things when we’re really not, but we know we need to be. We have all heard the phrase, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” If we are supposed to give a speech, even if we’re so nervous we think we might pee our pants, we get out on stage and do what we said we would. The expectations of others are what drives us to move through that fear, but when the driving force is ourselves, most of us give ourselves way more slack than we would to someone we are supporting.

Are there times when we are ready? Of course. Most of our lives are lived as moments we are ready for. If you get up and go to work every day, you are ready for whatever comes up during the day. For most things, we were born ready. For those things we perceive as dreams, things that may or may not come true for us, readiness becomes a whole thing unto itself. I’ve done it myself with projects I’ve worked on. They weren’t at the level of perfection I wanted. It wasn’t “ready,” so I wasn’t ready to let go of it. That’s where she was. She was still fine-tuning everything, ensuring that almost every variable was accounted for before launching her plan. Perfection before execution. On paper, that’s great. In real life, that’s unrealistic. In case of unpredictable weather, no reasonable person would plan an outdoor event without some kind of shelter, such as a building or a tent. Even if you do plan for it, there’s no telling if it’s going to be adequate for what you will ultimately need. In real life, you will never be completely ready for anything. There is always something that is out of your control that could go haywire, and you will have to be flexible and deal with it.

In continuing the conversation, when she realized that, she kind of deflated. Her thought was that she would never be ready as there was no way she could compensate for everything. I told her that there was one way, instead of believing that she had to be ready, to put herself in a state of being willing.

Being ready implies that there are no unknown variables to consider. These are situations where we can get comfortable, and there aren’t a lot of surprises like going to your desk job where every day is pretty much the same. However, when something completely out of the ordinary happens, like an unscheduled fire drill, people stand around gaping like landed fish, wondering what to do with themselves. It takes them a moment to realize that the script they are used to following is going off the rails, and they have to improvise.

Willingness allows you to construct a detailed framework from which to operate but leaves room for uncertainty. When you are willing, if something doesn’t go according to plan, you have the mental space to devise a plan B without throwing your entire plan out the window. In readiness, if you don’t account for something, that may cause the entire plan to collapse. Flexibility is the key. Although I do know people who live in the space of “being ready for anything,” that is a state that has no plan and contains a level of uncertainty that would give most of us anxiety.

While on a spiritual path, most of what you will encounter will be unexpected. Even now, years down the road, the universe is still throwing me curve balls. I whined to my friends that “the homework was getting harder.” They laughed. I told them that the clients that were coming to me were bringing energy situations I had never seen before. I guess I was getting too comfortable in my “readiness” state, so the universe decided it was time to mix it up. I’ve learned a lot, and it’s been fun, but they have been some of the greatest challenges I’ve had so far. That is an article for another time.

We can be ready for many things, but we also need to be willing to change gears if the circumstances require us to do so. That is real life. Success or failure is often determined by our ability to adapt. We are not always ready for what may come our way, but as long as we are willing to take it on, ready or not, it is often more than enough to get through whatever it is. One of the best positions to have in life is to be ready and willing.