photo credit: quotes.lifehack.com

“Ready or not, here I come.” Remember that game? Hide and seek, ahhh…the good ole’ days!

We literally wrote the rules as we played the game. If you were anything like my friends and I in the way that you played the game, as the “hider” you were never ready. That mandatory 60 second eyes-closed count while everyone else attempted to hide always seem to get shorter as the game wore on. I think there is a tremendous lesson that can be learned from this age old tradition:

In the game of life, you will never be ready. For that matter, what does “ready” really mean anyway? Are you ever ready to graduate from college and leave the environment you invested 4 years to build? What about that first job; are you really ready to begin your life of responsibility? In your relationships, are you ready to move beyond casual dating and commit to a longer term, more secure relationship? What about marriage; are you ready to share your life with another person for your remaining days on earth? And then there’s kids; are you ready to stay up all night, sacrifice your “alone time” and deal with issue after issue for the next 18 years?

I think the more appropriate question is “are you willing?” Although you might not appear ready at any moment in your life, you can certainly demonstrate open-mindedness. How do you measure willingness? Well, how do you feel about initiative and seeking counsel from those who are older and more advanced in the journey of life? Do you consider yourself coachable? Do you know how to ask insightful questions? Are you willing to invest the time and energy to learn even when you don’t feel like doing anything differently?