On Readiness

“I’m ready to change.”

How many times did I say those words to myself, and then fail? Countless. I often mistake desire for readiness. “I want to change” should come before “I’m ready to change.”

I have often not put enough thought or understanding into the words I use with myself, and then am confused at various less than desirable outcomes. Desire alone is meaningless if we don’t do the work..

Tom Kier has a formula for readiness. It consists of three balanced points: Awareness, Willingness, Preparedness.

Awareness is the analytical point. Do you know everything you need to know about your goal?

I failed many times because I believed things that were not true. I believed that carbohydrates were making me fat. That if I excised them from my diet, I would lose weight. When I stopped losing weight for long periods of time despite perfect adherence, and then even gained weight, I felt broken. My awareness was not up to the level required of my goal.

The next point in the formula is willingness. This is the emotional area. Are you willing to do everything it takes to accomplish your goal?

Have you visualized all that it will take? Have you then gone through the second and even third order effects? Many times, I said to myself “I will do anything” only to find there was much I was unwilling to do.

I can recall years ago starting a “stay hungry” version of keto, so long as I was mostly hungry, I would lose weight. But I began this right before the holidays, and I hadn’t taken into consideration what dieting would be like for those weeks. I quickly failed.

The final point of readiness is preparedness. This is the action point. Have you gathered and prepared everything you will need to accomplish your goal?

“I will start my diet tomorrow,” only to wake up to a refrigerator filled with non-diet foods has derailed me more than once. When I’m dieting, it is unwise for me to cook or shop while hungry, this kind of unpreparedness has ruined perfectly good progress on multiple occasions.

Each of these points is done prior to me being ready. It is from the point of readiness that my plan is executed.

Are you ready?