Are you ready?

Now that I'm only weeks away from running my first marathon, people keep asking me if I'm ready.  My usual response is, "doesn't matter if I am ready or not, I'm running the race."  But then that got me thinking about the "ready" question in general.

In my opinion, being asked "are you ready?" is very similar to "are you sure?" which insinuates that I may be making a mistake.  Of course I'm not ready:  why else would I volunteer to do something / anything different / new?

If you only do things you're READY FOR then you'll never know what you're truly CAPABLE OF achieving.  To grow, we must stretch beyond our comfort zones - beyond what we think we're ready for.  So no, I'm not ready, and that's cool with me.