The MC’s words rang out across the beach as I sat at a beautiful Kenyan wedding, still processing the traditional Luo ceremony I’d witnessed a week prior. Same couple, two intentional celebrations, each honoring different parts of their story. I quickly scribbled that phrase in my notes, knowing it held something important.
As I leave Kenya, I keep returning to those words. What might they mean in our everyday lives?
If you know me, you know my work centers joy, having fun, finding clarity, and manifesting visions with confidence and courage. When I apply “stay ready not get ready” to my own life—and imagine you applying it to yours—here’s what emerges.
How to stay ready
Have a vision
When you know what you want, you create space for it to find you. You recognize opportunities when they cross your path. You build strategies instead of scrambling. You hold the vision clearly and invite others to support you.
I’ve always wanted to visit Kenya. When the wedding invitation came, it was an immediate yes—not just for me, but for my whole family. My trust in the value of this experience transformed every logistical hurdle into simply another step forward, never a stopping point. I was ready for Kenya long before the opportunity appeared.
Do you have visions you take seriously? Ones you leave openings for, jump hurdles for? Are you staying ready to have more fun?
Know your values
You will absolutely have more fun when your daily actions and choices honor what matters most to you. But here’s the question: Do you specifically know your values? And if you do, do your actions, environments, relationships, calendar, and conversations reflect them day in and day out?
My family trip to Kenya honored all my core values. I’ll share a few so you can see what I mean:
Learning | Growth | Evolving — I experienced more of our world, absorbed traditions I’m still processing, and allowed them to change me.
Impact | Transformation | Serendipity — I deepened my understanding of my own impact by saying yes to speaking to hundreds of wedding guests and truly receiving their appreciation for what I shared.
Magic | Metaphysical | Divine — What we show up for matters. Spending ten days with my immediate and extended family, plus my new Kenyan relatives, reminded me that our web of connection has no boundaries.
Are you honoring your values day in and day out? Do you take what matters to you seriously? This is how you stay ready for joy.
Stay in motion
When I hear “stay ready,” I picture someone standing with energy—mind, heart, and body connected, ready to move left or right as needed. There’s momentum, not inertia.
Rest is intentional and purposeful. There’s experimentation, trial, error, self-compassion, and more movement. There’s companionship and fun in the journey itself. Destinations become new beginnings.
My trip to Africa wasn’t a final destination but a doorway to exploring more of the continent, cultures, and concepts. It’s shown me my own power to manifest dreams and made me want to revisit my bucket list—choosing what to focus on next while always leaving room for serendipitous magic.
Are you in motion? Do you know and like where you’re going? When you look at your week ahead, do you feel joy in the journey?
This framework of vision, values, and motion—this way of staying ready—has become central to how I want to close 2025 and enter 2026. And I suspect you might want the same.
✉ maria@mariacristini.com What’s one transformation you’ve experienced that surprised you? I’d love to hear about it.
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