As a martial artist, are you ready enough to deal with average self-defense situations?

Those are not average self defense situations. Most self defense situations can be avoided with lifestyle, good judgement and manners. The martial arts did not help me with that, my elders did by telling me how to think and how to act. The martial arts are for health, fun, and if all else fails and you really don't have any other choice or if you are caught completely off-guard. You'd be amazed at how infrequent physical conflict becomes when you hang around more mature people, don't drink as much, avoid violent women, avoid men with a chip on their shoulder, avoid areas you know are dangerous, don't act like you are God's gift to traffic, and focus on positive things.

ive been involved in a few fights recently ( bad luck and poor judgement and being a dick for one ) and did ok , and i had no previous training whatsoever .

looking back and they were average fights one road rage one drunken stupidity and the other my fault entirely .

ive been traing for only 4 weeks now and i rekon i could of ended them fights very fast now just by better stance , better shot placement better punch dynamics and defense ( of which i had none prior to training ) and having a bit of a game plan , and that not to mention kicks ive learned ( which i would not do in a brawl anyway ) .

that said i realise now that if id of met a trained person in a fight id of had my *** wooped as i has no real skills just a left cross and some aggression but no game plan .

so yes i think i could handle the average scuffle but a trained fighter might take a while yet , but more importantly im learning to not be such a dick .

I would have to deal with whatever happens, no matter the weapons or the number of opponents. Am I "ready" for it? I'm training for it, so, I suppose maybe I'm ready for it - but being "ready" for something suggests a point in time at which you stop training for it. And if I kept training, one might make the argument that I'm not ready.

So I'd say, no, I'm not ready, but I will deal with whatever comes my way.

Absolutely. Always be aware of your surroundings. When trouble brews which is usually long before any fight starts leave the scene and take your friends with you to keep them safe. Best self defense and works every time.

Fighting isn't self defence, fighting is what happens once self defence fails. It is a mistake to confuse the two.

Yup.