I believe that in order to achieve our desired self, we must first listen to what our current needs are and redirect ourselves as a full body, mind, and soul operation.
Maturity. It’s a total personality thing, making it incredibly difficult to ignite in some or hide in others. It’s a mindset, it’s multiple processes of thought, and its a replication of behaviors that makes this heightened maturity unavoidable for some people.
"Maturity includes the recognition that no one is going to see anything in us that we don't see in ourselves. Stop waiting for a producer. Start producing." - Marianne Williamson
If you are anything like me, you’ve been told one too many times to slow down your pace, to remember your youth, or to stop stressing over life’s trifling pressures. Though young in age, I can’t help but over-analyze my future from the naive standpoint which I am in today. I over-indulge in activities, I apply myself past the necessary, and I crave the need to book my days from sunrise to sunset—all to extract the most of my time in hopes of a prosperous tomorrow. Having such youth before me, I humor my obsession to live so maturely.
Here is what I think it means to have a matured soul:
1. Taking Ownership For Our Mistakes
It is a HUGE deal to admit it when we're wrong. Mistakes can shrink our reputation and reflect poorly upon who we are and all of what we stand for. Yet the moment you grasp ownership for those minor slip-ups is when you begin to fully utilize the situation for what it really is—a second chance to become something greater. Blaming others will only displace aggression and develop wounds where trust and goodwill had once flourished.
2. Getting Upset When We Don’t First Succeed
Being able to feel through every emotion is pertinent in evaluating yourself and the situations around you. Mature people often feel that they've cultivated years of experiences, suiting them for success in life's many interchanging facets. It’s an incredibly frustrating world, when we've allotted the majority of our existence to placing ourselves on a higher platform for the purpose of excelling... and yet still end up falling short.
3. Cringing At Our Bank Accounts
Dreaming of sailing the shores of Italy, in tune to a sherbet-painted sunset with your lover in hand? Yes. Always. Shoot, give me a map and I can get us there (er, maybe on the third try). Plate me up exotic foods and I'll dare eat them all. You bet I'll forego sleep to scope out a new land beneath the stars. Coveting the idea of branching out and experiencing more, more, and more is so desired by those matured. We thrive from learning and being placed into unfamiliar territories. Financially, those in their 20s are about as rich as any 16-year-old (thanks, college). So yeah, let's take a rain check on any traveling until we can land jobs that pay above minimum wage.
4. Dating Older People
This one just makes sense, yes? When thoughts somewhat circle the same grounds and connections begin to arise from values and true spirit is when you've found yourself in a solid relationship. Really think about it. A 30-year-old might not have the same concerns as a 20-year-old, crack under the same pressures, or they might not even understand our millennial trends and jokes. Such degrees of difference in life can easily be relative to the number of years separating two individuals, yet mature people will often find that thrilling—relatable where life numbers are nonexistent. But to those mature, you've always felt much older, right?
This whole idea of acting mature and expressing yourself beyond your age fascinates me. While I love hanging out at bars, karaoking One Direction songs and walking amidst my college campus, at the end of the day, I'm always thinking about years down the road—how I'll get there, what people I need to reach out to, what kind of impressions I need to make today in order to better tomorrow, etc. Maturity will drive me into my future self. I won't ever be able to stop producing better versions of my life—no one should.
