5 Definite Signs of Maturity
To an extent age has nothing to do with it.
I was at a party when I heard a guest saying to my wife “This 17-year-old boy is more mature than most of the men in the house”. For a moment, I felt weird but then I gave it another thought and realized that she might be right because most of us are nothing more than adult babies.
We are stuck in life with our big fat egos. Ego promotes comparison and judgement and push you to prove yourself to be right. Lot of us need big houses and fancy cars because others have them. We are conditioned to be materialistic and tend to ignore our inner voice.
Of course, money is necessary to live a comfortable life, but we don’t realize when our desire becomes greed. That’s where maturity is required to draw a line between right and wrong. Maturity is a sign of wisdom. At time of success, it stops you from ruining your mind and at time of failure it provides strength to overcome fears and insecurity.
Mature people are strong headed and make good decisions that make their life worthwhile.
There are 2 aspects of maturity
1) Physical — this is when your body transforms from a child into an adult.
2) Psychological — this is when you develop an understanding about life and wisdom.
Here I am emphasizing on psychological maturity.
1. Think beyond physical appearance
When you realize life is much more than aesthetics and true essence of life lies beyond physical appearance. There is nothing wrong in looking good and taking care of your body. The idea is to think beyond it as it helps you to detach you from outside world and draws your attention inside to develop self-awareness. It allows you to make deeper connection with your true self and others and see them with equality, without any prejudice of their appearance.
2. Stay calm in any situation
You discover that natural state of your mind is calm and you don’t get upset easily. You don’t let your situation to interfere with your peace of mind. Events like getting stuck in traffic, spouse shouting at you and messing up a presentation doesn’t bother you. You don’t let yourself carried away in quest of materialistic desires, getting rich and famous. You understand that restless mind is the cause of self-inflicted human sufferings and you choose to stay calm.
In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishan explains the importance of keeping mind at rest.
For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. — Bhagavad Gita
3. Accept your mistakes gracefully
Alexander Pope in 1711 wrote a poem which has famous saying, to err is human. Mistakes are inevitable even after best possible efforts. We make mistakes because it’s part of our learning process but it takes courage to accept the mistakes.
What makes it hard to accept mistakes?
While growing up when we use to make mistake, we were either punished or embarrassed. The problem is that our mind got conditioned to it, as a result when we make mistake, we get afraid or feel ashamed. Therefore, it makes it hard for us to accept mistakes.
The real test of person’s behaviour is when things go wrong. People lose their mind and run away from taking responsibility. When you understand it’s okay to make mistakes and seek them as opportunity. You learn how to to turn them into valuable life lessons and take ownership of your actions rather than finding someone else to blame.
4. Refuse to defend yourself
Most of us get defensive when we hear something obscene about us. Workplace is a perfect example where meeting turns into battlefields within moments and people start attacking personally. We defend ourselves because of our ego and we think that we are not good enough.
It’s hard to take criticism but can be easily avoided. As Aristotle said,
Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” ~Aristotle
The moment you refuse to lock horns with others, you are at peace with yourself because you don’t care about what other says or think about you. You don’t want to explain as you know that people will disagree with you. You are at peace and that’s what matters to you.
5. Surrender to the process
The idea behind surrendering is to move forward and not to get stuck in pessimism. Sometimes, you find that nothing is working out. You have no idea how to get out and after every possible effort you give up because you don’t want to stay in state of constant despair. The moment you surrender to the process it brings you at peace with yourself and the circumstances around. Surrendering yourself doesn’t mean that you are quitting. It means that you are letting go your ego and building trust between you and nature.
